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.