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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hey, Sloat! Your hypocrisy is showing!
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Over at The Daily Bellwether, Bill Sloat has been getting pretty upset by some “redneck jokes” circulating the web from other bloggers. And in this post, he advocates for getting rid of slurs like “hillbilly.” But what about calling the Mayor of Cincinnati a “darkie,” or the Superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools “mammy”? How can Sloat endorse such racially disgusting behavior, while rallying against slurs targeting Appalachians?
We’re talking, of course, about The Whistleblower, a daily email publication written by Jim Schifrin, regularly filled with racist language as described above. Sloat shows a special adoration of Jim Schifrin’s potty-humored hate-speech, which seems hypocritical given his recent desire to protest hate-speech against Appalachians.
In 2003, Sloat wrote this glowing endorsement of Schifrin for the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
There is no crack staff behind the Whistleblower.
It is written, edited and self-published entirely by Jim Schifrin, a Humpty-Dumpty-shaped Cincinnati suburbanite with nine telephones in his home who describes himself as being as politically incorrect as a polka dancer at a hip-hop concert. His strong opinions tend to be conservative. Still, his phones seem to be ringing all the time, or another computer message is popping up from a tipster out somewhere in the ether.
Schifrin, 64, can spout one-liners like a minor-league Mark Twain and writes under a nom-de-plume Charles Foster Kane.
That’s the fictional newspaper publisher in Citizen Kane, “the best movie ever made,” he says.
Schifrin’s tipsters are legion.
Here’s sloat writing about material that makes fun of Appalachian dialect:
Viewing the entire cackling depiction of smalltown Ohioans as low-IQ, lazy, uneducated, incoherent and linguistically challenged people who inhabit villages named for turds makes one wonder: How can the creator of such material have a brain so lacking sensibility and judgment, and be stuffed with so much meanness?
C’mon, Sloat. Your hypocrisy is showing. How can you endorse Schifrin, and rail against this other material?
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11 Jun 2008 at 02:32 pm | #
“Hillbilly” isn’t even a slur. It’s actually a genre of music, too. The only people I’ve known to be offended by that word are non-hillbillies.
11 Jun 2008 at 08:25 pm | #
where is the endorsement of the whistleblower in the article? seems like a news story to me not an opinion piece while the blog work seems like an opinion piece and not a new story
11 Jun 2008 at 09:04 pm | #
.
Every since ‘billy’ took that canoe trip and was made to ‘squeal like a pig’ he has a heated passion for those back-woods boys ?
.
11 Jun 2008 at 11:32 pm | #
Look at the excerpts. Look at how he writes about Schifrin. By not describing him the way he describes those parodying Appalachian dialect, he shows a double standard—one that accepts Schifrin instead of condemning him.
12 Jun 2008 at 12:17 am | #
i have read the piece- the piece on schifrin is a news story about his influence on cincinnati politics. read the whole article- it says no one is safe from the “manic” soapbox, says that schfirin resembles Humpty-dumpty, mentions that others find his to be “dishing dirt” or “strip mining” and publishes minette cooper calling it “ugly” and “downright mean to everyone”.
That is not a glowing endorsement it is a pretty well balanced review of the whistleblower- over the top writing that includes a few good scoops (more so a few years ago then now)
WHen he writes an opinion piece truly accepting schifrin instead of reporting other peoples reactions to him you will have a story. until then you are just making things up
12 Jun 2008 at 06:51 pm | #
I just sent this:
13 Jun 2008 at 02:03 am | #
Question: if someone posted under the pseudonym, “Cracka ASS Cracka,” yet, made a GREAT point that Sloat himself would agree with—would that commentary be posted?
Just a question.
13 Jun 2008 at 02:18 pm | #
are you going to also ask him to repudiate jeramiah wright? what about hitler? TO my knowledge he has also never written an opinion piece about the situation in zimbabwe.
who are you to choose what in the world another person chooses to write against.
13 Jun 2008 at 02:41 pm | #
Are you suggesting, brown31, that I should not write against Sloat on this?
Who are you to choose what in the world I choose to write against?
14 Jun 2008 at 05:37 pm | #
No I am suggesting why sloat has every reason in the world to ignore you.
I am no one to you just like you are probably no one to sloat. When he ignores you because he has something better to do hopefully you will keep this in mind.
In your typical style if he refuses to answer I am sure you will continue to point out how he supports the whistleblower even though there is no proof other than that he didnt choose to respond to your silly request.