NYT Exploits WV Mine Tragedy

As predicted on yesterday's Rush Limbaugh show, the Big Media play of the day has been to use the WV mining accident to bash Bush. (Is there any kind of occasion they can't exploit?) Tom Blumer over at BizzyBlog has pulled this paragraph from a NYT editorial:

Political figures from both parties have long defended and profited from ties to the coal industry. Whether or not that was a factor in the Sago mine’s history, the Bush administration’s cramming of important posts in the Department of the Interior with biased operatives from the coal, oil and gas industry is not reassuring about general safety in the mines. Steven Griles, a mining lobbyist before being appointed deputy secretary of the interior, devoted four years to rolling back mine regulations and then went back to lobbying for the industry.

One would expect to see a massive surge in fatalities given four years of "rolling back mine regulations". Oddly, though, there have been fewer rather than more since 2001, and Tom has the data from 1995 to 2005 graphed. See it here. If you still have a subscription to the New York Times, shouldn't you ask yourself "why?"