Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg won’t be joining political free-loaders at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner. We don’t know about PD publisher Terry Egger.
The PD this morning reported that Mayor Frank Jackson and a number of Cleveland City Council members – who gave $1 million in cash to the Rock Party – would use free VIP tickets at Saturday’s event. Tickets are valued at $1,500. The PD headline read: “Officials accept free VIP tickets” by Henry Gomez.
I requested in separate e-mail whether Goldberg and Egger would be joining the local pols. I was seeking a little transparency from the newspaper’s top officials.
“I am not attending the dinner or any of the events,” Goldberg wrote me back.
Egger – who in the past has requested to be contacted and has said he would respond – has not answered an e-mail sent at 8:30 this morning. So we don’t know if the wealthy PD publisher will attend or whether he or the PD would pay for such attendance.
Goldberg also said she would ask if other editorial people would be attending and responded later, “I have checked and no one is aware of any editors attending as guests.”
I think that’s maintaining a certain distance from the city leaders who are always looking for a leg up with politicians and the news media.
It will be interesting to see how television news people treat the event and whether they show themselves off as celebrities.
Mayor Jackson and City Council members bestowed the $1 million from the city’s coffers so giving them a few $1,500 tickets seems like a pretty good return for the Rock Hall. Indeed, past mayors and legislators have poured tens of millions of dollars into the Rock Hall. The so-called Rock Hall of Fame and Museum acts as a public relations adjunct to millionaire musicians and billionaire recording companies.
If you can’t live on Cleveland and Cuyahoga taxpayers as a public officials what good are you?