Thursday, December 29, 2011
19 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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I'm confused. Does no editorial page at all appear? Or if it's not a staff-written editorial, what does run? An AP editorial?
ReplyDeleteThe editorial page was reduced to one page a few years ago. Then the company bought out, laid off or froze replacement hiring on all but one editorial writer, who ensures the page's extreme right-wing bent by running mostly those letters written by those of like persuasion and trashing most to the contrary. He generates further reader enmity by running "guest" columns by politicians and CEOs in the Enquirer's faves camp to the exclusion of opposing viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteThe Enquirer's weekday circulation is 140,877. Sunday's is 285,345, according to the ABC's handy lookup database.
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ReplyDeleteI've always felt editorials were pompous examples of the print media's elitist attitude toward it's readers. "we will tell you what's important." the only people falling in their swords about the lack of editorials are said elitists.
ReplyDeleteWe keep insisting on giving the franchise away; giving up on locally written editorials is just another example.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of resources to editorials and opinion at The Enquirer should be an embarrassment and a missed opportunity at leadership. The one remaining staffer can't even return phone calls.
ReplyDelete8:13 A large part of every newspaper is about telling people what's important: the news. That's what readers pay us for.
ReplyDelete2:19 Jim, that's why newspapers are failing. People's tastes have changed. No one wants to hear your opinion, they want to formulate their own.
ReplyDeleteThere is such a thing as a Christmas/New Year's holiday week. When there is a staff of one, a vacation could possibly wreak havoc.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, there is this (from the Daily Bellwether, a site published by a former Cleveland Plain Dealer investigative reporter) ...
ReplyDeleteDoes Cincinnati Enquirer Opinion Editor Have Explaining To Do? Court Records Show Liens For Unpaid Ohio Taxes
An Ohio Tax Lien Against An Enquirer Editor
CINCINNATI -- The newspaper that has been preaching and demanding fiscal responsibility in state and local government on its editorial pages seems to have a tax deadbeat in charge of its political endorsements. Oh, the irony. This week, the Enquirer said Democratic City Councilman Cecil Thomas deserved to be voted out of office Tuesday because he didn't have a grasp of Cincinnati's financial condition. Thomas pays his bills. Courthouse records show that the editor didn't in prior years. So take the editorial advice with a grain of salt. The Enquirer also has told Ohioans to vote yes on State Issue 2, meaning it supports the ballot measure that eliminates collective bargaining by public employees. The newspaper has portrayed government workers as benefiting from contracts "laced with lucrative provisions." But the opinion editor clearly had a bit of trouble with his own finances -- there were garnishments levied against his paycheck at the newspaper, including one that seems to be from a payday lender. Even though he's a high level employee of the newspaper, maybe the Enquirer doesn't pay him enough money to cover his bills. And the guidance being dished out on the Enquirer's editorial pages -- that Thomas doesn't understand city budgeting -- appears to be coming from someone who has a history of problems managing his own personal finances.
Hamilton County court records list several debt-related lawsuits filed against Ray Cooklis, the Enquirer's deputy editor who is in charge of its editorial pages. There are at least two state liens for unpaid Ohio taxes totaling nearly $19,000. Those taxes help pay for law enforcment, economic development, schools -- hard to believe a deadbeat has been responsible for editorials about government finances and Issue 2. But Cooklis either writes or supervises the writing of endorsements and helps set the paper's policies. He doesns't seem to have been very forthcoming about his own financial condition, so we'll see what happens now that the liens are public knowledge. By the way, anybody can look them up by visiting Hamilton County Clerk of Court Tracy Winkler's website and doing a simple search of the public records there. Just look under the editor's name.
[UPDATE 10:19 a.m. -- The Bellwether's e-mail to Enquirer editor-in-chief Carolyn Washburn has been answered by a robo reply that she is out of the office today. So it is not likely there will be anything added from the newspaper's top echelon immediately. Perhaps later?]
12 straight days without a staff editorial. Lead spot was given away for a guest column from a charity, then you have letters, George Will and Kathy Parker. If the Enquirer were smart, they would sell rights to someone who cares about Greater Cincinnati and has something to say about it. Just like they're outsourcing the editing and printing of the paper, as well as relying on the public to contribute contents and photos for free.
ReplyDeleteWow -- that Bellwether piece is an expertly administered beatdown.
ReplyDeleteIt's not only on the editorial page. Today's web site touts a routine state spending story on local projects as "ENQUIRER IN DEPTH: For local projects, who should pay?" Talk about smoke and mirrors. It seems a routine-type advancer of the legislative session is now considered "Enquirer in Depth." There is no depth there. There's a lot of hand wringing, the kind one sees all the time from non-profits, but that's about all. Where's the beef?
ReplyDeletePerhaps Gannett should do away with editorials and the employees who write them companywide.
ReplyDeleteIt' not like the Enquirers readers are going to miss them. I doubt other papers will either.
8:41, you'd be amazed at the effect that a real watchdog newspaper has on public officeholders. Just knowing that the local paper is vigilant and capable of berating miscreants before a large audience is enough to make officials think twice about saying and doing things. That's the role of the press. Unfortunately, many people, even in this Gannett Blog community, have gotten accustomed to reading the lame, sometimes witless commentaries in Gannett papers that pass for editorials. There is no greater weapon than the pen in hand of a writer who can spot the ulterior motives of corrupt politicians and petty nabobs and expose them for what they are. News stories can only go so far in driving home the point. A good editorial delivers the coup de grace.
ReplyDeleteThe drought ended today, Friday. It wasn't worth holding your breath 13 days for.
ReplyDeleteYep, the hard-hitting local editorials are BACK! Today's muckraking piece targets, well, muck. Guess it's unlikely that mud will ever write a stinging response or cancel an advertisement.
ReplyDeleteEditorial: Mudslide planning mired in silence
As the Enquirer’s Steve Kemme reports today, a March mudslide in Mount Auburn threatens houses on Goethe Street, one lane of which is still blocked after 10 months. Meanwhile, a westbound lane of Columbia Parkway remains closed, choking rush-hour traffic, since a Dec. 23 mudslide near the William Howard Taft intersection – one of a half-dozen such slides along the parkway in 2011.
... We don’t doubt that the city’s experts are working to find solutions. But the public has heard virtually nothing. What are the plans? What are the alternatives? How long will it take? How much will it cost? What are the priorities? How could we pay for it?
More muckraking at http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120106/EDIT01/301060028/Editorial-Mudslide-planning-mired-silence?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p