What the Dayton Daily News misses in endorsements

In my last post we talked about the failings of “You Betcha, Belcher” and her crew at the Dayton Daily News editorial board. The competency of questioning and the actual accuracy of their statements border on  libel. But, that never stopped them from actually presenting information that would be useful- no, that would be up to the readers in the comments- that, of course is why Cox publishing pays Ellen the big bucks.

They slammed Virgil Vaduva in their endorsement editorial, and to some degree, probably rightfully so. Here is Vaduva’s response in their comments:

By Virgil Vaduva

April 13, 2010 3:42 PM | Link to this

I want to thank the DDN Editorial folks for meeting with me. But for the record, I would like to correct a few glaring and I hope, inadvertent errors: I do not live in Cedarville; I live in Xenia, I mentioned this several times during the interview. Dayton Development Coalition is involved in local backroom political deals which are highly questionable, and there is no evidence that DDC has brought in any jobs or has directly benefited Greene County; I mentioned this in the interview. Defending them is not something Alan Anderson should be proud of. I specifically mentioned during the interview that school district taxes are a big part of the “high taxes” problems in Greene County. Most SDs are run by Republicans, which illustrate my point, namely that Greene County Republicans have abandoned their principles of small government and low taxation. I mentioned this during the interview as well. I made the Children Services 2007-2009 budged public – I will let the readers decide and wonder why Dayton Daily News thinks this is an appropriate budget and how they can justify this unheard-of level of bureaucracy. Sincerely, Virgil Vaduva

via Editorial: Anderson is better Greene County pick | A Matter of Opinion.

Missing where Vaduva lives is a pretty basic journalism. Vaduva first came to my attention when he filed suit against Xenia for hiring the political consulting firm (lobbying firm) Avakian Consulting, to do “marketing of the community” with tax dollars- when it was really money to research a chance of a property tax increase. You’d think this would be mentioned in the editorial? Of course not.

The editorial focused on which candidate would suck up most to the Dayton Development Coalition- an organization already well known for handing out no-bid contracts to congressman Turner’s wife for the pathetic “Get Midwest” branding campaign that had insane cost overruns.

And while Vaduva’s opponent talks about wanting to make sure Greene county gets high speed internet access- he doesn’t sound like the highest bandwidth candidate either. Maybe this is a race where the editorial should say- “we wouldn’t endorse either for anything.” Yet, they do say Vaduva is “pleasant” and think he should be running for some “legislative seat” while at the same time claiming he says taxes “are a “violent means” of taking people’s property.”

The reality is, there probably will be a democrat facing these two (a useful news item that’s missing from the editorial) that almost has to be a better alternative (we would hope). Or, if you think about it- since the Greene Commission is a three person board- how bad can it be to have one elected free-thinker/alternative thinker? In Europe having third, fourth and fifth party voices never seems to get in the way of having something happen- why is it so feared here? He can’t pass a thing on his own- without getting at least one other vote.

However, the most interesting part of the DDN editorial- is something posted in the comments on the letters of support: a link to a site claiming to unmask the real Virgil. Posted by “Dan”

Learn all about Virgil Vaduva:
http://cedarvilleheart.blogspot.com

6:12 PM, 4/13/2010

Interesting stuff, but not any more legitimate than the Dayton Daily News editorial info.

This is why candidate blogs, straight from the horses mouth, are so critical in online reputation and policy positions. You’ll find enough stuff on my site to form an opinion, one way or another about me (although it might take you a while to read through it all). Why isn’t this a basic requirement for all candidates? And while Vaduva has his own site (or sites as the Cedarvilleheart site claims) – why can’t we see a video of the DDN endorsement meeting- or listen in on a podcast from it? What does the DDN have to hide?

I made every attempt to post candidates nights to YouTube- to provide access for all. Why aren’t other candidates doing the same?

Shouldn’t voters be able to make up their minds based on the actual words of the candidates- instead of through the “Belcher filter”?

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