IS THE WORM BEGINNING TO TURN OF HEALY? HIS HERETOFORE ALLY STARTS PRINTING POINTED STORIES - FOLLOWING SCPR LEAD?

Mayor William J. Healy, II's worries just got compounded.

Following the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT'S LEAD, The Canton Repository has taken a much more critical turn on Mayor Healy.

On April 27, 2009 the SCPR went with the story: Healy on conversation about Hawk: it was private. Can you believe this guy?

On June 07, 2009 (41 days after the SCPR piece), Ed Ballint writes a story: Was mayor's remark at charity event politically motivated?

Here a link to the SCPR original story.

Compare it to Balint's.

Wow! Almost a carbon copy.

But The Rep's piece is 41 days down the pike.

The SCPR is complimented that The Rep many times follows up on inside political stories that originated in the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT.

The Report does believe The Rep "powers that be" have ethical problems of their own. Anytime the SCPR uses The Rep's material, there is full credit and attribution.

But the reciprocal is not true.

Moreover, the SCPR believes The Rep has ordered its reporters from crediting the SCPR with originating stories, has ordered that references to the SCPR in the comments section be edited out or the comments refused and, of course, Executive Editor Jeff Gauger himself refuses to apply journalistic ethics vis-a-vis the SCPR and, obviously, has ordered his fellow editors from properly crediting The Report when they get their ideas on editorial topics from reading the SCPR.

The Report has learned that there was a celebration at The Rep a few months ago when they thought they had beaten the SCPR to the punch. They hadn't. Again, The Report is complimented when Stark County's only countywide newspaper with staff galore (when compared with the SCPR - which only has yours truly) feels challenged.

The SCPR is the only alternative to The Rep on political news and analysis. Frequently, The Report gets e-mail compliments lauding the SCPR as being much higher quality than the political news reporting and analysis at The Repository.

The Rep has never been a great paper, but with the introduction of executive editor Jeff Gauger, managing editor Don Detore, publisher Kevin Kampman and the whole GateHouse Media Ohio, Inc team; The Repository has sank to new journalistic lows.

Nevertheless, The Rep's is Stark County's only countywide newspaper which buys ink by the barrel and likes to think it is the 800-pound-gorilla of local journalism and Mayor William Healy should be more worried than ever that media scrutiny of his every action is to be magnified considerably.

In addition to Balint's piece today, there is the editorial offering Mayor owes Hawk, citizens apology and Mayor has put the cart before the horse (June 4, 2009).

The evidence is clear to the SCPR, Mayor Healy's romance with The Rep has come to an abrupt end. Undoubtedly, this is painful for The Rep's powers, for all the criticism that yours truly levels at The Rep; there is no question that they want Healy to succeed as mayor. So does the SCPR.

However, Healy is chasing failure at a fast, fast rate.

As one high level city official within the last few days told The Report, "Healy just continues to shoot himself in the foot. For those of us working in the administration, all these incidents are distracting. We just want to get the job done for Cantonians. Healy is huge problem in that regard."

The same source told The Report: "Healy has no close friends in the administration. He is not a friendly guy. It is reduced to him and communications director Adam Herman making command decisions for the adminstration. The departure of Safety Director Tom Nesbitt is a huge blow."

These are horribly bleak times for Canton city government. But Mayor William J. Healy, II has made them much more bleak than they need be.