An Ohio political blog called Plunderbund originally posted this video of Gov. John Kasich’s obnoxious interview with the Ohio newspaper Plain Dealer’s editorial board. It shows Kasich pointedly ignoring Democratic candidate Ed FitzGerald and refusing to answer a question about why he’d signed a bill preventing rape crisis counselors from telling rape victims that abortion might be one of their options. It shows the true nature of the union-busting Ohio governor – slumped in his seat like a petulant 5-year-old, refusing to acknowledge the existence of Democratic candidate FitzGerald, talking around questions instead of answering them.
The Plain Dealer website had originally published the video of its interview. But the video was later taken down, for reasons unknown. Plunderbund posted to YouTube a clip that it had captured from the longer video, because its editors “felt the video was important. Plunderbund then reported that NOMG had threatened to sue if the video was not removed. They received a very scary lawyerly takedown letter threatening all kinds of legal hell for infringing copyright of an intellectual property that it had chosen to hide itself. They alleged that Plunderbund had “illegally copied” the video and demanded that it be taken down or the blog would face legal action:
“We insist you delete the material immediately. We have registered the copyright, which means your illegal use of it entitles us to statutory damages, which can be quite steep, and recovery of all fees we pay our attorneys as we compel you to adhere to the copyright law”.
Well, this being the internet, and digital files being endlessly reproducible, it’s up on Youtube again.
In the entire six-minute clip, Kasich gives a boilerplate speech about just how pro-life he is, but he never answers the question about the gag rule he signed into law. He doesn’t even acknowledge the question. It’s just not what he wants to focus on, and therefore it does not exist. And apparently, at least for one of the editors, that’s just fine. In fact, that’s such a just fine answer, the Plain Dealer eventually endorsed Kasich anyway, because he reminds them of Reagan or something.
I’d love to know why the editors were satisfied with Kasich’s non-answer and more about the decision to remove the video, and whether the Plain Dealer agreed with its corporate overlords that it was a good idea to remove a pretty important tool for assessing the candidates.
Listening to Kasich for 15 seconds made me want to slit my own throat. If Kasich is one of “America’s leading lights”, we should just surrender to ISIL now.
(i apologize for any typos i wanted to get this out and I am late for work)