Cincinnati Enquirer's Marc Dann Coverage: No News Of The AG Scandal Has Appeared In Its Pages

[UPDATED TUESDAY 4/15, 7:00 AM -- A story appeared in this morning's print edition on page B-2 of the metro section. It broke a week long black out, and was mostly an AP report about developments over the weekend in Columbus. It contained two quotes from Cincinnati-area lawmakers, State Sen. Eric Kearney and State Rep. Steve Driehaus, both Democrats like Attorney General Marc Dann. Apparently, no Republicans were available for comment, or the newspaper did not contact any members of the opposition party. Kearney said of Dann: "He's a little provocative, but in a good way. It sounds like somebody did something they really shouldn't have done." Driehaus, who is running for the OH-01 congressional seat, was quoted saying: "Any of us who are accused of wrongdoing, or any of our staff that are accused of wrongdoing, it is incumbent upon all of us as elected officials to cooperate in the investigation, and I would expect the attorney general to do that." That's the latest from Cincinnati's morning metro daily about sexual harassment allegations in the attorney general's office, allegations that are rattling state government.]

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio's third-largest newspaper, has not yet published or produced a news story in its print edition (as this search shows) about the sexual harassment scandal now enveloping Democratic Ohio Atty. Gen. Marc Dann. The paper did print an editorial Saturday that calls for a special counsel on the case. But with what seems to be a news blackout in its printed pages, Enquirer customers might wonder: Why an opinion piece about something you have not told us anything about? If this isn't newsworthy, why bother with an editorial?

Meanwhile, Ohio's other major metropolitan dailies -- from Cleveland to Columbus, from Toledo to Dayton -- have been filled with stories all week. Here's a sample from the Akron Beacon Journal, the Columbus Dispatch, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, and the Dayton Daily News.

Cincinnati.com, the online version of the Enquirer, linked to some Dann news earlier this week in the Politics Extra political blog. But the material came from other newspapers around the state and was not produced by the Enquirer's staff. Some comments on the blog were critical, and one anonymous commenter noted:

"Isn't it embarrassing to the Enquirer that they have to link to other state newspapers so their readers can know what is happening with the state Attorney General's office? Seriously, I would like an answer to be posted from Enquirer management as to why they are failing on their watchdog role?"

Another wrote: "It appears the Enquirer is attempting to join Dann's cover up of pajamagate, or more accurately, the uncovering of it. Yo poor people in Cincinnati --this paper really keeps you in the dark. But at least you know how the Reds are doing."

And: "What is wrong with the Enquirer? I have to go to the Internet and read other Ohio paper just to know what is going on in this state. I wish someone could sue them for false-advertising for their failure to deliver the news."

Those comments appeared on the newspaper's own political blog -- so it is not censoring critics. But the comments show there is dissatisfaction with the Gannett Co. Inc. daily's extreme lack of news coverage about a major political scandal in Columbus. It may be that the newspaper is so thinly staffed it just doesn't have enough reporters to cover the Dann story. If that is the case, Gannett's budget cutting seems to have pared not just fat, but even the muscle that undergirds any meaty news coverage. Still, budget cuts cannot be entirely behind the Marc Dann news blackout in Ohio's third largest paper, the paper that serves the state's most populous metropolitan area. There are AP wire stories available for publication, along with copy from a story-exchange program set up last month with Ohio's other large dailies. None of that has made it into the Enquirer's pages.

Cincinnati Enquirer Caught Covering Up News? Blackwell Case Blacked Out By Paper

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- If you read the Cincinnati Enquirer for news, you wouldn't know that Ken Blackwell's son is in a bit of a jam. The metro daily sells some 200,000 copies a day but couldn't find space for negative legal news out of the Ohio Supreme Court about the son of the 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is also the son of the Cincinnati public school system's superintendent. No reporter produced a story; no editor seems to have demanded an article. There was a press release from the court. Ignored.

The Enquirer was scooped, and scooped big. Perhaps it was dozing. Or perhaps something more sinister occurred. Has it covered up a story that some editors recognized was important, but also would embarrass some politically connected Enquirer favorites?

There was a snippet in the paper's online political blog that linked to another publication's article. But the snippet's headline didn't even hint that somebody in the Blackwell clan's conduct was under a cloud and had been questioned as unethical. The Enquirer, of course, supported Blackwell over Democrat Ted Strickland in last fall's Ohio campaign for governor. Is it so enamored of the Blackwell name that it covers up news? Especially news about tests and exams -- which might be seen as reflecting somewhat negatively on Rosa Blackwell, a school administrator responsible for tests and exams. After all, her son was ensnared in a conflict about whether he had followed the rules on his state bar exam in Ohio.

While the story was blacked out from the Cincinnati morning daily's news pages, others were reporting what was up. The Dayton Daily News -- which is some 40 miles up I-75 from downtown Cincinnati -- even came up with audio of the Ohio Supreme Court's hearing regarding Blackwell's son. That indicates the Enquirer could have produced some kind of story even if it missed the court session. It could have transcribed the tape for the details -- or printed the transcript.

The political blogs in Ohio have been all over the Blackwell story, which has now become old news. But it's not old news in the pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer, where it never became news at all.

For years, there have been suspicions that the Enquirer, a unit the Gannett Co. Inc. publishing empire, is selective about what gets published. If it likes you or supports you, then the bad stuff gets censored, buried or blacked out. That was the way Pravda did it, too. This latest incident seems to add fuel to the suspicions -- this time there was a whiff of scandal around a politically connected family, the odor got into the wind, it made the news in Ohio. But it didn't make the Enquirer's pages. Bottomline: If you want to really know what's up with Cincinnati, you may have to start reading the newspaper in Dayton.