By Roldo Bartimole
I think I’ve concluded. The Plain Dealer front page Sunday convinced me.
I’ve been thinking how bad it would be that the city didn’t have a daily newspaper.
Reality finally hit.
No it wouldn’t.
Why?
The paper provides too much untrue propaganda.
The paper ignores too much reality.
It avoids what needs to be told. It toots horns for too many bullshit charlatans.
It makes heroes of Jimmy Haslam just as it did Art Modell. Until it can’t avoid the obvious. These guys are for themselves. All the way.
More space on Monday’s front page for Mrs. Haslam, Dee that is. She’s so smart. She’s so generous. She’s so vivacious. She’s so passionate. She loves dogs. Even her employees. And they all love her.
Meanwhile, what’s happening to the real people of Cleveland…? Who cares? Not on the agenda.
Finally on the PD: Presidential endorsement. It’s coming.
I wrote previously that the PD would endorse Sen. Sherrod Brown (who the paper didn’t endorse six years ago) but questioned whether this would be a split-ticket tactic to endorse Mitt Romney. One for the Dems; one for the Reps.
The PD record with Presidential endorsements suggests the paper’s management wants Republicans, although the paper choose Barak Obama in 2008.
The paper’s editorial board, which makes the endorsement selection, voted for John Kerry in 2004. However, Alex Machaskee, then publisher, wanted George Bush. The result: A silly one: no endorsement. The hell with the vote. Just like Florida.
The PD has some worries. This is a Democratic town. So the paper should be a bit worried about alienating too many readers.
Especially when you consider a few facts: In 1994 (that year simply because I had its ownership statement pasted to my office wall) the PD had a daily circulation of 420,408 for the previous 12 months. By March, 2011 the daily circulation had dropped to 254,372, or a loss of 166,036.
It’s a drain the paper can’t afford.
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Another Example of PD Priorities
You have probably read about the scandalous spending of $6.4 million for a kitchen (restaurant) in the Justice Center (jail). For jailbirds!
What you never read about, nor heard a single complaint about in the daily cover-up was the $7.5 million spent on what I called “Two lavish, upscale restaurants at Gateway…”
It just matters who is getting fed. That determines whether the Plain Dealer, its reporters, editors and columnists make a fuss about it.
If you are spending it for multi-millionaires there is no need for complaint.
If you are doing it for jailbirds, get the spotlights out. Red alert!
The Terrace Club, built into the baseball stadium, cost $5,155,893, seating some 900; Sammy’s at the arena cost $2,370,134. And they don’t ever have to pay any property taxes.
Don’t mind me, I’m prejudiced. I hate giving public money to people who don’t need it. How about you?
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Here’s What’s Happening to Some
Debbie Webb posted a comment on REALNEO telling of the troubles she had in helping someone get health care. It was a comment on something I wrote about the death of Citizen Activist Ed Hauser. Here is her comment.
And here is the item I wrote about Ed, which bears repeating in light of the Presidential campaign and Romney’s casual statement that anyone can get the care needed at the emergency room. Sometimes it’s too late. The piece from December 2008:
HAUSER DIED FOR LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE
Ed Hauser’s death was a tragedy that didn’t have to happen. It was a death that should not have happened. In many other countries it would not have happened.
The circumstances of his death may be the reason many more will die today and tomorrow.
Ed died because America doesn’t have the decency to protect its own citizens with the health care that’s basic in all other industrial societies.
The American aversion to universal health care is killing people by neglect. It must be corrected.
Ed didn’t have health insurance.
“I do believe that was part of his concern,” said his girl friend, Cathy Stahurski, who took him to the hospital, too late. He died on the way.
He had been “making excuses” not to seek medical care, she said. She felt he didn’t want to seek help because he didn’t have insurance coverage. He did have a policy for catastrophic care, she said.
The coroner’s office, according to the Plain Dealer, ruled his death as a “heart attack.”
Hauser didn’t have a job. An electrical engineer, he was laid off 10 years ago by LTV Steel. He had been working temporary jobs recently but was out of work.
He certainly was working but you don’t get paid by being a great citizen.
As Mike Roberts wrote recently of Hauser in Cleveland Magazine, “The town could use a few more good men like Ed Hauser.
“Hauser is a pain – a persistent, nagging, unyielding pain. On the medical scale of one to 10, he would rate a 10. What makes him so painful is that he challenges the way the town and its dysfunctional government work.”
Hauser saved (for the time being anyway) Whiskey Island – named so because it housed an early distillery – from being gobbled up by the Cuyahoga-Cleveland County Port Authority. The island – which really isn’t an island – sits on Lake Erie immediately west of the Cuyahoga River. His unyielding work to keep the island from development earned him the title of “Mayor of Whiskey Island,” and the tag of honor, “Citizen Hauser.”
Hauser attended Port Authority meetings, demanded documents and even videotaped its meetings.
He was the burr that wouldn’t go away.
It cost him his health.
So the richest nation in the world couldn’t or wouldn’t save Ed Hauser.
Here we sit in Cleveland, Ohio, the home of the famed Cleveland Clinic but Ed Hauser waited too long to get medical help. He died waiting. I don’t blame specifically the Cleveland Clinic but it definitely is an institution, as they say when a crime is committed, “of interest.”
Our corporatized society likes to keep costs low. Ed was one of the casualties of that policy. Even when the auto companies are drowning in debt, they aren’t in the vanguard of demanding university health care, which would relieve them of huge costs.
Why? Ideology.
As Sen. George Voinovich pointedly said of President-elect Barack Obama, he’s a “socialist.” That’s an ideological position, one that fits corporate think.
The kind of thinking that denies many Americans even minimum health care.
How many Ed Hausers are there? We know there are tens of millions of them without proper health insurance, thus without proper health care.
The U. S. Census Bureau reported in 2007 that 47 million Americans were without health insurance, a figure rising each of the previous seven years. With the recession a year old that figure likely has rising considerably.
As the economy continues to deteriorate there will be tens of more millions soon.
Ed has received many deserved plaudits for his selfless work as a citizen activist. This is fine and proper.
There are other Ed Hausers out there who do similar work, maybe not as doggedly or as persistently as Ed has.
Cleveland also is the home of some of the large and well-funded foundations.
I think there ought to be at least some interest in funding activists who monitor government agencies. However, the great foundations don’t seem to gravitate to this kind of citizen action.
That costs people like Ed Hauser. It costs us, too, because there really is no citizen regulation of the very bad behavior of our business, political and civic life in Cleveland.
Roldo Bartimole has been reporting since 1959. He came to Cleveland in 1965 to report for the Plain Dealer where he worked twice in the 1960s, left for the Wall Street Journal in 1967. He started publishing his newsletter Point of View in 1968 and ended it in 2000.In 1991 he was awarded the Second Annual Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in Washington, D.C. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland chapter, in 2002, and was named to the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, 2004. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]
10 Responses to “ROLDO: Plain Dealer – Let It Go”
IndyCA35
I never heard of this Ed Houser guy but you can’t blame his death on the health care system.
First, he had catastrophic care insurance. All he had to do was call 911 and the EMS would have come for him. Actually, they would have come, and taken him to a hospital, even if he had NO coverage. That’s the law.
Second, it sounds to me like the symptoms persisted a long time and he was in denial about them.
Third, it was a mistake for his girl friend to take him to a hospital. Always call 911. They can start unclogging treatment (there’s a medical term for that) kin the EMS vehicle. Instead she delayed the treatment and he died.
John Ettorre
But the “town” isn’t nearly as Democratic as it once was, because of course by saying Cleveland we now really mean the entire region (eight surrounding counties at least, which is essentially the PD’s circulation area). And last I checked, places such as Strongsville, Bay Village and Pepper Pike (among others) aren’t tilting to the Dems. In fact, among the 2.8 million people in that region, the partisan breakdown is probably fairly close. I guess my point is that thinking of this as a heavily Dem town is more a vestige of thinking of the town in its pre-sprawl version–Cleveland proper plus the inner ring suburbs. It’s much more than that now, and the county government reorganization has only certified that reality.
Having said all that, I quite agree that the egregious PD sadly isn’t much of a mirror of anything these days.
David Eden
Roldo, I didn’t know the PD still had a Sunday newspaper. You mean, it’s still in print? Ha! What I have always, and still do, admire about you is how you speak truth to power. I know some good people still at the PD, but it’s role is greatly diminished. Once, not that long ago, the PD’s market value was $1 billion. How much would you spend for the brand today? (Check the Philly Inquirer for a clue.)
@John Ettorre: Yes, you are right that the “Greater CLE” market is not predominately R, but CUY County still is. For bad and good. It’s interesting that you mention the new County Gov’t … where the new County Executive, after not even serving half a term, is now contemplating a run for OH Gov? What’s that about? Does he think he’s Josh Mandel?
snarky
PD? Sunday or daily ? Objective reporting left that house some years ago , and editorial bias towards all events that are self serving [ downtown real estate , corporate welfare , and the blood trade of the cleveland clinic ] their overall propaganda agenda.
If this sham newspaper was actually the source of record of news regarding to Cleveland and Cuyahoga County it would report on the decline of this region , not blow smoke up the collective hind sides of all the usual suspects and serve as cheerleaders instead of reporters.
The great tragedy here is that this miserable sports page of a newspaper, spends critical dollars on reporting the losing ways of the Cleveland sports elite franchises that are termminal losers and always turning their Brooks Brothers pockets inside out begging for our tax dollars.
As one who has catastrophic health care only , it does serve to deter the desire to visit a doctor on a regular basis.
The pre existing disease model starts the meter ticking when the croakers find what they are really looking for.
A reason to dig into your pocket and body at will.
The balance of available dollars that your policy offers.
So , Citizen Ed’s death is an urban tragedy , and indicative of the corrupt times we live within.
God
Bless U Roldo…AGREE w/U on the healthcare mess…put it THIS way..if I was a small biz owner let alone a worker..Yikes..the premiums..let alone TRYING to even begin to actually use said benefits…go thru this song and dance..and WHY oh WHY are folks fighting this…wha figure a Medicare/Caid is gonna be thee safety net…I grant u in a sense YEAH they create this floor and some sense of ‘inflation’/atificiality’..BUT…IF I was a O W N E R thou go thru all that,bust cocunuts,etc.ONLY to lose biz to catrostrophic medical costs?! INSANE…
POLTICO mess…whiseky Island..cuz CLOSEST to lake,shipping.. I THINK cityhall was trying to use THAT for any and all purposes and quite frankly the 5 Ws just are NOT there..whether in local econ,state econ,location,etc. Yeah can probably SOME more biz to use port,and surronding “FLATS” land but…THEIR timing w/$600 MIL wannabe port thing STANK…NO idea if subterfuge,wishful thinking,or use as collateral or wha ‘exactly’ had in mind and hoping to do…but what do i know..
God
VOINIVICH was this connected deep pocket follow the wind type…great if had some problem and called him bout a property/property tax/utilities,etc.issue when HE was auditor,mayor,etc.BUT…Buuuuuuuuuuut…let one decide far as HIS support for Detroit Big 2…THEN HE gets religion…suspect semi ulterior motive..as in NO 2nd MINI Depression..called Him on it once..never quite got a answer…to be HONEST..feel same way bout LaTourette…I believe if make life *$@* then NOT gonna ‘follow OTHER stuff’ if get my gist…QUITE FRANKLY…REGION running out of $,time,energy,patience,etc., etc. JOHN E above pretty much summed it up…CLEVELAND let *$@* get away fom them for whutever reason and welll here we are…I suspect good ol Frank J semi shoving whutever else doooown the street and using good ol Breakthrough Schools and rest of it as WHUTEVER want to read into ALL THAT but hey…far as burbs getting bigger,more $..DOUBTFUL..gone about as far as can go…STRONGSVILLE…kiddie population flat,receding…just fancier houses,etc. Schools(least ones I vote in..)…THE SAME..DO have computers thou..OTHERWISE like LITERALLY stepping back in time…I SWEAR…almost expect my teachers to come around the corner..NO idea far as instruction..thou see stuff on bulletin boards..least still teach OHIO history…DIGRESSING here thou…anyhoots…Hi…
BACK to… RUNNING out of big corporates AND I AM sure WHA left CITY trying to hang onto…COULD be lot worse…Eaton seems to be last big one to really try n get a deal..THOU the NUMBERS left working for said firms going down..YEAH some of it taken up by local subcontractors,daylabor,temp agencies,etc.BUT STILL…I see,hear,read all these LeGrandioseSchemes’ and its like…NO idea if INTENTIONAL TO GUM up stuff andddddddddddd…
God
I like sports,etc.BUT…MAYBE compared to jumping on a plane and going to some NAME location and attractions BROWNIES and rest are a ‘bargain’
BUT… $7 or $10 BEER?! $5 or $7 EACH hotdog? NEVER mind rest of costs…to support WHAT?! NEED SOMETHING DOWNnnn on the field…IN A SENSE ALMOST sorry if did..perpetuates this whutever..I CAN already pic if IF SOMEHOW come close to whutever HASLAM HOUNDS “Lakeside” for a ‘deal’…NOW WE fnd out bout FITZ!…or anyone else POST NOV.2009 post Issue 6…Sooo far Fitz has come thru…Hey..compared to..PERSONALLY I dont think local NGOs,TeamNEO n all that ALL “THAT”…mixed bag..Sooon as someone can explain to me WHA ALL THESE YUPPIES n firms are ACTUALLY ‘doing’….
PUT THIS ANOTHER way…MED MART..least ON PAPER MAKES SENSE and sounds good..MAYBE STILL is..TIME will tell..PERSONALLY I THINK WE are behind the curve while OTHER areas way ahead in science,technology,etc.BUT hey…I VIEW THAT as LAST graspgasp by HOTEL to other crews..which gets ME to…Okkkk good ol EMBASSY SUITES.. NOW throw in towel..w/MMPI literally opening up in like 4 mos…been in biz FOR YEARS..UNLESS mortgage,etc.THAT high… wha gives K&D? WHA saying…I now supposedly downtown HOUSING RENTAL MKTS are hot but… it doesnt seem to jive for me…
Poo Mr.HAUSEr..ELECTRICAL engineer..WOooow..all that ed,training,experience,etc.AND no or little work..NO idea Wha his skill,experience level,etc.was..or other factors..BUT…maybe ol style ol time industrial stuff VS…and WE are talking bout ed this n that far as colleges,etc. MAYBE ALL THIS wundrous stuff is going down…aka THIRD FRONTIER,etc.but if it is it is sooo nuanced… SADLY i think gonna take retirements,etc.to finally right the place…..SURe finally THAT is wha biz,politicos,etc.THINK n say…STILL LEAVES A $*@*…
God
on BROWNS DOME…THIS aint the ‘prosperous(?)’ 1990s…I GOT SERIOUS doubts if can get THAT past voters..THEN AGAIN got sports nuts,etc. (no offense)…MAYBE this bizarre Feel Good whutever AND THAT gets support…PERSONALLY AFTER all the *$@ the biz crew alllllllllllllllllllll the way to Wall st.did to rest of Americana I THINK that dynamic has changed…
God
FOR ONCE in a bizarre way DIMORA & Co.came thru…far as browns dome..time will tell…NANCE or no Nance…old timers..retirees or near retirees..THIER attitude.. (*$*@ it.. BILLIONAIRES pluncking down $ 1 BILLION for WHO AGAIN?! (alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of ‘it’…). FOLKS fear stuck w/it ALlllllllllllllllllllllll…in every sense of ThAT word….
Joe
Free or almost free medical care for the poor is available at MetroHealth (Metro) hospital in Cleveland and its clinics in some suburbs, including primary care doctors, specialists and tests. It is the charity hospital created by state of Ohio law. Call it at 216-398-6000 to get rated first.