Update: Second Plain Dealer Blogger Leaves

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The second of the liberal bloggers on the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s political group blog Wide Open has decided to resign over the paper’s decision to fire the first liberal blogger, Jeff Coryell. Coryell’s termination was due to pressure from Repbulican Congressman Steve LaTourette.

The second blogger’s name is Jill Miller Zimon, of Writes Like She Talks, and she’s given money to Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D); if that means not writing about Brown or his opponents in the future, she’s jumping ship. Her thoughts are after the jump.

The PD’s decision to say to Jeff, essentially, either follow what we require of our traditional journalists when it comes to political donations and stop writing about a particular political official and his opponent, or leave, is an intolerable restraint for a blogger. It turns the blogger into nothing more than a traditional journalist, already subject to such restraints, who also has to blog.

There is nothing wrong with newsroom journalists being made to blog – we have excellent evidence of that in Ohio. However, Wide Open loses its width and its openness as soon as there is such a restraint. The restraint silences the unique voice that readers seek out from blogs – which is what was sought out by Jean Dubail, and rightly so. And the restraint replaces the blogger’s voice with someone who has editorial restraints placed on him or her, just like a traditional journalist.

Do some political bloggers on some blogs agree to such restraints? Very possibly. But this experiment can neither be Wide or Open if I’m going to be told that I can’t write about Sherrod Brown or his opponent or Marc Dann or his opponent because I gave them money.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate