My point wasn’t so much that people don’t make mistakes but that with this particular state rep, a lot of mistakes about him crop up that pump him up – and, as a resident in his district, as well as someone who has spent time talking with him personally and still not agreeing with many of his positions (I did not vote for him), it is very aggravating to me.

There is plenty about Mandel that is impressive. But the papers do things like talk about him being deployed to Iraq – he volunteered. Papers around the country talk about the bill he pushed to force Ohio’s pensions to divest as though it is still alive but it was tabled in exchange for voluntary agreements procured against his preference. Likewise, – this error – showing him to be in a position of power when in fact he hasn’t been in the state – let alone the statehouse – for at least three months. His not being here, his going back to the military, has been very public knowledge. And given the importance of the energy bill and the ease with which anyone could check…

Okay – that’s all I’m saying. I am okay with you thinking I’m going overboard in not being human about the mistake. That’s fair of you.

But…I still think they could have checked.

Again – thanks for reading and good luck covering the elections. Sounds to me like your paper might benefit from unpaid bloggers, no? (seriously, I mean that)

The way you attack small town journalists is a bit unfair, i think. While there are plenty of bad reporters out there who don’t really give a shit (and who can blame them if they work for a paper like i work for), the fault often lies in the situation itself. The workload is often staggering, mostly busy work (they want you to cover a different boe or village council meeting every day, never letting you dig into anything real or important). State house coverage at smaller local papers, even of local reps, is relatively non-existent unless they send a press release, and this is because there simply isn’t enough time in a day to get the job done. It’s not like these papers offer overtime. There is little pay for reporters and little oversight from management. Papers have shaved newsrooms down to nothing. And this has nothing to do with the journalists themselves. Poor journalism is usually the result of poor management at the top. Most reporters (or at least speaking for myself) would love the chance to dig into something big and get all the facts right and do in depth stories. But not for free.

Mistakes get made sometimes. The info the reporter had in the above story was probably just outdated. I doubt there was any malice behind it. To point it out as an example of why “traditional journalists” are worse than bloggers is a cheap shot at best, dishonest at worst. Take it for what it is — an unintentional error.

And i enjoy your blog, btw. So this isn’t an attack on bloggers. I get most of the news i personally enjoy from blogs.

As for Dolan, well, for some people it can be said: they lead charmed lives. (where’s that baseball, I think its around here somewhere )

Its nice to know that he’s looking out for my little businesses’ light bill. We’ll see.

But I know you take your right to order wine over the Internet very seriously so at some point I might write him a letter asking him how revisiting that bill is going? That and an apology for hitting him with the baseball in 1976. You know, those brave men suffered that long winter at Valley Forge for the right to order wine from whomever we want. I know this is no small matter and I for one will not rest until this wrong has been righted.

(Ok even I’m giggling here – oh, you should have been out at Notre Dame in Chardon last night to hear the speech from Simpsons producer Michael Reiss and the shots he took at Pepper Pike “who named that place? someone got it from his little baby: pa pa pa papa pike?” And the one episode that got beat in the ratings by CSI Pepper Pike. The victim died of boredom. Oh, he had us rolling).

By the way, I don’t want to ruin your mood this morning but you should read Diadiun’s column in today’s PD:

http://www.cleveland.com/readers/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/119416912484390.xml&coll=2

I don’t usually get this nasty in my blog but I couldn’t let it slide:

http://badamerican.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/diadiun-shills-what-did-you-expect/

I hope you’ll forgive my anger in this case.