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Make The News Great Again - Part Two

What the state media must do to recover their credibility
By Garth Kant
December 6, 2024
On The Record
 
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The first inquiry my office received from a reporter after the election was a request to do an interview on “the bathroom bill” and “efforts to ban gender affirming care.”

Did the state media learn nothing from the election?

They just can’t stop barking up the wrong trees.

The voters demonstrated conclusively that the top issues Americans care about are the traditional but crucial “kitchen table” concerns:  

     •   The economy, inflation and the cost of groceries and gas.
     •   Illegal immigration and its costs to society.
     •   Crime and the toll it takes on everyone. 

Voters soundly rejected the left’s culture war on traditional American society: 

     •   The vast majority of Americans simply do not want boys showering with girls in schools. 
     •   They do not want children undergoing experimental chemical treatments or genital-mutilation surgery
     •   And they don’t want boys causing brain injuries to girls by spiking volleyballs off their skulls. 

Nowhere in the country did Democrats take a bigger drubbing than in Ohio. 

Ohio now has only one Democrat elected to a statewide office – a supreme court justice. The 2024 election was a wipeout – a donkey apocalypse unlike anything in modern state history.

Republicans easily retained their supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate, and now hold virtually every major office decided by statewide votes:

     •  Governor
     •  Lt. Governor
     •  Attorney General
     •  State Auditor
     •  Secretary of State
     •  Treasurer of State
     •  Both U.S. Senators
     •  Six of seven State Supreme Court Justices

Think that was a bad election for Democrats? 

It was even worse for the state media, which ended up with an extra-large serving of egg on its face this year. 

Not only did the big papers endorse a slate of losing candidates (backing Democrats virtually across the board), they suffered a particularly stinging rebuke over Issue 1.

The pseudo-redistricting reform amendment was heartily endorsed by:

     •  Akron Beacon Journal 
     •  Cincinnati Enquirer 
     •  Columbus Dispatch 
     •  Cleveland Plain Dealer 
     •  Toledo Blade

Issue 1 seemed like a slam dunk. 

A “nonpartisan” Bowling Green State University poll in October showed it should win in a landslide, with 60% of Ohio voters supporting the measure and just 20% opposing it.

Ads for Issue 1 saturated the airwaves. Proponents spent nearly $40 million on their campaign – outspending the opposition by more than 6 to 1. The amendment was endorsed by a former state supreme court chief justice. And, of course, it was endorsed by all the papers.

And then it went down in flames on election day.

The eight-percent margin of defeat was a near-landslide and a stunning rebuke to the left and the state media.

They were left wondering, what just happened?

A major part of what happened was the state media dropped the ball.

Their strong endorsements were backed by practically no analysis of  Issue 1. 

The papers just kept repeating the left’s one lame talking point like an intellectually challenged parrot:  Issue 1 would “end” gerrymandering.

Squawk!

The state media uncritically regurgitated what proved to be a pack of lies pushed by far-left radicals in Washington and abroad...and a former chief justice bent on revenge after seeing all of her activist rulings overturned by higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

     •  They lied when they called it bipartisan.
     •  They lied when they called it grassroots.
     •  They lied when they called it anti-gerrymandering.

But no one in the state media dared look into those claims too closely.

Reporters did virtually no actual reporting or investigating to find out whether there was any truth to the claims by Issue 1 proponents.

So, we did the media’s job for them.

On The Record did the research to discover who and what was really behind Issue 1 – and what its passage would really mean for Ohio, in this series of investigative reports:

March 22, 2024
•  Issue 1 is not a grassroots campaign – it was launched by leftist politicians.
•  The campaign Citizens Not Politicians is run by a far-left Democratic opposition researcher from out of state.

August 9, 2024:
•  A woke Swiss billionaire bankrolls Issue 1.
•  His ambition is to turn the US Constitution into a progressive document.
•  Issue 1 removes all anti-gerrymandering protections.

August 30, 2024:
•  Issue 1 comes from a plan hatched by Democratic party bosses in DC.
•  They targeted Ohio’s Constitution.
•  Ohio Democrats have been doing their bidding.

September 6, 2024:
•  Issue 1 would overthrow the Ohio Constitution’s provisions on redistricting overwhelming approved by voters in 2015 and 2018.
•  Eric Holder claims “independent” citizen panels draw fairer redistricting maps than elected officials. 
•  That’s not how it turned out in Michigan, which immediately flipped from red to blue and froze out African-American candidates.

September 27, 2024:
•  Issue 1 is anti-democratic and gives power to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.
•  Statewide election results prove Ohio is not gerrymandered. 
•  Democrats can’t even win most districts where they’re favored.

October 11, 2024:
•  Issue 1 won’t subtract gerrymandering – it will add it.
•  It will make gerrymandering mandatory.
•  It is a stealth plan to help elect Democrats.

October 18, 2024:
•  Issue 1 is not bipartisan – it has no GOP support.
•  O’Connor’s attempts to sabotage our maps were all overturned by higher courts including the U.S. Supreme Court.
•  Ohio’s current maps are all constitutional and bipartisan approved.

October 25, 2024:
•  Issue 1 is impossibly complex and confusing.
•  That’s on purpose – to disguise its real intent.
•  Its only purpose is to help elect Democrats.

While the state media swooned over the false promises of Issue 1, the voters saw right through the charade.

If the editors and reporters had done their job and actually researched this topic they might have saved leftist donors some big bucks. 

Just as Kamala Harris squandered a billion dollars of other people’s money on her inept presidential campaign, deep-pocketed donors lost close to $40 million on this ill-conceived boondoggle.

Instead of pursuing far-left pipedreams, both the state media and Ohio Democrats would better serve the people by focusing on the real issues in our state and acknowledging the real progress we are making.

When the General Assembly pulled off the remarkable feat last year of slashing taxes while also investing a record amount on public schooling the entire state media merely yawned.

The reliably myopic Cleveland Plain Dealer even whined

“The Ohio General Assembly could be in for its least productive year, in terms of passing bills into law, since at least 1955, state records show.” 

Liberals think passing bills equals progress. Republicans know results are the only real measure of progress. But Ohioans barely hear about our budgetary accomplishments from a media that just doesn’t want to publicize any good news from a legislature guided by Republican leadership.

As On The Record wrote at the time:

There is a wealth of beneficial but unpublicized features in House Bill 33, the FY24-25 Main Operating Budget, passed by both chambers.

This is a great story that you won’t read in the papers or see on television.

What your elected lawmakers are accomplishing is truly amazing. Don’t just take our word for it. 

Look at the record and decide for yourself.

The 134th and 135th General Assemblies have brought unprecedented progress in so many vital areas:

•        Empowering and Supporting Women 
•        Prioritizing Support for Children, Mothers, and Families
•        Supporting Ohio’s Local Communities   
•        Improving Access to Quality Housing and Encouraging Home Ownership
•        Making Higher Education Affordable
•        Universal Vouchers for K-12
•        Record School Funding
•        Major New Literacy Initiative
•        Expanding Job Opportunities and Innovative Training
•        Economic Development and the Booming Silicon Heartland
•        Helping Farmers 
•        Prioritizing Rail Safety
•        Slashing Regulations 
•        Record Tax Cuts

The General Assembly has been incredibly productive. You wouldn’t know it from reading or watching the state news. 

Maybe people would start reading and watching again if the media reported the real news, the news people care about. Those kitchen table issues. The ones that matter to most Ohioans. 

Ohioans would be especially keen to learn more about the flood of good news in recent years (see the budget list above), even if the media have to grit their teeth and give credit to Republicans.

Free advice for the media:  cover the issues people care about – not the ones you care about.

Think about how the average Ohioan looks at the top issues, compared to how the media sees them.

Inflation:  Everyone who goes shopping knows the real cost of groceries is far greater than the government inflation figures. When a $15 dollar steak cost $10 at the start of the Biden administration, you know the real rate of food inflation is crippling to the average Ohioan’s budget. Report on that, don’t just regurgitate administration propaganda. That is how to retrieve your credibility with most Ohioans. 

Energy:  Stop opposing fracking on mythical environmental concerns that only the wealthy can afford. Every household in Ohio, the fate of America, and the entire global economy all depend on affordable energy. If you implicitly accuse readers of killing the planet for wanting a decent standard of living you will just keep losing readers and viewers.

Immigration:  People don’t want their cities, towns, and services overrun by migrants. It is insulting to see illegal immigrants showered with debit cards, free hotel rooms, and immunity from the law when citizens have to foot the bill and suffer the consequences. Citizens also know, despite what the media insists, that an illegal immigrant crime wave is not a figment of their imagination.

Guns and crime:  The Second Amendment isn’t to protect hunters, it’s to protect everyone. Americans don’t want to be unilaterally disarmed, especially in the big cites that have become virtual war zones thanks to decades of Democratic rule.

School choice:  Our children, our choice. Parents don’t want bureaucrats and politicians telling them where their children may or may not go to school. Only the teachers’ unions and the Democrats they fund want that.

Gerrymandering:  Stop blaming gerrymandering for the Democrats’  extreme unpopularity in Ohio. It’s their policies, stupid. Critically examine those for a change – that would be an actual useful service you could provide. 

Culture wars:  Stop supporting insane ideas like letting boys use girls’  bathrooms, then accusing average people (including the GOP) of pushing culture wars. We aren’t pushing those wars – you are – and we’re pushing back.

The media’s war on truth and objectivity must end or it will die.

If our state media is to survive its plummeting popularity and credibility it must take a few simple but crucial steps.

It must start reporting the news again and stop taking sides. Umpires shouldn’t be taking sides, just calling balls and strikes – without bias. 

Ohio state media needs to reform. The industry can save itself but only by ending advocacy journalism. And only the media can save themselves. They must return to the fundamentals of journalism and the pursuit of truth and objectivity.

To do so, the state media must actually serve readers by paying attention to what average Ohioans think and believe – not by promoting what the media want them to think and believe.

Our state media outlets have become deep blue dots in a sea of red. Reporters and editors don’t have to agree with the general public on everything, but they have to stop taking sides. They have to stop playing advocate and start reporting again.  

To do that, they have to overcome the biggest hurdle – they have to learn to see their own biases. Most journalists have no idea how far they have strayed to the left of the average American. The election should serve as a wakeup call and should motivate some serious self-reflection.

It won’t be easy.  There are some serious occupational hazards in journalism. The hours are demanding and the stress can be enormous.  There are non-stop deadlines and low pay. And journalists are now less respected than politicians and less liked than dentists.

A study from the London Press Club found that journalists are more biased, worse at thinking and managing emotions, and drink more than the general public:

“Journalists' brains show a lower-than-average level of executive functioning, according to a new study, which means they have a below-average ability to regulate their emotions, suppress biases, solve complex problems, switch between tasks, and show creative and flexible thinking.”

“The results showed that journalists' brains were operating at a lower level than the average population, particularly because of dehydration and the tendency of journalists to self-medicate with alcohol, caffeine, and high-sugar foods.”

“The study, led by Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and leadership coach, analysed 40 journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcast, and online platforms over seven months.”

Well, that’s some difficult news to swallow.

After 30 years in the media, I guarantee you, that is not how journalists see themselves. But it is well past time for them to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Especially now that the election has proven just how badly they have completely lost touch with average Americans.

It’s a job that demands realism but is populated by idealists. So many journalists are going bananas by trying to make leftism comport with reality. It’s like trying to square circles for a living.

There’s only one cure. Drop the woke and embrace reality.

The cognitive dissonance with reality will eventually crush their souls if they don’t drop the messiah complex and, instead, just go back to just doing their jobs.  

Just report the facts. 

That’s invaluable.

Not only will it save their profession, it will truly help make the world a better place.

Now, that is a noble calling.

Garth Kant is Senior Press Secretary of the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus. He spent 25 years writing and producing television news for CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and local affiliates. He spent five years covering Capitol Hill and the White House as a print reporter. He is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook "How To Write Television News."