But What About Jim’s Silly Antics?

The Oklahoman editorial page, which serves as chief, local cheerleader for U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and his global-warming-is-a-hoax claim, published a commentary Saturday that essentially refuted people who draw on one season of extreme hot or cold weather to make a claim about climate change.

I wonder why the editorial writer(s) won’t apply this same criticism to Inhofe.

Here’s the important part of the key paragraph from the editorial (“Climate change fans are heating up,” July 31, 2010):

. . . Temperature readings in Washington, Moscow or anywhere on a given day, week, month or year are a tiny blip compared with the span of a century or several millennia — truer increments in a climate discussion.

That’s true enough, and something scientists believe, but where was The Oklahoman when Inhofe’s family built a faux igloo in Washington, D.C. last winter that mocked Al Gore. I don’t remember any criticism from The Oklahoman then, though the political prank made the news, and all those very funny right-wingers had a good laugh or two at Gore’s expense.

The newspaper opposes any legislation that might reduce carbon emissions, and sings Inhofe’s praises whenever it can. It doesn’t matter that Inhofe has made silly, unsubstantiated claims about climate change and continues to sully the state’s image with his conspiracy theories.

Inhofe has called global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and he has compared people who believe in climate change to Nazis. His family mocks Al Gore. The newspaper refuses to hold him accountable.

The point is The Oklahoman editorial page writers only hold people who they perceive to be liberals accountable to any sense of logic. The newspaper engages in rhetorical deceit by twisting and conflating arguments to push its extreme positions because these positions fail on their own merits.

When will The Oklahoman editorial page start providing a balance to its extremism? This state would be a better place to live if its largest newspaper would act responsibly and provide editorial balance.