The Make Believe World of The Plain Dealer Editorial Page

I have been receiving correspondence as of late from Chris Quinn.  For those of you outside of Northeast Ohio, Chris is the leftist editor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer.  As such, Chris controls much of the editorial/opinion pages of the paper.  

I caught Chris participating in a panel on my local TV station a while back.  He has a real smooth delivery on screen.  Most of the e-letters I receive from Chris are of the standard left wing boiler plate variety. You know the type. President Trump is a communist under Putin's thumb.  Trump is the next Hitler. Trump is out to end democracy.  

You get the idea.  The usual drivel you would expect to hear from a Russia Hoax denier.  

My general reaction to his letters is to read the first few sentences, get the drift of the article and then POP, hit delete.  After one recent anti-Trump tirade, Chris boasted that his opinion drew praise "from across the globe."  

He was quick to point out that he received praise from none other than Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC, Kasie Hunt of CNN, and of course the biggie, Morning Joe Scarborough.  

I can't help but harbor a suspicion that he may be auditioning for a cable TV gig of his own. 

It probably isn't a bad idea, as Chris has to know that he is driving the death-spin bus that is The Plain Dealer.

Although many of his letters are repetitious, I must admit that recently one of them caught my eye.  Get this – he actually believes The Plain Dealer opinion pages "are balanced between right and left."
 
A little fact checking may be in order. 

To prove his theory of political fairness, he goes on to name opinion writers from what he considers both the political right and left.  These are people whose writings have recently graced The Plain Dealer's opinion page.

Let's start with the political left.  Chris begins by naming Brent Larkin.  Brent is the Crankshaft of the group.  He is a good choice for the left as he hates President Trump.  I think it would be fair to say that Brent hates anything Republican. 

Next on the list is Tom (too-much-time--spent-on-a-college-campus-can-melt-your-brain) Suddes. Once again, I agree with Chris's choice. Suddes's writing, besides being consistently repetitious, leans strongly to the left.  He also dislikes Trump.  

We now come to the third choice, Leslie Kouba. Leslie represents a new Plain Dealer experiment.  Chris has assembled a group of what I guess you would call "citizens journalists."  He feels this allows the man or woman on the street a say in the opinion page. 

For this project he has chosen a collection of woke all-stars who check all the boxes of the allegedly oppressed and PC-approved diversity groups.  A gaggle of hyphenated wokies, if you will. And a token Conservative.

Leslie qualifies as a writer of the left.  She believes Trump has diminishing mental skills while Dementia Joe is A-OK.  SHEESH, you can't make this stuff up.  

Closing out the left wing writers with The Plain Dealer is Jeff Darcy.  Jeff is the hitman for the group. Warning — you don't want to get into a spitting match with Jeff Darcy.  

Do you hate your mother-in-law? Do you hate your ex?  Do you hate your boss?  This is kid's stuff for Jeff Darcy.  This guy is the best when it comes to political hate.  Don't get on his list.  He's a predator with a lot of ink. He likes to hurt people.  

Did I mention that he hates Trump?

There we have the editor's choices to represent the left wing side of the opinion page.  Let's see who Chris has chosen to represent the political right.  

First up is George Will of the faltering Washington Post.  The Post just fired their Executive Editor.  The new CEO told the Post's staff that "people aren't reading your stuff."  I am guessing that would include George Will's "stuff." George Will left the Republican Party in 2016.  He is dinosaur. He probably still wears an "I Like Ike" button. 

George strongly dislikes Trump.  George Will is bad choice for us conservatives, Chris.  

His next choice is Robert Paulson. Paulson is the former mayor of Solon, Ohio.  For those of you who have never been there, Solon is a lovely city.  I must assume that as mayor Paulson did a pretty good job.  

But wait, like George Will, Paulson also left the Republican Party.  He left in 2023.  

I'm beginning to see a pattern in Chris's choices.  

All of his chosen opinion writers dislike Trump.  Both Paulson and Will remind me of the old Whig Party of the 1850's.  They are hangers-on to the past who can't change with the times.  They are destined to be left behind wearing Mitt Romney buttons on their lapels. 

For his final choice representing the political right, it's Ted Diadiun.  I like Ted.  He and I together took a course on the U.S. Constitution a dozen years or so ago.  He struck me as  a very bright and fair minded guy.  

Unfortunately, Ted isn't a fighter. He wants us all to just get along — you know all of us singing Kumbaya around the campfire. Ted is lost in the political middle.  He's harmless to the political right but he can't be considered a conservative spokesman. 

The days of bipartisanship are long gone.  One side is going to win this political civil war and one side will be vanquished.  By the way, Ted doesn't like Trump.  

That's strike three for Chris Quinn's choices for conservative voices on his opinion page.  None of them are contemporary conservatives.  None of them support President Trump.

In closing, there is one other reason which belies the claim that The Plain Dealer editorial page is balanced.  This past March in the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate seat, three qualified candidates were on the ballot.  All three were invited to the newspaper for endorsement interviews. The fact that two of the candidates refused the invitation speaks volumes.  

We have reached a point where the endorsement of The Plain Dealer is now considered a negative to a Republican candidate. It's an anvil they no longer wish to carry.

There you have it.  As you can see, I disagree that your newspaper is politically balanced.  And by the way Chris, if this comes across your desk to read, good luck keeping the paper's head above water. 

And I hope that MSNBC thingy works out for you.