Manufactured Controversy
By Mansfield Frazier
(Note: C. Ellen Connally is a longtime personal friend of this writer)
Stop the presses! This is huge, humongous… who knows, maybe even big… at least that’s how the PD is playing it up with a headline story, followed up by a cartoon and later by an editorial… all of which has people — even some veteran PD staffers — scratching their heads in wonderment.
It seems as if someone on the County Council raised the question of moving the meeting time of that body, and Council President Connally sent out an email to members asking for suggestions and input so it could be discussed at a future meeting. While no vote was taken, the PD alleges Sunshine Laws were broken. Or, as their front page headline screamed, it was “termed secretive” — whatever the hell that means. What kangaroo court came up with that decision?
This manufactured controversy has the smell of sour grapes all over it. If you recall, Connally derailed a backroom deal that was being engineered by Martin Zanotti that would allow him to handpick the president of the Council. He had a political operative lining up votes for the candidate he’d selected, and when the other members of the newly-elected body got wind of it they balked; that’s how Connally got elected. Obviously some folks didn’t like the fact they got outflanked by the politically savvy woman who now serves as president of Council, but nary was a word ever printed in the PD about the shady backroom dealings Zanotti was allegedly engaged in.
Some folks are obviously not prepared to deal with a completely honest, amazingly bright, exceptionally hardworking, totally independent, and supremely self-assured Black woman holding the reigns of so much political power in a place like Cuyahoga County. This borderline yellow journalism seems to be an effort to take her down a notch or two.
However, her actions violated neither the rule nor spirit of the Sunshine Law. Certainly Cleveland’s only daily newspaper has a watchdog obligation to the public, but that does not extend to controlling duly elected officials because of some hidden agenda. If the folks who run the PD want to run the county as well, they can always throw hats into the ring in the next election.
Now, back to my NOTE at the beginning of this screed… I readily fess up when I have an agenda… I’m totally transparent: In this case I’m championing a dear friend who I feel is being unfairly maligned. But when was the last time the PD put such a disclaimer on one of its editorials? OK, when was the first time? Give up? The fact is, the folks there never reveal their agendas, hidden or otherwise, now do they? What’s the old saying about glass houses and stones? Would a good dose of “sunshine” help clear the sometimes foul air over at 18th and Superior?
The Godfather: Part Four – Poisoning the Juror Pool
What’s up with the PD repeatedly running that photo of now indicted Doan/Pyramid CEO Michael Forlani… the one with him all duded up in a tuxedo, ala The Godfather? Now this cat might be as guilty as sin, I don’t know. I wouldn’t know the man if I bumped into him — but I do know that everyone in America is entitled to a fair, unbiased, uninfluenced trial by a jury of their peers… and this bit of journalistic underhandedness works to prevent that from occurring.
How can he get a fair trail if the PD is poisoning the juror pool by constantly, repeatedly flashing this image of Forlani that makes it appear as if he just stepped off the cover of Mafia Monthly Magazine? They know how gullible the public is, and this stunt shows a total disrespect for their readers… and our American ideals of fairness and justice.
With virtually no effort I was able to find a dozen recent photos of Forlani that weren’t so subtly and sneakily pejorative. Why couldn’t the PD find and use one of them if they are truly interested in American-style fair play?
In the Black community we call this “throwing a rock and hiding your hand.” Now everyone at the paper couldn’t be asleep on this dirty little trick, but if questioned, of course they all will deny, deny, deny to high Heaven any subversive intentions.
Where’s the PD’s ombudsman when he’s needed? Shame on the lot of them.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.
4 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Manufactured Controversy”
John Ettorre
Right on on both points, Mansfield. Good for you for continuing to hold up a microscope to the PD (and shame on Scene for doing almost no media criticism anymore). And please note, the PD DOES NOT have an ombudsman. That job would be filled by someone from outside the company with real independence written into their contract, as the NYTimes does.
Instead, the PD has a laughably watered-down thing that they know most people will mistake for an ombudsman: a “reader’s representative” named Ted Diadiun, who mostly (I would go so far as to say almost exclusively) represents the newsroom’s point of view, because he’s spent years there as an editor. He’s a nice man and a solid professional journalist. But an independent ombudsman he’s not.
Mike McIntyre
“By Mansfield Frazier
(Note: C. Ellen Connally is a longtime personal friend of this writer)”
Mansfield: Your disclosure is honorable here, but it points to the fact that you’ve got a personal stake in this issue.
I didn’t work on this story, but I know — as do you — that open access has been at the core of Plain Dealer coverage of government in recent months and the pre-council secretive meetings held by this council in its formative days justifies heightened scrutiny.
It is not too much to ask that elected officials vote and deliberate in public. And while the meeting schedule may seem trivial to you, the principle applies to all actions taken by the body. Even the ones that might make you more agitated. The public has the right to see not only the sausage, but how its elected officials make it.
As for the photograph: I don’t know whether The Plain Dealer has other photos of Mr. Forlani in the archives, but I do know that it’s not appropriate to co-opt photos from the Internet to run in the newspaper. Your search may have found many photos, but not necessarily ones that could be used in The Plain Dealer.
You know I have a great deal of respect for you and I am not interested in a flame war in any way, but I thought these issues needed to be brought out.
Keep up the great column. Love reading it!
Mansfield Frazier
Mike,
Next week I’m publishing the County Council’s response to this manufactured controversy; they tried to get you guys to publish it, but supposedly there was not enough space. To mu mind there always has to be space for the truth.
And as for the photo, you know it could have been cropped, right?
Jason Waters
Why is Mansfiled Frazier kissing up to C. Ellen Connally? She is slick and dishonest and got caught.