Byline on Edge Made Easy

Byline on edge

back in leading edge uh he's nolan rosencrantz reporter at the uh the blade here in toledo also president of the news guild which represents the reporters of the blame talking about the censorship what they feel is censorship the use of different words changing really the meaning of what we saw at the insurrection in washington so you feel censored and as i said in a tease that's what we call it in tv before the break uh you know else feels censored the president and his supporters on the right tossed off of social platforms because of messages that could incite violence it does nolan raised some pretty good first amendment issues about controlling the free flow of information and then here's what i wanted to get to you posted i think just this week sir about the about that whole thing that hey don't tell me the the right's been been silenced showing what i thought was just a hateful tweet that i think was directed toward you yeah it was um there are people that assume that i'm jewish because of my last name and they then use that to to direct anti-semitic language towards me and and frankly it's common in the journalism industry to face that kind of vitriol at times from from hate groups and the fact of the matter is is that twitter and facebook and others that have become major players in how people consume news have had a role to play about how discourses change over this time period i think anybody who spent time on these social media platforms see a lot of the hateful language and the lack of moderation over it and so yeah there needs to be a larger community debate about how social media entities um you know interplay with the first amendment and community speech uh and frankly how they affect the journalism industry these giants have cornered the advertising market online and are killing newspapers across the country absolutely yeah i know hey um i should also point out that i think in your response you wrote something along the lines i don't have it in front of me but you said not that it matters comma i was raised catholic and then the response to that was yeah well whatever in in essence put you i think by the bottom line in bed with satan i think satan was referred to right um at the risk of burying the lead i know people are saying jerry get to it at the risk of bearing the lead i have put off discussing another head-scratching troubling part of this is social media posts from the wife of your company's chairman shouting about it i think it's shouting folks online when everything's in caps uh no peace no unity no concession talking about the presidential race a quote stolen election um referring to mr biden and his vp that's called all of this written by susan block um how did that post factor at all into your positions of what was going on and your contentions in this discussion i i think that it would be untrue to say that it didn't factor in at all right like it was so shocking it offended our staff members as well and also was sort of just a public indication again about the mentality of the block family but what our protest was really about was about the way that that then feeds into block communication as a whole and how the company acts in the community so like our coverage but it goes beyond that as well the fact that susan allen block spreads hateful language online is not new it's happened for a long time we've tried to raise this as an issue before about bigoted things that she said online and we will continue to do so because we think it's the moral thing to do but us going on a byline strike wasn't just really about susan allen block posting bigoted things online it's about how they then use their political power in the newspaper in the cable division elsewhere to harm our community and this was about sending a message to the community that we stand with you against the black family and their unethical or hateful language or actions no i don't speak for the blocks at all but i did give you their response earlier about now we weren't censoring uh block communications respond to this one say hey she's a private citizen as a right to her opinions her views are not ours in fairness again can't they claim that distance or no did she serve on the board of the newspaper is she a part owner of the newspaper she served on the board of black communications that which is the pair of the blade and buckeye cable and she and alan have immense influence about what happens in the paper they will say that they don't have any involvement in the paper and it's just simply not true i've been in the newsroom when alan block has called in to change quotes that he's given about stories about himself or to try to guide coverage and this comes from susan and alan as well this claim that she's totally separated from the company is absolutely false and the fact of the matter is is that she represents bci we never came out and said she should be banned or blocked or kicked out of a board that's up for individuals to decide for themselves but what we are going to do is let people know about it people have the right to know if the most powerful people in town are spreading the kind of hatred that we as a nation are talking about and how it affects our country the black family not only are they major business people in town but they're major contributors to politicians in local state and federal elections and all you have to do is look at the campaign finance stuff susan was even a republican party central committee member recently so this whole like she doesn't represent us that's fine they're a corporation they're going to say that this is more about how the bloc family interplays with the community i don't like to do this show for this many years and not have this guy on my program before nolan or rosencrantz we're going to leave it right there for right now um thank you for what you do i have followed your career for years uh just an outstanding reporter um thanks for keeping us on the leading edge of covering history and conveying truth when so many it seems are just more interested in non-truths and when i come back ohio's governor on board with a local push to get people vaccinated the v project's founder joins me on leading edge