Awesome article about Kucinich

[David Lay]

http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/news/f ... iewarticle

Great job, Ivor!

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

thanks david, but the credit should be given to the editors; dan and nadhal.

they turn my garbage into a published two page column.

Also Dennis and his wife should be commended for putting up with my unprofessional antics and horrible interviewing skills for hours, after arriving to the interview 15 minutes late (didn't want to skip class with a test coming up).

After explaining to him that there's no way of getting from LCCC to Lakewood in 10 minutes, and how I didn't want to skip my class, he told me how when he was in school he tried never to miss a day of school. He was very understanding. Good guy.

writing the article itself wasn't hard at all. it's easy when you interview a human being that has some passion and a interesting story to tell.

Dennis is full of stories and passion for helping others..

[Lynn Farris]

Ivor, did you take the picture?

It is the best I've seen of Dennis and his wife.

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

Ivor, did you take the picture?

It is the best I've seen of Dennis and his wife.

Yes I did, thank you!

Jim did most of the photo taking while I did the interview. At the end of the evening I had a quick opportunity to grab about 5 pictures of him and his wife. It was more of a "hold down the shutter button and pray for something good".

If I had the opportunity to actually take photos of the Congressman, I could do a lot more. But I have to agree that it is a nice photo. Look at Elizabeth's eyes!

[Gary Rice]

Nice work, Ivor!

[Bryan Schwegler]

I'm not even a Kucinich supporter, but I thought this was an outstanding article Ivor. And I agree, definitely one of the best pictures of him I've seen.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Lynn

I would agree one of the best photos of the Kucinichs I have seen.

This was one of those golden moments for the publisher of the Observer that I will remember for a long time.

Ivor

Those are your words, and questions. Nadhal, Dan and Tom merely stepped up as fellow Observers to help.

As always, I am very proud of you my friend.


.

[c. dawson]

Interesting profile of Dennis, though it almost strays into being a love-letter article rather than an evenhanded approach.

I do disagree with his claims that he "saved a steel mill." Yes, he did lead protests and worked to try to save LTV, but in the end, the company closed up shop, and sold off all its assets, regardless of the actions of Congressman Kucinich and all the other politicians in northeast Ohio (and let's not forget that while he was very active in trying to save the mill, it was ultimately the local politicians in Cleveland who were made serious efforts monetarily to keep the mill open). And the fact that the mill is operating today as ArcelorMittal is due to Wilbur Ross, who came in, bid on the assets of LTV (the mills), and reopened them, rehired the workers, and made the mills profitable again ... enough that ISG became not only the biggest steelmaker in America for a time, but then became ripe for purchase by Mittal Steel (now ArcelorMittal).

Congressman Kucinich does deserve credit for helping to lead the fight to save LTV (but never forget that others also stepped up), and he was very active in looking into the potential investors who wanted to buy the mill, but he should not take credit for actually "saving" the mill, because he really didn't. The top bidder was Wilbur Ross, and the judge handling the bankruptcy case made the decision (after asking Congressman Kucinich, Council Mike Polensek, Bishop Anthony Pilla and others to quit politicking in his courtroom).

So did he save the mill? No. But ... he was one of the many people who lent their voices to the combined campaign to save the mill. So he does deserve credit for TRYING to save the mill ... but claiming he saved it is a disservice to all the other folks who were involved. It was a team effort, not a solo show. But politicians don't win elections by saying they were part of a team, they win by saying they personally did the hard work and heavy lifting.

But that's the danger of writing a love letter ... it's fine to note his perception of things, but a journalist also needs to show that there are other sides to the story, and take everything the interviewee says with a grain of salt.

Especially when it comes to politicians! And all the other candidates for Congressman Kucinich's job will also make claims of things they did or said, and they might not necessarily be true either, so the Observer definitely needs to hold them to high standards, and point out that some of their claims may be more rhetoric than truth. That's what will make the Observer a great community paper.

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

Oh crap, they've figured me out!

I'm not a romantic, so the only thing that came to my mind when trying to write a two page love letter, I mean column, was steel mills, the economy, the failing housing market, the train traffic, the patriot act and how Dennis never owned a home in his life and sometimes lived in a car with his family. 21 places.

So while you realize that Dennis fought hard to save the mills (which are back and working again) but didn't actually "save them", that's still what I was trying to achieve with this article...because I'm tired of everyone claiming that he hasn't tried to do anything for this region and has completely forgotten about us here in the 10th district.

It's not his fault the mills left after all. I think that blame should be put on someone higher up...ya know?

[David Lay]

Don't forget he also fought hard to keep DFAS, NASA Glenn and NASA Plum Brook. A lot of research/development for the next-generation space shuttle program is being done here.

[c. dawson]

Yes, he did fight hard for DFAS ... but ultimately it was Congressman LaTourette, who doesn't even represent downtown, whose staff did the necessary number-crunching and found the right approach to save the DFAS.

Ivor, you did a good job ... but you ended up sounding totally swayed by everything he said. And while he's quite an interesting man, good at heart, he's also a politician, and will slant things in certain ways to portray himself in the best light. A good journalist allows the story to unfold in a way that tries to keep a fair and balanced approach (in the old-school way, not the Fox News kind of way) so that the reader can see through the hyperbole.

And yes, the LTV is a petty detail ... but politics is all about the details. We always need to hold politicos' feet to the flames, so that if they make a claim, it's substantiated. If the claim is not necessarily true, it's the journalists' role to expose that. Or at least it used to be. Nowadays things have changed ... some "journalists" pretty much work for a particular political party or organization, so what they do is slanted towards their candidate ... others are just looking to destroy whomever they can ... which isn't good either. The line has to be straddled, carefully. Yes, good things should be trumpeted. But false claims should be exposed. In this case, it wasn't quite a false claim, but rather someone taking TOO much claim for a positive result. So that needs to come out.

[Stephen Eisel]

Is Dennis Muslim?

[Jim O'Bryan]

C. Dawson


I find it funny your stance on this.

Was Ivor's article more fair or less fair that the Rosemary Palmer article about herself?

Yet you singled that out to attack.

Actually the Congressman had much to do with the only mill still operating here. But yes it was with the help of others. So can he use that on his resume, or not?

The article Ivor wrote, was an article he wanted to write. It was not a political piece it was as we stated 2-hours with our Congressman. As I have mentioned elsewhere he had two notebooks which sit in my office of bills introduced, that he worked on, etc. I also have the Cliff Notes on the two books. But chose not to use those as it was not a political piece. It was an Ivor piece.

The secret, the very essence of the Observer is bring it, and we will get it out there. At that point it is up to the residents to vet the piece. The secret of the Observer is to get people to put it out there.

FWIW


.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Is Dennis Muslim?

I not sure, do you see him when you go?


Actually, Dennis is closer to Eastern philosophy, which by nature would allow him to rejoice in many religions, as long as he learns from all of them.



.

[Stephen Eisel]

Is Dennis Muslim?

I not sure, do you see him when you go?




.

He seems afraid to bring home the pork for his district