Talk:The Plain Dealer (newspaper)

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Contents 1 criticisms of the PD 2 citations 3 readership 4 political leanings 5 Discontinued Sections 6 Fair use rationale for Image:Plain Dealer masthead.png

[edit] criticisms of the PD

I would like to see a section that is criticisms of the Plain Dealer, and will happily write it myself, but I would appreciate al the help I can get. (unsigned comment by FozzyMaple 23:10, 24 July 2006

I consolidated all the Criticism and Controversies into one section, but did not add any material. (deleted one redundant sentence) JimmB 16:51, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] citations

i added a bunch of citations to fix up the article, but didn't get all the {{Fact}} tags. If anyone else wants to give it a stab, have at it. clevelandguy, 22:06, 5 June 2006 (EDT).

[edit] readership

Does anyone know the source of the claim in the third sentence of the article, which states that Greater Cleveland "is ranked #1 in the country for Sunday newspaper readership percentage (75.4% of total adults) and #2 in daily newspaper readership percentage (62.6% of total adults), second only to New York City in the weekday editions"?

Thanks in advance. Mamawrites 23:19, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

From The PD's advertising literature: Source: Scarborough Research Multi-Market Study R2, Nov. 2003; Demographics USA 2003 Mar 21 2006

[edit] political leanings

I would just like to see verification that the Plain Dealer has 'right wing' editorial content. I know it endorsed President Bush in 2000. But I won't necessarily say that it makes a paper right wing. Unless you think that the article of every newspaper that supported Kerry should include a section calling the paper 'left wing'.Montco 02:02, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

It should also be noted that the paper is frequently criticized from the other side of the political spectrum for the perceived liberal slant of most of its columnists, particularly those who appear in the metro and features sections. On the other hand, its local op-ed often features the opinions of the hard-right Kevin O'Brien, a member of the editorial board.

Finally, as regards the newspaper's corporate voice, as expressed through its unsigned editorials: Certainly, The Plain Dealer has moved far from the reliably Democratic partisan it was until FDR ("Th' Plain Daler for news" was the choice of the Democratic bartender in Finley Peter Dunne's columns) but it endorses a mix of Democrats and Republicans, and its stand on public issues does not adhere to either party's platform -- its determination to reveal the names of those who own concealed-carry gun permits, when the state limited the release of those lists only to news organizations, has drawn fierce criticism from the pro-gun side, for example.

As with all businesses, the top manager -- in this case, the publisher -- retains the final say over major decisions including editorial endorsements. This common-sense fact -- that newspaper editorial boards usually are not democracies -- was lost on those who expressed outrage when most members of the edit board (note: the board is composed mostly of people whose only job is to write editorials; with one exception, they do not have any authority over the news columns) preferred to endorse Kerry over Bush, but the paper instead endorsed no one. This no-decision was likely because the publisher preferred the Republican. But, to be fair, at many other newspapers -- and, indeed, most companies -- where there was a split between the top manager and an advisory board, the result would not have been a compromise but rather the imposition of the will of the executive. (Remember the old story about Lincoln's cabinet?)

In fact, The Plain Dealer has a mix of ardent liberals, ardent conservatives/libertarians and middle-of-the-roaders. Its corporate voice tends toward the right ... but outside of Ben & Jerry's, so do the vast majority of American companies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.183.169.57 (talk • contribs)

• As far as proof, see here and here (these aren't the best examples, but the ones that I can find most easily - and the Free Times is pretty liberal in its own right). It's not that the Plain Dealer is exclusively conservative - it's editorial pages aren't those of the Wall Street Journal, for example - but that it is somewhat conservative in a city that fairly reliably votes Democratic. As the anon pointed out, the overall paper is somewhat balanced, but the editorial pages are generally conservative - and while the editorial page will endorse Democrats and Republicans, the Democratic endorsements tend to be in non-competitive races that are already won. --DMG413 02:45, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discontinued Sections

Can someone please add to the list of Discontinued Sections of the Plain Dealer? Thanks --Josh 00:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Plain Dealer masthead.png

Image:Plain Dealer masthead.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 22:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)