Drugmakers try to halt state suit
The five drug companies that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sued alleging they contributed to Ohioans’ addiction to narcotic painkillers want a judge to dismiss the case while a federal agency looks into the subject of addiction.
Purdue Pharma, a Stamford, Connecticut, company whose products include the widely prescribed opioid OxyContin, and four other companies filed responses to DeWine’s lawsuit in Ross County Common Pleas Court on Friday. That is where DeWine filed suit on May 31 against Purdue Pharma and the other companies, arguing that they triggered a “human tragedy
The criticism tended to be rare enough that I chalked it up to new or intermittent readers and answered them one-on-one. Just last week, however, I heard the same criticism from two judges and a lawyer who took issue with my Sept. 5 column on Brian L. Golsby, the man awaiting trial in connection with the rape and killing of Ohio State University student Reagan Tokes.
In a letter to the paper, a Franklin County judge not involved in Golsby’s case wrote that The Dispatch should not pass off my opinion as news, calling it “irresponsible at best and shameful at worst.” In Thursday’s Common Pleas Court hearing on the Golsby case, defense attorney Kort Gotterdam and presiding Judge Mark Serrott expressed similar concerns that a “news story” would read more like a letter to the editor.
But it wasn’t a news story. It was commentary. And I bring this up not to engage in a tit-for-tat with judges or a defense attorney. They’re doing their jobs and I’m doing mine.
Their comments, though, suggested that they don’t know what a metro columnist does.
Until last year, I was a news reporter covering criminal justice issues. In that role, my opinions had no place in The Dispatch.
That changed in July 2016, when I was named the paper’s metro columnist. We went a few years without one, so it could be that readers grew used to an absence of opinions on the metro cover. But that’s why my ugly mug, topped with the word “Commentary,” appears above every column. It’s meant to flag the content as separate and apart from traditional news stories. (The same is true of columns by Michael Arace and Rob Oller on the Sports cover, or Joe Blundo on the Life & Arts cover.)
You won’t see me write about world news or national politics very often, because the “metro” in my title isn’t there as a space-filler. With a few exceptions, I try to stay local. That’s why the column has a home on the Metro & State page.
Often, I’m writing about the week’s local news, giving my two-cents worth on stories brought to you by the reporting staff.
I don’t speak for the paper, as it also was suggested in court last week. The editorial pages speak for The Dispatch. I speak for myself, and there have been a few instances in the past year in which my column stood in direct opposition to an editorial. My editors and I agree that there is room enough in The Dispatch for differing opinions. The more voices the better.
I’ve said before that my primary fear is falling into a rut, so I don’t splash my opinion through every column. I might follow a personal essay with a straight-up feature on some interesting central Ohioan. Often, I’ll let them air their opinions through me. Again, the more voices the better.
When I read other newspapers, I’m always drawn to the metro columnists and their strong voices. You might disagree with Helen Ubinas in Philadelphia or Steve Lopez in Los Angeles, but they’ll take you on an interesting ride regardless.
That’s what I try to do. If our opinions diverge along the way, you can at least come along for the ride — or write me off as just another blowhard shouting into a hurricane.