When candidates make reckless statements just to get attention, should they get attention?

[Nevilledog]

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Jay Rosen
@jayrosen_nyu
An important letter from a newspaper editor to his readers, explaining why the Plain-Dealer declined to amplify with news coverage some outrageous things recently said by a once and future candidate for Senator in Ohio. https://cleveland.com/news/2021/03/when-candidates-make-reckless-statements-just-to-get-attention-should-they-get-attention-letter-from-the-editor.html… Read it. Very much "of" this moment.

When candidates make reckless statements just to get attention, should they get attention? Letter...
We’re working out our approach to Josh 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...
cleveland.com
5:14 PM · Mar 13, 2021

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/03/when-candidates-make-reckless-statements-just-to-get-attention-should-they-get-attention-letter-from-the-editor.html

We’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 – he was our PolitiFact Ohio “Pants on Fire” champion during his first run for Senate 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.

*snip*

[Budi]

1. Cripe. Well, ya know what they say..

"The kiss of death is when your name disappears from the headlines"

[czarjak]

2. Getting Attention Getting Elected...

To rubes.