Sunday, October 22, 2006
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
The Cincinnati Enquirer has decided to endorse Ken Blackwell for Governor—even after papers in conservative places like Findlay, Ohio decided to ”unendorse” Blackwell after his campaign reached a new low by blatantly suggesting that his opponent was a gay pedophile.
While real papers across the state experienced such righteous outrage over Blackwell’s disgusting behavior, The Cincinnati Enquirer decided to take a cue from tabloids, running this headline: ”Governor’s race turns ugly: Blackwell campaign links Strickland to predators, party hints he’s gay.”
Meanwhile, Enquirer editor Tom Callinan—who claims he has hundreds of decisions to make every day—seemed to be lurking on the blogs of young men like Andrew Warner, bragging about how many clicks that headline received in the Enquirer’s online version. Callinan writes:
I don’t mean this as a defense of our decision. Perhaps it’s just a commentary on our culture, for better or worse. But I checked the online traffic this morning and the governor’s race turns ugly story led with 33,071 page views. Next was the gatorade bottle story with 12,278. The nude prosecuter got 7,708. Way down was a traditional high interest story....the Ohio AP football poll with 2,711.
As much as we may cringe at seeing these smarmy political stories unfold, it’d be pretty difficult for us to downplay them.
Thought you’d be interested in those numbers.
Just to sum: while a newspaper in Findlay, Ohio decided to unendorse Blackwell because of his disgusting behavior, Callinan and his Enquirer decided to capitalize on the shocking content to pimp for whorish clicks, bragging about it on a college kid’s web site.
But then it gets even more hypocritical. In The Enquirer’s endorsement of Blackwell, they write:
MUD
Unfortunately the first thing Blackwell will have to do if he is elected is to live down his campaign. He has attempted to falsely smear Strickland as a supporter of child sex. He has used surrogates to suggest that Strickland, married for 18 years, is gay. Such tactics are blots on Blackwell’s character, and he owes the state of Ohio an apology. Strickland is an honorable man who has served the state with integrity.
We support the ideas on jobs and education that Blackwell brings to this election. We utterly denounce his campaign tactics.
Really? They denounce his tactics? Then why in the world did they give him front page play with a disgusting headline of their own? What kind of game is this? Whoring around town for clicks, and then turning around with some high-brow critique of whoring around town?
The Enquirer has denounced their own mud, though I’m sure they will continue to help Blackwell sling it.
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