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Obama is NOT about to ban fishing
The right-wing media mob has seized on an spurious claim by ESPN's Robert Montgomery that President Obama is about to ban recreational and commercial fishing in U.S. waters.
Thu, Mar 11 2010 at 10:10 PM
Photo: Wit/Flickr
Let me start off by saying that President Obama is NOT about to ban fishing.
Jeffrey Weeks of the Charlotte Fishing Examiner is a busy guy since textually smacking down the ridiculous charges of ESPN's Robert Montgomery who claimed that President Obama plans on banning commercial and recreational fishing in U.S. waters.
Montgomery spent over 900 words wandering around a desert of speculation and pro-commercial fishing paranoia. Click over and give it a read.
Then read Mr. Week's piece "ESPN claims Obama is about to ban fishing".
Weeks does a tremendous job tearing into Mr. Montgomery's claims. He points out that for years recreational fisherman have been dumped on by the commercial fishing industry which has fought nearly every effort to enact sane and sustainable fishing limits. Weeks is a long time recreational fisherman and rightly points out that most of his fellow recreational anglers are good stewards of the land and water and have increasingly, over the years, found themselves on the same side as environmentalists in battles for sane fishing policies.
Weeks finds Montgomery's attempts to lump recreational and commercial fisherman together particularly galling given this history — it's a cynical attempt to rile up recreational fisherman for the betterment of the bank accounts of commercial fishing boats.
Here's a good bit from Weeks' article:
As a sportsman who covers fisheries management and politics, I do think there are many issues surrounding the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and its eventual recommendations that all fishermen should be aware of and concerned about.But to go from concern to suggesting that President Obama is about to ban fishing in America is the most absurd and irresponsible thing I have ever seen a major news outlet publish. There is not even a remote possibility that a standing president of the United States will outlaw fishing in America.And yet, Robert Montgomery presents his case that it is about to happen as if it is the most likely thing in the world.ESPN should have to provide some answer for why they allowed this irresponsible article to be published under their logo.
Also check out Jeffrey Weeks' article Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh need to shut up about Obama fishing ban — you know it couldn't have been long before those guys would jump all over this piece of nonsense.
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ESPN has issued a half-hearted apology, in that they admit that (1) there were errors in the story, but that (2) the errors are acceptable, since it's an opinion piece and, well, that's just one guy's opinion, and who's to say he's wrong (even when he's factually incorrect)? You can see the article here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/columns/story?columnist=bow...
Thanks for the shout out Shea! It's been a little crazy for me since this story broke. I still can't believe ESPN hasn't issued a true apology-- I don't believe for a second this wasn't intentional.