PD Defender in Chief

Reader Representative versus the Current Editor Representative

Did you read the Ted Diadiun column on Sunday December 2? (Don't bother trying to find it on the web--they place it in a secret location at cleveland.com) I read his defense of a stupid cartoon that was highly offensive, and tried to remember one time that he criticized his own paper. I can only think of one time that the someone in the paper criticized the coverage in the Plain Dealer--and I was not even sure if it was Diadiun. It was that front page photo of the suicide from Carter Manor that generated a great deal of internal criticism and public apologies. I do not believe that Diadiun could ever be considered my representative as a reader. He is the Defender of the Editors. Why not just admit it? With the stupid cartoon, he could have suggested an editor's note about how stupid it was and how the editors realized that it could be controversial. He just dismissed the readers who felt offended. If I dismissed some of my constituency when representing NEOCH at meetings, I would be fired. Hey, Ted, represent all of us, and stop dismissing our opinions. We all have important opinions and the Reader Rep. needs to sit at that table and speak up for those who were offended.

Brian

Plain Dealer Features Grapevine Photography Program

Cleveland's own Minister of Culture, Michael Heaton, wrote an excellent piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday about the ODDC (Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council) -funded Grapevine Photography program. Heaton interviewed several of the students for the piece, as well as social justice photographer Steve Cagan, and me.

I thought Heaton did an excellent job weaving all of the elements of the story together, and he was extremely personable and friendly during the interview and in other conversations. I've only seen the version of the story published on Cleveland.com, so I didn't get to see which photos ran with the piece in yesterday's paper (I was out of town), but I definitely enjoyed the article.

Works by homeless photographers on display

Anyway, check it out if you get a chance, or swing by Phoenix Coffee on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland to check out the photos. -Kevin

A few Quick Media Thoughts

Go Away Channel 19/Where is My Invitation?

Last night Channel 19 "Action News" aired a report on the heat/cooling in our building. Don't they have anything better to work on? Aren't there any more poor people to pick on? Shouldn't they be spreading stereotypes about panhandlers? Can't they beat up on the Mayor or the City Council instead of wasting our time with this story? No, they sent the notorious Catherine Bosley out to interview staff in our building about the bizarre letter from our landlord telling us to stop complaining and identifying women as the cause of the problems. While the landlord note was offensive, it did not rise to the level of wasting the precious airtime of a television news channel. We did not comment, because Channel 19 is on our banned list, and why annoy our own landlord?

We made a good decision, because the landlord actually came off looking sympathetic. It is very difficult to make a landlord look good, but Channel 19 did it. Just for a little context...last night while Channel 19 was handling the "naked female wrestling story" and the "toughen up" landlord story, a group of homeless people was surrounded and attacked by 20 young kids in Cleveland. We have had a week of attacks on homeless camps by young people with two people hospitalized. Last night, the camp was surrounded and homeless people were attacked. The two who were attacked are scared and moving today and were absolutely unaware how inappropriate NEOCH's landlord is.

My Invitation Must have Got Lost
I never got my invitation to the Doug Clifton, Editor of the Plain Dealer, retirement party. That is so strange; I don't know what happened? Clifton was on Monday's WCPN Sound of Ideas. There was something new that I had not heard from Clifton before on the show. While trying to defend his tenure at the PD, he talked about that controversy over sitting on the two stories last year out of fear of violating some court order. This was just after the jailing of Judy Miller and the threat to those reporters who got info. about the Scooter Libby release of the CIA identity of Valerie Plame. He made it seem that the source material that he was sitting on was not that reliable along with the legal implications of revealing information under court seal. I have heard and read a lot about this story, but this is the first I heard that the information was shaky.

This brings up new questions with regard to the story. My biggest question is why the hell did he ever even mention this non-story publicly. I believe it set journalism back in the United States. For those who hate the media, they were saying, "I am glad that Justice Department took a tough stand against the media. It is working to shut the media up, because the PD had to back down in Cleveland in revealing secrets." Those who are big free speech advocates (like me) will say, "The media are wimps, and would not stand up to the Big Bad Justice Department." No good could have come from the release of the information that the PD was sitting on two stories especially now that we find out that the story was not solid. I hope that new editor, Ms. Goldberg, will have more backbone to stand up to Larken and the publisher and especially to stand up to state sponsored Censorship. Maybe she can figure out what happened to my invitation as well.

Brian

Hold the Vanilla With My Morning Coffee

Plain Dealer Story Misses the Point

This morning the Plain Dealer had a story about a strip club and the City possibly helping to relocate the club to another location. I am the one who gave the Plain Dealer this story, I just wish that someone else had written the article. I have never been a big fan of Susan Vanilla's skills as a journalist, and this story reinforces my belief she often misses the big picture. The story was what will happen to the 150 guys who sleep at Aviation High School every night. The real story was that the City and County have struggled with this for over one year, missed a few deadlines at this point, and have not resolved the issue. Who the hell cares about a strip club unless this is a big stomping ground for neighbors like bored reporters from Cleveland's only daily?

There are huge changes ahead if and when Aviation closes, and I am sure people would read the story without the sex angle added. What makes a shelter so unsafe that the feds want it closed because it is near the airport? Will Cleveland turn away from the guaranteed access to shelter because of overcrowded conditions when Aviation closes and there is no overflow? How many more people will choose to sleep on Superior Ave. after Aviation closes? Who is making these decisions and have homeless people commented on this plan? Why would the County not ask any experts (maybe like homeless people who actually sleep at the shelter) to review the plan? What is the largest shelter going to look like after closing Aviation and adding another 60 guys who do not want to join a program or work with a social worker? How can we afford to pay so much for the motel, when the women's shelter still needs to be made into a real shelter and not just two buildings that happen to be next to each other? I could go on with the good questions that could be asked, but I wish the Plain Dealer had asked them and not focused on the stupid strip club.

Brian

A New Plan

Solving Homelessness One Story at a Time

We have had 20 years of failing to solve homelessness, so I am suggesting a new course of action. As you may have seen Jack Hanrahan became homeless in Cleveland after living it up in Hollywood. Last week the Plain Dealer reported on former writer, Jack Hanrahan's story of rags to riches. A day later there were offers of help from all over the city. The story was picked up far and wide in blogs and in newspapers across the United States. Just by writing a story, The Plain Dealer staff were able to solve someone's homelessness. If they could do one story a day on a different homeless person, they could solve 365 people's homelessness in one year. They may have to make up some stories about doing make up for Chuck Norris or a local homeless woman starring in one of the Ed Wood classics, because the public seems to be more sympathetic to the plight of homeless people who were once famous. This is not to say that the Hanrahan story was not true, I am sure that the Hanrahan story was true, but there are about 1,000 similar stories everyday on the streets of Cleveland. This demonstrates the power of the media.

If you read the latest Homeless Grapevine you will see that the average homeless social service providers is only able to find around 25 people housing per year in Cleveland. In fact, only one or two programs in Cleveland found over 100 people housing locally in a one year period. If the Plain Dealer accepted my strategy, they would be the first or second best housing placement agency in the community. C'mon, Larkin do something for the good of the community--become a housing placement agency by turning O'Malley out to do one feature story a day and significantly reduce homelessness.

Brian

The Problem with the Plain Dealer

How to Improve Cleveland's Daily?

The Coalition has received a great deal of ink this last week, and that is a good thing. I am very appreciative of all the work of the Plain Dealer, and the stories dedicated to poverty. The reporters are great, and should be given more discretion in the stories to cover. After all, they know a good story and they are closer to the average reader than the editors. Anyway, here are my suggestions, as the average reader, to increase the readers so there will be no further decline in the staff. I am trying to help their bottom line by increasing their circulation.

First, they need a better website. It takes way too many clicks to find the news. That is the heart of website, but everyday the web people seem to move the news to a new place. I always feel like there is this hide and seek game with the news on the Cleveland.com website. Also, when I click on Metro News why do I have to go through national news? I just want to read about Cleveland or Ohio. I do not turn to the Plain Dealer for news on Iraq, Bush, Congress, or stories from Los Angeles. In the information age with computers, the Plain Dealer needs to give us the news from Cleveland and from the perspective of Clevelanders. They could have a page of links to national stories that are summarized in the daily. A total redesign of the Plain Dealer website is a must to increase web traffic. I like the Opener blog, and we need more of that.

Second, throw away all but a summary of the national news within the paper. I am too busy to have to wade through the national news when I can go to the New York Times, Washington Post and all the other news outlets that do a much better job. I don't even have cable, but most people do and by the time the story is in print it must have already appeared on CNN and MSNBC about 40 times. Any national news should be written by Cleveland reporters and tell us how it impacts me. Tell me how the Federal budget is going to effect RTA or CMHA or the Cleveland Public Schools. Just give a page or two of the most important stories and let me know that more information is available on the website.

Give the local reporters the chance to put in a lot of stories and do not cut them down to a few hundred words. That series that started today on the Sunshine Law was nice and enjoyable to read. The Medicaid Story from today is important and every aspect of the budget should be analyzed in just as much detail. Reporters should be given the opportunity to spread their wings and write. They should all write a lot and every day. They should write about regional government everyday. They should write about the poorest city in the United States everyday. They should write about job creation efforts everyday. They should write about the growing health care crisis in every paper that is pushed out the door.

Fourth, the Plain Dealer covers some things in depth, but then ignores most of the City. They need to diversify their selection of topics to cover. They have this great book review section on Sunday. What about similar efforts for music, television shows, blogs, photography, painting and modern art? They could take a weekly look at college radio, workers comp claims, housing starts, health care discoveries, the Ohio National Guard activities in Iraq, the state of civil rights, and anti war efforts. The Plain Dealer could dedicate the same space to Labor as they do Business. There should be as much space dedicated to democracy/government as is dedicated to Sports. The Plain Dealer should significantly expand its consumer affairs section to take on utility issues, mortgage lenders, telecommunication companies, and health care providers.

Finally, we need some more profiles of everyday people. The business section on Sunday has turned into the lifestyles of the rich and famous with these lengthy features on the Presidents of KeyBank or University Hospital. How about some similar space to the lady who gets up every morning to open Starbucks and then cleans up the McDonald Building at night so that her kids can eat? How about a feature on my elderly neighbor who had to spend 9 hours waiting in the emergency room of Huron Hospital when she was sick? How about a story about the mail carrier who delivered mail on February 14 over mountains of snow?

Hope that this helps. Get rid of Brent Larkin/Dick Feagler and take up my suggestions and I would consider subscribing again.

Brian