Understanding EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt
Here’s a fairly detailed article describing how Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is attacking journalists and stifling the media’s attempts to report on the core actions that the EPA is taking to roll back regulations put in place to keep our skies and waterways clean, suggesting that this is a parallel war to the one Trump is waging on the press by insulting media outlets, withholding information, and flouting public records requests.It begins: Since Scott Pruitt took the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency in early 2017, the EPA has consistently refused to release basic information, blocked reporters from attending agency events, and attacked journalists and outlets whose coverage it didn’t like. This antagonistic stance toward the media mirrors President Donald Trump’s unprecedented war against the press, which Media Matters has chronicled.
Let’s try to understand this better by comparing Pruitt to his predecessor, Gina McCarthy, who served from 2013 to early 2017. McCarthy put every single item of her work agenda on the EPA’s website, providing the transparency we all expect in our leaders, and enabling all Americans to know what actions she was taking on their behalf. Pruitt, by contrast, does none of this, he’s extremely secretive, and he’s constantly surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards.
OK, that’s not good on the surface, but let’s put it into perspective. McCarthy was doing all she could to protect Americans’ health and safety. We liked her. Pruitt, on the other hand, is doing all he can to provide favorable conditions for corporate polluters, especially the oil companies, by aggressively despoiling the environment. We hate his guts.
Now put yourself in his position. For a minute, be Atticus Finch: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Pruitt is in the top five most hated people in the country. How open and transparent do you think you would be if you knew you were traveling among people who uniformly despised you and everything you stand for?
There. I think I’ve made my point.
Craig,
If you consume a diet of solely leftist media outlets such as Media Matters, you will naturally form a skewed and distorted view of the world and current affairs.
Claiming such outlets as oracles of ‘truth’, instead of simply propaganda for a particular doctrine displays your commitment to a particular doctrine, but also shows you are increasingly disdainful of objectivity, balance and a sense of proportion.
To maintain a ‘free press’ it’s essential to have all viewpoints expressed. To maintain a ‘ free mind’ it’s equally important read all opinions with objective analysis and not fall into the trap of becoming a “believer” of any particular propaganda.
I notice you don’t complain when I quote the WSJ or some other right-of-center source. As I try to explain to people, apparently without a great deal of success, a true statement is just as true if it comes out of Bernie Sanders’ mouth as it is out of Donald Trump’s mouth. To believe otherwise is to buy into the ad hominem or the argument from authority fallacy.
Craig,
The WSJ, like the Economist prides itself on striving to achieve balance. Opinion writers and staff reporters often disagreeing with editorials.
I absolutely agree the truth is the truth no matter the source, however media can distort and manipulate the truth in a variety of ways which is why I believe a wide source of material is essential.
” We hate his gut’s ! ” Do you really believe “Scott Pruitt is one of the top five most hated people in the country”?.(I’ll bet a significant number of American don’t know who he is, and don’t care !)
The majority of US mainstream media openly admits animosity against the President and his administration, not the least because he refuses to acknowledge their previous all pervasive influence.
The reason the US mainstream media has lost credibility is not the fault of President Trump or Scott Pruitt, but due to their own lack of integrity, self interest and bias. The obsession with trivia, scandal, and pretended outrage at perceived sensationalist political incorrectness.
“Gotcha” style of journalism is unpleasant and severely damages the prestige of the media with the public who now view mainstream media as the equivalent of Jerry Springer !
The obsessive salacious reporting of an alleged “affair” the President may or may not have conducted some years before becoming a candidate, hurts the press more than the President. The “affair” (if believed) involved a single consensual encounter with an adult porn star.
When news outlets like the formerly reputable CNN and NYT try “interviewing” the President 11 year old son about such gossip, is it any wonder the public lose respect for the media ?.
“The public interest” is often cited as a justification for such behavior, but it’s a fallacy What’s ” interesting to the pubic”, isn’t the same as the “public Interest” .