God Save The Plain Dealer

Sunday morning - oh what a beautiful morning! The temperature outside is soaring. The leaves have the lawn to themselves; the election lawn signs are gone . Best of all, The Plain Dealer is sitting out on the lawn challenging me to pick it up. Alongside, bursting at the seams is the Sunday New York Times.

The Newspaper Guild is using today's Plain Dealer to launch its campaign to keep the paper a 7-day-a-week  publication . I can just see the headline - CLEVELANDERS ASKED TO PICK UP PLAIN DEALER.

Being civic minded I picked up the The Plain Dealer. The headline screamed, What's ahead for the Buckeye state? Was this a subtle way to alert readers to the possible 3-day a- week delivery schedule. No, it was referring to some political gobbledygook.  The Newspaper Guild's campaign didn't  make the front page. I finally found a half-page ad on page 10  telling readers that they will be missed if The Plain Dealer continues to cut back on news coverage. It was a crummy, anemic ad - hardly eye catching. Still it was probably appropriate for the staff of a shrinking newspaper ( I wonder what the Newhouse heirs charged for the ad). The Guild also referred readers to a Facebook page where they can get information on how to express their feelings and contact the paper's owners. That seemed strange - it's the likes of Facebook, and Twitter that are causing newspapers to rethink their role as an information vehicle. I know one thing: I'm not friending anyone else on Facebook, I can hardly handle the few friends I have now.

I suppose the Guild feels like someone who is up shit creek without a paddle.They desperately need a life jacket. That life jacket is spelled M-O-N-E-Y as in S-U-B-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N-S. Letters to the owners will not cut it. More income might do the trick but I would not hold my breath.

The hell with this, it's too depressing. I'm going back out and pick up The New York Times. I need to know more about the General and his biographer. Guess he never heard about the old saying, "don't shit where you work".