Local Election Coverage: Less Noyse and More News, Please

I find The Cincinnati Enquirer’s obsession with 2nd District Congressional write-in candidate Nate Noy not merely pathetic, but highly offensive.

The newspaper itself has devoted at least three full articles to Mr. Noy’s Ohio Elections Commission antics, and

• Schmidt Accused of Padding Resume
• Schmidt’s Office: She Ran Marathons
• Marathon Complaint Against Schmidt Dismissed

The Enquirer’s blog has been saturated with “Marathongate” (working backwards): here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here — just in the past 10 days. The only people in the country more obsessed with something so obviously orchestrated were the fools chasing JonBenet Ramsey non-killer Mark Karr around and keeping a diary of his dietary habits a couple of weeks ago, long after it became clear likely that he wasn’t involved in her awful murder.

At one level all of this is funny. But I’m not laughing, as I’m blessed/cursed with memory longer than the past few weeks:

• I remember a GOP challenger to incumbent US Senator Mike DeWine, one Bill Pierce, defeating Mr. DeWine at the endorsement meeting of Knox County Republicans in January. I don’t remember any Enquirer or Politics Extra coverage of that event, because there wasn’t any.

• I remember Pierce similarly defeating DeWine in Clermont County, which, last time I checked, is in the heart of the Enquirer’s market. I don’t remember any Enquirer or Politics Extra coverage of that event, because there wasn’t any.

• I remember Pierce being cheated out of challenging DeWine by Hamilton County’s Republican leadership in a completely scripted, mass-endorsement process. (Don’t believe me? The script used is at the post.) Though there was, and still is, no doubt as to what really happened in Hamilton County, the Enquirer accepted the county party’s horse-manure rendition of the event and did no follow-up.

• I remember Pierce fighting DeWine to a tie in Preble County, about 62 miles from downtown Cincinnati. There was no newspaper or blog coverage.

• Oh, but when Mike DeWine won in Miami County, about 75 miles from downtown, well — imagine that — Politics Extra was all over it!

• Finally, when TWO senate challengers to Mike DeWine thoroughly embarrassed the incumbent in Fulton County ….. that’s right, nothing.

Other than courtesy articles when their candidacies were announced and an election-eve article about all of the US Senate candidates of both parties, and despite the series of newsworthy stories I just chronicled (more newsworthy than the legitimacy of a 13 year-old marathon photo, doncha think?), The Cincinnati Enquirer and its Politics Extra blog had no coverage of DeWine challengers Bill Pierce or David Smith.

I wouldn’t mind the Enquirer killing time, bandwidth, and trees on trivialities like Marathongate if it also covered the real news — but all too often, with rare exceptions, it usually hasn’t, and still doesn’t. While Marathongate has raged, Schmidt challenger Vic Wulsin, never mind the merits or demerits of her candidacy, hasn’t been able to get a word in edgewise. That’s not right.

So we can excuse future political candidates if they believe the road to success in getting media coverage is paved with sock-puppetry, false accusations, legally questionable shenanigans, and overall, well, I’ll be nice and stick with “eccentricity.” How this relates to a newspaper’s obligations to serve its readers or the political process is beyond me.

During the spring primary, Bill Pierce was told by one media person that it wasn’t their job to “promote” his campaign. Message: “We’re not going to give you coverage until you do something we simply can’t ignore.” Humiliating an incumbent by winning multiple pre-primary party contests obviously doesn’t count. Nate Noy has, probably by accident, figured out what does. We’re all poorer for it.