This is starting to get like Groundhog Day. The New York Times has another sloppy, poorly researched editorial today. This time, they take on the Bush administration on the issue of coal mines,
The Bush administration’s accommodation of the mining industry â?? notably by packing the mine safety agencies with pro-management appointees â?? has produced a marked decline in major fines for negligent companies. A recent data analysis by The Times documented a risky, business-friendly downturn in penalties since 2001.
As Winds of Change noted this morning,
These guys do what for a living?
Sadly, the professional journalists at the Times couldn’t so the five minutes of research that would have told them that – with the exception of an outlier to date this year – deaths under the Bush Administration are significantly lower than those under pro-labor Clinton.
As I noted in my post when the WV accident first occurred, the left would not be able to resist the compulsion to run with this,George W. Bush Caused The Mine Collapse. This was as predictable as it was laughable.
This is a symptom of Bush Derangement Syndrome, the inability to take a breath, do an ounce of research, or give an ioda of thought before taking any opportunity to attack George Bush. The results for the attackers…embarrassment at being wrong as rain once again.
Here is a portion of my earlier post,
Coal mine production reached the highest levels in history in recent years. In 2004 coal mining fatalities were near the lowest level in history with 28. Even with the recent high production, MSHAâ??s accident reduction efforts helped to keep the annual fatality totals nearly 50% lower in recent years compared with totals recorded in the early 1990s.
1. Clintonâ??s last year in office, 2000, there were 48 deaths in coal mines. In 2004, there were 28
2. The injury rate in 2000 was 6.64, in 2004 it was 5.00
3. Citations for safety violations in 2000: 58,285; Citations for violations in 2004: 64,635 (this would indicate to me more rigorous enforcement under Bush, especially after having cut back on coal industry enforcement jobs as the Democrats claim. Sounds to me like the Clinton administration was asleep at the switch)
The Times editors really need to start reading blogs! And we don’t even charge them for the privilege! If they did, they might have read Winds of Change, BizzyBlog or Pundit Review and realized, ahead of time for once, what a bunch of pathetic, agenda driven hacks they look like when they publish poorly researched editorials simply for the sake of Bush bashing.