With his
year end kiss ass and trash column, the Enquirer's columnist Jason Williams lays out his
jounalisticpolitical philosophy: kiss the ass of the people in power and Trash those who stand up to those in power (access is all that matters.)
If one reads his list of "cheers and jeers" for the year you will find it filled with ass kissing of those in power and trashing of their political foes. The worst "cheer" was this bullshit about Mayor John Cranley:
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for staying out of the mud as his political enemies hurled ugly and unfounded racially charged comments at him in fliers, mailers and on social media during the campaign.
I know Jason is in the bag for Cranley and he prints the vast majority of stories Cranley wanted, but this just takes the cake. Jason knows Cranley's opponent in the Mayor's race Yvette Simpson was horribly attacked by people on social media, making up lies. Jason appeared to ignore that and instead pushed the Cranley propaganda making him the victim. Sure, I guess he could be ignoring social media, but when he uses his column to lash back to his critics on social media, you know he's at least reading the Enquirer's local politics Facebook group.
What adds to Williams' journalistic malpractice is in his attack on FC Cincinnati's efforts to obtain public funding for infrastructure in support of a new soccer specific stadium he refused to say a word against John Cranley's major part in approving the funding. It is quite clear that Cranley was the primary public official who was organizing the effort to create a deal for the infrastructure and he finessed the deal when it hit a road block at the last minute.
Cranley was a key player of the secret cabal that Williams ripped earlier in the year when he criticized the secrecy of FCC for keeping the government's plan to fund the infrastructure secret before the election. He said nothing about the obvious: Cranley kept the story in secert, with Jeff Berding's help, to avoid a MASSIVE CONTROVERSY, before the election. Right after the election, BOOM, we have an instant plan ready to go and the Conservative portion of council was ready to help out Republican Carl Linder. This basic concept is ignored by columnist Jason Williams.
Yes, I'm no longer calling Williams a sometimes reporter, sometimes columnist. He just a columnist. Any article that touches anything about politics or government that he writes has to be taken a a column. There is no other was to approach it as a news consumer. You can' trust him, you have to assume his bias. His real problem as a columnist goes even further, he actually has no ideology. He appears to be one of those who try to claim to not be either a Democrat or Republican. That is a psychological dodge, everyone has political opinions. Those who appear to pick and chose issues are more likely opportunists who would rather just be on the perceived winning side.
Bottom line, he's no Peter Bronson, no matter how he tries. I couldn't stand Bronson's columns or political views, but they were identifiable and honestly what Bronson believed. I don't think Williams believes anything, he's just trying to build up a persona. His new found stints as a guest on 700WLW alone demonstrate he's not serious, just a wanna-be talking head, looking to move up.
