Is it Empiregate or Pettus-Browngate?

Who at city hall is responsible? The city manager is being criticized for altering audit reports involved in the investigation of city department. If this was Washington I would be calling for a Special Prosecutor. When the scandal touches the Mayor's office, the city manager, and member(s) of city council, no one can been seen as independent. I hope the FBI take a bigger role.

More from the Enquirer.

Talk Radio Part of the Problem, or a Symptom of It?

The Post has a story on what is pretending to be programming on local talk radio here in town. The story states what to any listener is the obvious, the Buzz and WLW are the polar opposites on this issue.

I have been listening to both this week. I usually have on WLW in the morning and the Buzz in the afternoon. This week I have had to turn off the Buzz out of frustration on many occasions. WLW's callers are in general right wing. They have had a whole lot of prejudicial and bigoted callers. There have been very few, if any racist views spouted on the air.

At the Buzz is has been much more of a hate fest. The level of anger towards whites feels to me to be palpable. The only thing topping that is the level of misinformation and ignorance as to what the facts are. Lincoln Ware brought this up:

"I try to put out a true fact and it looks like I'm siding with police and many of my callers don't like that," Ware said. "It's frustrating because some people just don't want to hear the true facts."

In the story a nighttime WEBN host was mentioned as crossing the line when talking to some callers. I have no idea what was said, but WEBN has a large percentage of rabid fans who are, or the lack of a better phrase, "poor white trash." I can apply stereotypes and guess at the idiocy let on the air.

Bill Cunningham gets the award for being a slime ball. He made many horrid "fat" jokes that was totally disrespectful.

Bill Cunningham Being Protested

The Enquirer is reporting that the "Concerned Citizens for Justice" will be protesting outside WLW studios in Mt. Adams today between 1:00PM and 3:00PM today. I am torn on this one. The protestors are idiots for giving Cunningham attention, and their motives are at best sketchy. Cunningham is a slimy media whore, who would sell his wife's dildo for ratings.

There will likely be at most a dozen protestors in the rain, if that.

MIAMI 49, BG 27

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

MAC Champions 2003

Coverage: ESPN, FOX, and WaPo.

Jones Funeral Set for Saturday

The Enquirer is reporting the funeral for Nathaniel Jones is set for Saturday when the "wake is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, with services to immediately follow at Allen Temple Worship Center, 7030 Reading Road."

The Enquirer also has a page of reactions for readers across the country on the Jones incident.

Cunningham & Lawson on FOX News

Here is the transcript of last night's Hannity & Combs show segment with Bill Cunningham of 700WLW and Ken Lawson, attorney for the Jones family. It reads like an Abbott and Costello routine.

[From comments]

Number 66

We now have 1 more homicide than last year with the shooting death of a woman found in Pleasant Ridge early this morning.

Media Round Up for Thursday

There are almost too many stories to link to, but I will try to locate more commentary on the subject of the Nathaniel Jones Death. The news stories are mostly the same now, beyond the pontifications of lawyers and "activists."

FontPage Magazine has your typical conservative viewpoint.

Rantophilia comments on Peter Bronson's latest column.

Newsday has an analysis of the media coverage which agrees with mine:

Experts who study broadcast news doubted the story would have captured the national spotlight without the video taken by a stationary camera on the dashboard of a police cruiser.

"This has been a one-day story for the evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC," said Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the Tyndall Report, which monitors the Big Three networks. "But you absolutely have to have video for this sort of story to get national attention."

We have some more conservative views from the Nation Review Online.

The Dayton Daily News also provides a first hand news story.

Also, comments from Greg Mann.

UPDATE: Delaware County Daily Times (PA) editorial.

Damon Lynch III Reappears

Damon Lynch has been relatively quiet in this mess, but he has spoken out to the media and is calling for a " change at the top of the police force," which means the firing or resignation of Police Chief Tom Streicher. He could however mean Mayor Charlie Luken, and he might be looking to face off against Luken in 2005.

3 Blind Mice?

What makes Reece, Cole, and Smitherman think that getting information sooner will do any good, beyond helping out their image in the “black community?” Councilman Chris Smitherman sounds like he is still campaigning with comments like this:

"I want to make it very clear that I am a newly elected official, and I will not tolerate, ever, insubordination," Smitherman told the chief. "I am one of the members of the board of directors of the City of Cincinnati. Last time I looked at it, I am Chief Streicher's boss."

I don't really know what Smitherman is thinking, but he does not manage the police. The City Manager oversees the police, and the City Manager reports to the Mayor. Mr. Smitherman and the rest of City Council are not the boss of the Mayor. The citizens of Cincinnati are however the boss of City Council and the Mayor. We don't tolerate insubordination either. The police don't tolerate it either, unless the FOP president does it on TV.

Morning Show Accounting

I think I heard this morning that some of the Jones family appeared on some of the network morning shows today, likely with Ken Lawson. How many does that make? I think the police chief was on the Today Show Tuesday. Have the morning shows had someone on every day so far this week?

Cunningham and Lawson on Hannity and Combs?

I missed what surely was great TV. Great in the sense that a car wreck is "great." Rob Bernard has the details.

Appearances

CinWeekly needs to rethink who the choose to interview on some subjects. Who they choose makes them look bad. In this story on "Interview terror" the reporter uses Sharon Potts, a senior associate recruiter for Convergys, as the source on methods about having good interviews. Now, why is Sharon Potts bad? Well, there is nothing wrong with her particularly, the real problem is whom she works for: Convergys. What's the big deal you may ask? Well, you must not remember the biggest election issue, the infamous Convergys deal, worth $52.2 of tax payer's money. Part of that was a promise to add 275 more jobs downtown. Convergys has yet to add those jobs, and has instead laid off at least 40.

CinWeekly looks bad here because the Enquirer was supporting the deal, to the point of holding off on a column with mild criticism until after the deal was passed. What does this CinWeekly story do? Well, it makes the reader very aware that Convergys is interviewing, which must mean they are hiring. If they are hiring that must mean they are living up to the agreement with the city. I am sure the PR folks at Convergys sure hope that what people come away with from the article.

Potts gave some interesting advice in the story:

She also suggests researching a company's history before interviewing and preparing three or four questions to ask an employer about the company to show your interest. Potts warns it would be wise to avoid sounding like a know-it-all, however.

I would suggest that if you interview with Convergys, don't ask them about the $52.2 million dollar deal and surely don't ask how many of those 275 jobs are really going to just be transfers out of Norwood and into downtown.

Vice Mayor Alicia Reece: Get Over the Whine!

Alicia Reece is pissed SHE was not given information about the Jones death before the media got it. SHE sent this Memo around earlier today and at the Council Meeting today SHE came down heavy on the City Manager and the Police Chief because SHE was out of the loop. SHE needs to be informed about what was going on. SHE had to field "calls from civil rights leaders, African American elected officials, and other leaders from all over the country, " and SHE did not have the information SHE needed to inform those that called HER.

I am so pleased to see a Vice-Mayor so concerned about police issues that SHE wrote this memo. After all everyone knows what an important person SHE is in this city and how SHE adds to debate of council. What on Earth would we do without HER.

SHE sure knows how to drive someone to tears too.

Ken Lawson: Jerk

Lawyers are known as the scum of the earth. That has always been an overstatement. I work for a lawyer, I know several lawyers personally. I hate to see scummy actions or statements from Lawyers to prove the stereotype. Ken Lawson has given me one such statement to prove to me, that he is a jerk and among the scummiest lawyers not only in Cincinnati, but I think the country. From the New York Times:

A lawyer for Mr. Jones' family, Kenneth L. Lawson, said the coroner probably called the death a homicide "because he knew we would be getting that body examined by our own coroner and we would keep him honest."

Right Kenny, the coroner is so concerned about you getting paid, that gave you the PR headline you need to help push the settlement amount over a million dollars. The more national headlines the "Law Dog" can get, the more pressure he can put on the city to settle. I wonder if Ken had place a call to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, offering to book them plane tickets to Cincinnati.

If either of those men come here, I wonder if Nate Livingston will protest their appearances.

Shit Has Hit the Fan

The Coroner has ruled that the struggle with police was the primary cause of the death of Nathaniel Jones. This means that the case is ruled as a "homicide" a technical term. The term "homicide" will none-the-less through gasoline onto a tension racked city.

I did not think much trouble was brewing, but after listening to hate spewing from many of the callers to 1230theBuzz today, I fear that if cooler heads don't keep the peace, we might get trouble. The word "homicide" has already been used by Ron Twitty as the term describing the Coroner's ruling. He has tried to explain it what that means, but I fear many will hear only what they want. This afternoon and tonight will need adults out to keep people from letting emotion vent or quelling any opportunists from using a riot as cover for theft.

Move Coverage: CNN, WLWT, and USA Today.

Post's Coverage Shift?

With story title's like these, you would think someone has a skeleton in the closet and the Baptists Ministers Conference knows about it:
Atmosphere tense
Treatment delayed
97-second gap raises concerns

In the last story I am just amazed at the pure speculation that Ken Lawson, lawyer for the family of the Nathaniel Jones. Lawson's tactics of smoke and mirrors is there to build public outcry and attract foolish journalists into printing his manufactured contentions like the claim from the subheadline "Lawson: Tape may have been erased." Yes Ken, and your parents might have been from Mars. It is the job of defense lawyers to confuse possibility with probability. I wish journalists would not assist him.

Hot Air, How Apropos

Could a title be more fitting to this section from the Editorial Page of the Enquirer. The writers seem bent on a political reporter misspeaking on a CBS program. Couldn't Ray Cooklis find an instant where Hillary Clinton said Buffalo was in upstate NY, when every good New Yorker knows Buffalo is in Western NY State?

When it comes to misspeaking, I think the Enquirer could fill an entire editorial page with the misstatements of the sitting President. Instead they trump up a load of crap about a well respected journalist. Save the cheap shots for Talk Radio and the Blogging World. A big newspaper attacking another journalist for a mistake, while not even mentioning their own mistake, hmmm sounds like hypocrisy to me.

Anticipation

I am waiting with baited anticipation for this week's issue of CityBeat. I wonder how they will play the Nathaniel Jones Case. The players in the black community are taking variable paths in this, some predictable, some not. Will CityBeat go the knee-jerk anti-police route, or will they take a different route? The case has some issues. Will they play the racism card, which has no legs to stand on, or will they look at issues of possible bad judgment by the police or paramedics? The issue was not out yet this morning and the website was not yet updated. I am on pins and needles waiting to read it. (Cough, cough)

Which is Worse?

Is the Leader of the Cincinnati Police Union going on TV Sunday ranting about the treatment of police worse than a group of ministers reportedly saying?

But a group of black ministers Tuesday described the incident as "torture'' and called for clergy throughout the city to let their parishioners out early Sunday to attend an afternoon rally and march at City Hall.

Both attitudes do nothing but add fuel to the fire of anger. Blame is falling onto its usual suspects, which will lead to the same cries of racism and the same police union arrogance.