"Cyber Sleuth" by Bill Sloat, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/8/03

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CYBER SLEUTH - Whistleblower newsletter combines Internet and good old political dirt-digging

By Bill Sloat, Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 28, 2003

Cincinnati - After John Dowlin unlocked the administrative floor of Hamilton County's governmentbuilding, he set course for a storage room to inspect the damage.

On the office fax machine, Dowlin found what he was looking for - that morning's edition of theWhistleblower, a razor-sharp Internet newsletter that slices up Ohio's business and political elitelike Mad Magazine on steroids.

From the president on down, (Bill Clinton was the pants-dropper-in-chief), no opinion-shaper issafe from this manic cyber soapbox with its vast spy net in Southwest Ohio.

Frustrated Cincinnati officials have tried in vain to ban it from city offices because of its politicalincorrectness, and have threatened to punish workers who dare to post copies in their cubicles.

Fueled by instant messages but functioning like an old-fashioned back-yard fence, the newsletteris all over the Blogosphere, from politics to pop culture. Where else could someone find this

sarcastic gem of a headline: "Americans will be welcomed with open arms in Iraq when Iraqis putdown all that stuff they're shooting."

It once suggested that congressmen who support mandatory drug tests on workers should havethemselves checked for Rogaine, an anti-baldness medication. And it says looters arecomplaining they were totally unprepared for a blackout.

The Whistleblower is what you'd get if DNA from a T. Rex, David Letterman and a newspapereditorial page were somehow spliced together.

Dowlin, a Hamilton County commissioner, once billed the county $3 for a can of pop and a bag ofnuts while on a business trip. Somebody promptly leaked his memo seeking reimbursement tothe Whistleblower, which tagged him with the nickname "Junketing John."

"I get it every morning, and I run copies for the staff," says Dowlin, a Republican. "But I like it bestwhen it's not picking on me. It's usually got something to say about somebody around here."

How true.

The Whistleblower's motto is, "Remember, we never print all the bad stuff we know, and certainpeople ought to be damn glad we don't." It openly solicits scandal by asking readers to fax and e-mail dirty little secrets about public officials. Scorned wives are encouraged to send in photos oftheir philandering husbands.

Often, Cincinnati's two daily newspapers are scooped. Sometimes even the national press getsbeat. The Whistleblower reported days before the mainstream media that Jerry Springer would

not run for the Senate.

In July, it told the sports world that a huge shakeup was coming in the Reds' front office. Soon themanager, general manager and several players were gone.

George Nemeth, who runs a popular Cleveland weblog, www.BrewedFreshDaily.com, says thereare about 100 blogs in Northeast Ohio covering everything from public policy to the arts scene,but none operates quite like the Whistleblower.

"It's not fostering dialogue. That's what I see as a drawback," Nemeth said. Nemeth's blog, which



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shuns humor for thoughtful discussion, is posted on the Internet; the Whistleblower is e-mailed orfaxed to readers, who must ask for it. Nemeth says the Whistleblower probably gets its irreverentmessage out better than anything in Cleveland at the moment.

"To me, he is distributing his message in a more effective technology. I wouldn't say it is a blogexactly anymore, that's a stretch. It evolved from a Web site into a better platform."

One-man staff

There is no crack staff behind the Whistleblower.

It is written, edited and self-published entirely by Jim Schifrin, a Humpty-Dumpty-shapedCincinnati suburbanite with nine telephones in his home who describes himself as being aspolitically incorrect as a polka dancer at a hip-hop concert. His strong opinions tend to beconservative. Still, his phones seem to be ringing all the time, or another computer message ispopping up from a tipster out somewhere in the ether.

Schifrin, 64, can spout one-liners like a minor-league Mark Twain and writes under a nom-de-plume Charles Foster Kane.

That's the fictional newspaper publisher in Citizen Kane, "the best movie ever made," he says.

Schifrin's tipsters are legion.

Rob Fredericks, an aide to the county commissioners, says he was in a hotel bar with his wifeone night when a lawyer acquaintance joined them for a drink. When they got up to leave, acondom in a foil pouch was lying on Fredericks' barstool.

Other things on the stool had fallen from the lawyer's coat pocket, which was draped over thestool.

Somehow the story got to the Whistleblower. An item appeared that a county official tipped adowntown bartender with a condom.

"Nearly every statement has a kernel of truth and every statement has an exaggeration, or a jokeor a punch line. You just have to figure out which is the truth," said Fredericks, an avid reader.

"This guy works all week long. It's more than a 40-hour job. He's read by all the elected officials incounty government, if for no other reason than to make sure they haven't been mentioned."

'Muckraker' is born

Schifrin has just applied for Social Security, but mostly has lived off income from some savvyinvestments and family trusts. He has always wanted to be a journalist, but says he never tookwell to authority.

In 1989, he walked out of a $400-a-month job as a free-lance gossip columnist for a Chamber ofCommerce-oriented publication after he was told to apologize for using a tidbit about a TVreporter's relationship with a Bengals player.

So he started anonymously publishing his own advertising-free newsletter. He had enoughmoney and time.

"I wanted to be a muckraker. I wanted to be the judge, jury and executioner. And I wanted to sellcotton candy at the hanging. That's the style I was after," Schifrin said.



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"I got a lot of my sense of what I wanted to do from the National Lampoon. Another source ofwhat I wanted to do was Jon Stewart. But I'm much more politically incorrect. I don't even try tobe politically correct. I'll say that looters are complaining because the blackout caught them bysurprise."

In May 1990, the first 20 copies were dropped off at the courthouse and City Hall. His hobbybecame full time a few years later, when personal computers and fax machines made it relativelyeasy to link up directly with readers - first by fax, then through a Web page, now by fax and e-mail.

He was a blogger before there was a Blogosphere, the phenomena that is turning the Web intoEveryman's own personal printing press.

Love or dishing dirt?

Schifrin says his work is a pure labor of love.

Others say he's dishing dirt. Or strip mining.

"There are people who say I'm a Republican. Tell Bob Taft that. I call him Boob Taft. What else

would you call the man? Flip open the dictionary and look up boob. There's his picture. Sure, Ioften talk about sleazy Democrats. But really, they're all sleazy."

For a time in the early 1990s, the Whistleblower was banned in the offices of the CincinnatiEnquirer. Nine months ago, Cincinnati workers were warned they would be disciplined if copiesappeared in any city offices.

"Those who work for the city, as well as members of the public who visit city facilities, are entitledto do so without being exposed to this type of discriminatory, demeaning and hostilecommunication that appears in the Whistleblower," said the Jan. 21 memo.

Many city workers first found out about the directive by reading the Whistleblower. Somebodyfaxed it to Schifrin.

"I didn't complain about it when they blocked me out," Schifrin said. "I think that city employeesshould be working. Not sitting around reading the Whistleblower, the newspaper or anythingelse."

The city's spokesperson, Meg Olberding, never responded to a request for comment. ButCincinnati Councilwoman Minette Cooper called the newsletter a masterpiece of the skinner's art.

"It's funny and ugly at the same time, and downright mean to everybody. When I was vice mayor,it called me the vice mouse. But I look at it, it's faxed all over City Hall, everybody looks at it.Grown people should be able to do what they want. You know, we have a free press in thiscountry," says Cooper, a black Democrat who sees no bias in the publication.

Republican State Rep. Tom Brinkman is one of Ohio's ultraconservatives - and also a big fan.

"Schifrin is basically a master of the Chinese water torture. When he starts pounding onsomething in dribs and drabs, it starts bothering people. It can have a tremendous effect," saidBrinkman, nicknamed "Taxkiller Tom."

Right now, he's got about 4,400 subscribers. Half get the one-page fax edition, the others receivean e-mail version that's slightly racier. More than 50 fax and e-mail subscribers are in city offices.

Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes, a Democrat, is an unabashed fan.



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"I read it every day. Schifrin is not encumbered by any reason to protect anybody, he's an equalopportunity offender who is willing to take them all on," Rhodes says.

A few hours earlier, Rhodes' office was busy confirming a Whistleblower scoop to reportersfollowing up in mainstream media. A City Council candidate whose Cincinnati residency wasbeing questioned had filed for a property tax break on a home in the suburbs. The candidatemight be ineligible to run.

"The item was in the Whistleblower first," Rhodes said, "and that's where the newspapers gottheir lead."

ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood, another fan, says many liberals don't like the Whistleblowerbecause it is famously politically incorrect.

"I think liberals are more uneasy about it, but I don't see him giving the conservatives aparticularly easy time either. What he does is point out hypocrisy. He skewers everybody andanybody," Greenwood says.

"Everybody that I know pays attention to it and reads it."

Copyright, 2003, The Plain Dealer. All Rights Reserved. Used by NewsBank with Permission.

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"Cyber Sleuth" by Bill Sloat, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/8/03