Pass along a news tip by clicking HERE.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

PD's Departing Ted Wendling: A Humorist at Heart?

CLEVELAND(TDB) -- A sharp-eyed Northeast Ohio denizen of Blogland, Jill, snagged my long-time Plain Dealer colleague Ted Wendling's closing monologue this morning.

It's worthy of Whoopi and Leno and Letterman. Scratch that. Make it Don Rickles at the Friar's.

Wendling has been Columbus bureau chief for most of this year. He is leaving like 63 others in the Cleveland newspaper's buyout, including several who covered state and local politics over the decades.

Maybe he'll go into business for himself producing TV awards shows. What would he have to say about Donald Trump's comb over? As good as he is, though, I don't think Ted could ever write a funny line for John Kerry. About John Kerry, yes. For him, nope.

Enjoy Ted's monologue, if that's the right word.

UPDATE: Not everybody is a fan of Ted Wendling. He's catching flak because he's looked for a job in the Democratic Strickland Administration. And he's a graduate of the University of Michigan, which might be treason in Columbus. Raising questions about journalistic impartiality is fair comment. I, for one, don't know Ted's personal politics -- he could be D, he could be R, he could be a Whig or a member of the British Labour Party. He might also be an Independent. I didn't ask. He never told.

For years, I worked with MaryAnne Sharkey, one of Ted's PD bureau predecessors in Columbus. She was from Dayton and I always had her pegged as a very liberal Democrat. Her nickname around Columbus was "The Shark." After leaving the paper, she became a political operative and was Gov. Bob Taft's first-term communications director. She handled all the spin and publicity for a Republican administration. A surprise for sure.

No comments:

Post a Comment