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PUBLIC
EYE STAFF PICKS
Best Return to the
Airwaves:
WNKU (89.7 FM) brought back the popular weekly news program Speaking
Frankly, which had been off the air for several years.
News Director Maryanne Zeleznik hosts the talk and call-in show
on Thursday mornings, and it’s a refreshingly intelligent
take on local news and issues without race-baiting, yelling or idiot
callers.
Best Return to the Light:
WAIF (88.3 FM) finally moved out of their parents’
basement in the old Alms Hotel and into some decent digs on McMillan
Avenue. The community radio station has deserved better for many
years now, so help them maintain this new space come pledge drive
time. Memo to WAIFers: That bright yellow thing in the sky is the
sun.
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Best Life or Death
Decision:
Jerome
Campbell
Photo: CityBeat Archive
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Best Life or Death Decision:
Jerome Campbell
For the first time since Ohio resumed executing prisoners in the
1970s, the Ohio Adult Parole Authority recommended clemency in a
capital case. A CityBeat investigation found so many irregularities
in the conviction and sentencing of Jerome Campbell of Cincinnati
that civil rights leaders and death penalty foes made a compelling
case for reasonable doubt. Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen
was so put off by the possibility of Campbell staying alive that
he personally drove to Columbus to make a pitch for carrying out
the execution. But new DNA evidence on Campbell’s shoes, compromised
testimony by jailhouse snitches and the rapid disposal of evidence
from the crime scene convinced the Parole Authority to recommend
life imprisonment. Campbell was one day within being executed by
the state when Gov. Bob Taft spared his life. (Gregory Flannery)
Best Funny Media Prank:
The always entertaining Chris & Rob Late Nite Talk Show
(Tuesday nights at 10 on WAIF, 88.3 FM) spoofed the controversy
over same-sex marriages by having its hosts, Chris Comer and Rob
Ervin, marry on the air. One week they had a shower, then a bachelor
party and finally a wedding. They make such a lovely couple.
Best Unfunny Media Prank:
WLW (700 AM) has long been every
rightwinger’s favorite talk show station. This year the kind
souls at WLW put together a “Derelict
Round-Up,” offering homeless people $20, beer and
a ride out of town. Picking on poor people — what fun!
Best Tune In:
In an age when Michael Powell and his cronies at the FCC are squashing
unique voices, our very own Media Bridges is doing
the exact opposite. The organization’s mission is to provide
an outlet to
anyone yearning (or learning) to be heard. And in a city as diversity-
challenged as Cincinnati, that’s certainly an idea worth nurturing.
Media Bridges, 1106 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-651-4171.
Best Reminder that the Corporate Press
Is the Lapdog of the Oppressor:
When city council debated a $52 million subsidy to keep Convergys
downtown, Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Maggie Downs
asked well-known people and ordinary folks what they’d do
if the city gave them such a wad. The Enquirer held the resulting
column until after the subsidy was approved.
Best Effort to Please All the People
All the Time:
City council passed a burglar alarm tax, with fines
for false alarms. The ordinance passed unanimously. Some people
complained. City council then repealed the scheme. Unanimously.
Best Way to Obstruct Injustice:
When city council passed a law requiring panhandlers to carry beggars’
licenses, Cincinnati Progressive Action organized teachers,
doctors and other workers to sign up in protest. More than 100 registered
as panhandlers — not because they’ll ever ask for a
dime, but as a sign of solidarity with the poor.
Best Political Tease:
Jerry Springer made quite a show of running for
the U.S. Senate, then ducked out, effectively giving Republican
incumbent Sen. George Voinovich a free pass at re-election. (Can
you even name the Democratic nominee?) Springer said he couldn’t
separate himself, in voters’ minds, from his sleazy TV show.
But he says he might try again in a few years. We’ve heard
it before, Jerry.
Best Leap Forward into the 19th Century:
The Ohio General Assembly finally ratified the 14th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of the
law and gave African Americans the right to vote.
Best Proof that Provincialism Carries
a Cost:
A city audit showed that development impresario Lashawn
Pettus-Brown had listed his assets in Japanese yen, but
city development officials didn’t notice until he went missing
with the city’s money. The FBI caught him this year, but only
after the walls came tumbling down at the Empire Theater, the project
he convinced the city to subsidize.
Best Example of a City Embracing Tolerance:
Citizens for Community Values tried but failed to stop the city
of Covington from expanding its human rights ordinance.
Even the minister who likes to yell “God hates fags!”
joined the debate. But the City Commission unanimously extended
equal rights without regard to sexual orientation. In social issues,
as in riverfront development, Northern Kentucky is increasingly
what Cincinnati wishes it could be.
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Staff’s
Best Moments During the Rollout of Kathy Y. Wilson’s
new book, Your Negro Tour Guide:
Truths in Black and White
Photo: Jymi Bolden
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Staff’s
Best Moments During the Rollout of Kathy Y. Wilson’s new book,
Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black and White
• At her Joseph-Beth signing, when she repeatedly and convincingly
said, “This is my bestest day.” We’re glad we
were there to witness it.
• Apparently “ugly lesbian” is a term of endearment.
• Although the writing is brilliant, you gotta love the mammy
on the cover. Especially when Kathy signs your copy and draws a
quote bubble from the mammy’s mouth that says, “Kill
Flannery” (News Editor Gregory Flannery).
• With her cover art, Kathy reintroduced and reclaimed the
mammy for her own usage and garnered some overblown responses. That’s
pretty much on par with the columns she writes.
• Seeing Kathy so excited to see her own picture on a book
jacket.
• Managers’ meetings at CityBeat are dignified affairs,
with important business discussed in hushed tones. But when Kathy
received her first copies of the book, she burst into the meeting,
announced, “I know I’m interrupting, but I don’t
care. My book is here!”
• Coercing her Hot Seat co-hosts, Eric Kearney and Peter Bronson,
to hold up her book at the beginning of the show.
• From Kathy herself: “There was a trinity of moments:
the early morning I finally finished the manuscript; walking into
Joseph-Beth the night of the book launch and seeing all those people
there to see me; and descending the steps to see people lined up
from the fireplace to the registers waiting for my autograph. God
lives through.”
Best Grassroots Campaign:
The Citizens to Restore Fairness has given Cincinnati
a chance to repeal its official discrimination against gays and
lesbians, the notorious Article 12 of the city charter. The organization
doesn’t sit well with some gay rights organizers, but it got
the job done. With City Council too cowardly to put repeal on the
ballot after 10 years, somebody had to collect the money, train
the volunteers, file the paper work and inspire a coalition of mainstream
and progressive groups. The Citizens to Restore Fairness did it.
Best Pro Bono Work by a Lawyer (South
Shore):
After the city of Covington destroyed a homeless people’s
camp on the banks of the Ohio River, Cincinnati attorney Robert
Newman sued on their behalf, winning damages for the victims
and a court order acknowledging their rights to due process.
Best Pro Bono Work by a Lawyer (North
Shore):
When Mayor Charlie Luken demanded the eviction of homeless people
camping under bridges, attorney Jennifer Kinsley
stepped forward to make sure they were given notice and referrals
to social service agencies. She’s also trying to get the panhandling
licenses thrown out.
Best Sustained Witness for Peace:
The Women in Black, gathering weekly at Vine Street
and Central Parkway, maintained their peace vigil from the start
of the war on Iraq and continue it today. Neither rain nor snow
nor the barbs of passing conservatives deterred them.
Best Parade Statement:
Northside’s famous Fourth of July parade featured a group
calling themselves “City’s Real Aggressive Panhandlers.”
Marchers dressed in bow ties and top hats, jiggled spare change
in coffee cans and sported signs saying “Saks,” “Kroger,”
“Convergys,” “Reds,” “Bengals”
and “Cinergy,” companies city council had voted to support
with taxpayers’ money. The same council had recently passed
new anti-panhandling laws.
Best Opportunity:
Of all the places Martin Luther King III could be to celebrate the
40th anniversary of his father’s famous “I Have a Dream”
speech last August, he chose Cincinnati. Joining him at an Eden
Park rally, Harry Belafonte said the racial problems
here represent how American society hasn’t progressed much
since King’s 1963 speech, but he also challenged Cincinnatians
to lead racial healing. “The next key to opening up the 21st
Century,” Belafonte said, “is in a place called Over-the-Rhine.”
Best Devil Worshipper:
Local writer Steve Kissing might have been fighting
Satan his entire childhood — or at least thought he was —
but he can thank the Evil One for inspiring enough good stories
to fill a book. Kissing’s debut novel, Running from the Devil,
recounts his 1970s childhood in Price Hill and the almost daily
battles he fought with Satan in his head as he tried to be the perfect
Catholic boy. Call it a love/hate relationship.
Best Hundredth Man March:
Northern Kentucky writer Jack Kerley went from
finding a literary agent to signing a $500,000 book contract with
a national publishing house in 10 days, after years of toiling away
at fiction writing. He won the Mercantile Library Short Story Competition
last summer, and while attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference
— the competition’s first place prize, along with it
being published in CityBeat — he found out about his contract.
Kerley’s debut novel, The Hundredth Man, is due out in June.
We like to say we knew him when.
Best Geek Revivalist:
Cincinnatian Brad King is on a mission to remind
all of us that kids who play online games like Doom and Ultima are
just regular folks. The one-time CityBeat staff writer was in town
in November to promote his new book, Dungeons and Dreamers: The
Rise of the Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic. We love King,
who’s certainly outgrown his early geekdom, but we’re
still not buying that “regular folks” thing.
Best Library Story:
Novelist Michael Griffith, also an assistant professor
at UC, debuted his second publication in July, a witty and wry collection
that included the novella Bibliophilia. The novella’s central
character, a librarian-turned-sex-cop, patrols a college library’s
stacks in search of hot and heavy crimes, all while longing for
something a little hotter and heavier in her own dull marriage.
Throw in a recent National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and
you’ve got an up-and-coming writer Cincinnati can champion.
Best Teacher’s Pet:
Sharon Draper has fought a seamless battle. In
her roles as teacher and author, she’s been a royal guard
to children, teenagers and parents alike. She prompts discussion
and offers understanding. Her latest effort, The Battle of Jericho,
is a towering achievement on her prestigious resume. Not for herself,
per se. She’s already been deemed National Teacher of the
Year in 1997, and that’s a pretty high honor to top. No, it’s
her audiences that are the true victors. Winning the 2004 Coretta
Scott King Honor Book Award, Jericho explores the pressure and problems
of hazing for high school students. Brave and timely, Draper stays
in tune with the state of our youth, and works to keep families
connected.
Best Shot of Legitimacy:
CityBeat readers have known about WNKU (89.7 FM)
and Magus Productions for years, but mainstream
Cincinnati finally came face-to-face with their alternative/acoustic/singer-songwriter
fare at last fall’s Tall Stacks. Magus brought many of the
Stacks acts to town for the first time in small shows at the Southgate
House or The Carnegie, and WNKU is about the only place to hear
their music on the radio.
Best Rip-Off of The Onion:
Derf Magazine. A great idea, if not completely
well-executed, Derf’s satirical fake-news Web site (DerfMagazine.com)
owes more than just its format to the relatively flawless Net humor
hub The Onion. The local flourishes are a nice touch, but, like
a Jay Leno monologue, not much sticks.
Best Cranky Weatherman:
Steve Horstmeyer on Channel 12’s morning
show. As much as we like to glimpse hints that our morning show
personalities can’t actually be as impossibly chipper as they
act, Horstmeyer has a none-too-subtle creepy/cranky streak that
seems to sometimes freak out even the perkily bullet-proof hosts.
Bring back the devilish beard, Steve!
Best Too Much Information Newscaster:
Jack Atherton on Fox19 is kinda like the Perry
Como or Bing Crosby of nightly anchors. His breezy, laid-back style
— he should smoke a pipe while he does the news! — and
the way he’ll occasionally bring his private life into the
freakin’ newscast is sorta admirable. When British actor Alan
Bates died, Atherton interjected before his report that Bates was
“Mrs. Atherton’s favorite actor.” Cracks us up.
Best Local Radio
Show No Longer on the Radio:
Art Damage. The perennial bastion for adventurous,
experimental music lost its time slot on WAIF (88.3 FM) due to some
scheduling disagreements (both sides blame the other). Art Damage
was essentially the only outlet for that kind of music, inspiring
multitudes of non-conformist musicians in the area for more than
15 years. artdamage.org.
Best Reason to Fear for Local Radio:
The 97X sale and switch to an Internet-only entity.
After over two decades of quality Modern Rock service (remember,
they were “Alternative Rock” before that was even a
term), the owners of Oxford-based WOXY finally decided to sell off
the station’s terrestrial rights. The good news: 97X will
live on through the Internet after around May 1, and we don’t
have to hear everyone bitch about its poor signal within Cincinnati
city limits. But the loss of another independent voice in the area
is devastating, and the station’s undying support of local
music (including the annual 97Xposure local band contest) will be
sorely missed.
Best Big Media Exit:
Larry Nager’s departure from The Enquirer
was unfortunate. Sure, CityBeat has given the daily’s longstanding
Pop music critic loads of guff over the years. Still, in a year
that saw other local music lifelines shut down, The Enquirer’s
seemingly abrupt dismissal of the highly qualified Nager was a disappointment,
going hand and hand with the paper’s desperation to attract
and keep younger readers. Nager went out with style though, filing
a lawsuit that claimed his dismissal was based on the fact that
he’s old and male.
Best Change of Direction:
In the fall The Enquirer elminated the TV/radio
beat that John Kiesewetter held for 18 years and moved
him to its Butler County office to cover suburban news. Enquirer
staffers told CityBeat that focus groups and surveys have said younger
readers — the core demographic the paper is obsessed with
right now — aren’t interested in TV and radio news.
The paper used wire copy to cover TV/radio news no one cared about,
and then put unknown young staff writers on local TV/radio stories
no one cared about. Finally, just a few weeks ago, Enquirer vet
Jim Knippenberg debuted a Sunday TV/radio column, which apparently
will go unread by the disinterested twentysomethings. Or maybe,
just maybe, young people actually watch TV and listen to the radio!
Ya think?
Best Marketing Job:
Downtown’s new corporate club, Cincinnati Center City
Development Corp. (3CDC), announced its coming-out party
with a glowing, front-page story in the Sunday Enquirer about its
new CEO, Stephen Leeper. What a coup! Wonder if it had anything
to do with Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan being 3CDC’s
marketing chair? Hmmm. Seems like she’s doing a pretty good
job so far.
Best Snow Job:
In a press release announcing the debut of Cin Weekly,
Buchanan said the idea of a free entertainment weekly publication
geared to the 25-34 demographic solidified last summer after The
Enquirer did a story on local young professionals. She somehow forgot
to mention that she headed parent company Gannett’s “free
entertainment weekly publication geared to the 25-34 demographic”
pilot program in Boise, Idaho, which has now been rolled out to
Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Rochester and other Gannett
markets.
Best Live Mannequin:
Weathercaster Paul Horton must have lost a bet
to someone high up at Channel 19, or else he’s the best sport
in Cincinnati. Horton lets the station dress him up in funky costumes
and weather gear for the Channel 19 weekend forecast ads in CityBeat.
Our favorites include the Santa outfit in December, hat and noisemaker
for New Year’s Eve, the pained expression and “Brrrr!”
thought balloon in January and Xavier Musketeer hat and mustache
for March Madness.
Best Summer Camp:
In 2003 Lights-Camera-Learning-in-Action presented
its second summer camp for underprivileged kids interested in learning
about making movies and likely will do a third this summer. The
camp is a collaboration among the arts nonprofit Happen, Inc., the
Cincinnati Film Society and Project Connect, which organizes the
25-30 childen ages 10-12 who learn every aspect of writing, directing
and acting in a movie. The 2003 film, The Stolen Book, was given
the Hollywood treatment with a premiere party at The Mt. Lookout
Cinema Grill.
Best Attempt to Retract a Bad Deal:
Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune single
handedly took on the Bengals and the NFL when he filed a taxpayer
lawsuit in federal court last year in an attempt to give county
taxpayers some footing in the lopsided Paul Brown Stadium lease.
Nobody really cared until Commissioner Phil Heimlich joined Portune
in voting March 10 for the county to join the lawsuit. If the commissioners
can prove the Bengals and the NFL used monopoly power to coerce
the county into a bad deal, taxpayers could see the debt-inducing
lease voided.
Best Slapdown by a Federal Judge:
When city council tried to get civil rights attorney Kenneth Lawson
barred from suing the Cincinnati Police Department, U.S.
District Judge Susan Dlott called council’s motion
“unhelpful … nonsensical … meanspirited.”
Best Way to Honk Off the War Machine:
When a group of protesters blocked downtown traffic on the day the
United States invaded Iraq, Vincent Hammerstein
honked his car horn in support of the protest. Police cited him
for unnecessary horn blowing. Hammerstein was ready to fight to
have the law ruled unconstitutional, but the case was dismissed
when the officer who wrote the ticket didn’t show up in court.
Best Chips off the Block:
Consultant Peter Block — ready, willing and
able to help Cincinnati break some bad habits — instead encounters
a lot of what he calls “the middle-aged white male learning
position” from local political and business leaders; that’s
standing with your arms crossed and leaning back with a scowl. One
of his favorite ways to get people to try new ways of solving problems:
“Hold a meeting without talking about anyone not in the room.
Makes for a short meeting.”
Best Hypocrisy:
Citizens for Community Values wins first, second
and third place in this category. Last summer, CityBeat discovered
that the “ordinary citizen” writing complaint letters
to Bigg’s, Meijer and other chain stores with CityBeat racks
(resulting in the paper being kicked out of several locations) was
in fact a CCV volunteer; CCV President Phil Burress bragged publicly
about his organization’s success at eliminating CityBeat distribution
spots. Last fall, CCV’s Web site offered explicit police descriptions
of the adult videos confiscated in the criminal cases against the
Hustler store downtown; CCV, which often rails against obscenity
being available freely to children on the Web, had no password protection
or parental block on these police descriptions. And now, in the
national hoopla surrounding same-sex marriage, the divorced Burress
is offering himself as a prominent spokesman in “defense of
marriage.”
Best Political Message:
Filmmaker Michael Moore, wearing an XU hat, told
a packed house at Xavier in November that they need to get off their
asses and get involved in the political system: “We’re
like those passengers on that (hijacked) plane, only it’s
still 9/11 and our plane, this country, is still headed for disaster.
The question is: What will it take to get you out of your seats?
You have the power to stop this plane wreck. But are you too comfortable
to rise up?”
Best Reminder That Work Remains:
AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati is on a campaign
to remind us that AIDS is still around and still ravaging the community.
The problem is, people are tuning out the message. AVOC Executive
Director Victoria Brooks says maybe the public thinks AIDS is cured
(it’s not) and maybe fewer people care now that newly diagnosed
patients aren’t the young white, gay men as in the 1980s but
now are mostly low-income people of color. AVOC, 220 Findlay Ave.,
Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-2437.
Best Magnanimous Sound Bite:
Bessie Jones asking for peace and love, not violence,
in response to her grandson Nathaniel Jones’ death in police
custody. “I don’t want to see no violence,” she
said. “We don’t have to hurt one another. Let’s
love one another. I don’t care what color you are. Love me
and I’ll love you.”
Best Insulting Sound Bite:
WLW (700 AM) shock jock Bill Cunningham made fun
of Nathaniel Jones’ weight in the aftermath of his death.
Half of Cunningham’s defenders say no one takes this guy seriously,
while the other half parrot him like he’s some prophet telling
it like it is.
Best Below-the-Belt Political Moves:
It’s a tie between council candidate Pete Witte
challenging, unsuccessfully, candidate Lynch’s city residence
and marital status before the Hamilton County Board of Elections
and all references to Pat DeWine’s extramarital “scandal”
that has everything to do with his heart but nothing — outgoing
Commissioner John Dowlin’s sleazy insinuations
to the contrary be damned — to do with his abilities to serve
in public office. One does have to hope, however, that DeWine has
reconsidered his traditional conception of “family values.”
Best Shakeup to an Otherwise Boring
City Council Election:
The Rev. Damon Lynch III entered the council race
two days before the filing deadline. He’s the same person
who’d called for the boycott of the city and gotten kicked
off the Mayor’s CAN Commission for writing an infamous letter
accusing Cincinnati police of “killing, raping, planting false
evidence and … destroying the general sense of self-respect
for black citizens.” Lynch missed a seat on council by less
than 1,000 votes and has made noise about running again in 2004.
Best Proof of a Stereotype:
Nicholas Spencer, who help found Cincinnati Tomorrow
— a group of young professionals trying to push “creative
class” concepts in city development — ran for council
as a voice of the young people who normally are shut out of decision-making
in Cincinnati. The rap against twentysomethings is that they’re
complacent and don’t want to get involved — and they
proved the stereotype correct, failing to rally around Spencer,
who finished a dismal 21th in the election.
Best Political Surprise:
Christopher Smitherman’s election to city
council proved that hardworking self-starters can win public office
on the first try. It also demonstrated the viability of the city’s
third party, the Charter Committee.
Best Challenge to Police Status Quo:
Newly-elected Councilman Christopher Smitherman
told Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. that, last time he looked,
he was the chief’s boss. Smitherman was furious that Streicher
had already publicly commented on the death in police custody of
Nathaniel Jones and told Streicher that he would not “ever”
tolerate insubordination. It’s since been observed that no,
technically, Smitherman isn’t Streicher’s boss; Streicher
answers to City Manager Valerie Lemmie, who answers to the mayor.
Smitherman later clarified that he was speaking as a citizen and
taxpayer, not as councilman.
Best Compliment:
Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen — apparently
upset that rookie Smitherman was targeting Allen’s alma mater,
Elder High School, by asking the Cincinnati Police Department to
provide a list of high schools from which each officer graduated
— called Smitherman “a smart-mouthed little punk”
on WLW radio. Smitherman immediately became CityBeat’s favorite
local politician.
Best Sticky Situation:
Around the same time, Smitherman — looking to investigate
police abuse of off-duty and overtime pay as detailed in CityBeat’s
December cover story “Protection Racket” — gathered
enough votes to subpoena the story’s author, Leslie
Blade, to testify at council’s law and public safety
committee. The subpoena was only the second one issued by council
in 10 years and pissed off local and national journalism organizations,
who saw the forced testimony as detrimental to freedom of the press.
In the end, Blade answered Smitherman’s questions, did not
reveal her sources and left unscathed.
Best Game-Playing:
After Blade testified, Chief Streicher (an Elder
grad) led council members through a brief presentation on overtime
policies that had little to do with the CityBeat story. His information
was presented in a leave-behind booklet with a purple cover (Elder’s
color).
Best Breath of Fresh Air:
Weather patterns typically move from west to east, so maybe we could
have guessed that UC’s new president, Nancy Zimpher,
would blow some cobwebs off the place when she arrived from Milwaukee.
But she’s really taken this city by storm. The boys on Fourth
Street are taking notice, and it’s likely she’ll inject
some fresh thinking into our often slow-moving metropolis. More
later.
Best Headline:
“It’s True: Bill Seitz Is Gay.”
That headline in a February Porkopolis column startled quite a few
readers, and on purpose. State Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township,
is the well-known ultraconservative who helped sponsor Ohio’s
Defense of Marriage Act, designed to prevent gays and lesbians from
marrying. Bill Seitz, gay gallery director at the Carnegie Visual
+ Performing Arts Center in Covington who’s better known in
CityBeat circles but not citywide, finally snapped when the Defense
of Marriage Act was proposed and passed. He’s now on a mission
to defend his good name. ©
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