I Hate Canton Isn't the Only One....

...who finds it curiouser and curiouser that comments were disabled on Saturday's
Canton's Quarterly Magazine Produced in Partnership with Gatehouse-Ohio story.

Martin Olsen, who broke the Repository-Canton Connection deal back in March nearly two months before the Rep got around to it, has published two blogs in the last three days about the Connection connection. We recommend you read them both in full but here's a preview of each:


May 9, 2009
Rep Publisher Kampman Thinks Stark Countians are Stupid and Naive
Olson's leads off with what a lot of Rep readers are asking:

Will this commercial relationship between Canton and The Rep embolden Healy's effort to manage, massage and spin the news coming out of City Hall? The SCPR thinks so.

The SCRP has been questioning the dependability of The Rep's coverage of the Healy Administration ever since a source tipped The Report off about the impending deal between the city of Canton and the newspaper. Moreover, The Rep has always had a coverage and editorial romance going with Ohio legislators Oelslager and Schuring.

and follows through with a series of hard questions about the relationship between City Hall and the Rep that nobody at the Repository has the cajones or ability to ask their boss, publisher Kevin Kampman, (the same Kevin Kampman who blew off Don Cirelli's request for intervention with Octopuppet smears.)

May 11, 2009
Proof That Rep Will Not Separate Commercial Relationships from the News?
To the SCPR, this denial of opportunity to comment is evidence that the news operation at The Canton Repository. canton.com is not independent of its commercial operations contrary to Rep publisher Kevin Kampman's assertion in the story itself...

Publisher Kampman and Executive Editor Jeff Gauger (who, in the opinon of the SCPR grossly mismanages the Comments section) know full well that they are not going to get congratulations from Rep/CantonRep.com readers on GateHouse's blurring of the commercial operations with hard news operations.

So the solution?

Don't allow comments!

And speaking of comments...another curiosity:

I Hate Canton has been online since March 31, mainly for the entertainment of a small band of Rep Alienateds. As far as we can tell, Octopuppet had no knowledge of the blog, (and no Octopuppet, this is not all about you!) Yet within a very short time of Kevin Kampman, Jeff Gauger, a few Rep reporters, and a member of the mayor's staff being informed of IHC, a flurry of log-ons by Octopuppet began. We have no idea what this means exactly, but Octopuppet's interest in I Hate Canton is too great of a coincidence to be accidental--especially when he/she/it seems to have a special relationship with somebody at the Rep and a slavish adoration of Mayor Bill (Jamie to his friends) Healy. There's a rat somewhere. We hope it's not at 500 South Market. Personally we think it's a bit north.