Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

The BG News
BG24 Newscast
November 30, 2023

Follow us on social
  • Review of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
    Let’s time-travel to the year 2012 and the world is raving about none other than Katniss Everdeen. I remember being in elementary school, begging my mother to let me dress up as her for my birthday. Now it’s over ten years later and I’m still just as excited for the new movie as I was […]
  • Found Family Books for the Holidays
    The holidays are quickly approaching and for some of us that means seeing our family. However, family has a loose definition. It could mean blood or who you were raised with. It could also mean people you’ve found during your life journey. Either way, the holidays are meant for spending quality time with those you […]

Column was false, misleading

Alan Calcaterra asserted Ohioans are currently favoring the most liberal Democrat in Congressional electoral politics today for the governor’s mansion in his column Thursday.

Calcaterra said: “According to the non-partisan National Journal, Strickland was ranked as more liberal than all of his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives even though he claims to be moderate.

That’s right boys and girls, he’s more liberal than Dennis Kucinich.

Knowing who both these men are probably would have helped Calcaterra realize he was asking his editors to publish a falsehood.

Maybe he did know, but that would make his mistake not a mistake, but rather intentional deceit.

Strickland, who scored a 72, is less liberal than Kucinich (94) according to the 2005 National Journal Composite Liberal Score found on votesmart.org (National Journal is a pay site).

In fact, Strickland is less liberal than U.S. Congress members Marcy Kaptur (75) or Sherrod Brown (84), according to the National Journal’s methodology – combining votes on defense, economy and foreign policy.

The Democrat Strickland scored closer to Senators George Voinovich and Mike DeWine (45) than either of those Republicans did to the second-highest ranked House GOP member John Boehner (16).

On social policy, the National Journal gives Strickland a score of 64. Kucinich (93) scores much higher – as do Kaptur and Brown.

DeWine scores a 50. That is 14 points less than Strickland, while House members Mike Oxley (27) and Paul Gillmor (34) are both farther away from DeWine’s position than Strickland.

Seems to me Calcaterra’s next column should focus on how DeWine has more in common with Strickland – an unapologetic liberal, according to Calcaterra – than he does with some of his more prominent fellow Ohio Republicans.

But he won’t.

That’s the problem with the partisanship that dominates the opinion pages in this newspaper.

No objectivity from either side. Both are trying to manipulate you, the reader.

I have no idea and don’t care to speculate on the author’s intentions on the above quoted misstatement, but I also have no idea where Calcaterra got the assertion that Strickland is more liberal than Kucinich – whose name you could have put into the “more liberal than all of his colleagues” claim above.

It also provokes the following line of questioning: Why should readers continue to trust information in Calcaterra’s columns?

If they can’t trust that info, should they bother reading?

I’ll let the intelligent surveyors of The BG News’ pages decide.

Russ Zimmer is a BGSU alumnus and can be reached at [email protected].

Leave a Comment
Donate to BG Falcon Media

Your donation will support the student journalists of Bowling Green State University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to BG Falcon Media

Comments (0)

All BG Falcon Media Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *