Slow Local News Day or is WCPO Just Saving Money?

This morning I opened WCPO's Website and found that four of the seven top stories on their Front Page were Not local stories. Here's how it looked:

The three local stories are:

1.  A weather story
2. A wedding story with a Royal Tie in
3. A story about the report that a bid move is to be filmed in the Cincinnati area

So, nothing important appears to be happening in Ohio or the Cincinnati area that is not the weather, human interest, or entertainment.  We must have a perfectly run State Government that is not trying to gut funding for a huge list of schools.  We must not have an election for City Council taking place in a few months.  We must not have a search going on for a new Police Chief.  We must not have a Casino project under threat from the Governor.

Those stories may have a story buried on the website, but they are not important enough to have stories on the front page to get your attention.  Instead, you get weather, fluff, and stories with good pictures or about something that may in some minor way affect your kids.  Exurbanites appear to be kid obsessed, so get their attention and you have them hooked. None of these non-local stories cost anything extra to WCPO because they were written by a non-local journalist.  They are cheap and catch the eyes of the non-engaged reader who might care about reading topics that they could get on many national news outlets.

Yes, local TV news sucks.  This isn't a rarity, this is what it does.  If a local story is big enough, it takes the lead, otherwise the rest if filler from affiliates with stories that matter more other places or belong on national outlets.  This is NOT a plot to keep people ignorant, this is what the masses consume.  You, the reader, don't care much about local news, so no one tries to sell you on it very often.  Our willful desire to be ignorant about what is happening in our communities helps create horrible local journalism.  If you want Walmart, that is what you will get.

Chris Bortz Is Running For Council

Cincinnati City Council Member Chris Bortz will seek another term on council, his last before being term-limited.

The Charter Committee endorsed candidate had been on the fence about running, but has publicly made his decision to run.

Bortz has strong backing and likely will do well in the election. He puts a dent into the chance of adding new faces to City Council. All current officer holders are running, so no open seats are up for grabs, but three current officer holders are unelected appointees and will face stiff challenge from several candidates.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead: Justice.

The criminal Osama Bin Laden has been killed by American forces. The death of any human being is never something to be joyous about, but this is justice. This was necessary. This was an honorable act. The horror this man caused was unfathomable by most people, less the few who lived through it or had a relative or friend killed by this murderer. The only thing more satisfying than his death would have been to parade this criminal into a courtroom to put him on trial for his crimes against humanity, but this evil man likely would never have been taken alive.

I applaud our government and the American forces who took action to ride the world of this criminal.

Bin Laden's death will not end terrorism in the world and will not end al Qaeda, but this is a blow to those who seek to murder the innocent in a delusional effort to push forth a twisted ideological/religious stance on the world.

Teilen/Rhine Brings Community Together May 1st at MOTR

Tomorrow May 1st a new way to "share yourself" starts off with Teilen at MOTR. The event is the first in series that will travel throughout the area that will invite participants to share their stories. Admission is free and it begins at 6PM at MOTR, located at 1345 Maint Street.

iRhine has more.

OTR Picnic To Benefit Tucker's Shooting Victims Saturday April 30th

The first annual OTR picnic will be held this Saturday (tomorrow April 30th) in St. Francis Seraph’s secret garden (corner of Vine & Liberty) from 1-5pm. Come join us celebrate spring with live music from Robin Lacey & Dezydeco and the Wild Mountain Berries. Food will be provided and drinks will be available to purchase. Organizers will raffle loads of Downtown items thanks to our neighboring retailers and restaurants.

A $10 donation is requested at the door and the event is open to the public. All proceed will go to Carla Tucker and Ronisha Burgin, the two women injured during the shooting at Tucker's Restaurant in January 2011.

Special thanks to the event's partners & contributing parties: Coca-Cola, Christian Moerlein, Arnold’s Bar & Grill, The B-List in Bellevue, KY, Dewey’s Pizza, Dr. Dennis Suggs, Findlay Market,
The Lackman, Lavamatic, Local 127, Madison’s at Findlay, Maumee World Traders, Mica, Milton’s Prospect Hill Tavern, MidPoint Music Festival, Motr Pub, Neon’s Unplugged, Park + Vine, PetWants, Queen City Underground Walking Tours, Rookwood Tile, Segway of Cincinnati, Senate, Shadeau Bread & Shalini Latour.

It's DougScout vs Tarbell: Give to the Know Theatre

If you were expecting King Kong vs Godzilla, you might be disappointed, but you can share the legendary view on who is who? DougScout has some King Kong qualities, but Tarbell does as well. The only way to solve the mystery is to go to see the Know's production of the Dragon! There you will have to ask a staff member: "Does DougScout symbolize King Kong or Godzilla?" You will need to ask more than one staff member, since you will certainly get more than one answer.

Help the Know Theatre keep DougScout out of trouble. A newspaper route doesn't keep wayward boys on the right track by itself.

No Free Lunch for Cops

The People of Cincinnati should not be subsidizing private money making efforts of police officers. 100% of the costs of administering the off-duty private details should be paid by either the police or the private groups that are their customers. I find it amazing that most of the conservatives on council, according to the Enquirer, want the city to subsidize the private business interests of Cincinnati Police officers.

Council Member Leslie Ghiz made a proposal to only charge police officers a much smaller flat fee for their private business enterprize's costs. This smaller fee would bar far not pay for the expenses incurred to administer the enterprise and Ghiz is seeking to make up the budget by cutting the Mayor's office and the Office of Enviornmental Quality by #100,000. Additionally she wants to cut the HEALTH DEPARTMENT by $200,000. Yes, it appears Ghiz favors police officers making money for themselves, (outside of their full time job to serve the pubic) over the health of the citizens of Cincinnati. I know she's a shill for the FOP, but I think this is taking things a bit too far. It was also really disappointing to see Chris Bortz and Wayne Lippert supporting Ghiz's plan to subsidize the police's private business. I don't see how this can be seen as anything other than a political ploy for an FOP endorsement. Winburn played it down the middle, and for some unknown reason abstained. Is he church a customer of the off-duty police enterprise?