What's good for the goose is good for the mountain goat?

Economist Stephen Moore wrote an outstanding piece in Forbes magazine last week in which he compares the economies of Kansas and Illinois. This article deserves a larger dissemination in Kansas, such as in the Kansas City Star. Unfortunately, that won't happen since the Star has noted that it will no longer publish opinion pieces from Moore.

In a July 7, 2014 column in the Star, Moore took on far-left economist Paul Krugman. Shortly after, Star columnist and editorial board member Yael (which literally means "mountain goat") Abouhalkah discovered that Moore's column included outdated data. Abouhalkah's discovery led Miriam Pepper, editorial page editor of the Star at that time (she has since retired), to announce, “I won’t be running anything else from Stephen Moore.”

Douglas County Conservative wonders if the Star will hold other columnists, including Abouhalkah, to the same standard. For example, in September 9, 2009, Abouhalkah reported that two polls "show Obama won big time":

Two polls that matter show President Barack Obama had a strong showing with the American people Wednesday night. 

His passionate speech on the absolute need for health care reform resonated with many. 

-- The CBS News poll said Obama's approval rating soared from 62 percent to 69 percent after the speech. 

-- A CNN poll said 68 percent of its respondents gave a thumbs up to the speech. Only 8 percent were negative. 

Now Obama must build on the strength of his good speech to get real health care reform passed in Congress. 

The moment of success he created Wednesday night should not be allowed to wither and die in Washington.

Note that there was not a single major poll that showed Obama's approval rate above 60% in September 2009. The highest was a CNN/ORC poll that showed Obama's approval rate at 58%. The highest CBS News poll that month showed Obama's approval rate at 56%. So where did Abouhalkah get that Obama's approval rate went from 62 percent to 69 percent after he delivered a speech on health care? Apparently, from a March 2009 Huffington Post article. According to that article, "A CBS News poll of approximately 500 people saw approval of the president rise from 62 percent before the speech to 69 percent afterward." In other words, Abouhalkah used outdated data, i.e., polling from six months earlier to make the point that Obama's approval rating increased dramatically after a speech delivered in September 2009.

The same Huffington Post article also shows that Abouhalkah used outdated data regarding the CNN poll: "Meanwhile, a poll on CNN showed that 68 percent of respondents -- who skewed a bit Democratic -- viewed the speech positively, 24 somewhat positively, and only eight percent not positively."

Abouhalkah presented outdated polling from March 2009 to make a point regarding a speech Obama gave six months later. Nevertheless, the Star continues to publish his columns five years later. It is quite possible that Abouhalkah simply made a mistake and there was no nefarious intent on his part. However, we could say the same of Stephen Moore. If the Star gave Abouhalkah the benefit of the doubt, shouldn't they extend the same courtesy to Moore?

In another case, on Monday, October 10, 2011, Abouhalkah wrote the following: "I know the Occupy movement is having some effect, because ultra-conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh called the Americans involved in the group 'idiots,' 'clowns' and other names Monday."

It would not have been possible for Limbaugh to have done that on October 10, 2011. Limbaugh had a guest host, Mark Davis, that day.

UPDATE: Douglas County Conservative emailed this item to Steve Paul, the new editorial page editor at the Star, and asked, "Given this, I wonder if the Star might reconsider its ban on Stephen Moore's op-ed pieces." Paul replied with one word: "No."