{"id":1240,"date":"2014-12-26T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2016-12-03T06:35:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T11:35:04","slug":"blackwells-words-come-with-a-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1240","title":{"rendered":"Blackwell&#8217;s Words Come With A Price"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/jeffrey_blackwell.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1241\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?attachment_id=1241\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_blackwell.jpg?fit=150%2C144&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"150,144\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"jeffrey_blackwell\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_blackwell.jpg?fit=150%2C144&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1241\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/jeffrey_blackwell-150x144.jpg?resize=150%2C144\" alt=\"jeffrey_blackwell\" width=\"150\" height=\"144\" \/><\/a>As most of you know, I have not been shy when it comes to reporting information with regards to Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell. I have reported on his <a title=\"There\u2019s A New Chief In Town, Again!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/theres-a-new-chief-in-town-again\/\" target=\"_blank\">hiring,<\/a> and my concerns with that decision. I have reported on comments made with regards to the <a title=\"Statistics Are Like a Box of Chocolates!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/statistics-are-like-a-box-of-chocolates\/\" target=\"_blank\">homicide rate <\/a>and of is demanding that he be a<a title=\"You Must Call me Sir!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/you-must-call-me-sir\/\" target=\"_blank\">addressed as sir<\/a>. As a fan of the City of Cincinnati and a fan of the Cincinnati police Department, I am always looking for valid information about those entrusted with the leadership not only of the City, but any of it&#8217;s departments. Consequently, because of my background, I am most interested in the Cincinnati police Department and find myself frequently reporting on both the department and it&#8217;s leadership. Based on this I thought I had received an early Christmas present when I was notified, via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/alerts\" target=\"_blank\">Google Alerts<\/a>, of a recent interview Blackwell had with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wcpo.com\/news\/crime\/qa-chief-jeffrey-blackwell-says-meeting-varied-spectrum-of-expecations-tough-today\" target=\"_blank\">WCPO.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Following this notification, I eagerly clicked on the provided link to read the story of and interview conducted with Jeffrey Blackwell with a promise of learning of Blackwell&#8217;s feelings and concerns when the article promised \u201cChief Jeffrey Blackwell says meeting varied &#8216;spectrum of expectations tough&#8217; today\u201d. I had no idea what this meant but felt I was about to find out. I clicked on the link, read a few short paragraphs, and then was stopped with a demand for money to find out more. The exact words from the article were \u201cSubscribe to WCPO Insider or login below to to (sic) see what Blackwell had to say about race relations, curbing gang violence and more.\u201d. I clicked on the subscription link only to discover that subscribing meant paying a ransom to WCPO to find out what he had said. Being a senior citizen on a fixed income, I would rather not subsidize a big news conglomerate with my meager income. Don&#8217;t they already make enough from their various advertisers? Do they need to gouge the public as well?<\/p>\n<p>Normally something like this is not a real problem as anything news worthy is reported on by more than one news agency, but obviously, by its very nature, an \u201cexclusive\u201d interview will be reported on only by the news source that conducted the interview. This brings certain questions to my mind. I do not have the answers, so I am bringing them to you for your consideration and possible input. If a public official provides information via a local news agency, who actually owns the information? Is the information owned by the news agency or the interviewee? If a public individual is interviewed, are their comments a matter of a public record and does anyone actually own the comments or do they belong to the public? In my opinion this feels like collusion. Can a public figure give a secret interview? If the public official gives the interview do they have any responsibility to ensure the results of the interview are available to the public? Is the news agency the only one who will profit from income generated by charging a subscription fee to obtain the information? As stated, I do not know the answers to these questions, but I believe they are questions that deserve an answer.<\/p>\n<p>I would think many people would be interested in knowing what Jeffery Blackwell&#8217;s concerns are and what he meant when he said \u201cspectrum of expectations tough&#8217; today\u201d. I would like to know, as I am sure would many others, \u201cwhat Blackwell had to say about race relations, curbing gang violence and more.\u201d. I would like to know if Jeffrey Blackwell was paid for this interview, if it was conducted on or off the clock, and if he will share in the profits generated by the ransom demands of WCPO. I am not implying that he is or is not profiting. I just want to know. I think they are valid questions, what do you think?<\/p>\n<p>Those are my thoughts, what are yours?<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to comment, disagree, share and <a title=\"Subscription Info\" href=\"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/subscription-info\/\" target=\"_blank\">subscribe.<\/a> Thank you for patronizing the Townehouse Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As most of you know, I have not been shy when it comes to reporting information with regards to Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell. I have reported on his hiring, and my concerns with that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_daextrevo_audio_file_creation_date":"","_daextrevo_text_to_speech":"","_daextrevo_document_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/THFI.png?fit=214%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1181,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1181","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":0},"title":"Cincinnati Police Department Serves As Role Model","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I viewed a news article regarding the civil unrest currently taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, published by KDSK in St. Louis Missouri. The topic of the article was that Ferguson could learn valuable lessons from Cincinnati, specifically with regards to the efforts taken by Cincinnati following its own period\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"oh-cincinnati optimized","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/oh-cincinnati-optimized.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1314,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1314","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":1},"title":"The Wrong Man","author":"Tom Lind","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have followed\u00a0\u00a0the news regarding the incident in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014 when a man, Michael Brown, viciously attacked a Police Officer, Darren Wilson, who subsequently had to resort to deadly force in order to defend himself from life threatening violence. Notice how the preceding relates the basic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1268,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1268","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":2},"title":"Jeffrey Blackwell \u2013 The Puppet Police Chief","author":"Tom Lind","date":"January 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week the Townehouse Phoenix provided insight to issues with regards to the current Police Chief of Cincinnati, Jeffrey Blackwell. It is not my intent to rehash the same talking points I discussed last week. The purpose of this article is to continue the ongoing saga of how Jeffrey Blackwell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"eddbe9d6d0220d1ce17c1f0f2a225328","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/eddbe9d6d0220d1ce17c1f0f2a225328.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11506,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11506","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":3},"title":"For Police Officer Sonny Kim","author":"Tom Lind","date":"June 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning while sitting at my computer I was considering several possible\u00a0topics for this weeks blog article. Of the various thoughts I had, I had no idea that I would be writing on the death of a Cincinnati Police Officer. A topic I would never want to write about, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cincinnati-officer-sonny-kim.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cincinnati-officer-sonny-kim.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cincinnati-officer-sonny-kim.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cincinnati-officer-sonny-kim.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":270,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=270","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":4},"title":"Police Chief Gets A Pay Raise!","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I read an article about the Cincinnati Police Chief receiving a pay rise. The article indicated the increase\u00a0was granted following his review, which was very good. Congratulations to the Chief for a good review. It was reported that the Chief was granted a three percent pay raise. Now I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"Payraise","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/dollars-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1261","url_meta":{"origin":1240,"position":5},"title":"Jeffrey Blackwell, It Is Time To Go!","author":"Tom Lind","date":"January 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, following the overpass collapse on I-75, a comment was posted on a social media site by a Cincinnati Police supervisor who witnessed the collapse. The comment was written to praise the response of the first responders, both police and fire, as well as other agencies such as the Coroner's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"images","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/images1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38YRh-k0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}