RubberBuzz || Akron Unleashed: Mike Needs

8.22.2005

Mike Needs

Here's a post from my friend Sage's blog.

Mike Needs, the Public Editor of the Akron Beacon Journal finally compelled me to write today. I make a point to read his article every Sunday. He often shows me a perspective that I hadn't thought of before.

But today I hope to show him a perspective that he hadn't thought of before.[...]

His point is that the public is overly concerned about Plusquellic and the parking attendant controversy and no one is concerned with Judith Miller who "was jailed for keeping her promise to a confidential source."

I'm most surprised that Mike Needs, with all of his insight into his readers, has missed the underlying nuance of the Plusquellic story and also why he is surprised people don't feel outrage by what is happening with Judith Miller.

First, let's look at Judith Miller. Mike feels that we should be outraged and also heavily concerned of what her imprisonment means to our rights. As a journalist, Mike is actually much less qualified to discuss Judith Miller than his readers. The problem with his perspective is, of course he is going to support her, and so is every other journalist. As a small business owner, I'm going to support small business owner rights to a greater extent than the average citizen. I'm not a great person to ask for a clear, non-biased view of small business. Mike Needs is going to be equally as unclear and biased when dealing with Judith Miller's situation.

The problem is, the Judith Miller story is complicated. Unfortunately, unlike all the other complicated stories in our lives such at Iraq, the presidential election and many other stories, Judith Miller doesn't have a massive army of public relations spinmeisters telling us how to think. So consequently we're all quiet out here because we are left to our own devices to make up our minds on this one. The fog of the story is just hanging over it with no spin doctors telling us what we should be seeing.

On to Don Plusquellic. I'm surprised Mike Needs has missed the nuance of this story. This is not about Plusquellic. It's a symptom of the current day American condition. I don't know about Mike, but personally I feel wrung out by my politicians. I feel like the current political climate is completely out of control of the public. Prickly City is asking President Bush to come up with a real Republican. We are in an Iraq war with no easy end. Who knows if we'll go into Iran. Ohio schools are a mess. Taxes are rising. Who knows how expensive gas is going to get. Republicans and Democrats are at each other's throats. North Korea is building nuclear weapons. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat your future is uncertain. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. You owe all of this uncertainty to our politicians.

When Plusquellic verbally abused that $8/hour parking attendant and then took his job, Don took all of this uncertainty to a new, uncomfortable level. Could Plusquellic come to your workplace and get you fired? Probably. It's just too scary. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you know that Plusquellic getting that guy fired was too close for comfort.

The Plusquellic incident is all too clear. Politicians have massive amounts of power and there is little accountability. We as American citizens are just along for the ride. We aren't being listened to. We are being played by politicians who have polarized the game... in effect forcing their constituents to vote down the party line. They don't' have to worry about losing decided voters because there is so much anger towards the other side. All of this anger is thanks to our politicians. It's a sick, twisted mess we're in. Plusquellic represents all of these feelings. And fortunately he has made a mistake that is crystal clear. He over reacted and swung his weight around in a completely scary, inappropriate way. That's why we can't stop writing about this.

I, too, am a fan of Mike Needs, but I think Sage brings up some interesting points. These stories are very different: one could directly effect Joe Average and the other, while it does question freedom of speech, effects only a small population. In my heart I think the Judith Miller story is more important in terms of Freedom of Speech, but a pubilc official taking someone's job is universal. That's why Mike is getting so much mail. Alright, enough ranting. There's some food for thought for you.

SageLewis.com :: Mike Needs on Don Plusquellic & Judith Miller in Akron Beacon Journal

The BJ :: Readers care about parking, not press

(joe :: Mike Needs)

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