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Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
Columbus Dispatch holding off on important story
[33 posts] [17 contributors]
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Al from Philadelphia
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Don't be player hating Cookie - I hear you are quite the quite the socialite in Columbus.
You have passions, right Cookie? How would you like it if a bunch of foreigners - using a few scumbag Americans - invaded what you love to do with the intention of ripping off the American public and your home newspaper continues to tell your city that the most important news story is:
LOCAL DOG CHASES LOCAL CAT OVER LOCAL FENCE
Can you take a few minutes and at least read the posts and fight off the stigma that it is the Arnold and a strongman show?
Shouldn't it bother you that your home newspaper is sponsoring this kind of behavior? If only a handful of people in Columbus asked the editor that question it could make a difference - people in Philly lost their jobs because of these characters who are using this event as leverage to do commit these crimes.
Ben Marrison is the editor - read the posts and ask him why a daily newspaper, a member of Associated Press is sponsoring any competition, let alone one with so many issues...issues dealing with fraud, securities fraud and integrity issues.His email address is bmarrison@dispatch.com
Posted 1 year ago # -
Twixlen
The Weston District
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Dude. You've never posted here before (at least under this moniker), and come on with a fairly lengthy & outlandish tale that is so fraught with drama and crazy that I initially thought it was an 8th grade journal entry.
If you want people to pay attention to something you're trying to say, you're doing it wrong.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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My name is Al and I appreciate your comment. I came on this message board - You had a first post right? - to bring to light an issue that I believe people in Columbus should know about...and I assure you it is all true.
This situation was dumped in our laps in Philly in 2007 - I did not ask for it or choose to be involved in it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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No response Cookie?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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This post apparently hit a nerve with top management at the Dispatch.
Today I finally received a phone call from Columbus Dispatch Editor-in-Chief Ben Marrison.
Mr. Marrison commands a terrific staff that includes a passionate sports department. But he and owner Mr. Wolfe I believe have made and continue to make mistakes and behave in a manner that disgraces the entire field of journalism.
Instead of discussing his paper’s continued sponsorship of the Arnold Fit Expo despite his and the owner's knowledge of public documents that revealed serious legal and possibly criminal problems with its strongman show’s staff of officials (most of from an organization called IFSA – see earlier posts), he chose to bark at me about what he believed was a slanderous remarks I made about the Dispatch's coverage of the Ohio State football "tatoo scandal."
I started the first of two main posts with with those comments in an effort get his attention. Instead of a discussion he simply hung up on me unprovoked.
I asked Mr. Morrison at least three times “What about the Arnold?” No answer. All he barked was I had no credibility.
The remarks were talk radio-like/conspiracy theory comments meant to get his attention after ignoring me for months and now he is using that as weak excuse to avoid a very serious matter in favor of selling ads and preserving that photo op with the kids with Mr. Schwarzenegger each year.
Speaking of Mr. Schwarzenegger - Julius Ceasar wasn't stabbed in the back as many times as the Arnold strongman officials have stabbed their host. I believe Mr. Schwarzenegger is still liable for their actions but if I was him and I found out this mess was kept from me people I trusted and was kind to (including YOU Mr. Marrison), well...no Terminator joke here...they would all be gone...and no photo op for Mr. Wolfe or Mr. Marrison.
I have asked the Dispatch to do the right thing for the Arnold by stopping its sponsorship and all I see is greed.
In an email I sent to him and several of his staff members shortly after the hang-up, I said I would still like to know what the Columbus Dispatch is going to do about the public documents concerning the Arnold Fit Expo I have been sending you for months. I attached several of those documents again for his review including the IFSA strongman tax dept (to the State of Delaware) of almost $200,000.00 that this organization defaulted on as a result of a Ponzi - like scheme it tried to pull off on the public. I also attached one of the documents that links the Arnold Fit Expo to this organization.
And although the scheme failed, IFSA defaulted on millions of dollars in competitor contract, purse money and over $100,000 in freight charges after it abandoned 25,000 pounds of its strongman equipment to my sponsor and friendf in Philadelphia.
Several individuals from IFSA still work the Arnold strongman shows (pro and amateur). Several competitors who were victims of IFSA still get invited to the Arnold.
So what you have is potential defendants in a federal lawsuit against IFSA (it was attempted) are selecting and judging potential plaintiffs. Unthinkable in American sports in 2011 but it has been going on since IFSA imploded in late 2007.
I admitted to him- and am publicly tonight - that I started that post with a radio talk show type comment out of frustration that the Dispatch is sponsoring a professional sporting event and is in a conflict of interest that has affected many Americans negatively.
I told him using the Ohio State blurb I started the first of those posts off with as an excuse to ignore the Arnord/IFSA situation just so you can sell an ad book for the Arnold Fit Expo is pure bull-bleep and that he knows it.
Is the Dispatch an ad book or a newspaper? The Ohio State conspiracy theory I posted was maybe 5 percent - if that - of the two main posts I am proud to admit I penned.
The rest of the email:
You and your paper have blown me off for months - long before that post. So did I have credibility before the post that you ignored?
I did what I did on the Columbus Underground message board to get your attention and would do it again 100 times to hold those people accountable for committing these offenses against my friend and sponsor. I would do it again 100 times for the people who lost their jobs in Philadelphia as a result of these crimes. Crimes that it appears that your paper is not only ignoring, but are sponsoring.
I invite you to call Beau Biden - Attorney General of Delaware - and tell him like you barked at me that he has no credibility...tell him his tax revenue department is slanderous. Why not talk to his dad, Joe, the Vice President of the United States who was a Senator when this fraud and this scam was going on and blast him and then hang up on him.
I say this to you Mr. Marrison....I do not care if you cover this....but I do if you continue sponsor the Arnold....And if you do, who are you to talk to anyone about credibility????
You have my contact info Mr. Marrison - please sue my ass off for "slander" if you want. I would welcome it.
************************************
Mr. Marrison, I plan to take this matter to the highest level I possibly can. I would still like to discuss this with you.Respect goes both ways. I gave you months of respect and you gave me zero.
Very Truly Yours,
Al Thompson.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rockmastermike
The Bacon District
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tl;dr
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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Earle Bruce posted an 81-26-1 record at Ohio State that included eight Bowl appearences including an undefeated regular season, two Rose Bowl appearences and a Cotton Bowl win, Bruce was fired after posting a 6-4-1 record in 1987.
According to his Wikipedia page, Bruce was fired right before his Ohio State team was to face Michigan (There is that Michigan tie-in again just like with the Michigan trickets thar got National Championship coach Tressel fired).
More from Bruce's Wikipedia page:
"Bruce coached Ohio State from 1979–1987. In the first year, Ohio State went undefeated in the regular season and played in the Rose Bowl, losing the game and the national championship by a single point. In 1987, Bruce was fired just prior to the last game of the season—against Michigan—but was allowed to finish out the year. Bruce was able to defeat Michigan at Ann Arbor. This is something Ohio State would not do again until 2001 under head coach Jim Tressel. After the game, Bo Schembechler told Bruce, "I always mind losing to Ohio State but I didn't mind so much today."
Why would Schembechler say that? Because of the Hayes incident? It had been nearly a decade ...or did he say it because he knew Bruce was fired after a riff with the Wolfe family over the coaches show on their network?...Bruce possibly canned over a TV show and Tressel shown the door after Wolfe's Dispatch paper's near fanatical coverage of a few players who were never charged with anything and traded some Michigan trickets for tattoos....more to come....much more.
Note to Coach Meyer - do not piss this guy Wolfe off. You could be fired.
Columbus - Do not let the Wolfe family and this man John Wolfe - tell you what you can see, hear and read.
***
WBNS-TV, channel 10, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The station is an affiliate of the CBS Television Network and is owned by the Dispatch Broadcast Group, a subsidiary of the Columbus Dispatch, along with WBNS radio (1460 AM and 97.1 FM). WBNS-TV's studios, offices and transmitter are located west of Downtown Columbus, near the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto rivers.
WBNS-TV currently broadcasts in stereo and uses its SAP channel for a variety of purposes, including simulcasts of its radio sister and simulcasts of NOAA weather radio. The Dispatch Broadcast Group broadcasting operations also include WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Posted 1 year ago # -
murfmurphy
Westgate
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The Arnold is a major draw of toursim dollars to the city of Columbus every year. The strongman competition is a fringe sport, and a small part of the Arnold. I don't think this suit garners the attention that you are trying to draw to it. Also I don't think anyone cares enough about strongman competitions to make this a compelling story. That is probably why you're getting blown off by the people at the Dispatch. The general population (AKA readers) don't care about contestants being judged by people they are suing, because the general public doesn't know anything about strongman competitions. It's an oddity in the eyes of people. If they were to walk by and see it happening they would certainly stick around and watch more, but how many people are activley seeking out Strongman competitions.
I heard a radio personality in Cleveland talk about why he switched from have a sports oriented talk show to an all around coverage talk show. He said "When you solely talk about sports you automatically lose 70% of your potential audience". Using that flawed math 70% of the population already doesn't care about sports in any way shape or form. Now you start carving out the remaining 30% of the population with interests in sports, and you would end up with a fractional percentage of people who would either have a passing interest in this story, or be deeply concerned by what you are saying. Going solely off of my obviously flawed math and statistics I'll break it down even further. The daily print newspaper industry is slowly dying, and facing cost issues every day, and they are constantly measuring costs against distribution. Reporting a story like this would cost a lot of time and money, and I think that the audience this story would reach is entirely too small to warrant those costs. That is why I believe your getting blown off by the Dispatch. At the end of the day not enough people are going to care to make it worth their time and effort.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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I agree with you ... if the Arnold dumped strongman they would still have 700 exhibitors, still get the big crowds.
And yes it is frustrating - but it is still no excuse to knowingly sponsor an event that the Dispatch knows has serious issues, some possibly criminal.
It is still no excuse for the Arnold to allow many of the staff that were involved with the company (it partnered with) that put together a Ponzi scheme and racked up at least $200,000 in taxes owed to another State. The strongman staff should have been removed in 2008. If this was just about any other sport, it would have been done.
Forget the popularity of the sport or the lack of....
Question: Is it fair to Arnold Schwarzenegger if he gets sued for millions of dollars for all the defaulted contracts to competitors, purse money, freight charges plus punitive damages as a result of his partner signing his Fit Expo into an agreement that caused all this damage (fraud) and they all kept it from him? Schwarzenegger can be held responsible for all this...does it really matter if it is popular or not?
I think the Dispatch does not want to be the bad guy for shedding a negative light on an event like you said bring in millions to this community. Much more so than the economic issues you brought up and argued very well.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al from Philadelphia
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With all the negative comments about the Dispatch and the obvious lack of impartial reporting...comments over the situation with a writer who dared to ask questions about a project her boss John Wolfe has his hands all over, plus the editor-inchief's refusal to discuss his paper's sponsorship of an event with public records that more than suggest serious foul play that - when you are talking about securities fraud - could have an effect on the economy...is it time?
Is it time to ask Ben Marrison to resign as editor of the Columbus Dispatch? Should his marketing executive Philip Pikelny VP, Dispatch Digital & Chief Marketing Officer also be asked to resign?
Posted 1 year ago #
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