"Fake news" about coal

Here's how a Wall Street Journal article reported the current status of coal:

"...coal is showing signs of a revival and breathing economic life into West Virginia and other coal states. […] Yet the Trump Presidency seems to have lifted animal spirits and coal. Weekly coal production has increased by 14.5% nationwide over last year..."

Here's a resounding rebuttal in the Daily Kos:

In their attempt to support Trump, the Wall Street Journal is distorting the truth about coal and cruelly raising the hopes of people who have bought into a false promise. They’re performing a disservice to their readers and to their nation. That big increase in production they’re talking about? It’s generated by comparing the current weekly production with the same week last year...

[see the chart above]

That single orange bar, the bar that’s actually lower than the quarter before, and the quarter before that? That’s Trump’s “comeback.” 

Yes, the first quarter of 2017 is higher than the first quarter of 2016, but that’s because the first quarter of 2016 represented a record low. The quarter reflected a mild winter in much of the country, a dip in gas prices, large stockpiles on the ground at many power plants, and market disruption following the bankruptcy of the two largest coal companies in the nation.

Much more at the link.