Boycott the Logan Banner!!
Posted on March 4, 2010 | By Denny Tyler | 6 Comments
In the past, more than a few times, I have voiced my disgust and outrage with the local media in regards to their obvious bias towards the coal industry.
Bias definition – Bias is a term used to describe a tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result, when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective.
The following article is proudly redistributed without permission from the Logan Banner.
Boycott Kathy Mattea, Patti Loveless and Dave Matthews by Michael Browning, Managing Editor of the Logan Banner
West Virginia native Kathy Mattea, who was once a country music star, is trying to get back into the limelight by waging war on coal mining.(1)
And she’s enlisted the help of several other rock, pop and country stars, including one from nearby Pike County, Ky., in her war on coal.(1)
Mattea, in an exclusive interview with The Logan Banner recently, said she wasn’t against mountaintop removal mining, after she’d taken an anti-surface mining stance months earlier.
She said in the interview that she had seen the situation from both sides — she flew over a reclamation project and cried over the loss of the mountain, but then spent some time at a coal mine and understood the plight of the miners.
Now, however, she has turned back to her anti-mountaintop removal stance and will perform at a Nashville fundraising concert featuring Dave Matthews and others, that is being sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council to fight mountaintop mining in Appalachia.
The May 19 concert at the Ryman Auditorium, called Music Saves Mountains, will also include performances by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea.
A news release Friday announcing the concert and lineup said net proceeds will go to pass laws to end the practice.
Tickets cost $45, $75 and $95.
Hopefully, no one will show up for the show, but there will be plenty of the great-unwashed environmentalists (or, as Staff Writer J.D. Charles calls them, “environmentalcases”)(2) there to cheer the anti-coal traitors (3) on.
What’s really ironic is that the concert is being held in Nashville, far away from any mountaintop removal mining. Why not hold the concert here, Kathy? Because she knows they would be run out of the state for taking part in such an event.
Shame on you, Kathy Mattea and Patti Loveless,(4) who comes from Elkhorn City, Ky., just across the river in Pike County, Ky. (Loveless is no stranger to being ashamed of where she’s from: She graduated from Elkhorn City High School in the tiny town, but claimed the more famous and politically-correct city of Pikeville as her hometown)
Both Mattea and Loveless are from coal-producing states and look at what moving a mountain — or a river, as they did in Pikeville to build roads and provided flat land for a cinema complex, the Hall of Justice (Pike County’s courthouse and jail) and other businesses and facilities — has done for their states.
We, here in southern West Virginia, wouldn’t have a wood products park on Holden Mountain, nor the Fountain Place Mall if it weren’t for post-mine reclamation. As anyone who lives here can see, we don’t have an abundance of flat lands, (5) like there are in Mattea’s native Putnam County.
And that’s not even counting the jobs that mountaintop mining has provided (6) for our people here in Coal Country.
Williamson, in Mingo County, is called the Heart of the Billion Dollar Coalfields, (7) and a lot of that is due to surface mining.
We’re sure that a lot of those coal miners probably have spent coal mining dollars and cents on Mattea’s and Loveless’s CDs and concert tickets.
But, instead of thanking the coal miner for those hard-earned dollars, they are biting the hand that has fed them for so many years. (8)
Maybe it’s time the coal miners and their families and friends spoke with their wallets by boycotting these musicians and singers, like Mattea, Loveless, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and others who take up the environmentalists’ war on coal. (1)
They site atop their ivory towers and tell the world how bad coal mining is when most of them don’t know anything at all about surface mining and its benefits.(9) All they see if one or two mountains gone and flat land in their place. (10) Hey, if you want to see plenty more mountains, make a trip into West Virginia and visit with the people here in Coal Country, where coal is the lifeblood of our people and our economy.
We see plenty of singers and actors going to foreign countries for their various causes. But, we hardly ever see any come to West Virginia to see the struggles of coal miners and their families and communities in which they live.
All of these so-called-stars need to come to West Virginia and spend a day in a coal town like Logan or Williamson and see just how wrong they are to attack coal.
Coal is vital to our economy here in West Virginia. And surface mining is a big part of that.
I, for one, will never buy any CDs or songs by Mattea, Loveless nor any of the others who have taken an anti-coal stance and I hope more and more people do the same.
Kathy Mattea lied when she said in the recent interview that she isn’t against coal mining.
Now, her true colors are showing bright and clear and everyone whose lives are affected by coal mining needs to take a stand against her, the same way she’s taking a stand against coal mining and its many employees.
Boycott their music!
Speak with your wallets!
Take away their cashflow and see how quickly they change their minds and turn and embrace coal mining. (11)
The bold highlighting in this article is mine. The numbers following the bold highlighting are also mine and are used as reference in my response to this fine editorial.
- For once can we possibly at least get this one little piece of information correct – this is a war on mountaintop removal coal mining. This is a war to save our mountains, our homes, from the massive destruction brought on them by the coal industry by way of mountain removal coal mining.
- Environmentalcases?? What does that even mean? Is that what we call folks now who are trying to protect our homes? It makes me wonder what derogatory term the Logan Banner uses to describe soldiers in Iraq who are trying to protect our homes. Is there a difference other than scale? If there is I would be obliged if someone would point it out to me. If we are considered environmentalcases by Michael Browning and others at the Logan Banner I would have to strongly suggest they look up nutcase in the dictionary, get friends of coal to help if needed, and after reading the definition rush to the nearest mirror… hopefully with even a small amount of intelligence, as displayed in the article, they will be able to make the connection.
- Anti-coal traitors… that’s just funny.
- Shame on you, Kathy Mattea and Patti Loveless. Yeah shame on you for protecting the mountains that gave birth to country music and some country singers.
- I still can’t believe after all the time I have been fighting mountaintop removal coal mining that the lack of flat land in the Mountain State still weighs so heavily on the minds of those who try to justify mountaintop removal coal mining with the lack of flat land angle of which only about 3% has been developed economically. I would have to say it is a safe bet that most of us who live in the mountains do so because we love our home. I know there are folks like Michael Browning and others at the Logan Banner who are simply to ignorant to realize the connection folks have with the mountains. A connection well worth fighting for, a connection we will continue to fight for until the battle is won. And just a little foresight – this battle will be won for the mountains, our culture, and our heritage one way or another.
- And that’s not even counting the jobs that mountaintop mining has provided… it is definitely not counting the jobs lost to mountaintop removal. — (From Mountaintop removal mining: EPA says yes, scientists say no Not only that, mountaintop removal actually costs jobs; since 1979 the number of miners in West Virginia has declined from more than 60,000 to just 22,000, according to the state’s Sen. Robert Byrd. “In recent years, West Virginia has seen record high coal production and record low coal employment,” he wrote in an opinion piece this past December. “The increased use of mountaintop removal mining means that fewer miners are needed to meet company production goals.”)
- If Williamson is truly the heart of the billion dollar coalfields… I have to wonder where all that money goes? Maybe we should ask Manchin, Rockefeller, Capito, Green, Hamilton, Maynard and Rahall… to name a few.
- One would think by reading the statement referenced by the number 8, the world according to Michael Browning revolves entirely around the coal industry. What a fool he is.
- Surface mining and its benefits – Someone please refresh my memory, mountaintop removal coal mining benefits?
- All they see if [is] one or two mountains gone and flat land in their place – One or two mountains? Reference my last post or this website photo gallery.
- Take away their cashflow and see how quickly they change their minds and turn and embrace coal mining. Once again Michael Browning as much as I hate to inform you the world does not revolve around the coal industry. I know it would pain some of you to admit it but the bottom line is those are the cold hard facts.
There are times I get thoroughly disgusted with West Virginia. Crooked politicians, coal industry biased reporting… the sheer amount of idiocy is at times overwhelming.
I titled this post Boycott the Logan Banner but after further consideration I think the Logan Banner would have tremendous value for someone like me that loves the mountains and can’t always remember to take along toilet paper. Other than that, well, I’m at a loss to its usefulness.
All that being said, Michael Browning you are a fools fool.
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
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March 4th, 2010 @ 7:56 pm
Thank you Denny for setting the record straight on this Logan Banner editorial!
Perhaps Joe Manchin needs but to look at the Logan Banner to fulfill his promise to diffuse the powderkeg that is the coalfields. It appears they, and the coal association, are the culprits that are spewing disinformation,hate and fear among the people!
March 4th, 2010 @ 8:09 pm
Denny I hope y’all send them a copy of this post. I couldn’t believe the stupid that dripped off the page when I read that editorial earlier today, but it was so hatefully dumb that I had to look away. Thank you for suffering these fools long enough to expose the fallacies and falsehoods that support their imaginary reality.
Matthew hits it on the head, this is fearmongering at it’s most ignorant. The itchy rash in the seam of the dirty diaper. Bless you friend!
March 6th, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
If you don’t mind the stench, you can go to the logan banner’s website at http://www.loganbanner.com just long enough to vote NO in their poll–”Would you boycott bla bla bla”
March 10th, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Thank you, Mr. Tyler. I’ve just read the article to which you’ve responded so beautifully, left my comment noting the utter lack of any journalistic integrity, and then found your response. I trust this was sent to the Logan Banner.
Thanks to Vernon Haltom for a heads-up about the boycott “poll”…at the moment it is 60/40 in favor of NON-support of such a boycott. I wish they’d add a place to vote on boycotting the Logan Banner itself!
May 30th, 2010 @ 3:26 pm
Can any of you answer the practical question of “what else will these people do to make a living?”
We can’t all work at WalMart or for the government. Tourism creates primarily minimum wage employment.
Not looking to start an augument here but I think until we can answer this fundamental question of sustainable employment for the dwindling middle-class in West Virginia your concerns seem misplaced.
June 2nd, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
Thanx for commenting Will. Legitimate questions.
My response to your question – “what else will thee people do to make a living?” First of all blowing up the mountains at the expense of residents and in some cases entire communities is an awfully high price to pay for dwindling and unsustainable employment.
I agree we can’t all work at WalMart but on the other side of that there are vast areas in West Virginia outside of the coalfields that appear to get along just fine without blowing up their mountains. I think it is important to point out once again this is not a blog against coal… it is a blog against blowing up the mountains when less destructive methods of mining coal are available.
My concerns are far from misplaced. I would have to ask in light of the recent oil leak in the Gulf if the people complaining about the oil encroaching on their land and destroying their culture and heritage is any different than mountaintop removal coal mining encroaching on communities and destroying the culture and heritage here is any different?
I don’t have the answers and I’m sure you do not either. The problem is that folks aren’t searching for the answers. Coal is a non-renewable resource and whether we like it or not we will eventually be forced to look for sustainable solutions. Blowing up the mountains for a non-renewable resource is as far from sustainable as we can possibly get.