Cincinnati Beacon: Viciously Attacking Bill Sloat?

Greg Flannery is not a journalist, and he doesn't care about the truth. Knowing that, it didn't surprise me to read the following in this week's CityBeat. (link)

It's no secret that Bill Sloat is one of the best journalists in Cincinnati, where he ran a one-man bureau for The Cleveland Plain Dealer until he accepted a buyout late last year. Sloat now finds himself on the receiving end of a vicious attack by the Cincinnati Beacon, a local blog that suggests he fabricated a story about being spat on while a soldier during the Vietnam War. The Beacon's "evidence": Sloat apparently remembered the wrong year that a porn movie was distributed. It's more of the Beacon's usual style of turning minor circumstances into major conspiracy theories. That contrasts nicely with Sloat's new blog, The Daily Bellwether (thebellwetherdaily.blogspot.com), which treats news as serious business.

As usual, Greg doesn't get it. And because he works for a publication with absolutely no journalistic standards, Greg doesn't have to get it.

Here's what happened. In a blog entry, Bill Sloat claimed he vividly remembered being spat at in New Orleans in 1970 while in Army uniform on leave from Fort Polk, Louisiana. Here are the details given by Sloat:

The spitting was near the bus station, the exact location of which I don’t remember. We stayed at the Howard Johnson’s, which I recall was near the La. Supreme Court. We were not on Bourbon Street, but did go to see to see a movie that day, a porno flick called the Devil Is Miss JOnes, where the woman slit her wrists in a bath tub at the end, which freaked us out. A girl spit at me at me as we walked to the HoJos. I do remember it vividly to this day.

So, Sloat VIVIDLY remembers the spitting incident. He VIVIDLY remembers seeing the porno on the same day. And, not only does Sloat remember seeing the porno on the same day, he recalls being freaked out by what happened in it. Sloat says these two events -- the spitting and viewing of the porno movie -- occurred on the same day in 1970.

Well, the Beacon did a little checking and found out that the porno Sloat claims to have watched that day in 1970 wasn't completed until 1973, three years after Bill claims to have seen it. (link) Because Bill Sloat is a respected journalist, the Beacon asked him to clarify how he could've watched a movie in 1970 that wasn't made until 1973. This is a reasonable request that Sloat has yet to comply with. Sloat's refusal to respond directly to the question makes it appear that the Beacon busted him telling a lie and, yes, fabricated the story.

Flannery says the Beacon's only "evidence" is: "Sloat apparently remembered the wrong year that a porn movie was distributed." Flannery is dead wrong. (This deliberate indifference to the facts is a prime example of why Flannery is such a dumbass.) Sloat didn't remember the wrong year that a porn movie was distributed, he claims to have vivid memories of attending a porn movie that wasn't even made. Sloat obviously links the alleged spitting incident with his being freaked out by the porno movie. But, again, Sloat claims the spitting incident happened in 1970 and the porno movie wasn't made until 1973. In Sloat's mind, the two incidents happened on the same day in New Orleans. If the Beacon is right that the porn movie wasn't made until 1973, there is no way that things happened the way Sloat described them. Either the spitting incident happened at a later date, or Sloat didn't attend the porn movie on the date in 1970.

Only in the bizarre world of Greg Flannery and CityBeat should a person be given a pass and not questioned about a story they tell that couldn't possibly be true. The media SHOULD be asking questions and holding people accountable. This is exactly what CityBeat used to do. But, these days, CityBeat publishes all sorts of ridiculous claims and holds them out as fact. (For a good example, see "Research Help Wanted..." where, without question, CityBeat published the extraordinary claim that Gavin Leonard and a small crew of young people knocked on 30,000 doors in 12 neighborhoods last Summer.) CityBeat should enroll Greg Flannery in the company's tuition reimbursement program and send him off to Journalism 101. He needs it. Badly.

Addendum: Someone sent me an email asking how I can defend the Beacon and blast CityBeat when the Beacon also has a habit of giving certain people special treatment and trying to spin stories in a way to favor people they like. Specifically, the emailer questions why the Beacon won't treat General Christopher Smitherman the same way they've treated Bill Sloat.

This is a valid point. I've encouraged the Beacon to aggressively challenge the stuff given to them by General Smitherman, and I've faulted them when they've failed to do so. I think the Beacon has given General Smitherman numerous passes on his voting record -- including his votes to give 3CDC and Kroger millions to build the Gateway Project, his support for the compromised deal on Fountain Square, his support for secret executive sessions, his failure to support citizens' free speech rights at City Hall -- his nonexistant civil rights record, and his hypocritical denunciation of people who, for whatever reason, fail to get involved in the struggle when he didn't get involved until he was almost 40 years old and stood to benefit. That said, none of this changes the fact that on this one issue, the Beacon is doing the right thing in questioning Sloat's claim that he was spat on.