ColumbusMediaInsider: 'Poodle' Marshall coddles Kasich

Gov. John Kasich continued to hide from unfriendly questioners June 19 when his "interview" by Channel 4's Colleen Marshall was broadcast.

Marshall, the dean of Columbus news anchors, turned out to be another journalistic "poodle," asking softball questions and failing to hold Kasich accountable for neglecting his duties as governor for a year while he flopped as a presidential candidate and burned through an estimated $1 million-plus of taxpayer money for security and traveling expenses while campaigning out of state.

Sadly, Marshall was more interested in looking good and making Kasich look good than performing as a reporter.

She started the recorded episode of The Spectrum on that Sunday morning by bragging that hers was the first interview in Ohio of Kasich since he dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination. That was false. Two reporters from the Columbus Dispatch and cleveland.com beat her to it.

Marshall opened by telling the audience it would be a "no holds barred interview." Hardly.

She touted Kasich's second place finish in New Hampshire -- where he managed to attract only one out of every seven votes -- and his "valiant" fight against the "bombastic" Donald Trump. Well, it was "no holds barred" regarding Trump.

Kasich, wearing a dress shirt with an open collar, sprinkled his remarks with religious references as he continued to pander to Evangelicals, a group he did not do well with during the primaries.

He claimed to be "fine and satisfied" with his failed campaign. He blamed his poor showing on lack of money, even though millions were raised and spent on his behalf.

Outside observers say that Kasich had more than enough money, but that he flopped because his message did not resonate and he lacked charisma.

He told Marshall he was back to being governor full-time but then talked about writing his fourth book and going to New York City soon to sell it to a publisher and about how he was going to campaign for Republicans running for the U.S. Senate.

Kasich said he "issued directives by cell phone" to run Ohio while campaigning for president. That's an invitation for state employees in to do their jobs by cellphone like the head man did for a year. Imagine the chaos.

The rest of the interview was typical Kasich bombast and self-aggrandizement and Marshall fawning over him. Clearly, Kasich picked Marshall for the exclusive interview because he was confident she would coddle him. And she did.

Marshall failed to ask Kasich the questions we posed in last month's column that still need to be answered:

How much did Ohio taxpayers pay for security and travel during your presidential campaign?
Will you pay back the estimated $1 million-plus?
Will you repay the taxpayers from your presidential campaign account's $1.1 million surplus?
Why did you fail to visit the folks near Piketon whose 8 family members and friends were massacred?
Why did you renege on your oft-stated pledge to support the presumptive GOP presidential nominee (Trump)?

Clearly, Kasich's strategy is to avoid answering the above sticky questions until the reporters and the public forget to ask them.

Obama not credited for Smart City grant

The passing of former Columbus Dispatch owner John F. Wolfe drew voluminous and sympathetic coverage from the newspaper he sold a year ago and from Channel 10, the TV station he owned at his death.

The Dispatch portrayed him as a civic do-gooder, middle-of-the-road Republican who turned the paper into a solid journalistic product in 40 years at the helm. The latter may have been true a decade or more ago, but in recent years the paper had morphed into a political hack job, twisting news coverage and opinion-making to reward and promote Wolfe's friends and favorites (like Gov. Kasich) and to skewer those out of favor (like President Barack Obama).

Some of what I call Obama hate continues under new owner New Media Investments (aka GateHouse Media). In the coverage and commentary about the $50 million Smart City transportation grant, credit to President Obama for the federal largesse was notably absent. The new owners still have a lot of work to do to steer the paper in the direction of even-handedness.

Democrats "check the box," refuse to endorse Sullivan

Columbus Democratic leaders are trying to encourage employers to hire former criminals who have paid their debt to society. One way is to encourage prospective employers to stop asking applicants to "check the box" regarding prior criminal activity.

Unfortunately, that same concern does not extend to the Franklin County Democratic nominee for county treasurer, Cheryl Brooks Sullivan. Sullivan had some scrapes with the law but did her time and turned her life around. Nonetheless, the county party declined to endorse her in the general election. In other words, they "checked the box."

Quickies

-- The top-rated radio station in Columbus is WCOL-FM. The country station averages 12.3 percent of listeners in the May survey, according to Nielsen. It is followed by rocker WNCI-FM at 11%.

-- WDLR radio in Delaware now has an FM frequency, 92.9. Together with its AM frequency of 1550, it is making play by play of Cleveland Indians games available throughout Delaware County and the northern Columbus and Franklin County.

-- Urban Meyer must have gotten over his aversion to blue that led him to berate a student wearing blue at a football event a few months ago. The OSU head football coach is doing a TV public service announcement with Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and is not the least bit angered by the blue shirt Mandel is wearing.

-- Not much new in Columbus Business First's article about the first year of the Dispatch under new ownership. Reporter Tom Knox reminds us that the Dispatch has announced the creation of a reader advisory board.

-- The opponents of electing most Columbus City Council members by wards will flood city residents will all manner of bogus reasons for voting "no" Aug. 2. Ignore the static. If you want city government closer to the people, vote "yes."

POETIC INJUSTICE

Kasich blames dough
For miserable show
Charisma lacking
Not greenbacking
Delivered the blow

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