This photo is getting some attention from some of Massey Energy President Don Blankenship’s buddies (his former political consultants) over at the West Virginia Red blog after last night’s Army Corps of Engineers mountaintop removal public hearing.
I have always firmly believed that the best disinfectant is sunshine, and that a healthy and respectful exchange of views is good for our society. And I’ve also always been proud that the Gazette tries to provide a forum for all sorts of views, and tries to have what one of my bosses calls “big shoulders,” or an ability to take — and publish for readers to see — criticism of our coverage.
So in that spirit, I’d like the person who made this lovely poster to give me a call or shoot me an e-mail, so we could arrange for them to write a guest blog that gives Coal Tattoo readers some details on exactly what I’ve lied about.
Oh, and here’s another shot of the poster, taken by Gazette photographer Chris Dorst. Look toward the top and left from the “Nick Joe is Anti-Coal” sign.
Subscribe to the Coal Tattoo
It’s times like these I think of the quote from the West Wing: “If they’re shooting at you, you must be doing something right.”
[...] Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » Coal Tattoo welcomes opposing views blogs.wvgazette.com – view page – cached This photo is getting some attention from some of Massey Energy President Don Blankenship’s buddies (his former political consultants) over at the West Virginia Red blog. — From the page [...]
Oh my Ken, you sure have raised someone’s dander! Well at least they used a nice picture of you!
I agree with blue canary, you must be doing something right to get a this kind of response out of these people!
Ken you are dreaming if you think anyone of these people are going to admit to making that poster, and they are certainly not going to come on here and say where you have lied, simply because they can’t. They would be backed into a corner so fast their head would spin!
You and I don’t always agree over things, but it is a difference of opinion. I don’t think you lie about what you write about.
As with Nanette, you and I don’t always agree about things. And although it is sometimes more than just a difference of opinion — more like different philosophical views about some things — I generally respect your reporting and wouldn’t call you a liar. And I do appreciate your willingness to present all reasonable views on this blog, even if they’re different from yours, mine or what might be called the natural constituency for this blog.
Ken,
Consider that image an award for good journalism. I agree, nice photo, though the graphics could be better.
But don’t give them a easy pass to publicity. That would be unfair, giving voice to someone for merely being loud and crass. The guest bloggers you feature are posted for their thoughtful, knowledgeable arguments.
Let this poster go where it’s already headed–first to the garage, and then to the trash.
Calling someone a liar is a strong word and accusation. However, it would have been hard to fit “only tells one side of the story” on the poster board.
If your writing wasn’t so biased against coal, you probably wouldn’t be the target of attacks such as these.
Keith — Please do tell us, what are a couple of examples of the “other side of the story” that remains untold?
If you are concerned about space limitations of the commenting system here, you have an open invitation to post a diary at WVaBlue.com (it’s an open access community blog and we welcome a diversity of viewpoints).
Ken if you do give this person or persons an opportunity to blog here, you can well bet that they are going to get grilled big time by all of us. They deserve no better. If they say you are a liar they had better be ready for the rest of us! They had better be ready to prove what they say.
My goodness Ken do you think you may be a peace prize winner some day? Seems you don’t need much these day to qualify and I remember your work from 1999. I mean look at our most recent winner. He is trying to stop MTR for the first time and look at you! You are working on your second march through the mountains of West Virginia with your aim steady and true on companies that do such bad things to the people of our state. Back in 1999 when Mr. Weekly faced such terror from the mines you helped him by working night and day to get Dal-Tex shut down and they took their ball and went home. If my mind recalls correctly 400 plus went home. Here in 2009 you are working just as hard to help the Gunnoe’s and the Wilson’s fight the same battle. Obama hasn’ t stopped any war or created jobs and look he has a big ole prize along with a big ole check. Surely you will be considered if you help end MTR once and for all. The only thing that may stand in your way that I can think of is the coal miners themselves. But you might get everything you want if the EPA and Obama have the last say. Gosh won’t your people be so proud of you if that happens. This time it will be thousands going home instead of hundreds. I just hope those old hecklers at the hearings last night don’t do any thing like chain themselves to the doors of the paper, stop the newspaper production for a few hours or no! not climb on to the building without permission and place a pro coal sign at the roof top of the Gazette. Wonder what you would call that. I would hope that everyone would understand that anyone that would do such a unlawful thing would only be reacting to something they feel so strongly about . Namely their jobs and families. I recall some of your people committing acts like my examples and you call it civil?? civil?? something. I guess your shot at the big ole prize and the big ole check would go right out the window if you condone such acts and then blast our miners for standing up for jobs. This isn’t 1999 and last night at the hearing is a clear example that the so called environmentalists have kicked a sleeping giant until it is wide awake. I really think coal miners are wide awake in 2009.
P.S.
If you are reading this blog you are using
!! COAL FIRED ELECTRICITY !!
So if you are anti-coal you are a ?? hippo hippo ?? something.
Profits from a competitive free enterprise system promoting the individual and resulting in prosperity -GOOD.
The dismal failed record of socialism- BAD.
Well said Steve.
Can someone please explain to me the relevance of Ken Ward’s source of electricity? That he is using electricity from coal-fired power plants indicates exactly one thing: his power company has decided to use coal as its fuel source. Why should I thank anyone for that? The company could have just as easily used natural gas, wind power, or hydro-electricity. That our energy system is structured in a particular way is not an argument that it should remain so; it’s just an artifact of history and nothing more.
Coal is one among many potential sources of energy in the United States. Its profitability relies almost entirely on the coal industry’s ability to externalize the manifold environmental and human costs of its extraction. So far, the industry has been pretty successful. Perhaps that is starting to change. More and more people are coming to realize that the externalization of environmental costs is immoral and wrong. I mean, would you throw your feces in your neighbor’s yard to save money on your sewage bill? Of course not. You’d be threatening their health and welfare for the sake of a few dollars. Is the practice of mountain top removal any different except in terms of scale?
Hear!! Hear!!Steve.
I think its a conspiracy funded by the enviros and the gas industry and promoted by Ken Ward the the socalist Charleston Daily Mail / Gazette.
Squid, sorry but your power company chose to use coal and enviros who have a real moral and ethic issue with MTR mining, need to stand by thier principals and turn the lights off. Or buy a generator, or install a wind turbine and solar panels. Some of these environmentalists are not really on a mission, they are on a payroll. The ads were seen in the Columbus, Ohio newspapers.
Teresa, I agree that for environmentalists to be consistent with their professed values, they should make their best efforts to limit their use of resources that may cause harm to the environment, including electricity powered by coal. But again, how does that conflict with their efforts to a) have the coal industry internalize the environmental costs of existing mountaintop removal mining operations and b) halt the creation of new MTM operations and the further degradation of the Appalachian environment? It doesn’t. Environmentalists’ consumption decisions may, in fact, accord quite nicely with their political activism. As for astroturfing, it’s entirely possible that it’s not just the coal industry engaged in such activities…
No Teresa, those of us who are against the wanton destruction of our environment want a choice of where we get our electricity. In many states people can opt out of coal generated power. I would like to have that same right. I am not using coal generated power because I want to. I am forced to by the state and the power company. And don’t go off the deep end and say just quit using electricity. That is so old it is moldy.
BTW I didn’t know that the enviros were in cahoots with the gas industry. That is news to me. How did you find this out? Any links to prove this?
Ken,
You are not reporter you are an opinion editor. You always have been. Your mostly oncesided stories have done more harm to WV than anything and barron thought about doing. You are leading an effort that is limiting the future of our children. By pandering to sensational donation seaking groups such as OVEC, Sierra, and Coal River Mountain Watch you have inadvertently stopped almost of a decade long process of transforming surface mining into development. Every permit that had identifed a post mine land use has been halted. Such truely innovative projects such rerouting the King Coal Hyway through proposed mining permits and getting the companies to build the road bed at no cost to the citizens may be dead. The last best hope for creating a future for southern WV maybe gone. And YOU are as responsible as anyone. I hope you are proud.
Nanette – “On Thursday, Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope lobbied Capitol Hill along with Aubrey McClendon, chairman and chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest players in the Barnett Shale. ” (http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3489935)
“The Sierra Club has come out for the U.S. natural gas industry, reports Oil and Gas Investor magazine. And, not for imported natural gas: it favors producing all that the U.S. can put out” (http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Sierra_Club_Comes_Out_In_Favor_Of_The_US_Natural_Gas_Industry_999.html)
Sierra club and Trial Lawyers article http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA214.html
[...] Ken even went as far as to offer up an “anonymous” blog post on his very own Coal Tattoo here. [...]
Hey readers, if you haven’t yet, please check out:
http://gazettetattoo.com/
Welcome to the blog word, gazettetattoo …
Ken.
ROFL! Ken you have really ticked these people off! They have a whole blog devoted solely to you! You must be doing something right for these people to go this far in trying to discredit you.
I would love to tell them one thing since they follow every word on this site. Ken is an equal opportunity deleter of posts. Believe me I know. He has scolded me more than once, and after reading what I wrote and thinking about it perhaps he was right on some counts. We don’t always agree here, but most of the time he scolds when we go after other commenters that we don’t agree with.
It would be nice if this new blog was more forthcoming in who they are and who is doing writing at their site. I am sure that they are not affiliated with the Gazette. Seems to me that there is an infringement of naming that site the gazettetattoo.
did i miss something? where’s this “anonymous” blog post?
I don’t know, I sure haven’t seen it.
I clicked on the place where supposedly the anonymous post was supposed to be, but it just showed the whole story and comments. I have to wonder if this new site is a joke. There is no name of who wrote it. It just seems more than a little fishy to me.
Well it has been a weird and wild week. I hope everyone has a peaceful weekend. See you all again on Monday!
I think what “admin” was referring to was Ken’s invitation for the poster-maker to write a guest blog on Coal Tattoo detailing what Ken had lied about. But Ken did not in fact say anything about anonymity.
It is with glee that I note that “admin” STILL didn’t give a single example of anything Ken’s lied about,
Ok, I checked out that new blog site this morning and I have to say it is hilarious! There is not any news substance to that site at all. It is just a bashing site for Ken, Clem and everyone else who posts here.
It is good for a chuckle but that is about all.
[...] was only called a liar. Limbaugh told Revkin he ought to kill [...]