Korte Narrows Down "McTell" Suspects

Here is what Greg Korte reports about who the writer of the "Wille McTell" email (attacking candidate Nick Spencer) to local media outlets, including myself.

It's difficult to prove who's behind the attack, but the e-mail holds some clues: the author is about Spencer's age, probably works at City Hall, is involved in the local music scene and has a political ax to grind.

And he's a fan of country-blues singer Blind Willie McTell.

Let's reason this down based on Korte's information. My sources indicate there are 3 camps in City Hall with an ax to grind against Nick Spencer.

David Pepper's camp: David was alleged to be upset with one of Nick's answers to a CityBeat survey asking what council member you would most want to see to replaced. Nick chose Pepper. This is the only issue between the two that is known. It seems unlikely that anyone in Pepper's camp would worry about the Spencer campaign or any other campaign. Pepper is going to be reelected and likely will win the most votes. I doubt it came from his office.

Mayor Luken's camp: The Mayor's camp was presumably not pleased with Spencer's opposition to the John Elkington hiring. Nick played a key role in pushing the opposition to Elkington's participation in the Main Street redevelopment plan. Brendan Cull's name, the mayor's chief of staff, has been thrown about as a possible suspect. The problem with it being from the Mayor's office is that there was nothing to gain from doing it. The only reason for doing it would be out of personal spite. I doubt it came form his office, but I can't rule it out.

John Cranley's camp: Cranley has been in a feud with Nick Spencer for several weeks now over the Elkington issue. Nick and John have been going toe to toe on this issue and their rivalry has been all over the pages of the newspapers. Of the 3 camps mentioned, Cranley's would be the most upset with Spencer. What would they have to gain by smearing him? Well, personal spite would be my main guess, but Cranley has been helping out the campaign of Laketa Cole. Cole is seen as being a solid candidate but is not a lock for office like Cranley. Spencer votes eat into some of Cole's. It logically makes some sense that Cranley camp's cause would gain with damage to Spencer. If I was a betting man I would bet someone in Cranley's camp sent the emails. I wonder if Elliot Ruther knows anything about it.

I have no proof that any of the camps listed had anything to do with it, but motives are a guide to find any perpetrator.

Media Roundup

Lots of local media news this week:

WB64 News at Ten is coming finally in December. It looks like it will suck. By sucking I mean it will be local TV news, ratings driven entertainment with a dash of news. It will be mostly run by the Sinclair Broadcasting "network" news home base in Baltimore, Maryland.

Channel 19 News is 10 Years Old: They can be entertaining, but they lack the experience of the other 3 organizations. They all suck worse than month old milk, but the tabloid feel on 19 is stronger than the big 3. The whole anniversary blitz was really self-aggrandizing. It just reminds me how green behind the ears their news department is.

Face for Radio?: Lincoln Ware from 1230 the Buzz has his own TV show. I missed last Sunday's premier, but I will be getting up in time tomorrow to check it out. It airs every Sunday at 10AM on WBQC UPN-25 which in the city is only available over the air at that time of day. WBQC is reportedly moving to channel 38 soon. It was supposed to happen at the end of the October, but as of today it has not yet changed.

I am still working on my CinWeekly review. I will have it out I promise before the issue is out, but I should get it done tomorrow.

Mr. Hall is a Right Wing Idiot

I for one am glad the Mike Hall retired as a Principal of Anderson High school. Peter Bronson seems to be wetting himself in his homage to a fellow conservative bible thumper.

For the Record, I don't know this man. I did not go to High School in the area, but if Peter's characterizations of Hall's education beliefs are correct, I am jumping for joy that he is out of the Public School System. A principal who says he will only allow a state sponsored sex-education in his school over his dead body, has no business in the job. If High school kids are mature enough to be tried as adults in capital murder cases, then they are surely mature enough to know that learning how to use a condom correctly will not want them to go right out and buy them. High schools kids are going to have sex whether they are told to or not. Trying to think otherwise is just idiotic, and well, since the idea stems from conservatives like Peter Bronson and Mike Hall, I think the basis for it being characterized as idiotic stands for itself.

Once again, it is just a freakin' movie

The RNC is asking CBS to review the script of the Reagan miniseries before it airs. If CBS gives in then they are not only gutless, they will prove that fear of economic oppression is the biggest concern for America. When powerful people who can control their shock troops like a surgeon, then lives can be ruined.

UPDATE: From a letter to the Enquirer:

'Reagans' miniseries should upset everyone

Regarding the AP story, " 'Reagans' miniseries upsets conservatives" [Oct. 31]: Why just conservatives? It seems to me that all Americans should be upset with a show that is being built around lies and distortions about a living past president of this great nation. How do CBS and Hollywood think that they can rewrite history? This is just one more example that demonstrates how far to the left the media has gone.

Charles Simon, Maineville

Mr. Simon, I would guess you have not seen the movie. I would guess you are a Reagan fan. I guess you were just as pissed when the movie Primary Colors was released which, although not by name, was about Bill Clinton. I missed your outrage. I missed you calling the media anti-Clinton. I missed the outrage.

Mr. Simon, it is just a freakin' TV show. Get over yourself and your deity Ron Reagan.

Proportional Representation

I am not sold on this form of elected people at all, but you can try out a Mock City Council Election for Cincinnati. Art Slater is promoting it on 1230theBuzz and he needs to learn the URL correctly. It took a while to find the site.

UPDATE: After I spend the next 3 hours figuring out how this works I will be able to tell you that I don't like it. It is complicated. It is consensus building, not an election. What find ironic, is that in order to use this election process, we would need to vote on it using the current election method of up or down votes. I would keep the current method or switch to a combination of district representation and at-large council seats. The battle would be in defining the district boundaries.

Fangman Wins 1

I am no fan of Keith Fangman, but if we had this type of technology used by every police officer as was used here to clear Fangman, then we might not have such distrust of the police. Here is what I wonder: would this case have been considered racial profiling? Would the woman pulled over for running a red light have believed that she was pulled over for being black? The hidden subtext of the story is just as interesting:

Mitchem got tickets during a 21-minute traffic stop May 31 for running a red light and not having a driver's license. The next day, she filed a written complaint, claiming Fangman was disrespectful, yelled and wouldn't let her explain because he was trying to meet a quota.

Who did she talk to before going in and filing the complaint, the next day? Did she talk to any of the usual suspects (various activists) who upon hearing that it was Fangman pushed her to file the complaint? Will that story ever come out? Once again, I doubt it.

UPDATE: The Post's story is up and has the same facts. Still no one has any facts as to whom, if anyone, Janika Mitchem talked to before she filed her report. She is only 18 years old. It is likely she would have talked about what happened with some older. Who was that? Who did that person talk to? Did anyone connected to the boycott advise making the complaint?

FOX News aka Pravda?

Tapped is on the story of the former FOX News producer Charlie Reina's outing of the "Memo" sent out daily to everyone a FOX News literally giving the talking points for the day's news. It should be jaw dropping to doubters of FOX News's conservative bias to read the kinds of spin they were told to give in their coverage. The defense will be that this did not affect their "reporting," only the other "content" of the show. This could be true, but the "reporting" of which they speak is the 2 minutes ever half hour of headlines, hardly much other than the first paragraph of a newspaper story.

When you read the Reina's comments it is clear that FOX News is pure conservative propaganda. Now, the damaging element to Reina's claims are that he does not produce one of the actual memos and that he is a former employee of FOX. Those facts will be where the FOX faithful will focus their scorn.

Here is the ironic part. Reina was the produce of FOX News Watch, the media critique program. I regularly watch that show and I can sometimes not want to through stuff at the TV while viewing it. I have to wonder; will the out of the memo be covered in their show? They tape it today and air it tomorrow, so there is plenty of time to discuss it. Do the have the balls to do that? I doubt it.

UPDATE: FOX News has responded. From this VP at FOX we learn one simple fact: there is a daily memo. She seems to not how it was characterized, but there is one, so this is a guy making that up. Her real purpose was to do use Plan 6, call him a disgruntled employee.

UPDATE #2: PressThink has this covered.

Who Done it?

There are several possible suspects, but no clear evidence of the party(s) responsible.

UPDATE: XRay has more on this story.

UPDATE#2: Rob Bernard commented on this last night.

Blogging like Rabbits

We seem to have more and more area Blogs every week. Here is Radio Free Newport:

"Music, literature, politics, commentary, criticism, news by Amy & Dave Purcell, and Michael Kearns. All powered by Guinness, dogs, and Buddhist thought."

A group blog that looks fun. After I have a read for a few days I likely will add it to the blogroll.

It Only a Freaking Movie

Someone should tell Reagan's flock that this is only a movie. If the Kennedys can take the dozen movies made about them and if Nixon could take the movies made about him, I think showing that Nancy's was difficult is not going to do much. Reagan is not a deity! He is just a man. Where's the anti PC crowd? I hope FOX includes this in their PC watch.

Hell, it is not even a movie; it is just a TV show for Zeus's sake.

Stay Tuned

I am building up steam to review CinWeekly. I have a whole lot to say about it, but I likely will not have time today to get it done. One small question for those folks. Why do they refer people on their print cover to cincinnati.com and not their stand-alone URL cinweekly.com? That is a strange choice. In this press release they don't even give the cinweekly.com address. The link on the main page for cincinnati.com is not very prominent. I think this will not establish cinweely.com as much as it could.

Blame the Victim, or Blame the Woman

Ok, Peter Bronson's column states that a woman recanted her statement that the person on trial raped her. Did she recant that she was raped at all? Does Bronson care to ask that question? Wasn't this woman threatened by her "friends" as indicated in the column? So she is the real criminal here? Am I missing something? If she was raped, and if she named the wrong person, then isn’t there still a rapist walking the streets? This comment took the cake:

She said she went into the woods to sell sex for $20, then changed her mind and was raped.

Peter, why not just come out and say "she was asking for it?" If this man did not do it, then I am glad he was found innocent. If this woman was raped, then where does the investigation stand or does her mistakes, allegedly made out of fear, mean that another criminal will walk the streets without facing trial?

Article XII Repeal and the Bigotry of Sam Malone

18 of 26 council candidates support the repeal of Article XII (allows gay discrimination). It appears that candidate Sam Malone wants a uniform majority rules morality:

"It's mighty funny how some folks communicate their religious conviction, and yet compromise on the issue. I have a problem with that," Malone said. "I think we're talking about morality. We're talking about family values. The community has a right to say what the morality of the community shall or shall not be."

Sam, so when does the individual get to be who they are? Why do I have to live by your oppressive religion's standards? What is immoral about not discriminating against someone because they are naturally different? I do mean naturally, from birth. Religious dogma has no place in public law. Sam, do you favor making discrimination against women and ethnic/racial/nationality minorities illegal? If yes, then why do they get "special rights?" Sam, I am part of the community you seek to lead. Why is my view less important than your pious dogmatically challenged opinion?

8 of the 9 GOP candidates are against repeal of Article XII. Anti-gay views run rampant in this town, and the Republicans lead the way.

VigPol!!!!

The new Vigpol is up and I am predicting the council race 1 to 26. Let me here your predictions!

XRay on Cin

Steve Novotni tears CinWeekly a new one.

Cin Debuts

CinWeekly is on the air! Their first issue is on newsstands tomorrow, but the website is up as of 8:PM Tuesday night. I will have more comments tomorrow after I get a look at the print version.

Chabot in Iraq

I think I know the hotel Steve will not be staying at.

Die You Scum Sucking Pigs

Harold Ray Redfeairn is dead at age 51. The world is a much better place now that this racist bastard is dead.

The Implications of Innuendo

If Greg Korte is auditioning for the role of Woodstein in Gannett's version of "Watergate: The Musical," then I am sure he will get the role if he can hit the high "C". "Follow the Money?" Hal Holbrook would be turning over in his grave, if he were dead that is.

In Greg's column yesterday he brought forward the public facts that 2 CityBeat staff members contributed to Nick Spencer's campaign. In case you want to see this for yourself, all of Nick's contributors are listed on his website.

The implication that one could draw from his column, incorrectly of course, is that CityBeat paid for the Elkington Story.

Stephanie Dunlap, a writer for CityBeat, contributed $20 to Spencer's campaign on Oct. 13.

Dunlap wrote "No Chinese Allowed," the Oct. 1 story that caused quite a flap over Main Street developer John Elkington's alleged bias against Chinese restaurants. The story quoted Spencer and advanced his case that Democratic Councilman John Cranley's plan for Main Street should be jettisoned.

"I can see how people might see a conflict of interest," Dunlap said. "I don't pretend to always be objective. Nobody is."

Dunlap said Spencer tipped her off about Elkington.

That of course did not happen. Was Korte making that implication? I don't know.

The timing of this story implies something itself. Did the Enquirer intentionally run this story just a few days before the debut of its own weekly newspaper designed to compete with CityBeat? Is a perceived innuendo of a quid pro quo by a competitor enough to show an intentional smear? Well, no, there is no evidence of that. I at this point would guess it is just a poorly timed coincidence. I hope the Enquirer does a better job of editing in the future. Appearance matters however, just as Greg's story indicates. Implications can be a bitch, especially when they implicate you.

UPDATE 11:25PM: I sent an email with questions on this story to Greg Korte. Those questions were:

I was wondering why you singled out Nick's Campaign to name campaign donors?

Is it a coincidence that you named two CityBeat staffers the same week that the Enquirer's Cin Weekly, a direct competitor for CityBeat, debuts?

Were you tipped off to these contributors, or did you go looking over all candidate's financial reports for local media contributors?

Greg responds to those questions and my original post as follows:

Mr. Griffin:

In answer to the questions in your e-mail dated 7:46 p.m. today:

I have not singled out donors to Mr. Spencer’s campaign. I could refer you to several stories and columns in which I discussed contributions to political campaign. To wit: “Finance Reports Foreshadow Upcoming City Council Race,” July 8, 2003; “Candidate Contributions Grow,” September 5, 2003; “Lynch Donors Expand,” October 5, 2003; “Lindner Family Leading Contributions,” October 23, 2003; “Candidates Opening Wallets,” October 24, 2003.

Of course the timing with regard to Cin Weekly is coincidence. To suggest otherwise would be to think I have some influence over either campaign finance reporting deadlines (set by the Ohio General Assembly) or the date of the tabloid launch (set by the publisher, who has been planning it for months.) I have not been involved at all in the young reader initiative, and I think it’s a stretch to think that my reporting of campaign contributions by City Beat staffers will have any effect on the competitive situation. Had I been solely interested in attacking City Beat, as your message seems to imply, I would not have reported on a much larger campaign contribution by an officer of the company I work for.

I came across the contribution on Nick Spencer’s campaign finance statement, filed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections last Thursday. The connection was clear as soon as I saw it. I put it in my next column, which was Sunday.

Finally, let me say this: I haven’t always agreed with what City Beat writes, but I do respect the role of an alternative press in a vibrant city. As I told Ms. Dunlap on Friday, my interest was not in starting an ink war (although, regrettably, it may be inevitable). However, given City Beat’s reporting on L’affair Elkington -- a story that soon crossed over into the “mainstream” media — I believed it was important for readers to know all the facts surrounding that story. Beyond that, I encourage you to take the story at face value: Like John McCain in 2000, Nick Spencer is the uncontested “media darling” of the 2003 Cincinnati City Council race.

Korte.

I agree with Mr. Korte that it is a stretch to think the timing of his reporting of the facts involving CityBeat could have been deliberate to coinside with the release of CinWeekly. I also think that is even more preposterous to imply (however subliminally) that CityBeat had some kind of quid pro quo with the Spencer campaign, especially over such a small contribution. I don't want an ink war either, so I hope this can be the end of it, but if Flannery gets wind of this, which I know he will, I am sure something will be said, assuming their deadline has not yet passed. It could be fun for blogging geeks like me however.

One Reason Why I Hate Bush

Conservatives hate Clinton for, well, getting a BJ and being coy about it. I hate George Bush for the same reason Michael Kinsley illustrates in his WaPo column. It is personal to me because I have a family member who has Parkinson’s disease. When Bush announced his "plan" for stem cell research while on vacation in the summer of 2001, I screamed at the TV set. I want to smash it, but I was able to keep my temper in check. This bastard was choosing to let people suffer and die all because of religious zealots. Now, I know this does not live up to the standard of getting a BJ, but hey I am only human. Any anger I feel about this issue is nothing compared to those who were lied to about Iraq and have since lost family in a War that could have been avoid, or at least planned out beyond April 9th.