This week, CityBeat featured an article by Kevin Osborne blasting McCain’s local representative Joe Deters. As we reported last week, Deters refused to deny his lunch dates with Jim Schifrin, the author of The Whistleblower, a newsletter filled with racist language. He also refused to denounce the newsletter for calling Cincinnati’s first directly elected African American mayor a “gay darkie.” But now, even Alex Triantafilou, chair of the Hamilton County GOP, has taken a firm stance against the language exhibited by Schifrin and tacitly endorsed by Joe Deters.
Last week, we caught up with Triantafilou and asked for comment on The Whistleblower. He promised to respond to our concerns via email:
Shortly after our original report on Deters’ relationship with Schifrin, The Whistleblower flaunted the Deters connection more, which we wrote about in this item. If you follow the link, you will see the graphic to that story is a bumper-sticker linking the GOP with the KKK. When Triantafilou first responded to our question about whether he would repudiate the racism in the Whistleblower, and what he thought about public officials fraternizing openly with the likes of Schifrin, he instead gave commentary on The Beacon’s choice of visual aids.
“This website has a graphic that compares MY Republican Party with the KKK. The graphic shows the GOP & KKK as interchangeable,” wrote Triantafilou. “I don’t reply to people that compare my organization to the hate filled, race mongering of the Ku Klux Klan.”
We continued to correspond with Triantafilou, realizing we both shared a distaste for hate-filled race-mongering—a trait shared by both the KKK and The Whistleblower.
“The last time I saw the Whistleblower, it was calling me names (RINO, etc.) and even ridiculed me for being a co-host of the NAACP Convention by putting me in blackface and comparing me to Al Jolson...I wasn’t thrilled...and certainly not amused,” said Triantafilou. “I strongly supported the NAACP convention and regularly attended. I was not happy about being attacked… I reject racism wherever it is...and I have a life of experiences that teaches me to repudiate racism everywhere.”
When we asked to confirm specifically whether Triantafilou would repudiate the language used by Schifrin at The Whistleblower, he agreed—and in so doing he has become the second Hamilton County Republican to denounce The Whistleblower. The first was Greg Hartman, who you can see repudiating the language of Deters’ lunch companion here.
We have been sending inquiries to other area leaders, and we will continue to post updates as they become available.
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