April 13, 2010

Jabbing from Old Media to New

Justin Katz

Newport Daily News columnist Joe Baker used his space, yesterday, to respond to my post last week about his spreading of sunshine for the Democrats. Actually, he appears to have been more interested in addressing Anchor Rising commenter Tim:

"The Newport Daily News did the world a favor when they decided to strictly limit their online product and made Joe 'Pravda' Baker inaccessible to the greater population," wrote someone identified only as "Tim."

Tim obviously did his homework. I began writing my column in 1991. Pravda, a newspaper espousing the Communist party line in Russia, went under in 1991. A coincidence? I think not.

Tim goes on: "Baker is an embarrassing party line hack for the Democrats."

Again, Tim shows an astounding ability to get right to the point. His apparent theory is that I have a political philosophy different from his, which — and I am going to go out on a limb here — is more Republican-leaning than Democratic. (Would that make him "an embarrassing party line hack" for Republicans?) In my 20 years of writing this column, I have tried never to sink to the depths of name calling. But can I ignore the wisdom of astute observers and philosophers like "Tim" any longer?

With regard to my points, Baker responds to the lesser. He disputes my recollection that economists were predicting that the recovery would have begun before this year, and inasmuch as searches for that sort of rolling information — who predicted what when — tend to be more time consuming than my schedule will allow, I'll declare it a wash. Suffice to say that my memory of this long recession entails a continuing series of adjusted predictions from economists continually pushing expectations back, especially with regard to employment.

On healthcare, which constituted the great bulk of my post, he takes up only a point that I said to "put aside": "As Katz himself says, much of the bill's provisions will be delayed, which I think strengthens my argument that people will not feel the pain predicted by opponents — if it does materialize — for quite some time."

Well, Baker's cheering of Obama's policies didn't contain that "if" or note that the Democrats have rigged the policies to explode after a few election seasons. He just said, "as the reality of the program sinks in and nobody sees the dire consequences predicted by its opponents," anger would fade. And he still hasn't shared with his readers my more significant points that companies have already revised predicted profits down to the tune of billions of dollars, based on the legislation, and that hospitals expect to be bled by the legislation, as well.

Unfortunately, Baker also conspicuously avoided mentioning the name of the blog, much less the URL at which my arguments could be found. Perhaps that sort of citation is just a new media thing.

Comments, although monitored, are not necessarily representative of the views Anchor Rising's contributors or approved by them. We reserve the right to delete or modify comments for any reason.

Is Joe Baker "Stuart"?

Posted by: BobN at April 13, 2010 7:21 AM

"As Katz himself says, much of the bill's provisions will be delayed, which I think strengthens my argument that people will not feel the pain predicted by opponents — if it does materialize — for quite some time."

... um, yeah, for four years, anyway, because the bill doesn't come into law until then.

At that point, insurance companies will be compelled to pretty much cover everyone and every condition, even if those people have not been maintaining coverage (i.e., paying premiums). At the same time, Congress will undoubtedly implement the price controls that President Obama has sternly promised.

Can Mr. Baker - or anyone - paint even a semi-credible scenario in which insurance companies do NOT crash and the country does NOT transition over to a one payer, government health care system, with rationing (the New York Times is already calling for it) to inevitably follow?

Posted by: Monique at April 13, 2010 7:24 AM

How funny! Joe Baker and his ultra thin skin refused to address my main point, i.e. you can't be a shameless hack for the Democratic party as a columnist and then turn around and have any journalistic integrity/legitmacy when playing State House reporter.
Try again Joe!
(Btw Baker's lack of journalistic integrity is also on display with his refusal to give Justin and this blog proper citation in his column)
But I do want to thank Joe Pravda Baker for referencing me. I literally laughed out loud when reading Justin's story this morning. Nothing better than tweaking liberals and watching them spasm.
Thanks Joe!! lol

PS - Joe claims he doesn't engage in namecalling?? Really?? As someone who used to read Pravda Joe's column on occassion I can only respond to Baker's assertion with the following great American quote, "You Lie!!"
Try again Joe!!

Posted by: Tim at April 13, 2010 10:19 AM

Newport Daily News? Move over NYT and WaPo, we got a new heavy hitter on our hands. So Justin's post and Tim's comment bothered the man so much he couldn't just come here to comment on the matter (since he obv read it), he had to use his position as a journalist to write an article about it. Wow. That my friends is the definition of being a cowardly hack. Instead of using his position as political/statehouse writer to illuminate the 10-50 readers of the Newport Daily News of the problems in RI/Wash, he attacks a blog. Maybe had he addressed more of the substance of the post I could understand, but apparently being called Joe "pravda" baker was his main issue.

Posted by: steadman at April 13, 2010 10:59 AM

The Newport Daily Schnooze is notorious for their insecurities. Personally, I wouldn't pay a dime for it. Thankfully, there's really no need to. Most of the news is just AP rehash and the rest that's worth reading I can get for free from the competition

Posted by: thin skin at April 14, 2010 4:45 PM
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