Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Enquirer Covers Small Protest in Mason, But What About Thousands Downtown?

Yes, it is a good thing that the Enquirer covered a protest in Mason, even though it attracts a slue of idiotic comments. The protest had a few dozen people, so was it worth it in the big picture?

I ask if it was worth it because yesterday afternoon there were reportedly 3 to 4 thousand people on Fountain Square, protesting the Governor's plan to gut the State Budget in his plan to destroy many public services. I can't find a word about it online in the Enquirer. I understand this took place during part of the first play-in game for the NCAA basketball tournament, but I figured it would at least get mentioned in the politics blog.

700WLW has a Story on it. WVXU also has a story. Local Radio represents!

Local TV was pretty weak, but had some presence. WCPO had a story. FOX19 had a story, but claimed "hundreds", which by all other report was just incorrect. I found nothing on WLWT and nothing on WKRC.

We have local news events happening and we don't have local news reporters covering them. Our local media is failing, again.

So Radio ruled, local TV was weak, and the Enquirer cared more about a couple dozen people in Mason than thousands in Downtown Cincinnati.

The local media have starved themselves down to so few reporters they can't do the job. I am holding back from saying that the Enquirer purposely ignored this rally for political reasons, but just couldn't one editor have asked a reporter who maybe doesn't normally cover local politics to walk, just WALK, over to the rally a few blocks away and file a story? No one has to expense anything, but maybe one less sports story or human interest fluff piece gets printed. I know, a big sacrifice, but someone must bare it.

There wasn't even an AP story on this, but that I think falls to the Enquirer's failure.

P.S. If someone actually finds a story in the Enquirer on this, then someone over there needs to improve the search function or at least get it indexed in Google.

11 comments:

  1. Please, don't be surprised if Cinti media leaves us Democrats/protestors of Republicans out in the cold. Try to get your point of view published in our 'newspapers' if you have a liberal or Democratic opinion. We could live in Oklahoma or Georgia or Missisippi or Texas.

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  2. Drop Maggie Buchanan an email and demand that her paper cover the pro-labr rallies that they have ignored so far. I did:

    MBUCHANA1@CINCINNA.GANNETT.COM

    "Ms Buchanan,
    Can you please tell me why the Enquirer has refused to cover the large, 3000 person pro-labor rally that took place yesterday afternoon and evening on Fountain Square? If a dozen teabaggers had assembled anywhere in the Tristate your paper would undoubtedly had given that group it's usual breathless coverage. Can the Enquirer's disdain for working Americans be any more clearly stated than by it's complete refusal to cover the massive rallies in Wisconsin, and the repeated large rallies in Columbus and now in your own front yard in Cincinnati? "

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  3. I think it goes deeper than the Dems v GOP. There were many GOP registered voters out on FS yesterday.

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  4. It's really simple. Thousands of pro-union supporters protesting are just a bunch of hippies that need to get a job. A few dozen teabaggers protesting are real Americans expressing their dissatisfaction with government. I thought you'd figured that out by now. Step it up.

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  5. You won't find it anywhere. I called Carl 'the weasel' Weiser, political editor, and asked where was the coverage. I was at the rally and it was several thousand people. His answer?
    'I didn't know about it.' I asked if he was actually expecting me to believe that neither he nor any of their reporters who cover politics, public affairs, etc did not receive any info about the event. He then said 'oh a Tweet here or there but we had no one to cover it'. I asked how they found someone to cover 2 dzn Move On protestors in Mason but couldn't cover this huge and powerful rally. WHAT a schmuck! I told him to expect plenty of subscriptions to be discontinued.

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  6. if you'd like to tell Weiser what you think of the lack of coverage, contact him:
    Carl Weiser, Assistant editor: government/public affairs;513-768-8491;
    E-mail: cweiser@enquirer.com
    Wonder how many messages his e-ml box and voice mail can hold-only one way to find out!

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  7. @Observer

    That is completely mind-numbing. Thank you for the contact info; I'll be sure to drop Carl a line.

    I expect very little out of the Enquirer, but I was still floored by the total silence. I thought there'd be a blurb and maybe a photo, but to ignore it completely? Unforgivable. I can't really buy the staff excuse either. They covered "dozens" in Mason, but not thousands down the street within walking distance? Nope. No dice. At best, it's negligent, at worst it's political. Either way, it's just sad.

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  8. I'm a GOP-registered voter & I showed up to support my Police & Fire. What'll be interesting to see if the babble dished out by some of those squatting in City Council Chambers will back up their big talk, if re-elected, come City Budget time. That's what I'm waiting to see.

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  9. Here's a truly lame reply that I received from Enquirer Editor Carolyn Washburn in response to my email above:

    From: "Washburn, Carolyn"
    To: Cincy Capell
    Sent: Wed, March 16, 2011 10:22:45 PM
    Subject: Re: Labor rally coverage

    We became aware it was happening through twitter, and then scrambled to get a reporter/photographer there, but it was over.
    We're not sure why we weren't alerted to it earlier. What do you know about that?


    I don't buy this excuse for a moment, if for no other reason that I do however know that every other media outlet in the market knew about the event and managed to get crews in place to cover it. The Enquirer has thus far completely ignored the newly resurgent labor movement, even while providing copious amounts of fawning coverage to right wing teabagger groups. This display of bias by the Enquirer is truly disgusting

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  10. really? did'n't know about it?

    http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=200652213292129

    lying? or just that disconnected? either way, I'm not renewing my subscription.

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