Why The Strange Name?
With my inspiration now identified, the next question might be: why did I name my blog ‘DDN Op/Ed Critic’? As a member of the greater
Before I go any further, I need to identify some history concerning the DDN as well as the political makeup of this part of southwest
The Dayton Daily News was founded in August 1892 by James Cox when he purchased the existing Dayton Evening Journal and published under the new title one week later. Cox purchased two other papers (the Journal and the Herald) in 1948 and combined them the following year to create the Dayton Journal-Herald. Both the DDN (morning) and DJ-H (evening) competed head-to-head in the Dayton-area marketplace for the next 37 years but economic realities finally did in the smaller circulation J-H. In 1986, the Daily News and Journal-Herald were merged into a combined titled morning paper but the Journal-Herald portion was last used on December 31, 1987.
The significance of this information lies in the politics each of these papers purportedly backed. The DDN was considered to be a liberal publication with the DJ-H courting those of the conservative persuasion. When they merged, the new Daily News retained its Democratic-leaning editorial position. This decision may have been due in part to the lingering political views of the DDN’s founder (Cox ran as Democrat in the 1920 US presidential election) or related to the prevalence of voters within the city limits (since 1973, Democrats have been elected mayor in 7 of the 9 contests).
Speaking of politics,
Although GOP politicians have held almost complete control of the state since 1995, what is more telling is the current make-up of the Ohio legislative bodies (both are overwhelmingly Republican—the senate is 22-11and the house is 62-37 in that party's favor). With the GOP also in control of the state's census-linked apportionment boards in 1991 and 2001, one can surmise that this body was used by the party in power to retain and solidify these majorities. The recent defeat of Issue 4 in the 2005 general election snuffed out any chance of such an imbalance being addressed by anyone other than elected officials anytime soon.
In geographic terms, Democratic strength tends to lie in the northeastern quadrant of the state (
(click on graphic for larger view)
As one of eight south-central Ohio counties that are either partially or entirely within the state's 7th Congressional District (includes suburban areas of Columbus and Dayton--cities that are nearly 70 miles apart!), Greene County strongly supported the Bush/Cheney campaigns in 2000 and again in 2004, garnering nearly identical percentage totals (60-61 percent) of its votes in each election. Since 1984 (the earliest year I could find county-specific information on the state's website), every Republican presidential candidate has been able to put our county safely into his own column. The 7th District's current Congressman (Rep. Dave Hobson from Springfield) won his most recent (8th) term in office with nearly two-thirds of the vote. In fact, this district has been in GOP hands for 84 of the last 86 years! Greene County gained national notoriety in the aftermath of the 2004 election when an observer witnessed numerous perceived irregularities by the county's board of elections during the mandatory state-wide recount of ballots (affidavit linked here). These developments were prominently mentioned in January 2005 report published by the US House of Representatives' Democratic Staff, chaired by Rep. John Conyers (report linked here).
If you look closely at this 109th Congressional District map for southwestern Ohio above, you can see how the greater Dayton area has been 'carved' up between the 3rd, 7th and 8th districts, diluting its traditional Democratic urban majority into its surrounding conservative suburbs and outlying rural areas. Similar 'creative' mapping can also be seen around Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland due to comparable efforts to thin out their high Democratic voter concentrations. These overt 'gerrymandering' maneuvers plus the perks of incumbency (98 percent re-election rate for sitting officials) will keep my county as well as my adopted state in the 'red' column for the foreseeable future.
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With all of the above laid out for you, let me get back to the op/ed issue about the paper...
Like almost all of the major Ohio cities, Dayton is served by only one major daily newspaper (Cincinnati is expected to join them in 2008 with the anticipated demise of their afternoon-edition Post). In an attempt to retain its conservative readership brought over in the 1986 merger with the DJ-H, the DDN has routinely attempted to provide a balance on its op/ed pages. On any given day, one might see columns written by Jonah Goldberg and Paul Krugman sitting side-by-side. Mike Peters, the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, now routinely shares page space with competing conservative cartoonists like Michael Ramirez and Chuck Asay. The DDN offers an online 'Fairness Forum' to let readers inform them of any perceived bias in its coverage (instituted on the heels of a 'credibility' roundtable). On April 24, 2006, Ellen Belcher, the DDN's op/ed editor, solicited reader feedback on the paper's current line-up of 17 columnists and contributors (photo below) and received quite a lot (posted here--might require registration). She even provides precious print space for any rebuttals ("Another View") to the daily submissions of the DDN's editorial staff ("Our View") about the topic du jour--in what can only be viewed as pre-emptive capitulation to conservatives who might only need something tantamount to a feather drop to rationalize cancelling their subscription.
Dayton's 'Gang of 17'
After demonstrating journalistic limberness comparable to that of a Romanian gymnast, there are STILL people in this area that routinely accuse the DDN of editorial bias. I personally don't know what Ms. Belcher's political affiliation is, but her critics need to know that anyone who deals with subjective issues will demonstrate some sort of preconceived belief on those issues in the conduct of their day-to-day activities. I guess I could formulate my own opinions about her without ever reading anything she wrote based solely upon her age, gender, zip code of her residence, marital status, or the type of vehicle she drives. I doubt that such a prediction would provide a very accurate reflection of who she really is; however, for some folks, that is where their research stops and their vitriol begins.
In many responses to the paper and editorial staff, dissenting readers bring up the bias issue in the first two paragraphs of their responses. It wouldn't matter if the DDN was quoting directly from an irrefutable source or was printing a word-for-word transcript of a government official's statement--if what they read in the morning paper does not match what they perceive to be in their own version of 'reality', they are quickly putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to correct such grievous attacks of their personal political or religious beliefs. This is where the 'critic' part comes in...
On a few occasions, certain op/ed letters or syndicated columns printed in the DDN have particularly caught my attention in terms of the writer's own bias, their sheer lack of knowledge of the issue at hand, or just the general discourteous tone of their response. On two occasions, I diligently prepared my own replies and sent them via email to the paper's staff.
One of the advantages of today's electronic communications is the speed in which you can receive a response from the recipient to your submission. No more waiting for the mail carrier to pick up or drop off correspondence. No more paying extra for or sitting by the door waiting to sign for a special delivery--Microsoft Outlook does it all for you. I always request delivery and read receipts for all email correspondence I send out from my work and home accounts. If the recipient (or their place of employment) also uses Outlook, then one can track the submission all the way up to its flashing up on their screen (you still can't determine if they actually read it).
Another feature of this widely used email tool is letting the sender know if the submission was deleted without being read. On both occasions, Outlook returned that very message to me. Here's the last 'rejection':
From: edletter [mailto:edletter@coxohio.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 9:44 AM
To: XXXXXX (trying to retain my anonymity)
Subject: Not read: Historical Hindsight & GOP Hypocrisy
Your message
To: edletter
Subject: Historical Hindsight & GOP Hypocrisy
Sent: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 00:26:28 -0400
Wow! What a blow to my ego--having my reply rejected sight unseen! I'll never get that after-work time used to formulate my retort--or the precious sleep I lost (I sent it out at 12:26AM!)--back again and have nothing to show for my toiling except for a server-generated message. When I started to ask myself why someone would do that to any person who takes time out of their daily life to share a little piece of their mind, it dawned on me that I was not in control in this situation. The individual at the other end of this email transaction had the ultimate say in what they would look at and what they would send to the 'bit bucket'.
It really bothered me that I had something to say but lacked an audience to read it. Instead of devising a 'Coulter-esque' plot of exacting my revenge upon the DDN, the idea of starting my own blog--featuring my personal commentary about items appearing on their op/ed pages--came to mind. Blogging would be the ultimate avenue for my opinions! I would be in control of the message as well as the medium. I alone would grant access to individuals who would request permission to post their responses to my online entries. Since I won't need commercial backing for this activity, no one can censor me or shut me down if my opinions didn't match those of their corporate culture or target audience. In this scenario, I realized that I have now ascended to the same level as Ms. Belcher and her staff--minus all the 'strings'!
Once I have posted some specific responses to DDN items and establish a steady blogging routine, I will send Ms. Belcher an email featuring a link to this site. I think that may be one delivery she will want to receive (and read)...
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