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Nov

1

Wide Open/Steve LaTourette round-up

Filed Under Blogging, Media, Ohio, Politics, Wide Open | 8 Comments

A few more excellent posts:

Poynter Institute e-Media Tidbits (Amy Gahran)

Huffington Post (Jeff Coryell)

Gloria Ferris

Bad American (Keith – not sure if you like to have your last name out there)

The Chief Source (Kyle Kutuchief)

Ohio Valley Politics (David Potts)

The Boring Made Dull

Creative Ink (Wendy Hoke)

The Semantic Caucus (Chris Baker)

MyDD (Phil DeVellis)

A South Dakota Moderate

Plunderbund round-up from 10/31 and back

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:19 pm November 1st, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Ohio, Politics, Wide Open | 8 Comments 

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Nov

1

Kentucky’s gov mansion to turn blue again

Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Government, Politics | Comments Off

The latest news out of Kentucky is that challenger and Democrat Steve Beshear is going to pummel the GOP incumbent, Ernie Fletcher, the first Republican governor in KY in more than three decades, by 23 points. From the Courier-Journal:

“This race is over,” said Republican political consultant Ted Jackson, who supported Fletcher in 2003 but backed former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup of Louisville when she challenged Fletcher in the May primary.

The latest poll, conducted Oct. 26-29, interviewed 710 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Fifty-six percent of the respondents said they would vote for Beshear or were leaning toward voting for him, compared to 33 percent for Fletcher. Ten percent said they were undecided.

The poll found Beshear with majority support among virtually every demographic group — men and women, income and age groups, those with college degrees and those who haven’t finished high school.

Beshear leads among Democrats and independents, and a quarter of the Republicans surveyed said they plan to vote for him.

Moreover, he leads in all regions of the state and in all six congressional districts.

The only downside for me, though not for casino-loving Ohioans, is that Beshear is a gambling supporter. Oh well. Can’t have everything.

I bet Beshear and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, also a Democrat, could have some interesting conversations and collaborations over the next few years.  Anyone have any specific thoughts on how our two states, with both being under Democratic governors, could take advantage of that fact?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:26 pm November 1st, 2007 in Campaigning, Elections, Government, Politics | Comments Off 

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Nov

1

Jeff Coryell on YouTube and LaTourette’s anxieties

Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics | 6 Comments

In this video, Jeff describes the demise of the Wide Open blog that was triggered by Ohio Congressman Steve LaTourette’s anxiety over a $100 donation made to LaTourette’s opponent. Please consider it. Thanks. (I had to remove the image because I couldn’t figure out how to re-size it and ran out of time!)

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:24 pm November 1st, 2007 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics | 6 Comments 

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Nov

1

All politics is local, unless you’re running the Plain Dealer

Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, Media, Politics | 5 Comments

There are three pages worth of mayor’s races on the Sun Newspapers page (which ironically though not surprisingly, since I know a bit about how the innards work, has a URL with “cleveland.com/open”) that will be decided next week in NE Ohio. But according to Plain Dealer associate editor, Becky Gaylord on WCPN this morning, the NE Ohio paper of record is endorsing fewer races this year.

And I thought this was a time for increasing hyper-local coverage.

Here’s the exchange as Sound of Ideas host Dan Moulthrop explored races in Lorain and Orange a little past the half-way mark:

Moulthrop: Becky Gaylord, how did the uh Plain Dealer editorial board – have they endorsed yet on the Orange mayor’s race?

Gaylord, in an almost difficult to hear quiet voice: “Uh, we’re not weighing in on that race this year.”

Moulthrop immediately: “Why not?”

Gaylord: “Uh…I think this year we probably uh just endorsed in fewer races -welp yeah- we didn’t endorse in Lorain either,” ending with a slight nervous or otherwise kind of nondescript laughter, “uh huh huh huh” from Gaylord.

First, note that Moulthrop doesn’t ask whether the PD would endorse.

And then, I’m not sure what Gaylord found to be funny about the PD endorsing fewer races this year, in particular in the county one over from Cuyahoga. But, okay.

So, I’m only one listener, who has been forunate to be able to have been on that show before and I could be wrong, but, to me, Dan Moulthrop sounded surprised by Gaylord’s response.

Frankly, I am too. But, sadly, should I be?

In addition to teaching the PD editors what makes a blogger a blogger, maybe they also need a primer on what “hyper-local” means. Or maybe just “local” for starters – I think they have the “hyper” part down just fine.

Our region’s population is shrinking. The local papers like the Sun are improving access to information online, offering information in a way that readers can access it and use it, which is really the most important thing: using the information to go out and vote.

Looking for news you can use?

It’s become more and more, ahem, plain as to where you won’t be going to find that.

Here’s a list of the Sun endorsements. Spending time on the Cleveland.com site and the OPEN site, if I weren’t from here, I really would think that the PD absolutely doesn’t cover local. I know that’s not true, but wow, it really is miniscule from what I thought it would be.

Then again, maybe it’s just that I have to change my idea of what a paper of record provides, and doesn’t provide. Just as papers of record must change their idea of which news sources readers trust, and why.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:35 am November 1st, 2007 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, Media, Politics | 5 Comments 

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Nov

1

Carnival of Ohio Politics #89 – Don’t neglect it like I did!!

Filed Under Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off

Ben Keeler of the Keeler Political Report did a great job with this week’s Carnival of Ohio Politics #89. It’s the first one I’ve missed since four of us started to assemble it on a rotating basis and I apologize to my co-assemblers in particular, because we try to at least be sure that if no one else makes a submission, we will have each other.

I know you know I was otherwise occupied, but still – I am sorry.

On the bright side, readers, it’s a Jill-free Carnival.  I’m sure there are a few folks who’ll be happy for that.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:02 am November 1st, 2007 in Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off 

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Nov

1

Did Dispatch assoc. publisher give $25k to Vote No Casinos & keep job, while paper opposed Issue 3?

Filed Under Blogging, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics | 6 Comments

I was checking around this morning in a couple of databases that show donations, to see what goes on at other Ohio newspapers, as far as the prohibition on journalists being able to contribute to political candidates and issues.

According to Ohio Money Tree, the COO and Vice Chair of the Dispatch Printing Co. (the umbrella entity for the Columbus Dispatch, among other media entities) and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch, Michael F. Curtin, appears to have contributed $25,000 last year to the Vote No Casinos issue (go to Ohio Money Tree, and do a “search data” with Employer/occ for the “column” and “columbus dispatch” as the employer term). After further research on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, I’ve concluded that a donation which goes from a Michael Curtin to “Team Coughlin” is not related to the Curtin associated with the Dispatch.

Because suggesting that someone who is as senior as Curtin is at a journalistic endeavor has given so much money to a political issue is a pretty major suggestion, I put out a couple of feelers to see if anyone could tell me that I have the wrong person and the wrong donation. I haven’t heard back from anyone. So, this evening, I also emailed Mr. Curtin directly.

Baasically, what I want to know is – did Curtin actually make that donation? And if so, how can Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg’s explanation about why she felt compelled to have Ohio Daily Blogger Jeff Coryell, formerly of Wide Open, either be restrained in what he wrote on Wide Open, or leave, be okay?

I don’t want to hear about how it’s different from paper to paper. I want someone to tell me that either Goldberg and Curtin are wrong, Goldberg and Curtin are fine, or whatever. But not that it varies from paper to paper.

Why isn’t that acceptable in this case?

Because we are talking about the possibility that our state’s capital city’s paper of record is fine with one of its top executives to make an enormous donation and continue on, while the Plain Dealer editor feels that her paper’s reputation is so threatened by a $100 donation made by a political blogger, who has an independent contract to write on a political blog about…politics, that she must demand that he either not write about certain political figures or leave the gig.

I find absolutely zero logic here, so I’m assuming I need to be taught about what I’m missing. OR – maybe I have it all wrong about Curtin and the money.

Btw, the Dispatch opposed Issue 3/Ohio Learn and Earn.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:00 am November 1st, 2007 in Blogging, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics | 6 Comments 

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