In his latest editorial, Jason Haap of the Cincinnati Beacon (the self-proclaimed “Dean of Cincinnati”) continues to resort to personal attacks and intentional misquotes in an attempt to diminish the credibility of Explore Cincinnati and myself. In doing so, Mr. Haap further diminishes his own credibility and proves that the Cincinnati Beacon relies on outrageous headlines and “controversies” in order to generate traffic and ad revenue for itself.
In his editorial, titled “Bearcast Radio DJ tags busses for ‘creeps and weirdos,’” Mr. Haap intentionally distorts my words to paint me as an anti-bus elitist snob. He accuses me of calling bus riders “poor people who employers look down upon, who women don’t want to date,” and in a later comment, of having “contempt” for “poor people,” who I apparently “fear sitting near on [my] way to work.” Mr. Haap and commenters on The Cincinnati Beacon website continue to repeat these claims, ignoring my direct responses to his points.
My exact quote from the show was, “Our popular culture has depicted buses as a place for creeps and weirdos.” Although I didn’t specifically mention it during the show, I was quoting this anti-bus ad for the Chevy Cavalier. As I did state in the show, “I wish that we didn’t have this problem,” and “I also wish car companies wouldn’t portray buses as inferior in their advertising in order to sell more cars.”
When I call Haap out on this point, he responds, “Sure, you said ‘our pop culture,’ and your angle demonstrates… your tacit endorsement of that view.” Really, Mr. Haap? By acknowledging a point of view that others hold, I am somehow expressing my own endorsement of the idea?
While debating this issue in The Cincinnati Beacon comments section, I discovered that any attempt to use Jason Haap’s real name results in automatic censorship. Mr. Haap responds, “I saw no reason to have my own name defamed on my own website.” Perhaps the real explanation is that he doesn’t want to associate his good name with the poor journalistic behaviors of “The Dean of Cincinnati.”
As the Beacon’s website states, “’The Dean of Cincinnati’ is a fictional character played by Jason Haap.” It’s fine if he wants to hide behind a pen name in his blog, but I am not arguing with “The Dean.” This fiasco began after the debate between John Schneider and Jason Haap, so I am responding to Mr. Haap, not “The Dean” – How seriously would he have been taken if he would have participated in the debate as The Dean?
I was fine debating the issues up to this point, but Mr. Haap’s attempt to turn this into a smear campaign against me personally, hiding behind his “fictional character,” has made me decide to stop giving The Cincinnati Beacon more attention than it deserves.
