Ohio Newspaper Association | Toledo Blade | Cincinnati Business Courier | The (Canton, Ohio) Repository
Ohio Gov. John Kasich finally “found quite an uplifting article,” Jason Sanford of the Ohio Newspaper Association noted Friday.
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) November 30, 2012
“I don’t read newspapers in the state of Ohio,” Kasich said at the Columbus College of Art & Design almost exactly one year ago.
Very rarely do I read a newspaper because just like, I think the presidents have done in the past, reading newspapers does not give you an uplifting experience because it never really makes it clear that you won the Irish sweepstakes. Time to time, people will send me articles and things I need to know about, but I have found that my life’s a lot better if I don’t get aggravated by what I read in the newspaper.
The Toledo Blade immediately launched an investigation into how much the unread newspapers in Kasich’s office were costing taxpayers.
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the governor’s office receives multiple editions of Ohio daily newspapers and some national publications, but he was unable to immediately put a dollar figure on what those papers cost.
“The governor doesn’t miss a chance to punk the press corps, and their defensive reaction to his comments confirms the widely held belief that they’re bereft of a sense of humor,” Mr. Nichols said. “The governor is a gadget junkie and stays well on top of current events by constantly reading news accounts on his iPad from a very wide variety of sources.”
“On one hand, I firmly believe people shouldn’t do things that make them sad,” Cincinnati Business Courier Editor Rob Daumeyer wrote. “On the other hand, the dude runs the state.”
Daumeyer noted Kasich’s office sends him press clippings friendly to the governor “almost daily.”
The editors of The (Canton, Ohio) Repository addressed one of the stranger aspects of Kasich’s statement:
Our first thought upon hearing the speech: the Irish Sweepstakes? But we’ve learned to ignore the governor’s non sequiturs whenever possible.
With that statement, Kasich joined a grand roster of political types who proclaim they don’t read newspapers, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott (a claim PolitiFact looked into), former President George W. Bush, and Mitt Romney spokesperson Amy Graham, who said she didn’t read The New York Times after some unsatisfactory transactions with Times reporter Serge Kovaleski when she worked for… Gov. Rick Scott.
President Obama is reportedly a voracious consumer of news — on his iPad.
Full disclosure: I went on Kasich’s Fox News show “Heartland” in June 2006 to promote a book I wrote. My appearance was cut short by news of a bear entering someone’s house. I trust my record on bear news proves I am not bitter about that turn of events.
