Saturday, January 13, 2007

An Open Letter to Brian Schwartz

Cross post from Glass City Jungle

Mr. Schwartz,

Your statements give the impression that either you or the Mayor believe that Mr. Milikin cannot do two separate jobs. The way I see it is, during the newscasts, he acts as a reporter - and never during a newscast has he stated "I think..." During the Eye-on-Toledo segment, he acts as a commentator, like many journalists have done on both a local and national level.

If your objection is to WSPD's use of particular portions of the Mayor's words during news broadcasts (which is what department was being covered), please reference the fact that NO media outlet presents the Mayor's news conference in its entirety. The sound byte chosen may not be the Mayor's first choice, but these decisions are made by every news organization separately (ask the President how he feels about it). Since the sound byte is here to stay, perhaps it is the Mayor's best interest to pay more attention to what he says, not to dictate to any media outlet what they can and cannot report (even if it is for the "self-esteem" of the city.)

Now, what this whole mess seems to resolve around is the Mayor's issue with WSPD "barking up a tree" he doesn’t want barked at. Specifically, the bike path and his issue with the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office. I find that the issue of WSPD is that in both occasions, the Mayor may have given the appearance of using his official position for personal gain. Mind you, I do not say that this was his intent, but it certainly appears that way. The bike path was pushed through with little time for determining community support or objections, in an area that would be convenient for his personal use. By invoking his title either verbally or in writing at the jail, the Mayor appears to have sought to curry special favor. I would ask the Ottawa County Sheriff to produce the letter he received from the Mayor, to determine it's exact wording and if or not it was printed on city stationary. (This would be an excellent Freedom of Information Act request - that letter is public record.)

In the interest of fairness, I invite the Mayor for a short-format interview to answer questions regarding this, just as the Program Director of WSPD consented to do, at his earliest convenience.

Right Wing Toledo

7 comments:

historymike said...

Keep their feet to the fire on this one, RWT. The First Amendment issues here are too important to be relegated to the whims of personal grudges.

Anonymous said...

Personnel guudges have no place in politics,but are always the first thing that comes out of the wood work.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Mike on this one. They let Nazi's march, they let people burn the flag. How is what Kevin does any worse?

*Note: I don't like Kevin's show but I don't want his ability to report on current events prohibited by anyone other than say a group of journalists who published their ethics publically.

Right Wing Toledo said...

Mikeya,

And I'd be just as upset if it was the Blade. This is a First Amendment issue, nothing else.

Anonymous said...

RWT, I believe the Toledo Blade is very upset. For some reason, you seem to say the Blade was not outraged by this, but clearly they were. You should read the editorial.

Right Wing Toledo said...

When I made my post concerning the Blade, the paper had not yet provided an editorial regarding the issue. They did not do so until Jan. 12, three days after the initial incident. Furthermore the editorial seemed to concern itself more about slamming WSPD than dealing with the First Amendment issues at stake.

My point with my comment above is that it matters not to me who was being barred from the press conference, but simply that it someone was.

-Sepp said...

The daily local and Carty work hand in hand, neither will go too far in bashing the other. WSPD doesent hand out endorsements or, provide a job ala' "Carty & co" (co-conspirators"???).