faith & Begorra

In an amazing semi turnaround, The Fishwarp has published a bland press release about the Hamilton County Fair without any gloom & doom horror stories.
Since the 4H abandoned the fair for fairly racist reasons, attendance at the fair has steadily risen. This, of course, takes some of the wind out of the sails of the blowhard 'Warp lamenting the slow agonizing death of the fair.
The one time a drunk fired a pistol in the air outside the entrance has drifted off the radar…
Maybe we might see some positive coverage later in the week!
Maybe the fair will update their website later this week...

What the hell is Wrong With the Fishwarp ?The Cincinnati Enquirer covered the parking lease debate today like juvenile grade school reporters. Their high tech internet coverage was, essentially, a childish tweetfest that encouraged participation to engage in equally banal juvenile behavior. They could have done something radical like, I dunno, setting up a camera & microphone with a live feed???
Amateurish, juvenile bullshit - the community was not served. Fortunately it will be available to people running the Windows operating system on their computers eventually.
You can find it here.

POTUS to Address Ohio State CommencementI didn't vote for Obama. I didn't go to Ohio State. But I live in Ohio & the President of the United States is going to speak at the main state University.
Headlines at some Ohio newspaper websites:

Obama to give commencement address at Ohio State
Cox News - Springfield News Sun & Dayton Daily News

Obama to give Ohio State commencement speech
Columbus Dispatch

President Barack Obama to deliver Ohio State University's commencement speech
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Obama to speak at OSU spring commencement
Youngstown News

Obama Coming to Ohio, Again
Fishwarp Politics blog

Fishwarp V. Hamilton County Fair 2012

Daily Grooming Contest @ 2012 Clark County FairLast day to enjoy the 2012 Hamilton County Fair. The weather is perfect - might want some sunscreen. I have bitched & moaned about the coverage of the fair by the paper of record, The Fishwarp for a few years now. So what do we have from the Warpers for this year?
Well, the filthy 4H will not be there again so the threat of swine flu can't be leveled at the Hamco crowd. Well, WLW could wrangle it probably.
We have a story from a couple days before the fair opened with the GIC saying they would double last year's attendance (which would pretty much constitute a miracle). Probably discredits the guy & hopefully in jaded Gannetland sets him up for a fall.
Thursday we get an article alleging animal cruelty & threats of protests.
A listing in "things to do"
No pictures or galleries up. Did I mention the Springfield News Sun ran over 300 pictures from the Clark County Fair?
WXIX has some minor coverage of the fair their guy's entry into the Hamilton County Fair Celebrity Demolition Derby. Wonder why the Fishwarp didn't field anybody for the Celebrity Demolition Derby? Could it be that they have just whittled their staff down to just part time interns under 16 yrs old?

UPDATE: Hamilton County Fair announces attendance up 30% over 2011

Clark County Fair Winners link

Clark County Fair Scramble link

Clark County Fair link

Rebloodlican Confusion ?As Rebloodlicans do what they can to confuse voters, The Rebloodlican Cincinnati Enquirer has chosen to declare itself a "Watchdog" through a series called "Protect Your Vote". This is also the name of a Rebloodlican organization set on maintaining the Rebloodlican gerrymandered redistricting across Ohio.
Fishwarp story here
Rebloodlican organisation site here

Poking around Bloggersville, Cincinnati, I came across some interesting poop. Well, to me that is.
UrbanCincy notes that Downtown Cincinnati is on the rise. In kind of a companion piece a WCPO article picked up by The Urbanophile, says the same thing & points out that a lot of the new residents of the downtown area are from out of town.
Meanwhile, over in COA T land it's pointed out The Cincinnati Enquirer has lost 17% of it's subscribers. While the thrust of that article is about their print mouthpiece not disseminating their propaganda to their satisfaction, the numbers don't lie - readership is down.
So this brings up my question - How many of these new downtown residents read the Enquirer?

To this ignorant LTE I offer this.
I would offer a rebuttal directly to the Fishwarp but they have apparently banned me from their LTE column.

FUCK

Did the Fishwarp goof or are they just trying to perk up their print edition sales?
It's looking more & more like the future of Gannett papers will be nothing but USA Today with little "regional" sections.

y'know, back in olden days the word "FLICK" was banned from comic books because the cheap newsprint they were printed on had a tendency to absorb & blob up the ink blurring the L into the I.

City Bleat gets the scoop here

Yesterday's Gone

This article over at The Urbanophile about Kodak & Detroit inspired me to write this about the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Now that the Fishwarp has decided to charge for reading their stuff online, the website has ceased being a perk & has become a product. While their investment in the site has always been a business operation, this really changes things. Just putting the paper paper online is pointless. If they don't embrace the new media format it would be like going into television & panning a camera up & down the pages or going into radio & just reading the articles like a service for the blind.
While the newspaper prints "all the news that fits", it's constraint is available pages. In broadcast media, what fits is constrained by time. A good example of using the web to transcend those constraints is WLWT's posting the entire streetcar dedication ceremony online - something they could never do on live TV. The Fishwarp has added cheesy "galleries" of photos but they are usually pretty lame. They have a commenting system that's flawed but their attitude towards it is still stuck in the ancient newspaper mindset. The intertubes facilitate dialogue but the Fiswarpers just toss stuff out like bird seed. In the article where Ms Washburn "explains" the electronic subscription model, she generated over 100 comments. Some of them justly asked for clarification but in old newspaper mode, the Fishwarp published & then washed their hands & went home.
The Fishwarp needs to forget about posting charts, maps & other graphics in low resolution gifs & jpgs & start using a vector format like svg that is more legible & can afford interaction for even more clarity.
Again, the site is not a newspaper, they need to ~shudder gasp~ use audio & video. They need to use links more effectively - they can keep the reader on their site by opening links in a frame if they want.
It's a new product - it's not business as usual.

It isn’t Kasich’s fault
It’s Kasich’s fault
It’s public workers’ fault
It’s the legislature’s fault
It’s everybody’s fault
It’s the Republicans’ fault

The headlines for a slew of Letters to the Editor at The Fishwarp 2/21/12
pretty good…..

Adding to the Community Conversation
From the Cincinnati Enquirer's Letters to the Editor preface:

The Enquirer receives dozens of letters to the editor each week and because of space limitations, only a fraction of them can appear in print. Here online, we are able to post all of the letters we receive that add to the community conversation.

I sent a letter in online to counter a fairly paranoid letter from a guy out in exotic Butler County concerning government corruption and the Cincinnati Streetcar.
Ed claimed a Federal grant from a government with no money should send up some red flags & that investigative media types should be looking into just who owns the properties along the streetcar route. He asks:

"Could there be holding companies that have purchased a lot of property, who are the owners of the holding companies and just by chance what political groups received election funds along the way?

Not sure how paranoid conspiracy mongering "adds to the community conversation" but my answer apparently didn't. Since Zuckerberg doesn't think I'm a human being, I could not reply directly.
Anyway, you, dear intrepid reader, must remember my post from awhile ago discussing ownership along the route.

Directly on the route there are about 500 properties owned by about 400 entities. Expanding out a block and adding cross streets you can probably add close to 1,000 more properties. Expand further & get even more.

This was the point I made in my letter and added that rehabbing these properties would mean jobs for the lagging housing industry. But, apparently my letter did not "adds to the community conversation".
Vaguely interestingly, a week later the Enquiring folks run an article on The Streetcar's Number 1 Supporter, John Schneider - who owns property along the route. Are they trying to fan the flames of conspiracy & self serving greed?
heaven forbid.

Over 1,400 - Gone

When the Fishwrap announced it would require a FaceBook account to make comments on their site, they received over 1,400 comments, almost unanimously condemning the action.
They are now gone.
Complaints covered fear of reprisal, not wanting a FaceBook account & not wanting to use FaceBook for that purpose.
The Fishwrap said it wanted o do away with the ugliness.
ummmm…..
Is our health falling apart?
Dinkels deny assault claim
Driver killed in rollover crash on I-471
Woman used car as weapon
Homeowner held burglar at gunpoint
Murderer pleads for mercy
Mini crime spree in Colerain
Water, sewer rates shooting up
Priest at council event faced sex allegation
Moody's warns county on bonds
yeah, happiness & sunshine from the people who don't want
"ugliness". Perhaps ugliness begets ugliness?

Anonymous Commenting

The Porkopolis Fishwrap has announced it will "end anonymous commenting" by forcing would be commenters to register with FaceBook.
Anybody who follows the comments knows who the regulars are & what to expect from them. I imagine it can be pretty shocking for someone who isn't used to the wholesale sociopathy that is SW Ohio to read the comments on an article about their kids or local school or charity. That's ok. They probably wouldn't have returned to the mosh pit anyway.
UPDATE: yeesh around 1,400 comments - 98% negative.
Anyhoo, if you don't want to participate in an online dialogue on local current issues the FishBook way there's lots of other choices.
For example:

• Building Cincinnati
• Cincinnati Beacon
• Cincinnati Blog
• The Cincinnati Monocle
• Cincinnati Black Blog
• Cincy Streetcar
• City Kin
• City Beat
• C.O.A. .T.
• The Daily Bellwether
• Fuck Yeah, Cincinnati
• Look Everybody - A Blog!
• Losantville
• The Over the Rhine Blog
• 5chw4r7z
• Urban Cincy
• Visualingual
• And for a more comprehensive list:
   Cincy Bloggers

Dilemma at the Fishwrap

As the Porktown Fishwrap's print edition sales fall, they have opted to using a smaller and more appropriate tabloid format. An easy solution for the newer size restraints would be to move to a 5 or 6 point font but therein lies the rub. Most of the people who still read the paper paper are increasingly in need of 14, 16 & 18 point (preferably bold) type.
what to do, what to do…..
With any luck they will adopt the Page Three Girl. At any rate, the smaller format will be more convenient to use on the streetcar.

And the First Salvo is Fired

The Fishwrap, AKA the Area Around Cincinnati Enquirer has fired off it's first doom & gloom article about the Hamilton County Fair, which runs from today through Saturday, complete with 29 black & white photos shot during the 50s & 60s. Probably the last time they sent a reporter. Many of the pictures, like above, showing empty stands. The black & white subtly indicating the event is old & out of date. The lack of highlights indicates dark, murky undesirability.
waytogoboys…..

Read all about it here

Failing Newspaper Resolves to Fix Government
Taking a page from the Nancy Spungen playbook, the Cincinnati Enquirer has decided to solve the problems in City Hall.
Can we strengthen city leadership?
Complete with polls (interactivity!) and video (multi-media!), the Fishwrap gets off to a really slow start in examining the people and organizational structure of municipal government while stroking their exurban readership. How unbiased the extremely Republican® publication can be isn't even debatable. They vow to keep this up through August. Can they make it that long without any more layoffs? Stay tuned.

Improving The Enquirer's Commenting
Anybody who reads the Fishwrap's comments or, even the Letters to the Editor, knows that SW Ohio is batshit crazy (not to mention clairvoyant). While I try to bring some semblance of order to the boards,


I frequently feel like I am playing a Bob Kane's Oliver Wendell Douglas in a Marquis DeSade's Hooterville.
Short of requiring Rorschach tests before posting or installing breathalyzers on poster's computers, I think a few other measures could be taken to improve the commenting on the Fishwrap boards.
First off, improve the censoring. It appears to be done by MCSEs. Law students may not be any better. Dunno if theologist types would be any good, either. maybe chickens....
Second, require the poster to answer a question about the original article before posting. This will stop the poster from posting a knee jerk reaction to the headline (which was meant to be elicit a knee jerk reaction in the first place).
Third, post comments in the order posted. If there are more than two pages of comments, require the aspiring poster to, at least, click through them before posting. While this wouldn't guarantee the poster reads the preceding comments, it would be a start.
Fourth, a "Are you SURE you want to post this drivel ?" challenge after hitting the submit button would be in order. A second one could be implemented if certain keywords are detected in the post (or, heck, just automated spell checking).
Fifth, make poster's links active. References are important in social/political discourse. You can make the link open in a frame if you don't want readers leaving your site.
Finally, if a commenters comments are deleted 99% of the time (Lee Greewood ?), just ban the sucker.

Hamilton County Fair Pics !
The Cincinnati Enquirer has posted 9 (count 'em) pictures from the 154th Hamilton County Fair which runs through Saturday.
Foul ! Ewes ! Flowers ! Horses ! Baby Chickies !
Hopefully, more to come - Go Enquirer! Go !
Pie Eating Contest Friday at 5 !
Gallery here.

Hamilton County Fair !
On 8/8/09 the Enquirer ran a story about The Hamilton County Fair. In an earlier post I griped about the coverage of the fair in the Enquirer. This story, already stuck onto the nky.com pages describes the fair glowingly with words like, "struggles" & "dismal". The story prominently focuses on poor attendance and cites better attendance at other nearby fairs. The story tells us about a manure giveaway. We are reminded of "nearby gunfire and groups of unruly youths".
Of course the racism and optimism of the Cincinnati.com commenter is present:
From navrat," Why on earth would decent people want to take their kids to an event about agriculture,located in an area taken over by low life ,punks and thugs?"
From chillymost1 (referring to the one incident of gunfire), "Inside or Outside...gunplay is gunplay. I feel bad that we're losing this tradition, but once it is tainted by idiots firing guns...inside or out on Vine street...I don't feel safe there.".
and (continuing to obsess over the one time gunfire incident, "Im sure as heck not going there! .... make it into an Urban County fair with Uzis & Glocks and Phat Farm & Enyce clothes and boom cars with 26" wheels!"
There was a ray of hope from LetsAnnex, "A lot of hard work has gone into planning this Fair, and it is in poor taste to dismiss the work of hundreds.".
The Enquirer does mention sections of the fair being dedicated to green living and urban gardening, a new ride company, more carny game booths and a first ever parade. It also brings up fair organizers wanting to abandon the Hell on Earth that is Cincinnati. With coverage from the local paper like this, can't blame 'em.


Anyway, here's the details:
7801 Anthony Wayne Avenue
Tuesday-Friday: 3 PM-11 PM
rides start at 5 PM
Saturday: 11 AM-11 PM
rides start at 1 PM
$8 admission - $4 parking rides are included with admission.




Fiswrap Story here.