Name: When candidates make reckless statements just to get attention, should they get attention? Letter from the Editor
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When candidates make reckless statements just to get attention, should they get attention? Letter from the Editor

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NEW!4,280sharesWe’re having a challenging discussion of late about our responsibility in how we cover the candidacy of Republican Josh Mandel for the U.S. Senate in 2022.Usually with political campaigns, we cover where the candidates stand on various issues and report what they say. They lay out how they would improve the lives of constituents and attack their opponents’ failings. It’s pretty straightforward.The issue is that Mandel has a history of not telling the truth when he campaigns – because of the whoppers he told. More recently, he is given to irresponsible and potentially dangerous statements on social media. He’s proven himself to be a candidate who will say just about anything if it means getting his name in the news. We have not dealt with a candidate like this on the state level previously.This came to a head recently when a couple of states abolished mask orders, something that science has proven is a bad idea. We might be close to the end of the pandemic in this country, but we are still in it. If we lift the precautions, more people will get sick, and more people will die. Wearing masks saves lives, period.But we know that Mandel, after abruptly dropping out of sight a couple of years ago, is eager to see his name in the news, especially because he faces a formidable opponent in former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken. We suspected he would seize upon what the other states did in abolishing mask requirements and call on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to do the same.He did exactly that, in scornful, condescending tones. He attacked a fellow Republican with solid conservative credentials, a Republican who respects science over fringe theories.We could have written a traditional “he said-she said” story, saying, “Senate candidate Josh Mandel is calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to end coronavirus restrictions, but health experts warn such steps will endanger more people.”But that’s not what this was about. Mandel knows he is calling on the governor to do something that would endanger countless people. No, what this was about was a naked bid for attention. So, we could have covered it with an analysis piece, saying “Senate candidate Josh Mandel seeks attention by calling for coronavirus steps that would kill Ohioans.”We did take the analysis path in an earlier Mandel story by our politics writer Seth Richardson. . It’s a terrific piece that ought to frighten everyone who lives in the state -- the two leading Republican candidates for Senate are blindly loyal to one man, not to us.If we had taken the analysis path with the Mandel statement on masks, we would, of course, have pointed out DeWine’s failures on the coronavirus. You can criticize DeWine for how he rolled out the coronavirus vaccine to the masses, leaving people on their own to grapple with a tedious online labyrinth where most paths end in futility. You can blast DeWine’s failure for a year to fix the state’s unemployment system, which has left people in agonized waits for benefits.But our analysis would have stressed that DeWine deserves admiration and respect for all of the steps he has taken to save the lives of Ohioans. He was an early leader in shutting down the state to slow the spread of the killer virus. And when he received scant vaccine for the state, he strategically targeted it at the populations where death rates were high. He successfully stopped people from dying.DeWine based his decisions on science. The results proved him out. We are all safer because DeWine was a true leader.We ultimately decided not to write about Mandel’s call for DeWine to lift his coronavirus restrictions. Mandel is pretty much a nobody right now, a nobody begging for people to notice his Tweets a year ahead of the Senate primary. Just because he makes outrageous, dangerous statements doesn’t mean it is news.He remains desperate for attention. Last week, he challenged our columnist Leila Atassi to a point-by-point debate -- to be published on our platforms -- about coronavirus restrictions. Leila was eager to give it a go, knowing that she could use facts and science to obliterate Mandel in that debate.I told her to decline. We are proud of our role as a center of discourse, with a diversity of viewpoints you can find nowhere else in the state. But we do not knowingly publish ridiculous and idiotic claims. Mandel did not want to have a debate with our columnist as much as he wanted to use our platform to get attention with demonstrably false claims about the virus.I predict this column will bring more email responses than usual, some of it angry, but I’ve promised you transparency about newsroom decisions. We’re still working out our approach to Mandel. As we get closer to election time, what Mandel says might be news, and I don’t believe the right approach to covering dangerous statements by candidates is the traditional “he said-she said.” If a candidate makes statements that endanger the lives of Ohioans, as Mandel did here, that’s the story. That’s the news.I believe we will be writing a lot of analysis pieces if Mandel becomes a viable candidate.Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!4,280sharesWe’re having a challenging discussion of late about our responsibility in how we cover the candidacy of Republican Josh Mandel for the U.S. Senate in 2022.Usually with political campaigns, we cover where the candidates stand on various issues and report what they say. They lay out how they would improve the lives of constituents and attack their opponents’ failings. It’s pretty straightforward.The issue is that Mandel has a history of not telling the truth when he campaigns – because of the whoppers he told. More recently, he is given to irresponsible and potentially...

When candidates make reckless statements just to get attention, should they get attention? Letter from the Editor

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