I really don't get how people can be ignorant enough to not see the health problems caused by second hand smoke, but there are enough of them to push the Campbell County Fiscal Court to extinguish a law to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.
All people have to do is to point to Ohio. We passed a smoking ban statewide, and naysayers then pointed to Kentucky as a grave warning of bad times ahead. They said that bars in Cincinnati would crumble without smoking and with Kentucky just over the river with a smoker's paradise we would never recover. Well, how many bars have opened in the Downtown Cincinnati area since the ban, let alone around the city? If you are not going to say a ton, then you just haven't been in Cincinnati in years.
Kentucky needs to pass a statewide ban and get over smoking. It is not a bottomless pit of profit as some think. It is a quick high, then you crash and need another. Don't get sucked into the bad habit of overplaying the importance of militant smokers. The militancy dies out after a couple of days.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Cincinnatians for Progress Streetcar and City Defense Fundraiser Tomorrow!
All of Cincinnati needs you to GET ON BOARD with Cincinnatians for Progress' FUNDRAISER for their Campaign in the fight against another far-reaching anti-passenger rail amendment and in support of Good Governance and Progress in Cincinnati.
Join Mayor Mark Mallory and CFP
Wednesday, February 16th 2011
5:30 - 8:00 pm
Historic Grammer's
1440 Walnut Street, Over the Rhine
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
$25 or $50 Suggested Donation at the door
Cannot attend? Please donate online by clicking here
To stay current on the effort to protect our government and allow it to develop the Streetcar, check out Cincinnatians for Progress on Facebook or Twitter.
Join Mayor Mark Mallory and CFP
Wednesday, February 16th 2011
5:30 - 8:00 pm
Historic Grammer's
1440 Walnut Street, Over the Rhine
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
$25 or $50 Suggested Donation at the door
Cannot attend? Please donate online by clicking here
To stay current on the effort to protect our government and allow it to develop the Streetcar, check out Cincinnatians for Progress on Facebook or Twitter.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Anti-Streetcar Bias of the Enquirer: A Smoking Gun Example
Everyone says this all the time: The Enquirer is biased towards Republicans and the Suburbs, and has a strong anti-city contempt. I tend to think the first two are very true, but the third less so, except with certain segments of the daily newspaper's staff. The main bias of all for profit media is in favor of controversy/sex/crime (anything that attracts eyeballs like a car wreck,) but that has become mostly a given in our popularity driven society. Being against the Streetcar has been an editorial stance of the Enquirer for a couple of years, so the Enquirer's bias in its coverage of that issue has long been a question.
If you buy all of that or not, you can't deny this week's clear smoking gun bias in the form of a Barry Hortsman article entitled Poll: residents oppose both streetcar and ballot. Please note that headline. It is where the core of the bias lies.
In case you missed the news last week, a poll was sent to the Enquirer from Chris Finney, Mr. Anti-Cincinnati and fearless leader of the anti-Cincinnati group, COAST. That poll was conducted by Republican Paul M. Fallon. I say he's a Republican because it was something brought up by Twitter posts and CityBeat's reporting, but not something you read in Hortsman's article.
Where the bias lies is in the headline. This poll was conducted County wide. Yes, county wide. The term used by the Eqnuirer in the headline is "residents." I didn't know the Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati were synonymous How can they not be lying? Well, that is where the bias happens. Hortsman focuses in on the number of City Residents included in a poll, a number which is a subset of the poll, something we might call an internal. How do you trust a poll that is created on a county wide basis, then adjusted for a city only topic and consider that to be good polling? Well, you do it when it provides you with an answer you want, which is why Chris Finney pitched the news story and the Enquirer took it. There is more, howerever.
The story linked above was posted at 8:52 PM on February 10th, 2011. The first story about the poll was actually first written for the Enquirer's politics blog with a headline that read "A new streetcar survey," which was published at 10:17 AM on February 10th, 2011. That blog post was updated once at 12:15 PM with more information clarifying some of the reports from Fallon's survey.
So, the initial gut of Carl Weiser (the author of the blog post) wasn't to spin the story, it was to be honest. Carl knows where he got the press release from, Chris Finney, and in the blog post rightfully reports that Finney is an "anti-streetcar activist. I'm also betting that Weiser knows of Paul Fallon as a Republican pollster, which I'm also surmising tempered the headline of the blog post. I think Carl Weiser is a good journalist and I think his coverage, for a Republican newspaper, is fair, within reason at least. That's why I think that headline on the blog post appears the way it did. Something didn't smell right about the poll, and Carl knew it.
Eight hours later we get a snow job. I don't know who gets the blame more, Barry Hortsman himself or his editors, but we get a biased and knowingly misleading headline and article. Eight hours later is plenty of time for Barry to do a Google search on Fallon and read this profile (read the right sidebar) to learn he was director of public opinion research for the Ohio Republican Party. It also doesn't take five minutes for a green reporter to know that you are going to get a Republican conclusion from a Republican pollster. Hortsman knows that the Hamilton County Republican Party is against the Streetcar. So, putting two and two together shouldn't have been too much to do in eight hours. So, does that leave laziness as the cause instead of bias? I'm not going to say lazy, although in a time crunched reporter's life, that often is a big problem. Instead, I lay this at the feat of Hortsman's bias and/or the bias of his editors. I don't know if Carl Weiser is his editor, but I'm going to guess no, based on the variation in how this poll was presented over an eight hour period.
Headlines, in case you forget, are very important in the news media. A large portion of readers only read a scant few articles, but read all of the headlines. They draw conclusions based on those headlines. In this case a false conclusion would be reached by anyone reading the Hortsman article's headline. Further false conclusions would be drawn from the article it self, lacking any context as to the source of the poll and back ground of the pollster. Not determining why this poll was conducted was the most damning element not to include. Are we supposed to honestly believe the pollster wanted to throw this in for the hell of it? He took the time to write up a press release because it seemed like a good thing to do? Yes, and I have deal on the Suspension Bridge that you just can't pass up.
I sent a request to Barry Hortsman for comment and answers to a list of questions relating to this story early Friday morning. I copied all of the editors I believed would have been responsible for his work. As of the publishing of this post, I received no response, except that one of the editors was out of the office.
I don't expect the Enquirer to be perfect. I do expect them to try and be fair and not do something so obviously biased. Instead, Hortsman should never have written the story. Weiser's blog post was enough. Instead the article likely reached the print edition and mislead a much wider audience.
At this point everything Hortsman writes has to be second guessed. I wouldn't trust him getting a 'dog bites man' story right, let alone the streetcar. The new editor of paper, Carolyn Washburn, should take the time to think about reassigning who ever is responsible for this biased article. If the blame lies at hers or her boss's feet, then I'll be making a habit of this type of blog post.
Additional info from WLWT, which has the press release generated from Fallon Research.
If you buy all of that or not, you can't deny this week's clear smoking gun bias in the form of a Barry Hortsman article entitled Poll: residents oppose both streetcar and ballot. Please note that headline. It is where the core of the bias lies.
In case you missed the news last week, a poll was sent to the Enquirer from Chris Finney, Mr. Anti-Cincinnati and fearless leader of the anti-Cincinnati group, COAST. That poll was conducted by Republican Paul M. Fallon. I say he's a Republican because it was something brought up by Twitter posts and CityBeat's reporting, but not something you read in Hortsman's article.
Where the bias lies is in the headline. This poll was conducted County wide. Yes, county wide. The term used by the Eqnuirer in the headline is "residents." I didn't know the Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati were synonymous How can they not be lying? Well, that is where the bias happens. Hortsman focuses in on the number of City Residents included in a poll, a number which is a subset of the poll, something we might call an internal. How do you trust a poll that is created on a county wide basis, then adjusted for a city only topic and consider that to be good polling? Well, you do it when it provides you with an answer you want, which is why Chris Finney pitched the news story and the Enquirer took it. There is more, howerever.
The story linked above was posted at 8:52 PM on February 10th, 2011. The first story about the poll was actually first written for the Enquirer's politics blog with a headline that read "A new streetcar survey," which was published at 10:17 AM on February 10th, 2011. That blog post was updated once at 12:15 PM with more information clarifying some of the reports from Fallon's survey.
So, the initial gut of Carl Weiser (the author of the blog post) wasn't to spin the story, it was to be honest. Carl knows where he got the press release from, Chris Finney, and in the blog post rightfully reports that Finney is an "anti-streetcar activist. I'm also betting that Weiser knows of Paul Fallon as a Republican pollster, which I'm also surmising tempered the headline of the blog post. I think Carl Weiser is a good journalist and I think his coverage, for a Republican newspaper, is fair, within reason at least. That's why I think that headline on the blog post appears the way it did. Something didn't smell right about the poll, and Carl knew it.
Eight hours later we get a snow job. I don't know who gets the blame more, Barry Hortsman himself or his editors, but we get a biased and knowingly misleading headline and article. Eight hours later is plenty of time for Barry to do a Google search on Fallon and read this profile (read the right sidebar) to learn he was director of public opinion research for the Ohio Republican Party. It also doesn't take five minutes for a green reporter to know that you are going to get a Republican conclusion from a Republican pollster. Hortsman knows that the Hamilton County Republican Party is against the Streetcar. So, putting two and two together shouldn't have been too much to do in eight hours. So, does that leave laziness as the cause instead of bias? I'm not going to say lazy, although in a time crunched reporter's life, that often is a big problem. Instead, I lay this at the feat of Hortsman's bias and/or the bias of his editors. I don't know if Carl Weiser is his editor, but I'm going to guess no, based on the variation in how this poll was presented over an eight hour period.
Headlines, in case you forget, are very important in the news media. A large portion of readers only read a scant few articles, but read all of the headlines. They draw conclusions based on those headlines. In this case a false conclusion would be reached by anyone reading the Hortsman article's headline. Further false conclusions would be drawn from the article it self, lacking any context as to the source of the poll and back ground of the pollster. Not determining why this poll was conducted was the most damning element not to include. Are we supposed to honestly believe the pollster wanted to throw this in for the hell of it? He took the time to write up a press release because it seemed like a good thing to do? Yes, and I have deal on the Suspension Bridge that you just can't pass up.
I sent a request to Barry Hortsman for comment and answers to a list of questions relating to this story early Friday morning. I copied all of the editors I believed would have been responsible for his work. As of the publishing of this post, I received no response, except that one of the editors was out of the office.
I don't expect the Enquirer to be perfect. I do expect them to try and be fair and not do something so obviously biased. Instead, Hortsman should never have written the story. Weiser's blog post was enough. Instead the article likely reached the print edition and mislead a much wider audience.
At this point everything Hortsman writes has to be second guessed. I wouldn't trust him getting a 'dog bites man' story right, let alone the streetcar. The new editor of paper, Carolyn Washburn, should take the time to think about reassigning who ever is responsible for this biased article. If the blame lies at hers or her boss's feet, then I'll be making a habit of this type of blog post.
Additional info from WLWT, which has the press release generated from Fallon Research.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Perceived Gay Couple Denied Admission to Creation 'Museum'
Read up on the two men denied entrance to the Creation 'Museum' for a Date Night event because security guards believed they were Gay. This is an event that they had spent $71 each for tickets and didn't get a refund.
The Creation 'Museum' is the same organization that is seeking state tax-breaks for building a Biblical theme park. I am thinking there is clear problem with discrimination and as you might guess, non-Christians (Gay-Christians I would surmise as well) are not welcome to visit this establishment. The Commonwealth of Kentucky should not be in the business of helping religious and Gay bigotry prosper.
Don't tell the Kentucky Enquirer this happened, they might have to improve their embarrassing coverage of the farce that is the Creation 'Museum.'
The Creation 'Museum' is the same organization that is seeking state tax-breaks for building a Biblical theme park. I am thinking there is clear problem with discrimination and as you might guess, non-Christians (Gay-Christians I would surmise as well) are not welcome to visit this establishment. The Commonwealth of Kentucky should not be in the business of helping religious and Gay bigotry prosper.
Don't tell the Kentucky Enquirer this happened, they might have to improve their embarrassing coverage of the farce that is the Creation 'Museum.'
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Enquirer New Website Design Is Launched
You can check out the new design of the Cincinnati Enquirer's website by going to many different websites:
www.cincinnati.com specifically, but when you do, the term "Enquirer" will be something you don't see much. It is there, but is on the same footing at the Community Press. The old site www.enquirer.com still works, but goes to a less graphic sub category of "News". This isn't a new development, as the old site did something similar, but the main page of "News" on the previous design had more of a front page of the Enquirer feel. The only front page I see is Cincinnati.com itself (or Nky.com for a Kentucky focus). It is moving a little slow, at least I feel it is, and some of the links don't seem to respond, but they'll work that out.
For help on using the new website, Cincinnati.com has provided a FAQ.
www.cincinnati.com specifically, but when you do, the term "Enquirer" will be something you don't see much. It is there, but is on the same footing at the Community Press. The old site www.enquirer.com still works, but goes to a less graphic sub category of "News". This isn't a new development, as the old site did something similar, but the main page of "News" on the previous design had more of a front page of the Enquirer feel. The only front page I see is Cincinnati.com itself (or Nky.com for a Kentucky focus). It is moving a little slow, at least I feel it is, and some of the links don't seem to respond, but they'll work that out.
For help on using the new website, Cincinnati.com has provided a FAQ.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Another Cop the FOP Likely Won't Let Be Fired
The Cincinnati Police Department knows how to pick them, with this police officer Jeffrey Brunswick (Age 54) accused of punching another cop repeatedly in a bar. The Equirer reports this key piece of information:
Yes, you also read correctly that this guy is 54 years old and should clearly know better.
Brunswick was fired in 1990 after he was accused by his supervisors of operating a vehicle in a reckless manner and then lying about it.That's right, 20 years ago this cop was fired, but he took it to court and "won" his job back. Seems like he should be fired again, but the FOP will be there to protect his "right" to assault other police officers. If I hit a co-worker, I would be fired as would nearly everyone else. I am sure there are circumstances to consider, but there are few that could even be considered as even a partial excuse. Being drunk at 2 in the morning isn't one of them.
Yes, you also read correctly that this guy is 54 years old and should clearly know better.
Monday, February 07, 2011
New Over-the-Rhine Blog
The prolific OTR Twitterer, @OTRcincy, has taken another step in the promotion of Cincinnati's amazing neighborhood Over-the-Rhine by starting a new blog, aptly titled Over-the-Rhine Blog.
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