Plain Dealer Reader Rejection Of Issue 6 Politics Could Cost Plain Dealer Employees $ Millions In Pay

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 23:22.

The Cleveland Plain-Plan Dealer has shown remarkable bias in the coverage and promotion of Issue 6 - the NEOCON-created, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor/Off Shore Wind Economy Expert/political insider's-insider Bill Mason-sponsored plan to eliminate Cuyahoga County government, as we know it, and replace it with some lawyerese slight-of-mind proposal for new leadership of our region... aka NEOCON 6.

The latest Plain-Plan Dealer story about NEOCON 6 - "Cuyahoga voter approval of Issue 6 could cost four officeholders nearly $700,000 in pay" - says that the people who will be eliminated if NEOCON 6 passes will not be paid after their jobs are eliminated. The Plain Dealer makes that simple mathematical calculation news by projecting those people are therefore suspect for not supporting NEOCON 6. These officeholders are, the PD concludes, opposed to losing their voter-elected jobs within County Government, and against MEDCON 6.

That is not news.

That is as obvious as the fact that if the Cleveland Plain-Plan Dealer publishes a biased shopper of a newspaper then readers will cancel their subscriptions, will not participate in the cleveland.com "virtual community", and will turn to other channels for insight and community news, including finding their own truths as a community of citizens, like REAL COOP, through REALNEO.

That is as obvious as the fact that Plain Dealer Reader Rejection Of Issue 6 Politics Could Cost Plain Dealer Employees $ Millions In Pay

Under the current editor and publisher, PD "news" reporting has become so compromised as to be propaganda so often as to obfuscate any truths that may be hidden within the general content.

At a recent forum at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Planning the Future of University Circle, Cleveland Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt (who is also a student at Cleveland State, creating a whole other world of conflicts of interests) moderated a discussion with Case Architect Margaret Carney and Cleveland Foundation University Circle Planner Lillian Kuri, where Litt introduced Carney and Kuri as people he "schmoozes" with, in the same circles. Litt later softballed the "Opportunity Corridor" beyond this most patronizing of discussions, in the process making light of the lack of public access associated with University Circle planning, throughout all time, for which Litt may certainly take great responsibility.

The planning of what is suddenly designated as "Greater University Circle", including its coal fired power plants, and especially the Opportunity Corridor, are critical to the success of Litt's boss - Terrance Egger, Publisher of the Plain Dealer - who is spearheading the propaganda campaign for the Opportunity Corridor... and to the success of Co-Chair Jamie Ireland, who is Chairman of University Circle, Inc.,  on the Board of ore and coal supplier Cliffs, and someone in direct authority over Carney, Kuri, and, in ways, Litt and his boss Egger. 

Because of this collusion of all-powerful institutions and interests circling around University Circle, schmoozed by Cleveland's de facto planning critic, championed by the critic's boss, who is the publisher of our only mainstream newspaper, it is obvious the public needs new watchdogs over all matters University Circle-related - the current checks and balances are broken.

I now distrust all planning surrounding University Circle, and all Plain Dealer coverage of that.

The same problem applies with NEOCON 6... I now distrust all planning surrounding Issue 6, and all Plain Dealer coverage of that.

I intend to vote against NEOCON 6 because of the incompetent NEOCON process by which it was developed, which I do not trust, the fact that the public faces behind NEOCON 6 are Bill Mason and some mayor from Parma Heights, who I do not trust, and because of the overbearing blathering of the Cleveland Plain Plan Dealer, related to NEOCON 6, which I do not trust.

The greatest example of the Plain-Plan Dealer leadership's delusional, megalomaniac interpretation of their role in this community is found 24x7 at http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/ - their "Opinion" Home Page - which has kept promoted to the top of the page, for the past several weeks, articles featuring Plain Plan Dealer ENDORSEMENTS for the November 3 election.

The Plain-Plan Dealer editors literally believe there are no opinions in the world more important than their endorsements for Issues 3, 4 and 6, and the candidates the PD sponsors want in office. Obviously, such endorsements are what is paying the bills at the PD, this month. Or not!

I don't believe many readers are isolated and ignorant enough not to see these desperate campaigns for what they are... big gambles.

In the end, the biggest losers will be the real community stakeholders in the Cleveland Plain Dealer... long time readers, who have lost a newspaper, and employees, who will follow the ranks of Newhouse workers in the streets, most recently including the staff of Newhouse-ruined legendary masterpiece of print, Gourmet.

Let them eat cake?

Clevelanders, and other Newhouse victims, can't even afford crumbs.