With accompanying picture, today’s Shelley Moore Capito article covers half of the front page. There is no news in the article and the article is filled with bland statements such as:

Capito indicated she is happy with the Republican party’s platform at this point in time, and she hopes that it continues going forward.

And insipid statements:

“Overall, I am pleased with the Republican party and I think we have great ideas. But I would like to see us more united.”

An important component of any news article is recency. The senator was in Wheeling last Wednesday. Today is Tuesday. If this had any news value, we should have read the story on Thursday. Obviously, it isn’t news, it’s filler PR for an Ogden favorite.

Ogden’s political reporter, Steven Allen Adams, does a much better job on Capito puff pieces. However, Adams apparently had a different assignment – a PR piece on another Ogden favorite, Robin Capehart. Monday’s front page tells us:

Capehart Ushers In New Era At BSU

Robin Capehart is a Marshall County native and a former president of West Liberty University.
Capehart resigned in 2015 after acknowledging that he had violated WV’s Governmental Ethics Act. He then worked a number of jobs and eventually was named interim President of Bluefield State College in 2019. In 2020, he officially became president of the institution.

Adams’ 860-word piece describes Capehart’s accomplishments since becoming Bluefield’s president.

As crows fly, Bluefield is 195 miles from Wheeling. The shortest driving distance is 284 miles. Why are we reading about a college at the other end of the state? (Has the Intelligencer ever devoted 800+ words to nearby Concord University? I don’t think so.)

Why is this front-page news? I don’t know although the article immediately above Adams’ may provide a clue. It is about West Liberty University’s upcoming search for a new president:

Lucas: Presidential Search To Be Consistent

It may just be a coincidence, but Capehart has long been an Intelligencer favorite. In 2007, on the day that West Liberty’s Board of Governors decided who would be named the institution’s next president, the Intelligencer ran a front-page editorial (the only one I have ever seen from them) endorsing Capehart. Last year, Capehart asserted that a local survey supported the need for a program that Bluefield was willing to provide. Despite no evidence that there was an actual survey, the Intelligencer publicized Capehart’s efforts. (See here.)

If it's Ogden favorite week, I wonder who is up next? Riley Moore? Mac Warner?