GOOD TRY REP. EDITORS, BUT "STARK 20/20" NEEDS MORE WORK. THANKFULLY, IT HAS BEEN BILLED AS A "WORK-IN-PROGRESS"

The Stark County Political Report wanted to cheer the publication of "Stark 20/20" by The Rep "powers that be" in yesterday's edition of the paper, but on careful examination of "the New Year resolution," a discerning person has to ask: "where's the beef?"

Apparently, the bigs at 500 Market Avenue, South are so used to uncritical acclaim in this "one- newspaper-town" that they think they can merely throw out a "Stark 20/20" and get "oohs and aahs" galore.

That may be the case with some, but not from the SCPR.

It takes very little scrutiny to determine that "Stark 20/20" is a tree exercise as in the expression "not being able to see the forest for the trees."  And, Stark Countians should not be surprised to see such a roll-out.  After all, Executive Editor Jeff Gauger seems to spend an lot of time managing the "comments section" (i.e. trees) of The Rep. while there are obviously "bigger fish to fry" in terms of pushing the county forward to an economically viable future.

Gauger and friends seem to be infected with the same virus that The Report believes inhabits the likes of former Stark County Commissioner Thomas Harmon as evidenced by his leadership role in promoting the placement of  a horse show arena at the Stark County Fairgrounds.  While the arena is okay as a limited start toward making fairgrounds "all that complex can be;" a horse show arena is hardly what needs to be done to make the fairgrounds a first rate economic development project right in the heart of Canton and Stark County.  As far as the SCPR knows, Harmon et al have no grand plan for rehabbing the fairgrounds.

So while the fairgrounds steadily deteriorate and the Fair Board is trying to entice the Stark County commissioners to throw good money after bad just to keep the grounds from falling apart, the commissioners (not including Bernabei and Creighton inasmuch as they are newly serving) have not been able to do an "acre of diamonds" type analysis to understand what a terrific start to resurrecting Stark County's economy is to be had if only Stark had the leadership with a vision to see what the folks in Clark County saw and have achieved with Clark's fairgrounds.  If anything, Stark could make much more of a modernized and fully developed economic oasis than Clark because Stark already has a built in attraction bringing out-of-towners to Stark; namely,  the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In order to do what the Clark Countians have done, Stark would have to have "see the forest" visionaries who have the creativeness to fashion ways and means to achieve a grand vision.  If Stark's leadership (e.g. the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce's "Leadership Stark County Signature Group")  could demonstrate bold creativeness, then perhaps Stark could build on the success to develop an ongoing, sustainable collection of creative leaders who could take Stark to new economic development heights.  To The Report, "Leadership Stark County" is more a credentialing phenomenon than being about developing a creative leadership class with an assigned task of working constantly at renewing Stark County's cultural and economic infrastructure.

Yours truly knows a number of Signature Group graduates who seem not to have a creative bone in their entire bodies.

A constructive thing The Rep poobahs could be doing is to push their friends at the Chamber to beef up their leadership programs to produce "in the trenches" leaders rather than the resume building that The Report believes is the essence of the current Chamber leadership programs.

While there is nothing wrong with the examples in and of themselves that Repository editor (Beck) presents and The Rep deserves high marks for the prolific participatory aspect of the proffer,  the guidance strongly tilts towards identifying "trees" in need of repair, however, once repaired there does not seem to be a grand plan (a forest) into which the trees are to fit.  

The "Stark 20/20" concept, if left unmodified, will end up, in ten years, perhaps being a number of community resolved issues that in a sort of way might make Stark a better place to live.

However, unless the selected topics and issues, once repaired, coalesce into being the infrastructure of achieving a concrete economic development reality, Stark County will be left in ten years with the realization that we have been chasing our tail. 

In the meantime, Stark County will have slipped further behind!

Stark will not have a 21st century Hoover Company, Republic Steel and other like enterprises that once made the county one the premier places to live in the state of Ohio, and, indeed, in the entire nation, if not the world.

At the end of discussion, there must be "a pot at the end of the rainbow."

For "where there is no vision, the people perish!"

HEALY'S PR AGENT STRIKES AGAIN. REP EXECUTIVE EDITOR SHILLS FOR THE MAYOR ONCE AGAIN?

Stark County has fallen on hard times, Canton has fallen on hard times and The Repository has fallen on hard times.

With the assignment of Jeff Gauger as executive editor of The Repository, GateHouse Ohio Media has delivered a telling blow to the quality of editorial work being done at Stark's only countywide newspaper.


With Respect to Mayor William J. Healy, II, The Rep's reporting and opinion page reflect more of a public relations stance than tenacious reporting and political/governmental analysis.

An ominous piece was written by Rep reporter Ed Balint on May 9, 2009, to wit:  Canton's quarterly newspaper produced in partnership with GateHouse Ohio [Media], (The Repository's parent company).

The SCPR was skeptical that a thoroughgoing news enterprise could remain separate and apart from a profit making commercial enterprise entered into by the commercial publishing wing of the same newspaper conglomerate.

“We’re excited to be able to assist the city in the publication of their magazine,” said Kevin M. Kampman, president of GateHouse Ohio and publisher of The Repository.

 Kampman went on to say:

“This business relationship does not involve our newspaper newsrooms and will not shape the independent coverage decisions made by GateHouse Ohio journalists.”

 Now that a year has transpired since Kampman's disclaimer, who believes it?

Let's see, here it is March 6, 2010.  Two days ago, The Rep gave over the pages of the paper to pushing its spin on Canton's crime situation.  By way of intro, editorial writer Gayle Beck gave this synopsis of the hand over:  (By the way, Beck assumes the "unassuming" role of "staff writer," really Gayle?)

We chose questions that we thought would have the broadest interest in the community. We skipped the handful of loaded questions. I can tell you, though, that the police chief takes exception to the notion that traffic tickets are a form of extortion.

Key phrases "[w]e chose questions ... ," and "[w]e skipped a handful of loaded questions."

This language indicates that The Rep editorial writers were filtering in "set up questions" to the liking of Healy administration officials at the same time they were filtering out "hardball questions."

The Result:  A Healy administration PR piece!

Shouldn't surprise anyone.

For Gauger, Beck et al to allow such use of The Repository shows the extent to which the Healy administration has been able to compromise the journalistic integrity of The Rep.

For instance, who believes for one New York minute (for Healy and his New York University connection) that 1,173 traffic citations in January, 2010 compares to only 57 in January, 2009 were primarily, according to Safety Director Thomas Ream (the same Thomas Ream who is said - as a leader in the Canton Police Department -  sat down with a Repository reporter over beers to have been bought by the reporter) for safety reasons.

Nobody believes this Administration propaganda.

And yet the Rep editorial writers let these statements go unchallenged.  Moreover, the SCPR labels the editorialists as being complicit in the deception:

More of the Healy administration pablum:

Decreases in calls involving criminal activity are letting police do “work that should have been done all along, if we’d had the ability,” [Canton Police Department Chief] McKimm said.

Healy anticipates that the traffic crackdown will force drivers to change their habits, leading eventually to fewer citations and less revenue for the city.

When you couple the March 4th publication with an overall look at how the relationship that The Rep has with the Healy administration, it is easy to conclude that there is a "sweetheart" relationship between Gauger and colleagues and the Healy folks.

The relationship gets manifested in photo ops (e.g. Healy meeting with J.L. Watson who was picketing in support of Canton firefighters and Healy picking up garbage) which obviously requires tip-offs being phoned in from City Hall to The Rep offices, and the failure of  The Rep generally to provide scrutinizing coverage of the administration.  Moreover, on more than one occasion, The Rep has virtually handed over its editorial pages to Healy as an avenue to pump his spin out.

It is GateHouse Ohio Media's newspaper to run as the ownership sees fit.

But with all its co-mingling relationships, who assigns it much credibility?