Can the PD Show Some Honesty?
By Roldo Bartimole
TRANSPARENCY.
It has been the righteous code word of the Plain Dealer in its dealing with public officials. Especially the new County Council.
What transparency means is this:
Honesty.
Openness.
Trustworthiness.
Fairness.
In this respect, the Plain Dealer is absolutely correct. And righteous. And true.
Now comes the hard part.
What’s good for public officials should be good for PD editors. No?
Next time the PD editorial board makes a crucial editorial endorsement — be it for President, mayor, county office or for any important public issue — let it practice what it preaches.
Give us transparency.
Let us know precisely how each editorial board member votes.
We would know what the score should be. Did they vote unanimously or was it a split vote? Or did one boss determine the outcome?
Wouldn’t that be fair? Wouldn’t that lend some public trust? Wouldn’t that give readers a sense of confidence that the decision was honestly tallied?
Wouldn’t that give the PD editorial decision the quality it demands of others — transparency? Would that be so hard?
An honest tally would insure that the paper doesn’t fall into a phony and embarrassing situation as it did in 2004.
You probably remember that the editorial board — though we didn’t know the vote tally — chose to endorse John Kerry for President.
The endorsement went differently when read by readers, however.
The PD didn’t endorse at all. It punted.
It was later revealed that then Publisher Alex “The Snake” Machaskee, who presumably had one of 8 votes on the editorial board, really liked George Bush better. What a surprise. So the one trumped all.
Machaskee overruled the rest.
In the end, a ridiculous and embarrassing “compromise” was reached.
The news of the debacle got national attention. The paper was again humiliated.
The paper would endorse neither Kerry nor Bush.
Better for Bush. And Machaskee.
Not for the voting public, however. And as history proved, not for the country either.
Nor for the honesty or reputation of the newspaper.
That’s why a transparency policy would be most helpful to all. It could help the Plain Dealer avoid embarrassments. Same as politicians.
It might have resulted in an honest endorsement decision recently on Issue 2, Gov. John Kasich’s union kill bill. Certainly, some on that board would be ashamed of the printed endorsement if their vote were public. At least we hope so.
It also might help stem the continued loss of subscribers. The PD is down to 243,000 from 339,000 in September of 2005. I wonder how many of those former subscribers simply couldn’t stand Kevin any more. Kevin O’Brien writes on the op-ed page as if he were talking to Republicans in Alabama, not Democrats in Cleveland, Ohio. It takes a toll.
So let’s know from now on how editorial boss Betsy Sullivan, her second-in-command Kevin O’Brien, Tom Suddes, Chris Evans, Joe Frolik, Sharon Broussard, publisher Terry Egger and editor Debra Adams Simmons vote.
If each of the editorial board members had to be put on record it might have changed Issue 2’s silly endorsement. Some people on that board I believe would be uncomfortable, maybe even mortified, to have their name put on record favoring the anti-union issue.
Ask County Council head Ellen Connally. I believe she will think it’s the fair thing to do.
ADDED NOTE: The amount we taxpayers have shelled out for the Medical Mart/Convention Center project as of the end of November: $160,805,415.87.
That $160 million dollars ($39.4 million this year) will not be spent elsewhere in Cuyahoga County. Talk about hurting small business.
I also wish reporters would stop calling the med mart a $465 million project without adding that with interest it is an $800 million project. That’s, of course, without run-overs and other changes.
The funds come from an additional quarter percent sales tax, courtesy of the former County Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora. We owe so much to those two.
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.
5 Responses to “ROLDO: Can the PD Show Some Honesty?”
Richard
Roldo,
Any thoughts on the SEC investigation of the financing and sale of bonds in regards to the Florida Marlins new stadium and parking facilities?
Wishing you good health and a joyous Holiday Season!
Glinda
I agree with you Roldo on all points except for Kevin O’Brien. It’s ok, even desirable for the PD to run O’Brien’s columns in order to present the conservative view. Not that I agree with anything O’Brien says – I think he’s an idiot. Be that as it may – his column should run. I don’t think it needs to be in such a prominent place, though. Especially since they allowed Connie Schultz to be run off.
As for circulation numbers – Someone who delivers the PD told me he is forced to drop papers at addresses that have cancelled the paper. No doubt this is being done to boost circulation numbers. So, the actual PAID circulation is no doubt lower than what is being reported.
Roldo Bartimole
I really don’t know abou it but when I read something I thought maybe
this might blow the lid off of sports franchises beating up cities for money for their business
Don’t know another businesss that gets the public to provide it lavish working space.
Roldo Bartimole
I might agree with you Glinda if the paper had one columnist even near to the left as O’Brien is to the right.
The balance is so far out of kilter that it can’t be acceptable.
John Ettorre
Roldo will no doubt recall (because he wrote about it at the time) that then-publisher Alex Machaskee helped nudge editorial writer Chris Colford from his perch some years ago, and Chris’s political orientation (full disclosure: he’s an old friend) can best be described as center-left, hardly far left. But then Alex once famously (this is literally true) got frustrated and called the paper’s Washington bureau because he couldn’t find a number for the Chinese consulate in the phone book under “Red China.”