Showing posts with label CityBeat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CityBeat. Show all posts

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Kathy Wilson Travels, Fails to Mark the Twain

So cryptic attacks and backhanded praise once again flow like prose laden with random Jazzy CNN almost metaphors in another Kathy Y. Wilson column in CityBeat. If you want to watch ideas dance the Tango for no apparent reason, then have a read.

If you DO NOT want to watch Kathy ride the 2001 Cincinnati Riot Float in another parade, then I suggest you skip it.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Kathy Y. Wilson, Island of Trite

Year 2000 called and they want their argument back. I'll guess I should have just wait for the Black United Front's 12 year late press release before I wrote my blog post, but instead I going to look at the present and at reality.


I am reminded of a story I head once about Kabaka Oba, the late black-supremacist, who was protesting the performance of a play at the Know Theatre called Corpus Christi. He struck up a conversation with someone supporting the Theatre and they asked him if he had seen or read the play. He said no. They then asked Oba how could he honestly complain about the play if he had never seen or read the play. Kabaka Oba paused for a moment of thought, and said something like "you're right, I'm going to have to think about that." He then left and wasn't seen protesting the play again.

I guess the comments on the column are just rewards for this blatantly phoned in attempt to generate controversy. I understand that being a lesbian black woman would make me feel like I don't fit in anywhere in the far to often bigoted/racist world, but I wouldn't allow that to lead me to repetitive contrarianism.

I guess someone else at CityBeat doesn't just want a pony, she wants a blue pony and will stomp her feat until she gets it.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Maija Zummo Wanted a BLUE Pony, Cincinnati!

Get out the big box of tissues! CityBeat's Maija Zummo is upset about the Pony she got. Her pony, in this case, is the vibrant Downtown/OTR we had last weekend, with about a thousand things to do. She had two things she wanted to do and didn't seem to be aware of the other 998 things going on, and therefore is pissed that traffic and parking were problems for her.

She lammented that it's fine if you live Downtown, but she doesn't, and appears to have no plans of moving here. I sensed a longing for a pity party was just beneath the surface of her words.

Maija wanted a blue pony and is mad. She didn't ask for just any old pony, she wanted one that was just for her. Damn all others to hell, as long as she gets her blue pony.

I find this type of attitude about as disappointing as it is unsurprising. Far too many people want the place they live to be cool and vibrant, but as soon as it starts to get that way...BAM...they complain about it being too much. This is what I would call My Little Hipster Pony Syndrome. A younger hipster wants things to be "cool" and dare I say "hip," but as soon as the cultural engine starts moving a fast pace, they want to jump ship, because its not what they wanted. To this type of person things are only cool as long as they are exclusive and admired. As soon as the exclusivity wears off, it sucks. Trendy for Trendiness's sake is no way to experience life.

This article comes on the heels of the Bill Cunningham's comments about OTR recently. I find the juxtaposition of opinions very interesting. I really don't like whinny rants about the personal inability to stay informed about ongoing events masquerading as column. I hope Maija instead takes the leap of moving downtown, gets used to mass transit, or buys a bike. That's the future of America and she can't drag her feet in the Suburbite lifestyle and still maintain credibilty in a Urban centric newsweekly.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

CityBeat News Editor Kevin Osborne No Longer Working for Alt Weekly

Based on this week's masthead and his Facebook Page, Kevin Osborne is no longer working for CityBeat. A request for comment on the reasons for Kevin leaving the paper from CityBeat has yet to be answered.

The long running Porkopolis news/political column, authored by Osborne, was missing from this week's edition of the newspaper. In its place is apparently "The Alternative" written by TT Stern-Enzi. The article implies that this is a reborn column or project for Stern-Enzi and I can only surmise that this is the replacement for Porkopolis.

CityBeat was sold back in March to SouthComm of Nashville, Tennessee. Earlier this year significant staffing changes where made at the paper, including a new Managing editor.

I will update this story if new information arises.

Monday, March 05, 2012

CityBeat Sold to SouthComm

CityBeat has been sold to SouthComm of Nashville, Tennessee. SouthComm (www.southcomm.com) is the owner of five other alternative weeklys beyond CityBeat. The purchase includes A-Line Magazine and the Midpoint Music Festival. Dan Backrath will remain as the leader of the paper.I know nothing of this company or of any of its other publications, so no word on what if any other changes will occur. Time will tell. This is the second big change after changing editing staffs earlier this year.

UPDATE: CityBeat Editor Danny Cross has a blog post discussing the acquisition of the newspaper.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

New CityBeat Print Edition Hit This Week

CityBeat has revamped it's print copy with this week's edition and editor Danny Cross has a column decscribing the changes and some background on himself as the new editor of the Alt-Weekly.

The changes are three fold. First the paper has a fresh new design that I like a lot. The page headings and titles are much appealing and pleasing to the eye. The second element is the order of sections, which move the music to the back and the arts & culture (art,theatre, film, dining) all together. The third element is the most striking: more relevant content. The inclusion of a focused stand along cover story has returned, which is not just a highlight of one section's story. Also the inclusion of a media and sports column along with more than one news story (in addition to Porkopolis)add more meat to the publication.

I like this week's edition and look forward to more. I hope the structure continues.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

CityBeat Reorganizes Staff and Layoff 'Several'

The tough econmic climate has reached down to Cincinnati's Media landscape again and this time hit altweekly CityBeat.  In a blog post yesterday, publisher Dan Bockrath announced a new leadership team for the newspaper and stated that they have "eliminated or restructured several staff positions." No details on the exact staff members or positions affected were listed in the article.  This is sad news. I very much love CityBeat. I've regularly criticize articles and columns in the newspaper, and always tried to be fair.  I hope to continue to read the paper every Wednesday, filled with local news, arts, and culture articles.

I wish the best for new leadership of the newspaper. I hope they can provide new momentum to a much needed institution for the Cincinnati Community. I also hope all of the individuals who were affected in the layoffs are able to move on to new jobs as quickly.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Anti-3CDC Bias is Abundant This Holiday Season

So, a report comes out naming a census track in Over-the-Rhine as the most income mixed census track in the nation based on 2005 to 2009 data and then all the biased media fingers point to 3CDC.  It doesn't surprise me that attacks will be made on 3CDC for its redevelopment efforts, but this attack is totally unfair.

Track 17, the area cited, is located in the Northeast part of OTR.  What the article doesn't mention is that 3CDC's efforts are not in that area. If they had looked in track 9 or 10, then they would have found areas like the Gateway Quarter, Main Street, Washington Park. The variances in income cited in Census Track 17 are almost totally caused by the nice homes up on Mulberry Street at the top edge of the district.  Pair this with the sparsely populated area below it and presto...the numbers fall into place giving the disparity.  When you cut neighborhoods apart, then you can find lots of things.  Hell, if 1 person making $100,000 moved to Queensgate, I think with the low population in that area, they would take over Track 17's title.

The other big bias in the article was drawing in the Metropole issue, which is not located in OTR and is a vastly different situation.  The Metropole on the surface fits the conclusion the writer had formed, so adding it in was like icing on the cake.  If you are going to draw in unrelated incidents, there is a nice empty field sitting in Norwood near Smith and Edwards that could serve someone's political agenda.

A significant part of the article attempted to look at OTR overall and provided a reasonable view on 3CDC's efforts, but this has nothing to do with cherry picking statistical and using that as the basis of the article.  That makes a biased and just false claim that 3CDC caused the disparity.  In fact with the time frame involved, 3CDC had not completed that many new locations and had at best purchased the empty, unused buildings that become the condo/apartments now flourishing.  If you want to write an article criticizing redevelopment of OTR, then start typing, but keep the misleading statistics out of it.

I do credit one thing in the article without hesitation: the photo.  The photo looks to me to be of Track 17, at least in part. In contrast, if you look at CityBeat's article on this story, then you should notice that the picture listed is not in Track 17 at all. It's of Gateway Quarter and it's inclusion with either a careless mistake or purposeful deception.  I'll let you decide on that.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

CityBeat Website Gets Big Makeover

I can't tell you when, exactly, but Citybeat.com has undergone a much needed make-over.  It is a great improvement, but is moving slow this morning, at least for me.  The mobile version is a bit different, but mostly structured the same.  I am not pleased that on my iPad I wasn't able to open the regular site, just the mobile version.  I am hoping that's a kink that can be worked out.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Smitherman Campaign Worker Trashes CityBeat

SpaethC at CincyVoices has a great post about witnessing a Chris Smitherman Campaign worker trashing all of the newspaper copies in a CityBeat box downtown Friday night.  My wonder is: how many other boxes did this or other Smitherman workers trash?

The evidence is all in blog post, debating it is pointless. Chris Smitherman must immediately investigate who did  it, fire them, apologize to CityBeat, and pay damages.

He won't do that, but that will allow everyone to see how Smitherman is NOT running a normal rational political campaign.  Instead he'll either ignore the incident or claim it was a CIA conspiracy.

OK, to be fair, he may claim it was an FBI or NSA  or CPD conspiracy, not just the CIA.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

CEA Winners Announced

CityBeat's annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards took place on Sunday night and the winners show the strength of Cincinnati's music scene.

Mike Breen has an account, something close to a play by play of the night.

I was unable to attend the awards show, but the photos put the Grammmys to shame!

With the merger of the Theatre CEAs with the Acclaim awards, should the Music CEAs take on a more musical name? CMA is already taken, however, so I don't know if there's as good of an acronym out there.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

When Did Personal Spats Become News?

If you read CityBeat this week you also read the story that someone got pissed off about something and did something minor to someone else. It then would appear that 'someone else' happens to be someone Kevin Osborne (of CityBeat) knows, so what better way to get revenge then to have a personal spat aired in public.

I don't know how or why this is news but obvious problem is that this does nothing but make the local Gay Rights movement look divided between adults and whining children. The Adults know how to act and know when to take action. The Children complain when the Adults don't want to waste their time on pointless and costly symbolism. It appears the Children leaked an email to Kevin Osborne and he parsed it up into an attack on the Adults. Someone has a bee in his bonnet about the Adults not pushing the charge to force City Hall into fighting a culture war battle over an ant hill. No, this isn't news, this is petty personal bullshit that should be left alone.

What is the point of an article that shows trivial division in the Gay Rights movement? It comes across as a purposeful ploy to bring about change in the leadership of the movement, locally. One group wants to be Adults and actually achieve goals. The other group wants to break out the AK-47's and go to war over a minor issue, with no hope of actually achieving anything, outside of wrestling control of the movement from the Adults. Going to war over trivial pursuits does nothing but gain you more enemies. The Gay Rights movement is not about war, last I checked, but what do I know, I am just a possible future "breeder."

Monday, September 20, 2010

Savvy Journalists Can Spin a Story Too, Kevin

Kevin Osborne of CityBeat wrote an attack on the Enquirer and Joe Deters last week over the way he claimed they spun the Washington Park incident where a police officer accidentally ran over a person allegedly sleeping under a blanket. Kevin ended his column with this paragraph:
"Savvy politicians know how to spin a story, and all too often media outlets are willing to play along in search of an “exclusive.” In this case, the public wasn't well served by the prosecutor or the local daily newspaper of record."

I guess what's good for the geese isn't good for the goose, at least not to Kevin. The public was not served by Kevin Osborne's article.  The family of victim was served with a set of  "facts" spun in such a way to help with a civil lawsuit more than likely to be filed in the near future. In the process of attacking the Enquirer and Joe Deters for drawing conclusions from an incomplete investigation, Kevin did the same thing, he just spun the case, and maybe a civil trial jury pool, with the "facts" that he cherry picked out of the more detailed, yet unfinished, report. Kevin made it clear in his article that the investigation was not complete and no-conclusions had be finalized. So Kevin's doing just what the Enquirer did, but goes way farther in spin-doctoring.

Publishing the statement about what drugs someone alleged was taking for medical conditions and then reporting the manufacturer's list of POSSIBLE side effects was un-journalistic.  Drawing conclusions and declaring what those possible medical conditions might mean in a court of law is irresponsible and damaging to the the focus of our justice system: Truth.  Spinning the facts to fit a story-line that helps activists push an unrelated cause against progress in redeveloping the city, well that's a reason why I am sad that Kevin's column is one of the few sources of news in the City.  I am sad because it is not news, Kevin is giving opinion that is being interpreted by much of his readers as at least a semi-objective news article. Kevin and City will not claim to free of bias, but when you use conjecture for a column, and hide behind have more information than the Enquirer, that doesn't mean you are right about your claim, that means you have more data, some of which might very well be irrelevant.

It was also very troubling when Kevin 'reported' this statement in his article:
Witness Tony Ferrell told troopers, “The word on the street is that the cop was chasing a beer drinker.” Yes, folks, it could be that Burton died as Polk pursued someone for a minor misdemeanor, which carries no jail time under Ohio law, only a $150 fine.
Word on the Street? Seriously, he is going to report that as relevant? Did another witness happen to mention that it was actually 3CDC driving the car and the cops are covering for them? Someone said is was Marge Schott. How about Spiderman?  Kevin makes this bad journalism by using the statement of  a person who was telling police of the rumors as the basis to draw a conclusion and attack police. Kevin picked out that quote because it gave him the opportunity to attack a police officer and the power structure and gave him a cheap and hollow political point. That is what we call spinning and in this case he jumped to conclusions with the purpose of making his readers distrust the police and be mad. Well, Kevin made me mad, but not at the police, I am mad at him for judging a case before the final report is completed, one that will be analysed by trained officials. I am mad at him for using a tragic case to push his political viewpoints.  I am mad at him for not serving the public, and instead serving the needs of those he wants to get a big settlement from the City.

Deters may have read a preliminary version of the same information Kevin read, and more, since Deters is the Proscecuting Attorney. The Eqnuirer's lack of research is, well, common, but when you are running a daily instead of a weekly paper, cutting corners is what you are going to do. Blame them for not writing a follow-up story after getting more information.  Don't blame them for not cherry picking the facts on the case as you may want.  This was a tragic accident, but doing your best to making it into another police brutality case is not going work. The cop screwed up.  Thinking there is a criminal offense here is not about this case, it is about bias towards police.  Let the family sue and settle for a large sum of money.  It does no good trying to use this sad case for political causes that don't relate to the facts.  We need calm and sensible journalism.  We don't need yellow-journalism from CityBeat.  Leave that to the kooks who wear capes.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

CEA Winners Announced: Know Theatre Wins 5 Awards

The last Theatre CEAs awards program took place Sunday evening and the hosts of the event, the Know Theatre, took 5 awards, 3 individual performances and 2 production awards.

The list of winners for all categories are listed here.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

CityBeat's 2010 CEA Theater Nominations Announced

Rick Pending has announced the nominees for the 2010 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Theater.

The full list of categories and nominees is here. You can vote for the public categories here.

Set aside August 29th for the Awards show which will take place at the Know Theatre. We'll pass along more details on that as they become available.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Confusing or Just Bad Journalism?

Now that Pride week is past, I want to point out a really confusing article in CityBeat last week. In fact, it was part of the Cover Story- The Great Gay Migration: Why are young gay professionals leaving Cincinnati? The confusing part of the article comes from the simple fact that it fails to cite any source, other than a random survey of some of the writer's friends, that there is in fact any type of change in the number of GBLT people leaving Cincinnati to warrant the use of "Migration." In fact, the article doesn't cite how many GBLT people left last year or the last decade. For all the writer knows, there could be a net gain in Cincinnati of GLBT people since Article XII was repealed.

The article consists of several anecdotal cases of people, obviously friends to the writer, who left or are leaving town. One wants to be a NATIONAL political activist. Gee, I am shocked there are not a 1,000 jobs for that here. Another wanted to be a rock star. Also, I am shocked this is not the place you can sell your demo for a million dollars. The third example moved for a job, also a shocking revelation!

The buried lead that should have been replaced the poorly written headline was this:
"Available data on LGBTQ individuals suggest they’re just as likely to move as heterosexual individuals but are more likely to move further away."
So gays are "just as likely to move" as straight people? How is this twisted into making people think there is a mass exodus of gays from Cincinnati?

The article just doesn't know what it wants to be, and fails at all attempts. Is Cincinnati anti-gay? Are Cincinnati gays not friendly enough to punk rockers? Do Cincinnati gays not support other gays enough?

GLBT people have a ruff time everywhere, but if you are going to write about gay flight from this Midwestern city, why not state some facts that it is actually happening, more than other groups. Using examples of GBLT people who left for reasons that are the same as any straight person only demonstrates that GBLT people are starting live normal lives like everyone else and are doing it right here in Cincinnati. Pride was just on Fountain Square and almost no one protested. Life for GBLT people in Cincinnati, at least in the City, is getting better. There are hurdles still ahead, but progress has been made.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Was this CityBeat Article Actually Meant for the Enquirer?

In this week's CityBeat I was very surprised to read the article entitled: Pregnancy Center More Than Just 'Anti-Abortion'. The surprise comes with the balance of the article. The article gives many instances of contrary viewpoints from critics of the "Pregnancy Center," namely from Planned Parenthood. That's not the problem. The problem is that the article in total gives deference to the subject. The Pregnancy Center make statements about what they do or don't do, but they are taken at their word that they actually are being honest about their counseling practices and don't have an alternative agenda. This deference is like the natural bias the Prosecution gets in the eyes of the jury, when it often thinks: why would they bring a case at all if they guy wasn't guilty?

CityBeat is a liberal/progressive paper and more often than not it chooses subjects that would not present a positive viewpoint of an 'anti-abortion' organization. For example, a question that I would have asked the group, and I think most of the CityBeat staff would as well: Does the Pregnancy Center provide contraception? A follow-up question if they said 'no': If part of your mission is to prevent abortions, why would you not take the simple action of giving people the means to prevent unwanted pregnancy? That question may have been asked, but it wasn't in the article. If the group had said they do give out condoms or birth control pills, then that would earn the headline it got.

This story is something I would have expected to read in the Enquirer. This is how the Conservative bias of the paper comes through, especially with the headline used. The article has balance, but gives the subject, one the print readers of the Enquirer favor, a positive spin it likely does not deserve.

Add this to a pro-marriage insert this week and you would think there's a spy over at CityBeat's offices!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Voices Behind the Blog

Last week, Stephen Carter-Novotni sat down with Griff and me for CityBeat's thirty-second podcast. The hour-long conversation covers a wide variety of topics, including our takes on the constantly shifting lines between social media, blogging, and journalism; why Griff started the blog (and why I joined him); and which blogs we read.

Many thanks to Stephen for inviting us to participate and for being an extremely gracious podcast host, as well as for doing his best not to make us look any dumber than our own dumbness naturally requires.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

2009 CEA: Theatre Awards Show August 30th


CityBeat has announced great news that on Sunday August 30th the 13th annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards will be presented at a hip club, showcasing the best of Cincinnati Theatre. The CEAs are Cincinnati's longest running theater awards program, using votes from the public and from established theater critics to determine winners in 20 different categories. Everyone had a great time last year at BELOW ZERO LOUNGE (1122 Walnut Street, Over-the-Rhine, www.BelowZeroLounge.com) and the 2009 event is back.

The highlights include free appetizers, drink specials and keyboard tunes from musical theater favorite Terry LaBolt. They'll also of course present the 2009 Continuing Achievement Award, named by the League of Cincinnati Theatres, to the founders of Cincinnati Landmark Productions -- Tim Perrino, Jennifer Perrino and Denny Reed.

Here's the Schedule for Sunday evening, August 30:

6 p.m. Mix and mingle with your friends in the theater world - free appetizers and a cash bar.

7 p.m. Rick Pender and John Fox from CityBeat will recognize the nominees and the winners in the 12 publicly voted categories.

Break: Musical interlude by Terry LaBolt

8:15 p.m. Presentation of the League of Cincinnati Theares Continuing Achievement Award for 2009, plus recognition of the nominees and the winners in the 8 critical achievement categories, including outstanding premiere, outstanding play and outstanding musical.

9 p.m. Party on!

RSVP Not necessary -- it's free!

Parking $2 parking is available at the Gateway Garage, one block away. Enter from Central Parkway.

Get out and support Cincinnati Theatre and a great local venue.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Psychic Reporting From CityBeat?

I'm a fan of CityBeat generally and Kevin Osborne in particular, so I was surprised to see a bit of sloppiness in the new edition (on newsstands today, July 29). Osborne's latest Porkopolis column is about the mayoral race. To open, Osborne writes that "Dr. Brad Wenstrup . . . announced his platform July 29 in the city's Westwood neighborhood." Osborne goes on to describe (and critique) Wenstrup's platform, sprinkling quotes from the candidate throughout the piece. Osborne leaves the impression (hopefully unintentionally) that the quotes were spoken by Wenstrup as he rolled out his platform.

But wait....that can't be right, can it? Did CityBeat really hold its print edition until Wenstrup's press conference was concluded, give Osborne time to write it up, and then print and distrbute the new edition all on the same day?

Of course not. CityBeat is a weekly, published Wednesdays, so most people will read the column after the press conference has happened. Maybe it's understandable, then, that Osborne wrote about the press conference in the past tense. But Osborne should have made clear that the quotes he prints are not from the presser, but are instead from either an interview previously conducted with Wenstrup or (more likely) Wenstrup's press release announcing the platform.

CityBeat is an increasingly important voice in Cincinnati. Following the demise of the Post and the Enquirer's adoption of its new motto ("The Constantly Shrinking Newspaper"), Cincinnatians have few options for news coverage. If CityBeat wishes to remain one of those options, it should be more careful.