Uncouth Cash Drawers: Big Retailer Markets 'Money Pot' Panties To Teenybopper Girls

[UPDATE: 8:34 pm, 12/13/07 10 -- Wal-Mart is pulling the money pot pink panties from its stores. Jill Zimon Miller reports that FOX News jumped on the story and gave the chain a wedgie. Parents were complaining. JMZ's report is curious about the fate of the undies: Will they wind up someplace where people can't read the words?]

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Jill Miller Zimon has the lowdown on the low down discount chain that is selling pink panties with "Who needs credit cards" emblazoned over the nether region. Outraged or offended? She has links to file complaints at the chain's corporate headquarters.

Jill says the panties are rude and crude and flash an inappropriate message for young females and agrees: "There's nothing quite like telling adolescent girls that they don't need to worry about finances since they have their very own moneypot between their legs."

More Wide Open Mopin': Do Tell Other Names Considered

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Jill Miller Zimon is still storm tracking the F-5 cyclone that roared through the 'sphere and blew the roof off Wide Open last week. But there is something still unsaid. What other names were considered for the flattened Plain Dealer-financed homestead that was shared by the MSM and indy bloggers? Was it always to be Wide Open? Or something saucier?

Somewhere along the line, I recall reading that Jill was not exactly sold on the nameplate that wound up gracing the experiment on Cleveland.com. At least, that is what I think I recall. Maybe Wide Open was jinxed from the start. Sailors believe names are important. Ships with unsuitable names are thought unseaworthy; they risk the lives of their crew and can disappear under the waves at the mere hint of a ripple.

The bloggers who no longer blog for the newspaper all used clever or stolid names for their personal sites -- Nixguy and Bizzyblog and Ohio Daily and Writes Like She Talks. Wide Open always seemed a little weak compared to monikers like those.

Ohio Journalists And Campaign Contributions: Money Flows To Democrats

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There's a strongly worded sentence at the very end of this column in a certain large Ohio newspaper today that says journalists cannot contribute to political campaigns. But they do. The money flows indirectly through their union, the Newspaper Guild, which is an affiliate of the 750,000-member Communications Workers of America.

Almost all of the CWA's money goes to Democrats. The national Guild's recommended model contract -- which is not adopted or in force at every unionized newsroom -- actually contains language that calls for journalists to set aside a portion of their paychecks to support politicians.

"There shall be provision for payroll deduction of political contributions for employees who voluntarily authorize such deductions in writing."

Contrast that statement to the very last sentence in the column that appeared today in Cleveland: "You can't contribute to a political candidate and then write about his or her campaign, either as a paid employee or as a paid free-lancer for . . . on paper or online. Period."

Does that seem to suggest Guild members ought not be writing about U.S. Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Zack Space and Betty Sutton, three Ohioans who have gotten CWA money this election cycle? Does that imply there is a conflict of interest when journalists belong to a union that uses a percentage of its financial resources to fund campaigns?

Clearly there are opposing views about political activity and journalism, and management appears to be taking a harder line than labor, which favors allowing payroll deduction plans for political donations by reporters and editors. (Note: I don't know of any newspapers in Ohio that have such a payroll deduction plan.)

Not every newspaper in Ohio is covered by a Guild contract. Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown are the big dailies where journalists belong to the Newspaper Guild, along with the afternoon Cincinnati Post, which is scheduled to shut down at the end of next month. The Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Enquirer are non-union.

Another Midwest Newspaper Blogger Axed: Indy Star Says He Went Too Far

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The crash landings seem to be outnumbering the takeoffs. While the Ohiosphere fulminated over the departures of indy bloggers Jill Zimon and Jeff Coryell from The Plain Dealer's now closed Wide Open, there was another ugly episode involving newspaper blogging at the metro daily in Indianapolis. An African American editorial writer at the Indianapolis Star was sent packing for what his newsroom bosses considered a racially crude posting about a city official, who also is black.

RiShawn Biddle's attack on the city and county council president was quickly pulled down from Expresso, the paper's blog. Expresso went decaf. The Star's editor, Dennis Ryerson, put up a note that apologized and said the comments "did not meet the standards of the Star." Ryerson has a tie to The Plain Dealer -- years ago he was the newspaper's editoral page editor, a post now held by Brent Larkin.

Former Star Columnist Ruth Holladay said on her own blog that the paper ran into trouble when it tried to take the muzzle off a writer. He bit somebody. So the muzzle is back.

"With so few blacks working at the Star, Ryerson and Co. now have a real credibility crisis on their hands. They let Biddle unleash; now they have to put the muzzle back on and make nice with the brothers and sisters. Will they fire RiShawn? Or will he just 'disappear' for another six months. What a crazy place."

While the Indy incident and the Cleveland uproar are different -- nobody says the Ohio bloggers used inappropriate language -- they do share a theme. Newspapers get wigged out by stuff that the blogosphere seems to be able to take in stride. Harsh language, insults, political action by bloggers, the list goes on, and it is recognized for what it is -- the detonations, loud noise, mixing of volatile compounds and personalities and issues on a non-print platform. The 'sphere is raw and for percussion. Bloggers don't seem to flinch when politicians, be they congressmen in the Cleveland suburbs or council chiefs in Indianapolis, send messages of aggrievement. Editors seem to take the complaints more seriously, some would say too seriously.

This week two big Midwest newspapers folded in the face of controversy stirred up by bloggers. The press wants a launch on the Web, but it gets nervous, leery, and freezes at the stick instead of juicing the afterburners.

OH-05 GOP: JMZ Creates Timeline Of Gay Candidate 'Outing' Via Ohio Blogs

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Was it the politics of personal destruction? Or merely an open -- but not widely known -- lifestyle fact spread like a prairie wildfire across the Ohio blogosphere? And the biggest unanswered question of all: Who wrote the "anonymous" comment about Wood County Commissioner Tim Brown's sexual orientation? Who unleashed the Furies? Any half-wit can surmise the motivation: Anonymous intended to destroy Brown's OH-05 candidacy some 24 hours after his initial public comment about running for the vacant NW Ohio congressional district. And anonymous was incredibly successful. The poison pen comment led Brown to say he was a gay man holding elected office as an Ohio Republican, an office he still hopes to keep. Brown won't be running for OH-05.

Jill Miller Zimon has constructed a timeline that traces some of the more significant twists in the episode from its start to the place where it is now currently stalled in the Ohio blogosphere. She says the outing of Tim Brown of Bowling Green shows the powerful influence that blogs can exercise in Ohio politics. Others might be thinking toxic influence. Still others might be thinking his candidacy for Congress and his personal privacy were swallowed whole by the vast storage space now available on computer chips and the explosion of information tossed hither and yon by search engines. She does not speak of the responsibility that comes with yoking influence to search engines --or used to come with influence before the age of search engines.

And she does not attempt to answer the uber question -- who started the rumor? (People are working on that, and Jill at Writes Like She Talks is probably tapping into her political sources, too.) Soon, she and others must address the current status of the Ohio political universe, an edgy universe where anonymous rumor has the gravity of fact. This is not criticism of Jill, nor of any blogger, including yours truly. It is simply meant to note that events unfolded so quickly amid the hyperlinks, so damn quickly amid the hyperlinks, that nobody has yet been able to comprehend their roles or the greater meaning of the episode.

According to JMZ, lawyer Scott Pullins who publishes The Pullins Report first noticed the comment some two hours after it was posted Friday morning. There is no suggestion Pullins is "anonymous" -- he was observant and picked up on the Tim Brown comment first. From there it metastasized. It was a drama, a mystery, a whodunit. Now it needs a super sleuth, a Sherlock Holmes to find who unleashed the hounds.

Bloggers Vs. MSM: It Sounds Like Ohio's Jill Miller Zimon Is Raising A White Flag

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com have come a knocking at her door, and Jill Miller Zimon now wants to rachet down the racket that has often pitted the Ohiosphere against the mainstream media. Has she joined an armistice caucus? It even seems as though the gentlelady who authors Writes Like She Talks is proposing peace talks nationwide -- not just in Ohio -- and is writing about it, too. But don't release the doves just yet.

Of course, many are not ready to abandon the trenches. The Daily Bellwether down here in Cincinnati itches to practice Ho Chi Minh journalism, popping up unexpectedly and ready to ambush the MSM. Bizzyblog has battled the The New York Times and duels with the MSM on a site called NewsBusters. And Joe Hallett at the Columbus Dispatch has been a repeated target of salvos from the 'sphere, whose hard work he has been prone to write off as copycat or derivative. Wendy Hoke tangled with the Society of Professional Journalists, then abandoned her membership because it tried to put the interests of Big Media ahead of the indies and freelancers.

Truth is, the MSM is quite a different beast.

The vast majority of blogs are sole proprietorships, or tight knit operations with tiny staffs. Most of the MSM looks like a social insect colony by comparison. There are editors who decide what stories may say. The are other editors who decide where they are played. There are yet more who decide the headlines. And then some more who pick the pictures. There are writers and reporters and photojournalists who have stacks of editors on top of them, so many it can seem like there are hot and cold running editors . And there are editors over the editors. The top editors answer to publishers, who often answer to corporate masters in distant locations.

And the MSM -- print or broadcast -- isn't run for public service, the personal satisfaction of producing content, or even the pursuit of partisan political goals. Its sole bottom line is profit -- making money by reaching a mass audience.

Another difference: Most MSM outlets occupy a specific hunk of turf, and they are loathe to let it go. The Toledo Blade, or the Columbus Dispatch, or The Plain Dealer, all have their hometown audiences and they cater to news and topics for that little slice of the universe.

A blog isn't chained to any patch of real estate, but it can enthusiastically be chained to a philosophy or partisan viewpoint -- often those are the only reasons for a blog's existence. It can be inclined to start fights or quarrels. It can be anti-Wal-Mart, or pro-Wal-Mart. It is free to be anything it wants.

Buckeye State Blog is partisan as hell, but it is not focused on Cleveland readers or a Cleveland market. BSB's Jerid wandered all over New Hampshire like a Democratic Johnny Appleseed this summer covering the presidential campaign on a shoestring. He sowed his opinions and watched them sprout. No MSM outlet in Ohio has attempted to do that, nor would it dare. A reporter could suggest it -- but an editor would have to review the work -- and a bean counter would have to approve spending the money before shuttling someone off to the Granite State.

And then a story about Mitt Romney -- well, it might not be news at all if there was a fire in a house on a suburban cul-de-sac somewhere in Delaware County.

So praise the blogs and pass the ammunition. Don't go AWOL in the struggle between Us vs. Them.

Yes, the MSM has the bigger guns. But the bloggers seem to be very precise marksmen. Although another simile comes to mind from the world of social insects -- termites. They are hardly ever seen, but their munch packs punch. And when termites eat away the foundations, even the biggest edifice can topple. And if you are a blogger, and you hear your keyboard clacking as you write, that's the sound of termites munch, munch, munching away . . .

4 Ohio Bloggers Courted By Plain Dealer: Possible Deal In The Works

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Quiet talks are underway between four independent Ohio bloggers -- two on the left, and two on the right -- and The Plain Dealer, which is courting them to become featured commentators of a sort on its branded Website, Cleveland.com. The indys are popular, have followings in the state and outside, and could bring fresh and sometimes audacious perspectives to a traditionally stolid MSM outlet. There is no question that the newspaper came courting because of a need to somehow preserve its role as a key source of information in a media business environment that is rapidly changing.

According to whispers The Daily Bellwether has overheard, the bloggers who are in talks with the PeeDee are Writes Like She Talks, Ohio Daily, NixGuy, and Bizzyblog. An editor from the PeeDee, Jean Dubail, approached Jill Miller Zimon of Writes Like She Talks recently with a proposal that set in motion the discussions. Nothing has been structured yet, and Dubail reportedly plans to place something on the negotiating table this week with more details. Dubail was the editor who put together the newspaper's OPENERS blog, which went online in early 2006. This could be the first marriage between the MSM and the indy Ohiosphere, which is newly ascendant and barely three years old.

[UPDATE: 7:29 am -- Cincy Newsache intelligently discussed the difficult situation that metro daily newspapers are finding themselves in these days as they attempt to remain relevant for readers and advertisers while producing revenue streams for their owners. (I, too, wrote about the Harvard study last week, but Newsache did a superior job.) Newsache's report probably explains why the MSM is now looking at the indy bloggers -- people who were once dismissed as amateurs in newsrooms -- with unfeigned interest. Change is definitely in the wind.]

[UPDATE: 8:00 am -- Rasmussen Reports had a poll out last Thursday that said hardly anybody who is not a senior citizen gets their news from newspapers. For Americans under 40, they turn to the 'net.]

So far, there is no financial package, nor have any compensation arrangements been offered -- and there may never be. Instead, the bloggers might simply choose to be affiliated with Cleveland.com for prestige and leverage that would increase their influence as members of the digital commentariat. It also could give them a leg up as voices to pay attention to while the 2008 presidential race unfolds. As bloggers associated with Ohio's largest news gathering organization in a critical state, they would probably be viewed as players on the political stage.

For the PeeDee, the deal has other upsides. Newspaper Websites have not been growing, according to recent academic research. Indy bloggers would offer a new approach, especially since the four voices sought would be non-professional journalists who kicked off their careers by writing about things on their own agendas, things that interested themselves. They found audiences through their work and writing.

If the arrangement jells, it could be a tipping point in the Ohiosphere. Other MSM outlets may have to start looking for indy bloggers to compete, or to freshen themselves, or to join the paradigm shift, which is trending away from MSM outlets rooted in print. They are losing audience. The bloggers may be able to show them how to find an audience, or new audiences.

Bizzyblog and NixGuy are located in Cincinnati's suburbs and lean Republican and right. Write Like She Talks and Ohio Daily are Cleveland area blogs and lean left. The authors, Jill Miller Zimon and Jeff Coryell respectively, make no bones about hiding their politics. They proudly call themselves Democrats.

Anyhow, the match hasn't yet been made with the PeeDee. It could come to naught. Or the indy bloggers could soon be getting ready for their star turn on the MSM stage.