PROPAGANDA, FAKE CRUSADING & THE PEE DEE

Submitted by Roldo on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 08:08.

When the Pee Dee editorial board gets Dan Gilbert, Mayor Frank Jackson, Council President Marty Sweeney, Greater Cleveland Partnership boss Joe Roman and Squire-Sanders managing partner Fred Nance in one room you know the bullshit is knee high or higher.

 

The result of the meeting: a free Page One ad for Gilbert’s desired casino and a lot of pap about he’s not going to build a hotel immediately and the Cleveland police therefore favor the casino issue.

 

Please!

 

The cops are in favor because they’ll have lucrative second security jobs, much preferable to the jobs they’re hired to do for the people of Cleveland. But who cares about them. Nice also to put cops and gamblers closer together. A civic favor, huh? Thank you Pee Dee for helping.

 

Billionaire Gilbert isn’t going to build a hotel so he won’t compete with other hotels, even though he says that other downtown hotels are only half filled. Likely, he’ll wait until the Medical Mart and Convention Center are built then ask for public funds because downtown NEEDS a hotel to satisfy a great need for Cleveland. Not my pocketbook, you understand but for the betterment of Cleveland. Have we heard these lies before? The Pee Dee prints them by the ton.

 

The Pee Dee headline reads: “Gilbert unveils casino drawing, agrees not to include hotel yet.” A two-bit drawing rates the front page? And the “agrees” sounds as if Gilbert is doing someone a favor. Gilbert does no favors except for those that help him. How else do you become a billionaire?

 

I didn’t think the Pee Dee could become a more pathetic rag but under Susan Goldberg it even surprises me how low it’s gotten.

 

Big headlines. Lots of wasted space.  Little real content. Big play for developments that never happen. Publicity mush as with the reform front page the other day. Propaganda atop propaganda.

 

This isn’t a newspaper. It just sorta looks like one.

 

Even the reports of the County corruption mess have taken on the flavor a Pee Dee crusade, pushing politicians to make statements – Resign Russo.

 

If the Pee Dee wanted to do something for the community it should be putting the heat on the FBI to indict Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo and stop bleeding this community with these dribbled out indictments of underlings.

 

The FBI and the Pee Dee are absolutely damaging us more than Dimora and Russo have. They are driving community spirit into the ground by crusade playacting.

 

They aren’t reporting the story; they are the story.

 

End the charade and give us some justice, not a phony crusade to make it seem as though the Pee Dee, which has allowed these same politicians – and other pols – to turn the city into … what… a casino where they never have to pay and only win.

 

 

 

 

 

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Corruption that bleeds our schools

  Roldo--the PD is also in collusion with the corrupt CMSD adminstration bleeding our public schools.  The Buildings Commission is a fraud and a farce.  We have no media to protect and serve the public interest in NEO.
 

This isn’t a newspaper. It just sorta looks like one.

The FBI should be investigating business interests of the PD - they are the center of all corruption here, now.

Disrupt IT

McShane: Citizens can't

McShane: Citizens can't expect the Pee Dee to do monitoring for them. It's unfortunate but it just won't get done. Years ago, a top lawyer from Jones & Day told the U. S. Civil Rights Commission that the business community had an agreement with the Pee Dee that it would print nothing the business community didn't want public in reference to the Cleveland schools. It was an statement, made in public. That person is long gone but the relationship can't be very far from what he expressed at that time.

 

It's a shame.

 

Our kids, our future get trashed

  Then, it's blood on all of their hands.

Despite looking like a prison, Lincoln West High School has committed teachers and students who work hard.  It will never be a fight to stay in their community for these students, when the district treats the infrastructure, staff, and students like garbage. 

Instead, it's a fight for survival--to get out and stay out.  It's sad, because these students are exposed to the blending of cultures we need in our society to be a productive society.  The Plain Dealer defaults to the richest, greediest segment of our society to what end?
 

Keeping rich people rich

The only purpose of the PD today.

Disrupt IT

the PD has inherent conflicts, and they sell us out all the time

A while back, I inquired of the PD what percentage of their advertising came from banks. They would not divulge.

I pointed out that they seemed, for years, have given a journalistic-scrutiny-free-pass to banks as these same banks plundered the community in the areas of credit cards, car loans, real-property loans and the concomitant repossessions and foreclosures, all the while racking up fees.

The PD is deeply conflicted, I concluded, by its very business model, dependent as they are on obtaining revenue from the same parties they should be reporting on honestly and fairly. They are their own advocates first, and the community's someplace after that, certainly after the advertisers.

another thought on re-doing county government just now

I think that re-doing county government now would only give further cover to those who have been working the system for years. It would be better to do a thorough investigation and house-cleaning, recapture assets from the wrong-doers and their retirement plans, reduce the size of the government, which should after the cleaning operate way more efficiently, and then, and only then, ponder whether another form of government structure would be an improvement.

Tim, I agree.  I think it

Tim, I agree.  I think it is awesome when people who have differed on one topic can agree on another. 

County Reform

I agree with Tim.  I plan to vote no on both Issue 5 & Issue 6.  Neither side has done a credible enough job in explaining this to the electorate, possibly on purpose?  kd

Issue five keeps it on the

Issue five keeps it on the table.

I wish I had time to look at each person on the list…but those people should be accessible for public input. That should be demanded actually and a public forum as well. What they come up with voted on not handed down.

I’d like to see reform kept on the table and also encourage that into regionalism.

I have trouble seeing everything following into some historical paradigm according to Roldo.

Now is not the time to make

Now is not the time to make drastic changes.  In my opinion let the investigation find the corruption and weed it out of the current system before changing anything.  Fix what is wrong, don't throw away everything, only get rid of what is corrupt. 

Although, in theory, regionalism sounds like it could decrease government spending by consolidating political positions, I am not convinced that it will be good for people that live in the inner city areas.  There is too much animosity towards those who are receiving services paid for by tax dollar by those who are working and paying taxes, so I can't imagine that taxpayers would want to vote for anything that would benefit the non taxpayer.  My fear of regionalism is that the haves will take more for themselves and leave the have nots even further behind. 

I personally know people who received help in the past and by receiving that help they were able to get themselves out of poverty.  Without that help they most likely would not have been able to become successful.  I don't know if regionalism would even prevent people from getting help, but I fear that it would or could.