Local Media Misses and Hits

Coverage of the landmark legal case over President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program by the city’s daily newspapers is a sad indictment on the current state of corporate media in Cincinnati.

The historic case, which is being fought in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals located here, received little coverage from The Cincinnati Enquirer until Wednesday’s hearing before the three-judge panel. Thursday’s prominent article on the topic in The Enquirer, however, likely was prompted by the front-page preview run by The Cincinnati Post on Wednesday. With The Post’s shrinking staff and impending closure later this year, though, its article was written by a Los Angeles Times reporter.

In other words, it takes the national media to draw the attention of local newspapers to a major case happening in their own backyard.

Although we pick on The Enquirer when it does something wrong, as it often does, I also believe in giving credit where credit is due. The newspaper has two great articles today. The first is by reporter Gregory Korte detailing how a City Hall employee who didn’t show up to work for almost 10 years but still was paid also received a $25,662 payout upon her retirement last year and still is seeking more money; the other is a scoop by reporter Cliff Radel that Hamilton County officials want to build a new jail at the former Kahn’s meat packing factory in Camp Washington.

Kudos also should go to Jason Haap’s Cincinnati Beacon blog for showcasing in a series of letters, obtained through public record requests, the origins of The Enquirer’s “Grandma in Iraq” blog last year and the fact that editors knew the blog’s author was a military public relations flak but didn’t initially reveal that fact to readers. The blog was pulled after some readers alleged it was concealed pro-war propagandizing by the government.

The series of documents show how Suzanne Fournier, who worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, was able to pitch her blog idea to Enquirer editors. Of special note is a letter from Fournier to a newspaper editor that states, “Two personal friends of mine who work at Department of the Army in the Pentagon are championing my request.”

— Kevin Osborne

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