Cleveland's Tim Russo Stops Blogging: Why?

I received an e-mail this morning from George Nemeth of Cleveland, who blogs at Brewed Fresh Daily, alerting me to a Cleveland Plain Dealer commentary on some members of the increasingly influential political blogosphere in Ohio. One of the consequences of that piece is that Cleveland blogger Tim Russo is closing his blog, Democracy Guy.

 

"So what do you blog about when the local paper reduces your net worth to the worst mistake you've ever made in your entire life?" Russo said in a June 6, 2006 post announcing a "requiem for his blog.  "Hmmm...well...good question," he added..  "I'll leave that for others to decide, because I think I'm done blogging for a while.  A long while."

 

In article headlined "From the left or from the right: a look at Ohio's political bloggers," the Plain Dealer drew the following conclusion about Russo: 

"Net worth: Clever and insightful, but has the sharpest tongue in the blogosphere; trying to rebuild credibility lost when he was convicted of importuning in an Internet sex sting."

For Nemeth's take on the matter, see DemocracyGuy.com goes off the air by George." He has interesting reader reaction.

 

Also see the National Review Online's Media Blog post headlined Blogger Quits After Newspaper Report. NRO said, "Apparently, Russo's history was first uncovered in February by fellow Ohio political blogger Heights Mom, who wrote about it here. Russo's case file is here."

 

To Russo's credit, he has not shut-off comments. Some are sympathetic while others are rather scathing. 

 

Here 's a Plain Dealer list of Ohio blogs.

Comments

[Munir Umrani]

George, thanks for the tip that made this post possible. I thought it best to report Russo's decision as is, and just provide links for people to draw their own conclusions.

[George Nemeth]

Solid piece, Munir. Thank you.