Lazy Reporters

staff - Posted on 24 August 2006

I'm getting really sick and tired of sloppy, lazy political reporting.

The DDN did it the other day, writing about a "citizen" who was persuaded by Blackwell, who in fact turned out to be a Republican campaign manager.

Bush did it the other day with an ex-Republican candidate for office fron New Orleans, and now the PeeDee gets punked.

After the 40-minute rally, Estruth said he was not ready to vote Democratic. He was put off, he said, by their harsh rhetoric.

"I wanted to see if he was an executive with clear plans for fixing the state," he said about Strickland. "What I got was partisan talk. He confirmed my worst fears."

Turns out Mr Estruth has given thousands of dollars to Ken Blackwell and Republicans according to SoS campaign finanace filings.

Can the press please do some rudimentary checks before quoting these plants ?

Thanks to reader RL for the tip.

What galls me

Submitted by AmberCat on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 11:15am.

is that the reported didn't ask "Can you give me a specific example of 'harsh talk'?" and also "Have you read Ted Strickland's Turnaround Ohio? Can you tell me what points are not outlined in there that you would like to see explained or amplified?" The reporter should be aware of what each candidate has publicly proposed. I'm so sick of the mainstream media's sheep-like parroting of "The Democrats have no ideas." They did it to Kerry when he had mountains of specific plans outlined on his website, in his book and in appropriately simplified form (because if he had detailed them he would have been scourged for being pedantic and boring

Let's work together to retire Ken Blackwell from politics

You should update that story

Submitted by modernesquire on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 11:31am.

Although he has not given to Mr. Blackwell this year, he's only donated to Mr. Blackwell while he has been running for Governor and he and his wife gave almost the maximum amount to Blackwell during the primaries.

Yep, that's a real fence sitter there.

I'm confused

Submitted by AmberCat on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 11:38am.

If he hasn't given to Blackwell this year, which race and which primary did he give to Blackwell in, since Blackwell only started formally running this year. Do you mean he donated last year to get his money to Blackwell early for this year's campaign? And if he donated the maximum amount for this May's primary cycle, does it really matter whether he gave it in this calendar year? Can you clarify a little?

Let's work together to retire Ken Blackwell from politics

Blackwell and Strickland both were running late last year

Submitted by modernesquire on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 11:59am.

Well, it's been a year since he donated, so he could argue that he's changed his mind and that's why he stopped donating.

Blackwell and Strickland created and started fundraising for the primaries last year.

That's what i was thinking

Submitted by AmberCat on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 12:41pm.

Anyone who would give the max for THIS year's primary as soon as he possibly could is someone whose mind is mind up and he's not going to change it.

Let's work together to retire Ken Blackwell from politics

This is an awesome post...

Submitted by Oberlin JJ on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 12:54pm.

...and why open-source reporting is so important.