At least that’s what the media seem to think. Howard Kurtz, media reporter for The Washington Post, has this to say today:
How many reporters have dug into the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and
Health Administration, which under the Bush administration was run by a
former Utah mine manager until last year?
This is prima facie evidence of a conflict of interest, at
least in the media’s fevered mind. God forbid that someone who actually
knows something about mining would be involved in mine safety. Better,
maybe, an environmentalist who made his bones in the anti-strip mining
wars in the ’70s? Or John Sayles. After all, he directed “Matewan” so he must know about mining. Right?
I worked for a governor once who had the audacity to appoint an
insurance executive as the state’s Insurance Commissioner. The press
went wild with that one.
