Gloria Ferris

Although many of us kept our thoughts to ourselves because we were hopeful that the WIDE OPEN experiment would work, many of us thought that it was only a matter of time before the blog would be shut down for some nefarious reason.  Little did we know that it would happen so quickly and for not a predictable reason. Before continuing, I must disclose that I know Jeff Coryell who will always be “Yellow Dog Sammy” to me, and the gal who “Writes Like She Talks” Jill Zimon. They are personal friends of mine.  I have never met the two bloggers on the other side of the aisle NixGuy and BizzyBlog but I do know Bill Pierce who challenged Mike Dewine last year and he has nothing but good to say about the man behind BizzyBlog so that is good enough for me.  If these three stellar individuals were chosen, I can only believe that the fourth has the same credentials.

I do on a regular basis read all four blogs because I feel that the four bloggers stick to the issues, have integrity, check their facts, are perceptive, and give a wealth of information to people  who want the story behind the sound bite.  I commend Jean Dubail for choosing these four bloggers for the experiment.  He chose a stellar crew.  Unfortunately, a “tetchy” Congressman got “in the way”.  And, to me, that is the story behind the story.  If indeed the political conributions of the four had been an issue, the Plain Dealer would have asked the question before employment.  They, obviously, didn’t ask because probably none of the four would have been employable.  These are after all staunch supporters of each party. Bizzyblog opts out on political contributions.

In fact, that was what I thought was the point of the experiment.  Get four bloggers from both sides of the aisle to interact, drawing in readers and commentors to widen the dialogue and get us beyond these partisan “knee jerk” reactions and into a discussion of the issues that face us all-Republican and Democrat.  Few of us disagree on the problems or, in the end,  the solutions it is the path along the way where compromise and dialogue is needed that we all fall short.

The surprise in this series of events for me is that a sitting Congressman, Steve LaTourette, would  find a measly $100 contribution to a competitor’s campaign by a Northeast blogger to be worthy of his time and attention.  Does not his tenure speak for itself?  Many voters in Northeast Ohio believe that Congressman LaTourette is the reason that there is an ongoing construction project at East Ninth expanding the NDFS facility here. They credit his intervention for the positive outcome. Why would he find it acceptable to meddle in Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech?  And that is the bottom line. How dare he treat the Bill of Rights with such a cavalier attitude.  And for those of you who say we don’t know the whole story,  I have not seen one word from the Plain Dealer that says that Jeff was let go for any other reason than the contribution.  Jill backs this assertion with her post.

So we are back to Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech. The Plain Dealer has bowed to pressure as they have done time and time again. We have seen this more and more as the year has progressed.  First, there was the Breuer Tower, then there was the Medical Mart, and then, there was the County Sales Tax issue.  Now, we see  hints of what we all knew prior to the October 1st Tax increase, but the PD continues to tiptoe around major opportunities for investigative reporting.  Pulitzers for Investigative Reporting must not be in the game plan.

I doubt if Congressman LaTourette will sit down with Meet The Bloggers for an interview. An in depth conversation about this issue as well as the others facing us here in Northeast Ohio would be more beneficial than too many column inches being taken by who contributes to who and why therefore those people should be put in their place.  Bloggers being who they are on a regular basis contribute to political campaigns, so  I feel that he would decline based on that issue alone.  His challenger, Bill O’Neill,  who has Met the Bloggers  had a motto  during his recent Ohio Supreme Court race which was “No Money From Nobody”. For his congressional bid, he realizes that he needs money. He firmly believes that the way we elect judges needs to be reconsidered.  I would ask Mr. LaTourette his feelings on that issue as well.  Probably, he believes that “no money for nobody” should be the motto of all campaigns.

The voters who will make the final decision on these two men next year need to watch this race closely.  They need to attend town forums, fundraisers, anywhere they can find these two gentlemen and ask the questions relevant to each and every one of them.  It is their decision which will lead us in the Fourteenth District.  I would hope that they ask about Freedom of the Press and Speech and based on the answers they make the decision that they feel is right for all of us. We are only as strong as our weakest link and we need every strong link that we can muster in Northeast Ohio to lead us in Congress. 

I hope that Ms. Goldberg realizes that continuing to listen to the same advisors that Doug Clifton and Alex Macheskee used may be expedient but not prudent. The Plain Dealer faces a huge credibility gap in this region and others.  If she truly wants to make this newspaper a stellar publication,  she needs to widen her scope of whom she talks to in this town. She needs to include some new voices and not rely completely on the usual.  In fact, she has a few on staff that would be good candidates.  And if she sat down for a Meet The Bloggers conversation, my question to her would be why have advertisers and “leaders” of the community taken precedence over your readership?  And if they haven’t how can  you begin to convey that to the public so that your readership will be maintained and grow?

And in closing, the four bloggers that suddenly find themselves “unemployed” are not.  They never did it for the money.  They did it out of passion for what they believe.  The belief that blogs and bloggers can add a dimension to journalism that is missing-the indepth behind the scene story.  All four of them had the credibility and integrity to only enhance the Plain Dealer, but the Plain Dealer in its nervousness of trying anything new caved to the pressure of the tried and true and pulled the plug on Wide Open.  The four bloggers, still have their original blogs and will continue to do what they did prior to “the experiment”. Because they are doing it for the right reason for the love of it.  The only loser in all of this is The Plain Dealer.     

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 11:22 am and is filed under Cleveland, developing community, local news, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.