This might be a record: I was banned in 3 minutes …
… by a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist with The San Francisco Chronicle.
I can’t resist sharing an illuminating posting exchange I had today with Substack author Jack Ohman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
As you’ll see, Mr. Ohman banned me from his site after I had been a subscriber to his newsletter for a grand total of three minutes.
Our give-and-take illustrates that the country is over-flowing with citizens who definitely don’t think (or act) anything like me or my subscribers.
First some background …
I didn’t even know I’d subscribed to Mr. Ohman’s Substack, which I discovered after I subscribed to the new Substack of a columnist from Davis, California named Bob Dunning.
I learned of Mr. Dunning because I got an email from Substack’s managing editor, Hannah Ray. Ms. Ray occasionally writes feature stories on Substack success stories. Mr. Dunning, 77, started his newsletter 2 1/2 months ago after he was fired from his small community newspaper and has become an instant star on this platform.
(According to the story, Mr. Dunning is on schedule to make $100,000 to $140,000 this year and - allegedly - already has “thousands” of paid subscribers.)
“Man, I need to check out this guy and see how he did this,” I said to myself.
At the home page of Mr. Dunning’s newsletter, I took note of four Substack writers that Mr. Dunning “recommends.”
I decided to check out a couple of these writers as I figured these recommendations might show the political ideology of Mr. Dunning. (I have a hypothesis that Substack, almost exclusively, promotes liberal writers. The reason I think this is I’ve never seen a feature story produced by Substack that profiles, say, “Covid Contrarians” or “freedom writers” or, for that matter, any conservative.
In five seconds, I concluded Jack Ohman was as liberal as one might expect from a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and editorial writer for The San Francisco Chronicle.
For example, a recent cartoon depicted Joe Biden on the White House balcony being showered in adulation by loving citizens, who, like Ohman, view Biden as the reincarnation of George Washington.
Another recent column reveals Ohman’s also an adoring fan of a stateswoman of similar stature, Kamala Harris.
Since I’d somehow become a free subscriber, I decided to make a post.
The Comment Thread which ensued is depicted verbatim:
Bill Rice, Jr (First Post):
“When did Kamala Harris know that Biden has dementia? Why did she keep quiet about this and why did she keep saying he was as mentally sharp as ever?”
The newspaper veteran replied almost immediately.
Jack Ohman:
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was just tested for dementia and doesn't have that.”
What the heck? I’d somehow missed the huge story Biden had taken and passed a cognitive test?
Bill Rice, Jr.:
“I missed the story that Biden had just been tested for dementia and doesn't have it. Do you happen to have a link/source for this assertion? For weeks he's been saying he hasn't been tested and doesn't need to be tested because he's tested by his job every day, etc.”
Our dueling jousts must have over-lapped, because Mr. Ohman quickly added an addendum to his initial reply:
Jack Ohman:
“He’s just old, something we all will be, if we're lucky. Reagan actually was in early stage dementia and died from it. No one said a thing.”
Frankly, I was gob-smacked anyone could still think Biden does NOT suffer from dementia.
Bill Rice, Jr.:
“You really think he doesn't have dementia? ‘Old age’ explains 500 ‘gaffes?’
“I'm 58 and remember Reagan's first and second terms. I don't remember any events as alarming as what I see almost every day with Biden.”
A snarky and condescending Ohman replied.
Jack Ohman:
“Buddy, I just read what you read. He has had a doctor in there for months checking him. Maybe you missed Reagan’s first debate.”
My first thought was: Hey, Buddy, don’t call me “Buddy,” and then …What we have here is a Pulitzer Prize winner who’s naive, sanctimonious, condescending and obtuse. I pecked out another response, which I tried to post:
Bill Rice, Jr.:
“The doctor has never given him a cognitive test - those are tests where the patient answers a series of questions.
“I agree Reagan was suffering from dementia too ... just not nearly as severe as Biden. I also think Biden probably has Parkinson's. You can read Alex Berenson's pieces where he quotes doctors who have stated this is obvious to them.
“I certainly don't trust Biden's doctor or any of his handlers. It blows my mind that you do trust them.”
I again hit “send” and immediately got a message I’ve yet to encounter on Substack:
“Post blocked.”
My first thought can be abbreviated with the letters S, O, B.
However, my second thought was: This is Substack gold. This confirms how famous liberals treat their new subscribers. I’ve got to share this with my readers.
I tried to go back to Mr. Ohman’s story to see if anyone else had made any comments. Alas, the next message I got was:
Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! blocked you
You are blocked from subscribing to Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! and their publications
Not only had my perfectly legitimate post been blocked, I’d been blocked from subscribing. My subscription had lasted 180 seconds.
Now that I think about it, a similar series of events happened when I subscribed to Dan Rather’s Substack. After I made one post there, that post was deleted - I guess, by Dan Rather himself - and I was also banned from his site.
(In the movie “Sixth Sense,” the kid sees ghosts everywhere. I see … liberal patterns everywhere.)
My curiosity piqued, I did some quick research on Mr. Ohman. From Wikipedia, I learned he’d indeed won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 2016 when he worked for The Sacramento Bee. He’d also been a cartoonist at The Oregonian. Amazingly (to me), his cartoons were once syndicated in more than 300 newspapers.
Mr. Ohman was let go by The Sacramento Bee in 2023 (just like Mr. Dunning was let go by his former newspaper in 2024 - another corporate newspaper pattern). But The San Francisco Chronicle hired Ohman as a contributor a few months later and he’s now launched his own Substack, which has “1,000+ subscribers” (no longer including Bill Rice, Jr).
Readers can check out one column link (that I can still access) here. Maybe someone can report back and see if my posts are still at his site and perhaps send Mr. Ohman a link to this column. (Someone might make a post similar to mine and see how long it takes you to get banned).
For the record, a man who’s worked for prestigious mainstream newspapers for more than 40 years - and who writes opinion columns for a major newspaper - blocked and then banned me in record time for … expressing a (commonly-held) opinion.
Compare and contrast the two sides …
FWIW, if Jack Ohman subscribed to my site, I wouldn’t ban him. He could share whatever opinion he wanted in my Reader Comment section. I’d enjoy sparring with him as would my subscribers.
Chalk this up as a worthwhile reminder …
If nothing else, I now have an even greater appreciation of how mainstream media sites (and their stand-out columnists/cartoonists) actually view Reader Comments sections. As it turns out, they’ll tolerate dissenting opinions … for one or two posts.
If I possessed Mr. Ohman’s artistic skills, I’d knock out a cartoon depicting him as an over-sized chicken and Censorship lover. Also, as someone who doesn’t have the cognitive ability to know Joe Biden’s afflicted with severe dementia - something our vice president would have to be a buffoon not to have recognized years ago.
I don’t know what hues I’d use in my cartoon, but they’d show the true colors of media members like Jack Ohman.
According to Substack’s managing editor, Bob Dunning, the 77-year-old columnist, now has more subscribers than the small community newspaper that recently fired him, including more than 2,000 paid subscribers. The message is that you too can get rich on Substack … apparently, though, it helps to be on the far left of the political spectrum. I have no grievance with Mr. Dunning, but I’m starting to feel the direction the Substack wind is blowing. I wonder if a killer storm’s on the way.
This man has 2000 paid subscribers, but his article from three days ago has only 20 likes and 10 comments? It seems highly unlikely that he has a large following.
I posted "Trans is mental illness" (an objectively true statement) on Twitter under Elon and was banned within one second!
No human can do that, so Elon must have Twitter policed by woke AI now. Very disappointing.