Cleveland Plain Dealer- No Endorsement

[Dr.Phool]

I guess all the pressure paid off. The Cleveland Plain Dealer decided to endorse no one. Over the week-end, the editorial board voted to endorse John Kerry, but Publisher Alex Machaskee ordered them to endorse Bush.

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1098783316159331.xml

This is a huge victory.:nuke:

:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:

[Kolesar]

1. link to the Ohio forum thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x3371

[lil-petunia]

2. Isn't it a HUGE story when a big paper does NOT endorse the incomBent?

A victory? absolutely!

Damned publishers.


This brings up another point. We are now seeing the adverse impact from the incestuous relationships of mixed media ownershit.

Newspapers owned by Fox, TribCo owning TV stations. Radio owned by mainly three companies.

[xultar]

3. WTF this is terrible. How can the Publisher FORCE them to endorse *

WTF!!!

Shouldn't the editorial board make the call. This shows how awful this country has become. Where business owners force their will on the general public. It is a newspaper for God sake! IF they aren't free to report and do what they want because the PUBLISHER has an iron fist. Then that means that it isn't a newspaper. IT is a widley published biased daily. That has no business calling itself a newspaper.

Please DU help me understand this before I go crazy up in this mug!

[jimshoes]

4. I told them the same thing in my recent e-mail

I suspect that there are some unhappy editors at the PD about now. Call it the advance of fascism, because that's is exactly what is going on in this country under bush*.

[sendero]

5. Freedom of the press...

.... is alive and well. If you own a newspaper, you are free to force any editorial bent you want.

[asthmaticeog]

6. It has no business calling itself a newspaper

for a great many reasons. The publisher, Alex Machaskee, is widely known as "the Snake" in Cleveland. Their circulation is constantly dropping despite being the city's only daily, and their coverage is generally seen as a joke. Honestly, their endorsement either way would have little impact on the voters of Cuyahoga County. Their juducal endorsements are influential, but because of Machaskee's YEARS of well-documented and well-reported meddling with the editorial board, no-one gives a shit who they endorse for federal offices.

[blueknight]

10. they are a bunch of

fuckpigs. why should they ever endorse anyone again if they believe what they print?

[LTR]

12. Time to dig up the corpse of the Cleveland Press?

The afternoon daily that died in '82. Guess lack of competition makes a newspaper lazy. I noticed that here in Milwaukee, though Journal owned both papers before merging them together.

[asthmaticeog]

15. Someone did!

Last spring, a poorly written, shoddily laid-out weekly broadsheet calling itself the Cleveland Press appeared for two or three issues and vanished again. The owner apparently aquired the right to use the name. It was an asswipe, though - utterly useless. Not even a ghost of what the old Cleveland Press was.

[progressivebydesign]

19. I read up on Alex Machaskee, what a prize he is!

I found that he was actually the recipient of a TRIBUTE bill in Congress, by his local Rep. (Nay? Ney?). The Rep. sponsoring the tribute is an extremely right wing politico, the likes of the John Birchers. The BIG reason to fete Alex Machaskee? 'he brings jobs to the area'. No lie. He's a major REPUG.

[brooklynite]

7. The power of the press.....

resides in the person who owns the press. The Editor, while perhaps better able to analyze the issues and make editorial judgements, is an employee, who ultimately has to do what the boss wants or leave.

[moondust]

8. Subscriptions.

Tough times for newspapers.

[flowomo]

11. no, that's not the way it works....

endorsements are traditionally the "publisher's prerogatoive"

[Logansquare]

17. Publisher overriding the ed board is common practice

Then the ed chief has to keep the sick down while he/she writes up the publisher's opinion. Look, the PD decision is still significant; they have endorsed Republicans since Hoover.

[w4rma]

18. Because the publishers OWN the buisness. Thats why getting big media

broken up is extremely important. There need to be more owners and therefore more viewpoints.

Note, I'm just refering to the big parts of big media, the conglomerations. I don't know how many media outlets the folks who own The Plain Dealer own.

[annerevere]

9. This is good news

It's better than endorsing Bush. I've worked in the newspaper business, and when the publisher says jump, everyone on staff, including the editorial board, jumps. It is good news that the editorial board essentially revolted and forced the issue into a draw--no endorsement.

They should be praised for bucking the publisher to a draw.

[mom cat]

13. Three cheers for the mutineers! The editorial staff deserves an award!

[llmart]

14. First the Detroit News and now the PD?

These are both a real slap in the face to Bush. They can't even bring themselves to endorse the guy they've been trying to convince us is so wonderful for the past 4 years?

[cubsfan forever]

16. Yes, a huge victory! n/t

Professor 2

[Skinner]

20. I'm going to kick this.

And I'm going to ask why nobody bothered to nominate it for the homepage until this morning?

[Divo]

21. Cowards

Just a bunch of cowards. The board for not sticking with their decision. The publisher, wrong as he is afraid to be responsible for his orders.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Almost_there]

23. I'm taking such an unpopular position here..

I really don't think any news organization should at anytime endorse any candidate, editorial pages or otherwise. The simple fact that they are showing that they prefer one person over another while providing the public with what we are supposed to assume is relatively untainted & unbiased news is ridiculous.

I appreciate that Kerry has picked up most newspaper endorsements, and he has picked up a bunch of papers that had backed Bush in 2000, but, I just don't like a newspaper supporting anyone. It immediately calls into question the integrity of their reporting, doesn't it? I guarantee no one here would by a paper that consistently backs the rethuglican, and that's because we all know that the paper is biased. So, I come here for my opinion, some less than 100% unbiased news sites, etc. When I pick up a newspaper, I want facts, and little else. Even if I agree, it simply makes me question the legitimacy of the story.. is it slanted? Has something been added or omitted that might come out later? Maybe I'm being naive, but, I think that a newspaper should focus on NEWS, not opinion.

We all look at the polls and know some are slanted one way or another, depending on how the questions are asked, and I guess this is akin to skewing a poll.

~Almost

[BagoDem]

24. ok, help me out here

Please help me ubderstand Ohio. Is Cincinatti leaning Bush and Cleveland leaning Kerry? Or is it the other way around. I keep hearing about record numbers of people registering to vote in Ohio. That has got to be good news for Kerry. People don't come out of the woodwork to keep the bum in.

[johnnie]

25. From my take on Cleveland

From personal observation I see Kerry well ahead in Cleveland. We are typically Democrat and this campaign seems to be no different. This morning on my way in to work I saw only Kerry signs and stickers. In the last few weeks I have seen some bush, but the majority is Kerry. From the people I personally know it is about 70% Kerry and 30% bush.
I have heard that Cincinnati (typically right wing) shows strong support for Kerry. I haven't personally observed this, but it seems to be the case.

[roseBudd]

26. Reporting from Cincinnati

The city itself is 43% African American. We have been hugely successful in registering new likely democratic voters. ACT has been here for a year, VoteMob and Young Voter Alliance are hear, and of course MoveOn PAC is here. Dems are active as is the Kerry campaign.

If we can increase turn out among likely democratic voters who have historically low turnout Kerry wins period. I personally have been street canvassing in the inner city everyday since August.

[BagoDem]

27. thanks

Thanks for the info, guys. I feel better about Kerry's chances if he can take Ohio and its looking good!

[Dr.Phool]

28. Clevelands definitly Kerry

Although I live in Florida now, I'm from Cleveland. Still own a house there. I was up there in May, getting the house ready for sale.

I have a lot of Kerry, and anti-bush stickers on my pick-up, and everywhere I went up there, I got a lot of thumbs up, and compliments. People followed me into stores asking where they could get some. Definitly Kerry.

[OhioChick]

29. Cleveland

I would say that Cleveland is strongly democrat. From what I've heard, registration here is through the roof and I doubt the 'poorest' city in the nation is going to want 4 more years of *.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1096191056165960.xml

[Almost_there]

31. Ohio is a funny state, because of Columbus, maybe

Cincy does tend towards the right, although it is also has a heavy minority population which obviously lean towards Kerry. Cleveland and Cayahuga County are Kerry backers, but, the wild card is actually Columbus. Its hard to believe, but, Columbus, OH is the 14th largest city in the country as to population, and they definately lean heavily towards Bush. I was just there about a month ago, and the number of Bush signs and stickers was amazing. There were a lot of Kerry signs too, but, it was more a response to the Bush crap. Along 1 road, I saw 4 houses in a row with multiple Bush signs, a lawn with a large Kerry sign, then a house with an even bigger Bush sign, and more and more Bush stuff. I asked the client I was visiting (himself a right winger, but, business is business, and politics might have cost the sale, so, I kept relatively neutral) and asked him about it. He totally believed Bush was the best for the economy, things were going great in Iraq, Afghanistan was totally perfect, andhe said everyone he knows is voting Bush. So, that's Colombus for you. It might turn out just fine, since U of Ohio is right there, and students at least vote Dem. Colombus might be the weird thing affecting the numbers. With Cleveland though, it should be fine, OH will go Kerry by 2 according to the trends at http://www.electoral-vote.com

~Almost

[OhioChick]

32. The Biggest problem in Ohio

does seem to be the Columbus area and southern Ohio, as northern Ohio is Pro-Kerry. With the record number of registrations, (In northern Ohio) I hope we can turn Ohio into a 'blue' state.

[Algorem]

30. Pain Dealer put some letters to editor on woosydorsement on today:

http://www.cleveland.com/letters/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/109897170245180.xml