toledo free press vs toledo blade

may 1, 2015 comment in a tt thread

Excerpts from Baumhower's Mar 13, 2015 Toledo Free Press "column":http://www.toledofreepress.com/2015/03/13/baumhower-toledos-better-with-a-free-press/ :

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I was tired of living in a city being *bullied by its daily newspaper.* I was tired of being shown, via front-page “special reports,” how bad and ugly my hometown was. 

I never understood how the publisher of a city’s newspaper could live in a completely different state, hundreds of miles away. 

The irony of a newspaper publishing repeated editorials offering advice to local politicians on how to run city government while *itself losing millions of dollars a year* is beyond rich.

Toledo Free Press has spent the past decade battling the one thing that has kept this city down since the last episode of “M*A*S*H” aired, and it isn’t the economy. 

*The Blade is close to crippling this paper with behind-the-scenes influence and legal bills from an insulting lawsuit.*

If you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em. If they dare to point out the emperor wears no clothes, sue ’em some more. 

*“One of America’s Great Newspapers (For Law Firms)”* would be a more accurate description.
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br. Excerpts from the link that upso posted:


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Pounds said he hated to cave in, but had no choice following his bruising battle with the powerful twin brothers who own The Blade.

... a 2009 editorial cartoon in the Free Press that implied the brothers were blocking job-creating development in the struggling city of 282,000 struck a nerve.

“That was the last straw for them,” Pounds said. “They went ballistic.”
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A cartoon pushed these one-percenters over the edge??? 

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The battle bled out of the courtroom and into the business community, where, *Pounds claims, The Blade threatened advertisers into spurning the Free Press.* 

In one episode that underscored the rancor, *a local TV station*  refused to allow Miller to appear on its air to promote a charity CD that benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation, reportedly noting that he worked for a “direct competitor” of a "valued partner."
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This is bizarre, but I don't know the background details.

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Currently, the two sides are awaiting an appeal of a 2014 ruling by Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook requiring the Toledo Free Press to *turn over its financial books and marketing strategy to The Blade.*
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 #toledo #media #moronism #business