Showing posts with label Peter Bronson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Bronson. Show all posts

Thursday, April 08, 2021

20 Years Later, Peter Bronson is Still Terrible.

 It is 20 years after a Cincinnati police officer killed an unarmed man, Timothy Thomas. The Enquirer solicited a wide set of opinions from people who dealt with much of the events in the days, months and years after that tragic night. 

The choice was made by the Enquirer to include Peter Bronson, former Enquirer columnist and Editorial Page editor, in this project. On the surface, it makes sense. He was part of the newspaper’s coverage back then and it is logical to think he would have a perspective that would have insights that add context from a conservative point of view. For all of Bronson’s right wing drivel he out out during his career,  he had a one on reputation to be a reasonable person, especially compared to the Republican media of today. Plus he’s prose and one might think he has learned something in retirement.

Well, instead of insight or reflection or evolved wisdom we got a pissant FOXNews type column (not going to link to it) filled with cheap shots, mistruths, and wannabe Tucker Carlson blather that appears to have written for the Dusty Rhodes cabal of Old Cincinnati. 

That cabal  filled with the crusty old men, mostly men, who are now mostly near death or retired from public life, as the new phrase goes, and held Cincinnati back from being a growing vibrant city 30-40 years ago. These are men that pushed self righteous hate on everyone they could.

That type of old mindset kept our country from learning from our mistakes and just repeated them, often out of spite. That Old Cincinnati is done and needs to not be heard from again.

Peter Bronson should retire from public life. He is not a good person. A good person does not write that column. A good person can gain some perspective. Bronson, like Rhodes is a bitter old man who has no value to society. 

I think puzzles and shuffleboard are the most we can expect from Peter. I expect he cheats at both as he has demonstrated he has no class.

The Enquirer should never print another word from him ever.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Jason Williams' Playbook is Thin and Trite and Based on People in Power

With his year end kiss ass and trash column, the Enquirer's columnist Jason Williams lays out his jounalisticpolitical philosophy: kiss the ass of the people in power and Trash those who stand up to those in power (access is all that matters.)

If one reads his list of "cheers and jeers" for the year you will find it filled with ass kissing of those in power and trashing of their political foes.  The worst "cheer" was this bullshit about Mayor John Cranley:
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for staying out of the mud as his political enemies hurled ugly and unfounded racially charged comments at him in fliers, mailers and on social media during the campaign.
I know Jason is in the bag for Cranley and he prints the vast majority of stories Cranley wanted, but this just takes the cake. Jason knows Cranley's opponent in the Mayor's race Yvette Simpson was horribly attacked by people on social media, making up lies. Jason appeared to ignore that and instead pushed the Cranley propaganda making him the victim.  Sure, I guess he could be ignoring social media, but when he uses his column to lash back to his critics on social media, you know he's at least reading the Enquirer's local politics Facebook group.

What adds to Williams' journalistic malpractice is in his attack on FC Cincinnati's efforts to obtain public funding for infrastructure in support of a new soccer specific stadium he refused to say a word against John Cranley's major part in approving the funding. It is quite clear that Cranley was the primary public official who was organizing the effort to create a deal for the infrastructure and he finessed the deal when it hit a road block at the last minute.

Cranley was a key player of the secret cabal that Williams ripped earlier in the year when he  criticized the secrecy of FCC for keeping the government's plan to fund the infrastructure secret before the election.  He said nothing about the obvious: Cranley kept the story in secert, with Jeff Berding's help, to avoid a MASSIVE CONTROVERSY, before the election.  Right after the election, BOOM, we have an instant plan ready to go and the Conservative portion of council was ready to help out Republican Carl Linder.  This basic concept is ignored by columnist Jason Williams. 

Yes, I'm no longer calling Williams a sometimes reporter, sometimes columnist.  He just a columnist.  Any article that touches anything about politics or government that he writes has to be taken a a column.  There is no other was to approach it as a news consumer.  You can' trust him, you have to assume his bias.  His real problem as a columnist goes even further, he actually has no ideology.  He appears to be one of those who try to claim to not be either a Democrat or Republican.  That is a psychological dodge, everyone has political opinions.  Those who appear to pick and chose issues are more likely opportunists who would rather just be on the perceived winning side.

Bottom line, he's no Peter Bronson, no matter how he tries.  I couldn't stand Bronson's columns or political views, but they were identifiable and honestly what Bronson believed.  I don't think Williams believes anything, he's just trying to build up a persona.  His new found stints as a guest on 700WLW alone demonstrate he's not serious, just a wanna-be talking head, looking to move up.

Monday, December 09, 2013

Speaking of Old Cincinnati: Peter Bronson is Writing Again

I'm not a regular reader of Cincy Magazine, but they appear to have brought in Peter Bronson, former columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, to write a hatchet job feature on new Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell.  In this article you get basically everything one expects from Peter Bronson, defend the police when they are Republican and/or Elder graduates, but attack them when they are Democrats.

When Bronson wrote for the Enquirer he was a shill for the Cincinnati police union and except when the FOP turned against John Kasich's union busting efforts, Bronson is back carrying their water.  I'd like to know how many of Bronson's sources are or have connections to the local candidates for CPD chief that didn't get the job.  I'm betting all of them.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Good Luck Peter Bronson

I think Peter Bronson's political and many of his social views especially are terrible. I've spent many of the last 7 years writing on this blog in rebuttal to the unchallenged conservative view point Bronson was able to spouse in the Enquirer. I am not going to jump for joy now that Bronson has been laid off. I instead wish him well and hope he lands a new job soon. I only met Peter one time at the BOE when Joe Wessels made a point of introducing me. He was nice. Everything I heard from people who met him in person would say without question that he was a very nice guy. They would just agree that they couldn't stand his political views.

One element of politics and media that many people fail to do is see the opposition as human beings. There should not be glee when a hard working person loses their job. Bronson is a good reporter, when he takes his opinion and bias out of a story. In life it never bodes you well to kick a dog when he's down. I hope to hear that Peter has transitioned to a new job or maybe new career soon. Good Luck Peter!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Why Not A Public Safety Bailout?

For a few days, I've been thinking about a Peter Bronson column and blog post from last week, in which our favorite pundit suggests that the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners should be seeking stimulus money for the construction of a new jail. And I can't help wondering: doesn't he have a point?

First, let's take care of debunking the all too familiar Bronson histrionics. From the column:

Records show that inmates with more than 100 charges against them were "let go" in the past month. DUIs, drug possession, indecency and other relatively minor crimes are first in line. But some were charged with assault, resisting arrest, breaking and entering, domestic violence, theft and menacing.
When I toured the jail last July, long before the budget cuts, I met two dozen nmates. Only two were marijuana cases, and it wasn't their first rodeo. The rest were a citizen's nightmare: assault, burglary, domestic violence, attempted murder, drug trafficking, aggravated robbery ...
Two points:
1. Judges often set own-recognizance bonds for assault and domestic violence cases in which the only witness is the prosecuting witness, particularly if an officer sees no sign of injury and issues a referral rather than signing a complaint him- or herself. "Theft" can be shoplifting a candy bar. And menacing sounds really bad, but it's actually a fourth-degree misdemeanor--the least serious offense for which imprisonment is an option. So how many "sheriff releases" would have been required to post a cash bond if they had seen a judge? Tough to know, and Bronson doesn't help us to extrapolate the number in any meaningful way.

2. Bronson's July jail tour isn't at all representative. For one thing, he toured the jail (according to that column) alongside Public Defender Lou Strigari while Strigari was making the rounds for felony arraignments. So guess what? Bronson met accused felons; aside from B&E, all of the crimes he describes in the first paragraph I quote are misdemeanors. For another, until it closed, Queensgate was a facility designed for low- and medium-risk inmates. That meant that Bronson would only meet the highest security risks (typically, those with the most serious charges lodged against them) in the Justice Center.

Now that that's out of the way, let's move to the meat of Bronson's column: that stimulus money could or should build a new jail for Hamilton County. On the surface, the proposal makes sense. A jail facility is a public works project. In the short term, it would create jobs (in the construction trades). And there's bipartisan agreement that Hamilton County's jail facilities are currently inadequate.

Bronson's proposal does not, however, solve other critical public safety problems. It does not restore the recently laid-off sheriff's deputies. The County would still need to find a way to finance the operation of a new jail (and corrections officers to staff it). While the Democrats had wanted to provide stimulus funds to put cops on the streets, the only way to avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate was to strip those provisions out.

So Bronson's has the hint of a good idea: federal money could be sought to build the jail that a majority of voters have been thus far unwilling to finance with locally generated tax dollars. But without a plan to fund the operation of the jail, we could be spending millions for an empty building (see Queensgate for an example of a jail that lacks operations funding). Maybe Bronson's ready to unveil the rest of his plan to get us a working jail with federal funds. But he hasn't done it yet.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Why, Oh, Why?

Peter Bronson has a blog.

I just don't know what to say. There are so many things that come to mind, but I'm just not going to do it. Must put down the poison pen.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Peter Bronson, Constitutional Law Scholar

With the election over, we can turn our attention to this blog's favorite pastime: exposing the foolishness of Peter Bronson.

Yesterday, Mr. Bronson published an essay on his most recent trip to Gettysburg. I'm not sure what his point was (civil war is bad?). This little nugget, though, caught my attention (emphasis mine):
The South's cause was tainted by the slavery they relied on to produce 60 percent of America's exports and 75 percent of the world's cotton. But their reading of the Constitution was correct: The states delegated powers to the federal government, and they had a right to file for divorce if the domestic abuse was intolerable.

So, Peter Bronson believes that the Constitution gives states the right to secede? Wow. Maybe the Alaskan Independence Party will invite him to introduce Sarah Palin at its next convention.

I pulled open my Constitution, looking for a Secession Clause. I didn't find one. And guys like Bronson believe that the only rights guaranteed by the Constitution are those specifically enumerated therein. So why does he believe in such a right?

What's more, Bronson's position--that there is a right of secession--was squarely repudiated by the Supreme Court. In Texas v. White, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase (near and dear to the hearts of Cincinnatians) held that Texas--which was once a sovereign republic--had no right to secede. Chase wrote:
The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form and character and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these, the Union was solemnly declared to "be perpetual." And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained "to form a more perfect Union." It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not?

I'm not sure what prompted Bronson's miniature states' rights tirade. Perhaps he was thinking that if Obama won, he could lead Ohio to secede from the United States. But it'd be nice if someone at the Enquirer would "fact-check" Bronson once in a while before going to print.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

I'm A "Wing-Tipped Phony," And Proud Of It!

Today, Peter Bronson takes on the contoversial issue of . . .

Crocs.

Somehow, he segues his ode to Crocs into a jibe at every Democrat he can think of while arguing that Senator McCain wears Crocs (I'll look for this at the RNC convention). We'll put that aside, for the time being. Instead, let's focus on Crocs as fashion.

I'm convinced that the rubber-like shoes with holes should not be worn by anyone over the age of 7. They might be OK for adults on the beach or a boat. But that should be about it. If you're over seven and don't go to the beach or boating at least monthly, Crocs should not be part of your wardrobe.

Bronson's insistence that Crocs are acceptable public attire reminds me of the popular Jenny Joseph poem that opens with "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple." I don't think that Bronson is old enough, though, to have earned this amount of eccentricity.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Something Inside Of That Man Is Broken

With Sunday's column, Peter Bronson has finally jumped the shark. He's gone from merely being a conservative who often misses the point to revealing himself to be a man who displays a total lack of human empathy and whose venom towards people who he can't--or won't--understand is worthy of our condemnation.

Apparently, Bronson spent a few hours following Lou Strigari, the Hamilton County Public Defender, while Mr. Strigari handled felony arraignments for his office's incarcerated clients. Bronson's conclusion? Take a look:
Contrary to what you hear from people who talk a lot about injustice, these guys belong behind bars and they know it.

Keep in mind that Bronson is writing here about pretrial detainees--that is, individuals whose guilt has not yet been established. Moreover, I'm not sure which inmates Bronson talked to, but certainly not any of my clients. I've yet to sit down in the Justice Center or Queensgate (or any other jail, for that matter) and have a client say to me, "Mr. Caster, thanks for coming, but you know what? I belong in here." Instead, my clients--even the ones who acknowledge their guilt--are worried about how to take of their families, about how to change their lives so they're not back in the justice system again after they finish paying for the mistake they've just made, or about that their future will look like if they have to serve time in prison.

What makes Bronson's judgment particularly reprehensible is that he was around inmates and corrections officers long enough to find out that some of the people he met need help. Again, from Bronson's own poison pen:

The jails would be nearly empty without mental illness and drugs. The guards agree that two-thirds of the prisoners have mental health issues, and 75 percent arrive under the influence of something.


(Emphasis mine.) I'm not sure if those numbers are really accurate (they're obviously anecdotal and rough estimates). But for Bronson to write that "these guys belong behind bars" while at the same time acknowledging that the majority of them suffer from mental health issues seems beyond comprehension. Is that what "compassionate conservativism" is about? Incarcerating people who need treatment? I don't understand how to reconcile those two excerpts from Bronson's piece.

This is a difficult week for attorneys who provide indigent defense in Hamilton County. Everyone involved knew that the system wasn't perfect. But reading the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association's hundred-plus page assessment of the provision of legal services here and how much it differs from a lot of places around the country makes me want to go back to bed, pull up the covers, and not come out until the system is fixed. (I certainly don't agree with each of NLADA's findings and recommendations, but overall, they get more right than they get wrong. And remember: the report isn't done by a bunch of nosy outsiders who should have minded their own business; the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners requested and paid for this assessment.) But as tough as it is to read the NLADA's report, it's even harder to read Bronson's hatred of all things--and people--that aren't suburban and just like him.

Griff: sorry about this. I know it's your job to beat on Bronson, but I couldn't hold back on this one.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Another "Cheerleader"? Welcome to the Bandwagon.

Bet you can't guess who penned the following:

It was one of those everyday scenes that remind us why we love the city [Cincinnati]. Such as:

From the Kentucky side of the river, the skyline rises in white stone, steel and glass. The river sparkles blue and green. Colorful bridges, dusty blue, purple and yellow, frame the view of towering buildings that are almost mythical in the sunshine.

And it's all just a short walk from the Ohio side. Newport on the Levee is right across the Purple People Bridge, which is crowded by office workers jogging or walking to lunch. Where else can you have lunch in another state and be back by 1 p.m.?

On a Saturday night, the new restaurants on Fountain Square are packed. Crowds mill about enjoying the light show that covers an entire building on the north side of the square.

A balcony at the new Via Vite restaurant overlooks the fountain as it catches lights and colors and splashes like a waterfall in captivity. A man at a keyboard plays soft jazz. The water dances. Conversations ebb and flow.

Who knew there were such islands of serenity downtown? Who knew the stuffy old Queen City goes out on Saturday nights?


So who is this new lover of downtown Cincinnati? Peter Bronson.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Freedom Center "Controversy"

Over at the Enquirer's Politics Extra Blog, Jessica Brown has a more balanced version of the story surrounding the Freedom Center's offer to sell part of its land to Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati than what we've been hearing from the media the last few days.

For those of you who haven't been paying attention: the Freedom Center is built on land given to it by the city and the county. Included in the gift is a 1.7 acre parcel of land between the Center and the Ohio River that the Center had intended to develop as a park. But the Freedom Center has never had enough money to do so so the land, like the rest of the area next to the riverfront, has sat fallow for several years. Now, the Banks Working Group wants the land to use as part of the Banks. The Freedom Center offered to sell the land back to the city and the county for $1 million, with each sovereign to apparently foot half the bill.

Based on the histrionics coming from the county commission, I'd assumed that the offer had come out of the blue. But that's not so, based on Brown's report:

The Freedom Center says it had been negotiating the $1 million price tag with the Banks Working Group since last summer. It had two assessments done that
actually placed the land at a much higher value. It says the negotiations were
in good faith and everyone seemed to think the request was reasonable.The
Working Group includes representatives from both the city and the county, so
none of the elected officials should have been surprised at the request, which
was reduced to writing Dec. 31, said Freedom Center's Paul Bernish.City council
wasn't surprised. Some council members even said they thought the Center would
ask for more. But somehow commissioners were caught off guard.

Of course, this whole episode is a PR nightmare for the Freedom Center (that seems to be Bronson's main point today). But I'm not sure that the Freedom Center's board has had much of a choice but to act the way it has. After all, the board has a fiduciary obligation to protect the assets of the Freedom Center, a non-profit organization. One of those assets is a highly marketable, very expensive piece of real estate. Giving it away would be financially irresponsible. If the Freedom Center weren't an entity, and were instead just some guy named Bob, and the county wasn't--well, the county, but instead just some guy named Fred, then you'd expect that Bob, upon realizing he couldn't use the land Fred had given him, would give it back to Fred if Fred had found a good use for it. But we're not talking about Bob and Fred; we're talking about local government and a non-profit organization. It's not as easy as our commissioners have made it out to be in their efforts to placate COAST. There may ultimately be a better way to resolve this than to simply take a pile of money from the city and the county, but everyone needs to take a deep breath and calm down.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Are We In The End Times?

Are we now in the much talked about End Times? When Peter Bronson gave praise to the character of a Democratic candidate for President I fear that the world may be coming to an end.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

"Pro-Life" Bronson Loves Him Some Death Penalty

An example of the duality of the answer man. His answers change depending on the situation. Something conservatives label as a weakness.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Eating Their Own Kind

It is very fun to watch Republicans attack other Republicans. What is say is that one of the Republicans has finally woken up about the War in Iraq. The other Republicans are so insanely blinded by blood lust they cling to myths of why we got into Iraq and the simple fact that the Iraq War has created 1,000 times more terrorism than it has prevented.

It should be a shock that this comes from Peter Bronson. I honestly think the man takes some kind of mind treatments ever night before he has his warm milk. Maybe its just the warm milk that makes him so delusional? Either way it is clear that John McCain does sound insane, based on Bronson's rumor spreading. Glad he is not going to be President.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Can't Totally Fault Bronson Today

I can't really go off on Peter Bronson's latest column, but I'll point out a few problems. He writes about classic rock and Wizards Records in Oakley. He is missing out on the big selection of music at Wizards from the 70's, 80's, and 90's, not just from Bronson's long haired days. The college kids who come to buy there are likely to want new wave, punk, and grunge more than classic 60's rock.

Finally, I don't know about Bronson, but I grew up storing my vinyl in milk crates, not cardboard boxes. I would guess Peter went through many boxes over the years. I still have my milk crates.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Magazine Reviews?

Peter Bronson is only able to muster enough energy to write a review of Rolling Stone's 40th Anniversary issue. I guess he'll be spouting on the SI swimsuit issue later in the year. I can't wait for his diatribe against Penthouse for refusing to publish his series of 'letters' he sent back in his "rebellious" youth.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Bronson's Choice: Jump Off a Cliff or Get Pushed Off

When ignorant people like Peter Bronson write about public eduction I get a very large twinge in my right temple from the wasted time I spent reading his columns. Yes, I get that every time I read one of his columns, but lets skip the red herring for today.

Bronson goes on and on about CPS. He does seem to understand how they can't turn a profit. Well, lets state the obvious first, the government is not in the profit business. I won't go worry about the anti-government insanity right now, and instead talk about the false choice Bronson is putting forth.

As many Conservatives do, Bronson likes to look at market competition and claim that it works. Well, it works when everyone has more than a choice of execution. The problem with Bronson's desire to create a market based education system is that he forgets about the law. He forgets that it is the law that every student age 5 to 16 is guaranteed the ability to go to school. In Bronson's world of privately run schools or charter schools he hides a small fact, those schools can turn kids away. How many privately run schools, religious schools, and charter schools are taking in special education children? Where do the behavioral problem students end up?

In Bronson's world the schools he champions can avoid all of the special needs students and stick with the rich or cheap kids and look like they are brilliant, when really they are just manipulators.

Education is a right. Public education is the way to make that right a reality and funding public schools is how this is done. Gimmicks don't work. Walling in the poor within the inner city schools doesn't do anything but make the poor-phobic feel "safer" in the suburban white schools. Cherry picking the smart inner city kids might make Bronson sleep better at night, but it doesn't provide speech therapy or wheel chair ramps to the inner city kid who doesn't get good grades.

Public Education has worked dating back before the Revolutionary War. Why not work on public education policies, instead of working to dismantle it?

Friday, April 27, 2007

Bronson's Living in a River in Egypt

At some point Peter Bronson will have to move, because the River D'Nile will be all dried up by Global Warming. Bronson's hot air is something the EPA should look into regulating, sooner rather than later.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Bronson: Sinners Must Die!

No, Peter Bronson didn't actually write that in his recent column, but he might as well have. What he and all other "abstinence-only" advocates do when they refuse to talk about how contraceptives can prevent STDs because they hold the belief that those who have sex outside of marriage deserve to get STDs and suffer the results, which could include death.

Using fear in this manner is helping cause more needless deaths. Peter and his anti-sex pack may be out to thin the herd for their "cause," but they shouldn't be doing it with tax dollars.

As a society we have organized government to do what it can to prevent physical harm from affecting the citizens it governs. Educating kids about condoms helps save lives.

Guess what else educating kids about condoms does! Educating kids about condoms reduces the number of abortions. It does so by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancy's. I somehow thought Peter and his ilk wanted to stop abortions. I guess they only want to prevent all of them by controlling women's bodies. Reducing the number of abortions must not be something they are interested in doing.

Snarky Preemption: To the Trolls who are going to comment about John Cranley or some other Democrat's anti-abortion stance, stop. This post is about the fools like Peter Bronson who are anti-abortion and anti-condom. Save your foolishness for another post.