The Enquirer's front page turns ugly
Okay, I'll give them credit: The Enquirer ran the Nikki Giovanni non-apology story in nearly the same place they ran 3CDC's disavowal on Tuesday morning, though Nikki gets a smaller headline. (On the web site, however, today's Giovanni story was quickly kicked out of a prime spot on the home page.)
It's the lead story in today's paper, however, that raises today's questions on the Enquirer's judgement. "Governor's race turns ugly" involved Ken Blackwell's insinuation on Monday that Ted Strickland is a gay sex offender, a charge even my Republican friends say was a desperation move on Blackwell's part.
My problem with it is that Blackwell did this for attention, and the Enquirer played right into it, giving this charge as much attention as they could. Since the Giovanni story is, at a very basic level, a Ken Blackwell story, Blackwell gets two stories today in the top half of the Enquirer's front page. He can't buy that kind of play in the paper.
Since Oct. 1, the governor's race has made it to the front page three times -- this past Sunday's look at each man's motivations (Blackwell here, Strickland here; tell me if you can find in the Blackwell story any explanation of what drove him to become a conservative, and does the Strickland story ever raise the question of his sexuality? And this little chart is as much as the Enquirer could devote to the issues that day); an Oct. 5 report on the debate in Cincinnati, which essentially focused on the names each called the other; and an Oct. 2 report on Ohio's economy, which didn't get the play today's "ugly" story received.
The play today's story received is just stupid. Prove me wrong: This is the biggest play any story on the governor's race has received in the Enquirer, and they only did it because it was sensational. I didn't find another Ohio paper that covered these charges this way (both the Toledo Blade and the Columbus Dispatch had front-page stories about Ohio wages not keeping pace with health care costs, a story I saw nowhere in the Enquirer). The Enquirer editors played right into Blackwell's hands. They took the easy way out, considering stories about namecalling and unsubstantiated allegations to be the way to cover an important election.
It's the lead story in today's paper, however, that raises today's questions on the Enquirer's judgement. "Governor's race turns ugly" involved Ken Blackwell's insinuation on Monday that Ted Strickland is a gay sex offender, a charge even my Republican friends say was a desperation move on Blackwell's part.
My problem with it is that Blackwell did this for attention, and the Enquirer played right into it, giving this charge as much attention as they could. Since the Giovanni story is, at a very basic level, a Ken Blackwell story, Blackwell gets two stories today in the top half of the Enquirer's front page. He can't buy that kind of play in the paper.
Since Oct. 1, the governor's race has made it to the front page three times -- this past Sunday's look at each man's motivations (Blackwell here, Strickland here; tell me if you can find in the Blackwell story any explanation of what drove him to become a conservative, and does the Strickland story ever raise the question of his sexuality? And this little chart is as much as the Enquirer could devote to the issues that day); an Oct. 5 report on the debate in Cincinnati, which essentially focused on the names each called the other; and an Oct. 2 report on Ohio's economy, which didn't get the play today's "ugly" story received.
The play today's story received is just stupid. Prove me wrong: This is the biggest play any story on the governor's race has received in the Enquirer, and they only did it because it was sensational. I didn't find another Ohio paper that covered these charges this way (both the Toledo Blade and the Columbus Dispatch had front-page stories about Ohio wages not keeping pace with health care costs, a story I saw nowhere in the Enquirer). The Enquirer editors played right into Blackwell's hands. They took the easy way out, considering stories about namecalling and unsubstantiated allegations to be the way to cover an important election.
posted by Newsache at 12:06 PM
4 Comments:
Your blog is enjoyable but the fact that the Dean outed you Tuesday as knowing the Giovanni news before publication exposes you as a disgruntled Enquirer employee. I wonder what wonders you could accomplish if you had the guts to say these things to your bosses' faces rather than snivel in anonymous land.
Get real. It's nice to see someone else join the Beacon in questioning the low-grade journalism in this city, even if it is someone hunkering under a desk while all those journalistic heavyweights at 3CDC, I mean the Enquirer, are plotting which stories not to cover or run. I've lived in New England and LA and can't believe that this passes for a newspaper.
I love that an insider might be doing this blog. I don't expect someone to ruin their ability to feed a family due to an agenda against The Enquirer. This blog could help open all of our eyes to some realities on the inside, which outsiders may be able to use to force change.
Three cheers for Newsache, whoever you are. Four cheers if you're an insider. That takes guts.
As anyone paying attention knows, the Enquirer's now being run by Gannett apparatchiks who have destroyed the paper. What's an intelligent employee further down the food chain supposed to do? Complain and lose his/her job?
Don't forget this is the paper that six months ago got caught running a blog, "Grandma in Iraq," that was a thinly disguised Pentagon propaganda campaign to cheerlead the Iraq war. It was fine with the Enquirer to act as an arm of the US Army. Then they got busted by Editor & Publisher and the WashPost. The blog went down the memory hole and the paper continued its uncritical editorial support for the Bush administration.
Now that the entire state is about to flip to the Democrats, we're wondering how Bronson and the rest of the gang feel as they watch the cigarette burn down....
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