mjh's blog

Subheading Shenanigans at abqjoural

Does the Albuquerque Journal let political bias write headlines on the Business Page?

Buffet Rule in Play Already
Economists Call It The ‘Stupid Rule’

"The Buffett Rule, amongst economists, could also be called the stupid rule," said Kevin Hassett, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington group that supports free enterprise.

Did you see that "could" in a quote from a guy who isn’t an economist but works at at a leading Conservative "think" tank? You can hear the sniff as our senior fellow says amongst.

Still don’t think abqjournal is playing politics? Here’s the original Bloomberg News (by Richard Rubin) heading:

Top Earners Pay Higher Tax Rate Without Buffett Rule

Stupid abqjournal.

ABQJournal lays a guilt-trip on environmentalists? Greed motivates liars.

I find the following “reasoning” amazing: if we don’t let Keystone cross the US, the Canadians and the Chinese will wreck the environment in Canada. But the pipeline in the US would be absolutely safe. Huh?

The Journal repeats the lie (until it becomes truth) that this pipeline has anything to do with US energy independence. ALL of the product will be shipped overseas. This is ALL about who profits; screw the environment, screw the nation, screw everybody but the board and the shareholders (and don’t let them know you’re screwing them, too). Greed motivates liars.

ABQJournal Online » Editorial: Keystone XL Decision Impacts Energy Edge

Already in the permitting process is a proposal by another Canadian company — with investments from China — to build a pipeline from Alberta to a remote and culturally sensitive area on Canada’s west coast, home to the Gitga’at tribe. It also would go through the protected Great Bear Rainforest, one of the world’s largest remaining unspoiled temperate rainforests and home to the “spirit bear,” a rare white black bear. Some locals fear that giant tankers threading through narrow channels to Kitimat, the pipeline’s proposed destination, could result in an Exxon Valdez-like disaster.

The U.S. is the most logical market for oil sands crude. But the Obama administration, instead of coming down on the side of job creation and energy security, jilted one of our strongest allies in an apparent bid to curry election-year favor from environmentalists.

If Canada does develop a West Coast oil port, U.S. refineries and consumers will be left out of this energy independence game — and the oil will still be moved, refined and consumed. Who wins? [mjh: Who profits?]

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.

ABQJournal Online » Editorial: Keystone XL Decision Impacts Energy Edge

Journal Acknowledges a Crack in the Keystone Jobs Argument By Denise Tessier, www.abqjournalwatch.com

Media Matters found that industry claims of the pipeline’s importance in terms of energy security was rarely questioned, either:

Print Media Frequently Touted Keystone XL As A Step Towards U.S. Energy Security. The purported contribution from the Keystone XL pipeline to American energy security was mentioned in 52% of print coverage, 22% of broadcast coverage, and 28% of cable coverage. USA Today, whose editorial board supports the pipeline, mentioned energy security in 67% of its coverage, more than any other print outlet. Fox News mentioned it more than all the other television networks combined. Only items in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times questioned the energy security benefits of the pipeline.

Journal Acknowledges a Crack in the Keystone Jobs Argument

Three very different headlines – can you tell which one is Fox?

APD chopper helps nab armed bong burglars | KOB.com

APD: Officers Arrest Female Car Thieves – Albuquerque News Story – KOAT Albuquerque

Video: Chopper chase busts gang of gals

Nothing more to say.

Quigley sorts it out, as usual

Albuquerque is lucky to have Winthrop Quigley, a clear and fine writer.

ABQJournal Online » Cycle of life, death sustains U.S. economy By Winthrop Quigley / Journal Staff Writer on Mon, Oct 24, 2011

I never worry very much about the American economy, no matter how awful things seem to be. The weak businesses are culled, the strong businesses thrive, capital and labor flow to the strong, and the economy keeps growing. It’s an ugly process, but it works. …

Something amazing is going to happen, and when it does somebody else’s employer will be killed. It’s wonderful. It’s terrible.

ABQJournal Online » Cycle of life, death sustains U.S. economy

“[T]he idea that if families are tightening their belts, the government should do the same, is as deeply intuitive as it is deeply wrong.” Paul Krugman

I wasn’t surprised the Albuquerque Journal gave so much space to Mike Frese, “Corrales resident”, to repeat the hoary nonsense about the national debt as a ‘family problem.’ Family is the metaphor for conservatives – especially, Christian conservatives – because father knows best. Feel free to read Frese’s column in its long-drawn-out, ham-handed entirety, if you need your invalid metaphors spelled out in detail.

Be sure to read Winthrop Quigley’s entire column – as usual, he explains things quite clearly.

ABQJournal Online » Flirting With Federal Debt Disaster

By Winthrop Quigley / Journal Staff Writer on Tue, Jul 19, 2011

It is possible some of these politicians really don’t understand what we’re dealing with. Every time one of them compares federal finances with household finances – arguing we should tear up the credit card and balance the checkbook and live within our means, just like families do – the intellectual dead end has been reached.

The federal government is nothing like the family household. It is a very large, poorly run business with a micromanaging board of directors (Congress) and a weak CEO (the president).

The business is failing. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling is the equivalent of pre-bailout General Motors reneging on its commitments to pay its steel suppliers and fund its employees’ retirement plans. …

If the prospect of suddenly unemployed federal workers in every state and unpaid military personnel under fire in Afghanistan doesn’t impress Congress, perhaps this will: In September 2008, the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing cratered the global economy because suddenly no one knew if the institutions making up the world’s financial systems could or would honor their obligations.

Lehman Bros. had $639 billion in assets, about as much as it takes to run the government for slightly more than two months. It had debts of $619 billion. The failure of a firm that was in the black to the tune of $20 billion nearly destroyed the global financial system. You don’t want to see what happens if Uncle Sam becomes the next Lehman Bros.

ABQJournal Online » Flirting With Federal Debt Disaster

[hat tip to Line of the day | NewMexiKen for the Krugman quote]

“In Obama’s, Dem’s View, Success Must Be Punished” – WTF?!

The headline over Calcified Cal Thomas’s recent column represents a ruinous, poisonous ignorance. Taxes are NOT punishment. Taxes are what most of us pay for the common good. Moreover, some of the Founders argued for progressive taxation, under which those who can pay more do so. That view is mocked by the smarmy “you can write a check anytime you want” drivel (DUHbya – spit on the ground). These tight-fisted, cheap, selfish dimwits serve the megacorporations and ultra-rich. Let the sacred market do anything but don’t let the nation do anything – except buy war-toys. The tight-fisted refuse to recognize that the rich benefit from the commonwealth and owe something in return. The Republicans have exploited the Starve the Beast mentality for a generation. That mentality will destroy the nation.

Honk Angry If You’re!

Here’s one for the Albuquerque Journal’s blooper reel:

The garbled ALL CAPS text is bad enough. But I’m honking my horn over the confusing misuse of the lines (horizontal rules), which should be used sparingly to cluster related information, not separate a heading from its content. Traditionally, a horizontal rule tells the skimming mind that a transition has occurred and that all before is one piece and all after is another. It is a visual pause that says, hey, pay attention now. Yes, you can ignore (or be ignorant of) that and use the rule purely as decoration. The real issue is making a site easy to use. Well, not so for abqjournal.com, whose Web designer is locked in a windowless room and not allowed to look at other Web sites nor read about design. The powers that be at the Journal HATE the Web and it shows.

Although there are many ways to rework this example, I’d eliminate the text above each line and the line itself, making the text currently below each line the link. For minimal change, move the line above each link so that related content is kept together and separated from other content, although that’s still an overuse of the abused horizontal rule.

PS: I would not publicly castigate an individual for the look of a personal website. The Web belongs to us all and gives each of us real freedom of expression. But this site belongs to a corporation (the heroes of 21st Century AmeriCo) and the state’s largest paper. The Albuquerque Journal must be held to some standard higher than a teenager’s fan-blog (sorry to insult teenagers with the comparison).