Personal Aside: That Horrid Old “Conservative” University of Chicago…John McCarron Teaching Your Kids How to Be Good Journalists.

Horrid Old Conservative.

A frequent critic of this website, one E. A., a passionate supporter of Barack Obama, wrote recently to disparage the picture I drew of the University of Chicago liberal faculty lounge from which the presidential candidate was ideologically nourished. E. A. said disparagingly that the U of C isn’t liberal since it is the home of the Milton Friedman school of free market economics. Then 111 faculty members wrote to oppose construction of a Milton Friedman Center devoted to the study of economics since it would pollute the “diversity”…get that word…of the university. Isn’t that just like liberals who preach diversity…the same ones who oppose vouchers for public schools like the Obamas but who signal their own choice by sending their kids to private ones?

The Objective McCarron.

The other day I wrote about the “Tribune’s” former editorial writer who teaches journalism at Northwestern and doubles as WTTW’s main garrulous lefty talking head on “urban affairs,” John McCarron, He recently wrote an Op Ed for the “Tribune” equating supposed fallacies of Saint Augustine a central philosopher of western civilization with those of the largely repudiated Sigmund Freud. But I failed to give you a complete rundown on the absurdity of his article. He adds, “ask Friedmanites why it sells for $140 a barrel and they’ll wearily give you an Economics 101 lecture about supply and demand.”

Too bad McCarron nodded off when he took Econ 101 (if he ever took it) because he doesn’t realize that by opposing the U.S. finding new drilling and implementing nuclear energy his liberalism has contributed enormously to the high price…thus artificially stymieing the free market. God, when you consider the drivel this idiot pours into the heads of kids who are going to be covering such subjects as economics…(well finish this sentence for me, will you?).

This ignoramus continues: “Ask them [Friedmanites] about the impact of the OPEC oil cartel, of highly leveraged speculation in oil futures and or mercantilist maneuvers by state-controlled foreign oil companies and they’ll likely change the subject. Say, have you read the latest from the American Enterprise Institute?” Well, it’s a dead cinch certainty McCarron hasn’t or he wouldn’t be exhibiting his ignorance on such things, failing to acknowledge the cardinal point of market economics is development of additional energy resources domestically. He likely opposes any offshore drilling, nuclear energy and prattles that the free market has let him down with high energy prices.

Then he turns to Enron. Enron’s sin repudiates the free market? Enron’s executive WERE guilty of accounting fraud for which many went to jail for long-running prison terms. Jeff Skilling, the ex-CEO is in a federal pen at Waseca, Minnesota serving 24 years 4 months and has been turned down repeatedly on appeal. Or isn’t 24 years enough for corporation-hater McCarron? He would prefer the death penalty most likely. And why does he believe a business executive who cheats the public invalidates the free market? Does a journalism lecturer who shuns facts and propagandizes invalidate the craft of reporting? He zings Exelon because it operates apart from the mercantilism that used to be applied and dislikes its higher prices. Obviously, McCarron would feel better in a state-run society where industry is under the thumb of government. But the USSR where things were run that way went under and China which McCarron salutes has loosened the strings so as to practice a variant (not perfect) of capitalism which has caused it to zoom upward.

My questions are three. First, why is this crypto-socialist who is so wildly uninformed on economics teaching young people JOURNALISM of all subjects at a reputable school? Second, how did “Tribune” editors allow him to get away with an Op Ed that so glaringly spotlights the intellectual deficiencies of its author? Third, why are taxpayers’ funds used on WTTW to allow such lickspittle onto the airwaves with such unquestioning incredible credulity?