Editorial: When Does Ohio Become Front Page News

Now look, we know it's not as heady as the Ukraine and The Times won't be able to beat up on foreigners as it so often seems to love doing, but can someone tell us please when exactly the Ohio issue will be addressed by the paper of record?

We're all trying to figure out what the editorial should be and how to put this puppy to sleep so that we can get some when C.I. mentions in an off-hand manner, "Well what about what's going on in Ohio Monday?" After our chorus of "huhs?" abates, C.I. says look at the entry posted at The Common Ills. Fine, no problem, we're Common Ills community members.

We go there and see a post on this morning's Times (and scratch our heads trying to figure out when that got pulled together) and as we read down, we find this:

But of interest at the online site (electiononline.org) is a story they link to (by the Associated Press) that I haven't heard of (maybe you have, I've been focusing on rallies, etc. for the last two days). It ran on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 and it is entitled "Congressional Committee to Hold Election Hearing in Ohio." From that article in The Beacon Journal:
A congressional committee that blasted the secretaries of state from Ohio and Florida for missing its hearing about the presidential election will hold another session in Ohio.
Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell plans to attend the House Administration Committee hearing, scheduled for Monday in Columbus, spokesman Carlo LoParo said.
Admittedly, I'm tired. And Lord knows my math skills are spotty on a good day. But as I understand the article, the House committee will be holding a session in Ohio this Monday, the 21st.and supposedly Kenneth Blackwell will attend.
Back to the article:
State lawmakers and representatives from the boards of elections in Franklin, Cuyahoga, Mahoning and Allen counties also are to testify at Monday's hearing.
A Congressional committee (US Congressional, not state) is holding hearings and I know I didn't read about it in the New York Times this week. Did anyone see it anywhere? Isn't this news if only because Blackwell was a no-show prior? And Lord knows, Tom Zeller Jr. needs something to ridicule so you'd think the Times would have handed him this to write up.
Again, I hadn't heard of this hearing. Maybe you have. (As of Friday morning, no one had e-mailed the site about it -- common_ills@yahoo.com -- but I haven't been able to check much of the mail this weekend.)
Now maybe I'm misunderstanding the story. (Check the link yourself.) I'm tired, I just want to go to sleep already. But as I understand it, a United States Congressional committee is going to Ohio to hold a hearing. To me that's news. To me, it's front page news.

We're reading it and our jaw drops because we had a busy week and Lord knows we haven't been online in the last twenty-four hours except to work on the articles we've already posted.
But we haven't heard word one of this.

Have you?

C.I.'s all "Check the link, check the link! I'm tired, maybe I'm misunderstanding, maybe I got the dates wrong."

We do. We see this: "Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2005."

Pretty obvious to us. We have no idea why no one's discussing this in the mainstream media. We hope someone's discussing it on the blogs.

But as we understand the article and as we understand this governmental press release that C.I. steered us too, this should be news that's being reported:

The Committee on House Administration, led by Chairman Bob Ney (OH-18), will travel to Columbus, Ohio, this Monday, March 21st, to convene a field hearing on the 2004 election and the implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). This will be the second in a series of oversight hearings that the Committee is holding on this issue.
The hearing will convene at 10:00 AM on Monday, March 21st, in the Senate Finance Committee hearing room within the Ohio State Capitol Building, located on the corner of 3rd and State Street in Columbus, Ohio.
The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:
Panel One
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, 11th District of Ohio
Panel Two
Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State
Dana Walch, Director of Legislative Affairs, Office of the Ohio Secretary of State
Panel Three
Senator Randy Gardner, Ohio Senate
Senator Jeff Jacobson, Ohio Senate Representative Kevin DeWine, Ohio House of Representatives
Panel Four
Keith Cunningham, President, Ohio Association of Election Officials; Director, Allen County Board of Elections
Mike Sciortino, Director, Mahoning County Board of Elections
Michael Vu, Director, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
William Anthony, Chairman, Franklin County Board of Elections
Panel Five
Edward Foley, Professor of Law, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law; Director, Election Law@Moritz Program
Daniel P. Tokaji, Assistant Professor of Law, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, II, National Counsel, American Center for Voting Rights
Norman Robbins, Co-coordinator, Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition

We're wondering exactly when our news media was going to deliver this news to us.

This past Friday, The Times did find time to question the elections in Zimbabwe but somehow this hearing has just been off their radar.

Is this news you can use or is it news management?

Can someone tell us why this hasn't been all over the place?

For those who've forgotten or missed it the first time, Kenneth Blackwell elected not to show when Congress held a hearing on this issue. If Blackwell won't go to the mountain, the mountain will go to Blackwell?

That's news people, anyway you look at it. And while Zimbabwe is news as well, we'd argue that our own domestic election issues deserve just as much attention as the elections in other countries. So why aren't we hearing of this? Didn't the close of Robert Blake's trial provide the "news" media with a substantial hole to fill? Is there a reason they can't talk about this?

Whether someone believes the election was stolen or not, this has to do with issues that will be at the heart of the voting in 2006 which is just around the corner. So why isn't the paper of misrecord covering this?

We haven't looked at the morning paper ourselves, but C.I. says they've got a life style feature about blended families on the front page. On the front page, people! And Condi goes to Korea and even more on Terry Schiavo. Where's the story on Ohio? Where's the heads up that there's a hearing tomorrow?

New York Timid, your slip is showing and it's a lovely shade of bias but it's looking old and we'd suggest you purchase a new slip -- possibly something in the shade of truth?