The Plain Dealer Shoots Itself In The Foot
Ohio Daily Blogger Jeff Coryell was let go from the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Wide Open blog today. The Plain Dealer had been seeking to block Coryell from commenting on a congressional race in which he had donated to a candidate.
Today Dubail called me and asked if I would agree to never write about LaTourette on “Wide Open,” as a condition of my continued participation. He said that the arrangement was sought by Susan Goldberg, Editor of the Plain Dealer. When I declined to agree that I would never write about LaTourette on “Wide Open,” I was terminated by DuBail.
As a political blogger, I am a partisan. My political orientation as a progressive Democrat is an integral part of what I do and is completely transparent to my readers. This is a crucial component of being a political blogger/activist, and sets us apart from journalists in the classic sense. It was understood among the four participants in “Wide Open” that we are political partisans and that we would engage in political debate from our respective political points of view.
– Jeff Coryell
That second paragraph of the excerpt pretty much sums it up. Everyone knew all four of the Wide Open bloggers were partisan, that’s what made it unique. If there’s any surprise here, it’s that the PD can’t find political donations from the other three.
Ironically I finally got around to creating a commenting account at Wide Open today. After this, I doubt I’ll have much use for it.
Source: BREAKING: Congressman LaTourette Gets Blogger Fired From “Wide Open” | Ohio Daily Blog – A Community Blog On Ohio Politics And Public Affairs (via Plunderbund)
Update: Plunderbund is tracking the blog reactions. There’s a lot of them.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
[...] Left of Ohio: The Plain Dealer Shoots Itself In The Foot [...]
October 31st, 2007 at 10:11 am
This is too bad. While I disagree with just about everything Jeff writes about, he is earnest about his beliefs and willing to debate with folks like me openly.
Earlier on “Wide Open,” Jeff and I had started a small debate over one of Tom Blummer’s posting when the PD deleted both Jeff and my comments. I thought we were both debating in a very civilized and honest manner, however I think it was too much for the PD to deal with. Real debate is often controversial and I appreciate that Jeff did not back away from it.
The news print media is sinking fast because they present weak journalism and editorials. This demonstrates to me that the Plain Dealer is not committed to frank and open discussions, which is the hallmark of good journalism and editorials.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:39 pm
[...] I wrote my first post on this I included a picture of a burning bridge. I did this because it was the perfect symbol for what the [...]