Editorial

When you are lazy, ignorant and not willing to do research – accuse your more-informed opponents of being “conspiracy theorists.” A recent Columbus Dispatch editorial utilized this technique in its defense of Ohio’s antiquated and easily hacked voting apparatus.
  The Dispatch, with few facts or statistics, stated that, “Secretary of State Jon Husted claims ‘…Ohio’s current voting equipment should be in fine shape through the 2016 election.’” In a subhead, the Big D also claimed “Transparent bipartisan approach should head off conspiracy theorists.”
  Here are some points to consider.
  In 2005, highly-regarded scholar Tracy Campbell published Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, and American Political Tradition 1742-2004. The book makes a solid case detailing that election fraud is the norm throughout U.S. history.

   The voters of Toledo are to be congratulated! By more than a 2 to 1 margin of victory, they abolished any jail terms and penalties for possession of marijuana up to 200 grams. Toledo’s Issue 1, The Sensible Marijuana Ordinance passed on September 22, 2015, establishes complete decriminalization for misdemeanor marijuana offenses. Sensible indeed! The Free Press wishes Columbus would come to its senses soon.
   Campaign manager Sean Nestor, Ohio Green Party Political Director, was correct when he told the Toledo Blade that: “I do think what we have is pretty potent as far as protecting cannabis users. We feel this is important even on a national scale.”
   One big difference between Toledo and Columbus is that their mayor and city councilmembers believe in citizen’s initiatives and democracy. Had this effort been attempted in here, Columbus City Council President Andy Ginther backed by City Attorney Rick Pfeiffer would have dreamed up a technicality to keep the people from voting on the measure.

The publisher and editor of the Columbus Dispatch like to brag about what they consider sterling journalism in the newspaper and about all the awards it has won.
   But when it comes to reporting news about their own shop, they travel the road of self-serving public relations, not journalism.
   After leaving us to read reporter Tom Knox’s articles in Columbus Business First about $10 million in budget cuts and impending layoffs, the Dispatch broke its silence in mid-September with a “news article” and columns by publisher Jim Hopson and editor Alan Miller over a two-day span that disclosed that 63 non-newsroom employees had been laid off and hinted that journalists would be let go (I’ll guess 25) after the first of the year when the Dispatch moves much of its editing and design work to Austin, Texas, where parent GateHouse Media operates a centralized editing and design shop for its many newspapers.

Jobs lost, Governor silent

The Free Press told you so. Since 2000, this newspaper alone in Ohio has warned of the dangers of allowing private partisan for-profit companies to secretly count our votes. Former President Jimmy Carter calls our election system dysfunctional and says we have more of an oligarchy than a democracy in this country.
   The chief reason why the U.S. election system fails to meet any minimum international standard of democracy is its “faith-based voting,” where people “push and pray” and hope their vote gets counted right. But they are usually voting on machines without paper trails.
   Two recent events underscore the factual nature of this massive problem. The Brennan Center for Justice’s 2015 report entitled “America’s Voting Machines At Risk” is one of the best current compilation dissecting the vulnerabilities of our computer voting machines.

Get ready: the Republicans may not know it, but they’ve all but certified their ticket for 2016, and they will probably win. 

  The saturation bloviation that followed this week’s Republican presidential debates missed some monumental moments, including:

(1)   There was one (and ONLY one) candidate on the stage that had anything meaningful to say. It was Rand Paul. What he said about war and marijuana was of serious significance.

(2)   The GOP hard core on the stage and in the audience certified their obeisance to a free pass for the horrific presidency of George W. Bush, thereby opening the door for his brother, who can almost certainly win if he runs with the guy from Ohio.

   Let’s deal first with Rand Paul. Like his father (and unlike virtually anyone else in the GOP) the Senator from Kentucky seems to have some actual principles. Both Pauls have been firmly committed to the legalization of marijuana for many years, and have not wavered.

Let us recall both the political careers of Michael Coleman and Andy Ginther advanced primarily due to their involvement in covering up scandals. Coleman, then an attorney at Schottenstein, Zox and Dunn, stepped forward to aid billionaire Les Wexner’s alleged bribery of City Council President Jerry Hammond. Remember $220,000 was funneled from friends of Les to the Major Chord jazz club in the Short North.  The deal was that New Albany would get water and sewer services extended from Columbus and paid for by city residents and Hammond would get a jazz club.
   When the scheme was busted, Coleman took the lead role with attorney Larry James in explaining how the apparent investment bribe was really supposed to be a non-profit contribution to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center. Coleman had the paper to prove it and a newly appointed seat on Columbus City Council.
   Ginther was appointed to the Columbus School Board, where he covered up the “data-rigging scandal” by forcing out the School’s internal auditor who was on the investigative trail. This is how Ginther won his chops to serve on Council and become the Council President.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is proud to announce in their 2014 Annual Report that their already record-low recidivism rate has dropped again and is now 27.1 percent and continues to be well below the national average of 49.7 percent. Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after he/she has either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior.

  The report attributes Ohio’s reduction in recidivism to the use of evidence-based programs such as reintegration units within the prisons, programs to connect offenders with families and resources while incarcerated, community corrections programs and their continued work with local communities and reentry coalitions.

ColumbusMediaInsider

Click cut is glimpse of Dispatch future

By John K. Hartman

It is just a TV magazine. Why do we care?

   Most people get their TV listings from the on-screen program directories provided by cable and satellite providers and streaming services. Years ago weekly TV magazines in newspapers were profitable items, chocked full of advertisements adjacent to the listings and widely used by viewers at home. Now the weekly TV magazines are thin because they contain only listings, not advertisements, and are little used.

   The Columbus Dispatch calls its magazine Click and until recently inserted the magazine in its Sunday paper. In his column on Sunday July 26, editor Alan D. Miller announced that Click would no longer be inserted in the Sunday paper, but would be moved to the Saturday paper, effective Aug. 1.

New owners shielded

   Last month in Colorado, Iraqi veteran Steve Otero, with his toddler twin boys by his side, told a crowd at a Colorado Board of Health meeting, “Without cannabis, I’d be dead.” Otero said he had a noose (literally) around his neck when a civilian friend suggested he take a couple puffs off a joint to ease his troubled mind, and lo and behold, it worked. Yet even after the testimony of Otero, the Colorado Board of Health denied approving medical marijuana for PTSD due to a lack of hard information on the benefits of such treatment.
   Clearly, Colorado is conflicted, because a veteran can purchase marijuana for recreational use, but if the VA tests his or her urine and it’s positive for THC, they can lose their VA benefits. This is a perfect example of a few bureaucrats sticking to their ideology while also having their heads too far up you-know-where to realize what’s good for combat veterans when the only combat these health officials have experienced is a snow ball fight.

In early June The Columbus Dispatch and related publications were sold to New Media Investments for $47 million and became part of the hedge fund’s GateHouse Newspapers. Part of the deal reportedly was that current employees would keep their jobs for 90 days before the news owners could make cuts.
  That 90-day moratorium on layoffs ends around Labor Day, Sept. 7. How ironic that heads will likely roll around the time that we celebrate the working women and men of the United States.

  Typically, when a big chain purchases a family owned newspaper, the newsrooms are gutted to the tune of 25 to 50 percent. That means that dozens of Dispatch journalists will walk the plank and that eventually the paper will be a shade of its journalistic self. When the number of layoffs from other Dispatch departments is added to the journalist departures, it may cause a boost in the jobless rate in central Ohio.

  You won’t read about any negative consequences of the Dispatch takeover in the Dispatch because its editors are walking on pins and needles to please their new owners, hoping to save their jobs.