My, my.
Is the Plain Dealer feeling guilty? It should be.
A Sunday editorial took Gov. John Kasich to task. They don’t like what he is doing. Big surprise.
Wasn’t he their choice for Governor? Of course he was. The same PD editors last year gave him the nod over Ted Strickland who wasn’t doing such a bad job at all. Indeed, some of his decisions are looking rather good right now as Ohio’s economy perks a bit. You just don’t forgive a mistake as that.
Now the same editors say that “…ever since Kasich laid out his spending plans for the next two years, it has been apparent that far too much of the burden of cuts would fall on local government and school districts.”
Did they expect him to raise taxes on the wealthy to save schools or local governments?
(The editorial is here.)
Are they now trying to get off the hook for what they did to us? Absolutely. Too late. Sorry.
Even Brent Larkin, member of the endorsing team, wants to shed some blame. He took Kasich to the woodshed on Sunday.
Kasich, the non-taxer but tax-gifter (to the rich), “should lose a lot of the bluster,” writes Larkin. Larkin rightly takes him to task for “overheated rhetoric.” Kasich shows his inadequacies by mouthing off too often.
(The Larkin column is here.)
What did they expect from a wise-ass juvenile given POWER? A steady hand? A thoughtful statesman?
This happens too often at the Plain Dealer. The paper’s leaders don’t like taking strong positions. That usually means backing right-wing Republicans. The so-called “liberal” newspaper fears that description. So it bends back the other way in fear.
NOW TO GIVE THE PD SOME DUE.
It takes courage for a newspaper to monitor the police. Gabriel Baird and Henry Gomez are following the activities of the Cleveland Police and its Chief Michael McGrath on reviews of possible police misbehavior. Very important material.
They note that “in all 37 cases” of possible misbehavior the Plain Dealer examined, the chief or his deputy “blessed the use of force.” That tests credulity. It sounds more as saying the hell to citizens and their complaints.
This kind of behavior goes to the top. Mayor Frank Jackson needs to explain how it is never the fault of the police in these cases. The Chief needs to answer more fully to how these decisions were made.
(The Sunday article is here.)
Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s.
He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]
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2 Responses to “ROLDO: Mea Culpa by Plain Dealer? — Too Late”
Anastasia P
The Plain Dealer’s endorsement editorial of Kasich praised him for his bluster and condemned Strickland for his steady hand. They don’t like his overheated rhetoric? This is the same paper that, in endorsing Kasich, said “It’s hard to tell what is core belief, what is hot air, and whether he even knows the difference.” So NOW Larkin is saying he shouldn’t be the very person that the PD described in its endorsement editorial? Good luck with that!
Roldo Bartimole
It does test the imagination, doesn’t it Anastasia.