Two recent local news stories offer compelling, if baffling, insight into the priorities of the media in and around Columbus. On August 22, the media descended on Ohio State University to learn the future of Urban Meyer following the football coach’s handling of a domestic abuse scandal involving one of his assistants.

Two days later, the same news outlets failed to appear at the Franklin County Board of Elections to learn the fate of a citizens’ initiative to protect Columbus, and thus Central Ohio, from the toxic and radioactive dangers of fracking. During this hearing, the board would decide whether to place on the ballot the Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR) proposal to “establish a community bill of rights for water, soil and air protection” from fracking operations and its waste. Strangely, the same media that comprehensively covered Meyer and his football program demonstrated little interest in an issue that affects the health of all Central Ohioans and their environment.

Over the past 17 years since 9/11/01, the title question has plagued the tens of thousands of committed groups of highly intelligent and thorough truth-seeking scientists, physicists, architects, engineers, pilots, ex-military officers, ex-intelligence agents, firefighters, demolition experts, psychologists, medical professionals, etc, etc who have absolute proof that the official Cheney/Bush White House story about what happened on 9/11/01 was a “Big Lie”, that was so easily perpetrated on a fearful, gullible and mainstream media-saturated public that was very willing to suspend their critical thinking skills and throw their trust onto authority figures that would tell them what they were supposed to believe, even if it was contrary to what they actually saw with their own eyes. Unfortunately, those pseudo-authority figures that have the power to dominate the media, also have a long history of being serial liars - and they have hidden ulterior motives and a willing mainstream media machine on which to perpetuate the lies.

Cop’s hand injured – civilian executed with eight shots in return: Once again a Columbus Police Department (CPD) officer dubiously reveals what a pathetic abject coward he really is (though the Free Press is cautiously suspicious of every version of an officer-involved killing that involves the phrase “I feared for my life.”)

In Franklinton on August 23, Officer Andrew Mitchell shot 23-year-old Donna Dalton (Castleberry) eight times in his cruiser after she allegedly stabbed his hand with a knife.

Think about it. You are a 30-year grizzled veteran on the CPD vice squad. You’ve got 80 prostitution arrests under your belt just this calendar year, because your beat is the west side of the city where young women gather.

You are undercover. You are in an unmarked car. The rest of the story is unclear.

Of course, we don’t have a “he said, she said” situation since “she” is dead. And there are no witnesses.

Crazy Rich Asians has been hailed as a possible game-changer, being the first Hollywood movie in 25 years to feature a predominantly Asian cast. As a harbinger of a more-inclusive future, though, I’d rather look to a smaller film called Searching.

Directed and co-written by Aneesh Chaganty, it’s the story of a widowed father desperately trying to learn why his teenage daughter has suddenly disappeared. This new entry is unusual for two reasons. First, the plot unfolds almost entirely on computer screens as the dad searches the girl’s social-media outlets for clues. And second, the dad is an Asian-American named David Kim (played by Star Trek’s John Cho). 

The offbeat casting seems almost as revolutionary as the offbeat filmmaking.