News Journal Round-Up, Jan 4-9

Now that I'm no longer on vacation, as I was over the holidays when I started this blog, it's a little too difficult to stay on top of this thing on a daily basis, so I'm probably going to continue as a weekly. I've also decided that I'm only going to look at articles with a decidedly conservative or liberal bias, so I won't be bothering with researching the authors of the fluff pieces or those on a single hobbyhorse, i.e. former Israeli prime ministers or Arab college professors writing about the war in Gaza, where the bias is obvious and not necessarily pushing a liberal or conservative viewpoint. I've also decided not to limit myself to the syndicated op-ed pieces, as was my original intention; I will also provide commentary on local editorials and letters to the editor that show an obvious liberal or conservative bent. This Week's Comic Relief: The Battle Over Global Warming Continues A letter to the editor on December 21 from a guy who teaches in the UD computer department, citing the usual conservative "experts" from the gas, coal and mining industries who say global warming is a myth, has provided us with a whole series of letters on the subject, and hundreds of posts at delawareonline.com. I wrote the following, which was published on 12/27, in response to the original letter:

Charles Boncelet’s letter “Global warming reports exaggerated,” (Dec. 21) presented impressive-sounding statements, but his facts and figures are based on information produced by the usual global warming conspiracy “experts,” most with ties to the oil, gas and mining industries. His claim that “global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have declined since about 2003” is found on Web sites run by organizations whose mantra is that of unfettered trade and deregulation, such as Fox News and the Heartland Institute, or on right-wing blogs.The theory can be traced to a single paper written by Vincent Gray, a retired New Zealand coal chemist, whose main hobby is calling for the abolition of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Gray touts himself as an “expert reviewer for the IPCC.” He asked to review their reports; he was not invited to be a member of the panel and has no training or experience in climatology.

The contention that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 stimulates plant growth and is good for the environment is promoted primarily by Ray Evans, who spent most of the 80s and 90s as executive officer of Australia’s Western Mining Corporation.He’s is also secretary of an Australian global warming skeptics group composed of 90-some retired scientists from the mining, manufacturing and construction industries.

The global warming argument has resulted in some hilarious letters and online comments from Flat-Earth-type conservatives, including several of the infamous "ice cubes in a glass" variety. The sheer volume citing the same flawed experiment has me wondering whether Rush Limbaugh teaches a course on "Refuting Real Science Using Simple Items From Your Home or Garage." Most of the liberal writers pointed out that the problem is not with melting sea ice, it's the melting glaciers from Antarctica and Greenland that's the problem. Like, duh. My favorite letter in the debate this week, though, was one from Fred Patrick of Milton, who offers this sage observation:

"Water+frozen= Ice. Just as Ice +thawed = water. So if you fill an empty glass with ice cubes and they melt, surprise – you get water."

Huh? I'm not sure which side of the debate he was on, but it continued the whole global warming thread, so of course the News Journal printed it without question. Possibly without even reading it. Proving once again that they're more interested in stirring up controversy than in actually presenting facts. On to the weeks biases! Biases of the Week This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 14 Do What? Bias*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor.

Monday Liberal Bias: 3

• Harry Themal's column: a love letter to Jack Markell.
• DeWayne Wickham's syndicated column: a love letter to Roland Burris, Illinois-governor-under-indictment Rod Blagojovich's Senate appointment.
• Delaware Voice column by Al Matlack, President of the Natural History Society of Delaware: what Toll Bros. could do to build greener housing developments.

Conservative Bias: 0

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: Fred Patrick's incomprehensible "melting ice=water" on global warming.

Tuesday Liberal Bias: 2

• Another Letter on global warming, this time refuting the ice-in-a-glass experiment.
• A Letter saying the Bible has been rewritten many times, in response to a Bible-thumper's letter stating the Bible is inviolable truth.

Conservative Bias: 1

• Letter suggesting that when the Powerball Lottery totals $50 million or more, there should be more than just one winner. This one's weird: The News Journal titled this letter "A socialistic solution to improve economic woes." Bias is on the part of the NJ alone. And points to the NJ for trying to stir something up and falling flat on their arse, as this letter generated no response either in the LttE or online.

Wednesday Liberal Bias: 3

• NJ Editorial: love letter to Jack Markell for keeping Carol Ann Wicks as Transportation Secy.
• Letter: Pastor Rick Warren is a bigot who hates gays.
• Letter: God bless the UAW, from a former auto worker. (Liberal at least on this issue!)

Conservative Bias: 5

• NJ Editorial: griping about the stimulus package and Medicare, saying the money will probably be wasted.
• Letter: Companies that make cars in Mexico should receive no aid.
• Letter: Send Bernie Madoff to the Big House.
• Letter: Republican fantasy about Joe Biden being Obama's press secretary, with a lot of invective about Reid, Pelosi and others. This one gets points for being Uber-Conservative.
• Letter: Changes need to be made at the VA, with lots of buzzwords about fighting terrorism, paying the ultimate price, and protecting our freedom.

Thursday Liberal Bias: 0 Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Minner's administration was miserable, good riddance.
• Letter: Obama, Biden, Minner, Hillary Clinton and Caroline Kennedy are proof that the electorate is getting ripped off with Senate appointments
• Paul Greenberg's syndicated column: handwringing over what to do about Gaza, criticising the UN for not acting until Israel took action
• George Will's syndicated column: GMAC has no business sponsoring a bowl game while taking a handout from the Treasury

Friday Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Another response to earlier Bible-thumper's letter, stating that God and the Bible are fiction
• Letter: Another global warming letter, again pointing out that land-based ice is the problem.

Conservative Bias: 4

• NJ Editorial from John Sweeney: Senators spend too much time on TV catering to national constituencies while ignoring the locals
• Letter: Rahm Emanuel shouldn't be chief of staff because he holds dual American-Israeli citizenship and has served in the Israeli army. FACTCHECK: This claim is false. Emanuel could take dual citizenship if he wanted to, as can all Jews. He served as a citizen volunteer during the 1991 Gulf War repairing Israeli tanks for a few weeks. He has never served in the Israeli military.

  From The Jewish Journal: Emanuel got his first glimpse of politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty primary battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism, when the president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting candidate Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and served in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing" about "our heritage." Emanuel had served a noncombat stint as a volunteer in the Israeli army during the Gulf War, but he never held Israeli citizenship. Emanuel responded coolly, supporters said, bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy together to denounce the incident. "One of the proudest moments of my life was seeing people of my district from all backgrounds demonstrate our common values by coming together in response to this obvious attempt to divide them," Emanuel said.

• Letter: Another global warming letter -- since the ice-in-a-glass argument has been roundly debunked six ways from Sunday, this writer is left with whining about liberals who want to suppress conservatives' right to free speech. This one's a hoot!
• Letter: Bidens make the writer sick, and anyone who votes for them is stupid.

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: in addition to the 2 global warming letters that I already mentioned, today we were treated to another incomprehensible ice-in-the-glass letter, stating you need to let the ice melt and mark the glass both before and after it melts.