Jim Shea And The Hartford Courant Can't Handle The Truth

To: Hartford Courant Reader Representative / Associate Editor Karen Hunter

Subject: Specious and Personal Partisan Attacks Have No Business In News Section

Ms. Hunter,

I am writing in regards to Jim Shea’s Raucous column of Wednesday, March 7, 2007 titled JUST DRAIN THE POOL, AL which appeared on page A2 of the Courant. Mr. Shea’s specious and personal partisan attacks on Mr. Gore have no business running alongside important and (hopefully) accurate stories within the News section of the Courant. Mr. Shea’s column shared a page with stories on; the continuing investigation into sales practices at Best Buy, a single-engine plane crash, medication errors and their tragic effects, and the recent devastating earthquake in Indonesia. These are legitimate news stories; Mr. Shea’s column is not.

The placement of Mr. Shea’s column on page A2 among these stories invites and encourages it to be mistaken for factual reporting. I am sure that Mr. Shea will respond by pointing out that his column is meant to be humorous and not a news item. While this may be true it certainly does not excuse its placement, which offers it the obnoxious opportunity to masquerade as truth.

Furthermore Mr. Shea could at least make an effort to be timely with his slanders; the so called controversy to which he refers first reared its ugly head on Monday, February 26. Not only is Mr. Shea late to the party but he has failed to do his homework. A few minutes of research would have revealed to Mr. Shea the baseless nature of the claims of hypocrisy leveled against Mr. Gore.

First of all the Gore household purchases ‘green’ electricity and ‘carbon offsets’ which reduce its carbon footprint to zero, hardly Mr. Shea’s ‘Bigfoot’. Additionally Mr. Gore’s energy consumption as defined per square footage falls well within, in fact below the average for the region, as defined and reported by the US Department of Energy. Yes Mr. Gore would certainly use less electricity if he moved into a tent, as would we all. Mr. Shea’s claim that Mr. Gore’s credibility has taken a hit over this flap is ludicrous in the extreme. I will refrain from commenting on the nature of the petty personal attacks on Mr. Gore’s personal appearance.

Mr. Shea’s shoddy attempts at humor in the guise of childish insults and supported by fabrications as to Mr. Gore’s lifestyle choices should not appear among news stories. Mr. Shea’s column should be moved to the opinion section of the Courant, or to the Life section where other humor pieces, both more comical and more accurate can be found.

The saddest revelation of Mr. Shea’s column is his emergence as the latest mouth piece in the right-wing echo chamber. Mr. Shea swallowed whole the talking points of a decidedly partisan think tank and lent his name and stature to their fabrications. Is it now too much to ask that even the smallest bit of effort be expended to determine the veracity of a story before a reporter or columnist puts their name to it? I had come to expect more from Mr. Shea and from the Courant, I see now that I was mistaken.

Sincerely,

Henry Coppola

Cc: Jim Shea, Letters to the Courant

Jim Shea's column is here.

This fiasco was well dealt with by both Think Progress and The Anonymous Liberal, who provides the energy department numbers and links.