CJR profiles Ken Ward Jr., one who stayed home

by: CA Berkeley WV

Tue Nov 29, 2011 at 12:33:13 PM EST

It is even a nice sketch, of a real journalist.

Not that I don't know others, with beards.

Inside every bully, there's always a crybaby

by: heath_harrison

Thu Nov 05, 2009 at 01:08:19 AM EST

It's hard being Don Blankenship.

Maybe he does have a crew of elected politicians in W.Va. willing to help him stir up a panic over a non-existent crisis regarding MTR permits.

And maybe he does have 95% of the the print and broadcast media who will quote him without any effort of independent fact-checking - such as when he made the seemingly pulled-from-his-behind claim that "more than 75,000" attended Don-a-pollute-za.

But there's still that darn Charleston Gazette, where they insist on pesky things, such as actual journalists like Ken Ward.

And some basic rules for their opinion page.

Oh sure, they may print the guest columns of his underlings - homophobic slurs, factual errors and all. But that's not enough.

They won't change the rules of the paper and make an exception for Don when he gets criticized.

On his always unintentionally-hilarious Twitter feed, he's in a full-blown fit this week:

# Charleston Gazette trying to censor me on Global Warming views.12:12 PM Nov 3rd from web

# Gazette editor Jim Haught advised today that I will only be allowed 1 letter every 30 days12:17 PM Nov 3rd from web

# Haught will not allow me to respond to numerous letters attacking me.12:25 PM Nov 3rd from web

http://twitter.com/DonBlankenship

It's not surprising that he feels this way.

In The Coalfield Don's world, the fact that he's asked to follow any rules - whether it's regarding newspaper policy or environmental standards - makes him a perpetual victim.

MTM vs MTR: Words matter

by: CA Berkeley WV

Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 13:08:43 PM EDT

Some don't like me re-branding the estate tax as the Paris Hilton Tax. [The DHinMI parallel--"I didn't' read it but I will respond"] I did not like Frank Lutz and Company re-branding it as the Death Tax. Now we have another re-branding. Ken Ward points this out in the Saturday WaPo article [sorry, blond_moment, visited the relatives for Easter, hard to boycott]. I was asked about this topic, and if the word smiths are in action, it must mean that the majority doesn't like the idea of removing mountains.

But I was disappointed that David fell into the same trap as The Associated Press (both its local bureau here in Charleston and folks in Washington and elsewhere in AP), in adopting the industry’s term “mountaintop mining,” which is a phrase made up by the coal industry (and some friends in regulatory agencies) to avoid the more nasty-sounding “mountaintop removal.” This term “mountaintop mining,” is not mentioned in the federal strip mining law or its regulations. It’s unfortunate that it’s catching on with the media.

Mountain. Top. Removal.

Anybody up for checking tags where it may count? It is not what you say, it is what they hear.

What I'd like to know about WVa jobs

by: Clem Guttata

Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM EDT

"If West Virginia wants to maximize coal mining employment, doesn't more underground mining do that instead of more mountain top mining?"

Lots of reporters are writing lots of stories about coal mining right now, maybe one of them can ask the question...

Update: In stark contrast to other reporting thus far, Ken Ward Jr. deserve credit for acknowledging the question--he's probed this contradiction on his blog. Be sure to read this excellent post for a summary: Mountaintop removal or something completely different?