How negative was the Plain Dealer to The Cleveland Orchestra music director?

My April piece Critical Sinking — a close look at the conflict between The Cleveland Orchestra, the Plain Dealer and critic Donald Rosenberg which lead to the reassignment of a highly skilled music critic who covered one of the best musical institutions in the world — prompted a letter asking for more details.

I read your recent article "Critical Sinking" with great interest. I thought it was fairly balanced, however, one paragraph left me wanting more.

On page 73 the article states: "For the meeting, Julie Clark, working for the orchestra’s media relations department, assembled a point-by-point critique of all 150 sentences Rosenberg had written about Welser-Möst, from his guest-conducting performance on Feb. 12, 1993, to the latest concert before the meeting. She rated each sentence as “positive,” “mixed” or “negative."

I wonder if other readers had the same reaction as me. I would have liked to know the results of that critique. Did the research show a predominant slant to these sentences or not? Why was the result of that study not revealed? Was the information denied to you, not requested or merely not pursued.

For those interested, I've scanned the chart described in the story. Each X represents an individual sentence. So for each article Rosenberg penned about a Welser-Möst-led performance, there may be several Xs under each category.

Finally....Car-Free

OK, so I know it's been a year since I wrote about going car-free in Cleveland. Since I wrote the story, so many people ask: Sell your car yet?

Finally, I can say yes.

As of this weekend, I will be relying on RTA and CityWheels to cart me around.

Letting go of my car keys this time feels nothing like the last time. I have been a regular rider of the bus and Rapid for more than a year. I know it can be done. And I think it will work in my lifestyle. I may opt to pick up a beater eventually, but I'm hoping I can make car-free work for me long-term. It can be done in Cleveland.

A Joe Tait story

When reporting my story on the fall and rise of Cleveland sports radio and television personality Bruce Drennan, I had a bunch of great stories from Joe Tait that didn't make the article. Here's one that got cut out in one of the later edits:

Joe and Bruce used to cover the Indians from 1980 to 1982 on WUAB television. Well, before a game in Chicago, two Tribe players were caught with a marijuana joint. Among them was that day's starter, Lenny Barker. They were just arrested, no one was found guilty or anything. The station called them up and had a meeting about how to handle it on the air.

They all agreed Joe would make a statement. Joe gets on the air and says something to the effect of: We all know what happened, but these guys are innocent until proven guilty. We don't have any more information than you saw on the news. Until something comes out, we're just going to focus on baseball.

Bruce chimes in: OK, Joe! And a good baseball game it will be. I bet Barker comes out smoking tonight!

Joe turned bright red. Bruce had no idea what he just said. Joe tried to hold it in, but he was in hysterics.

If you haven't read the November piece on Drennan, host of Sports Time Ohio's All Bets Are Off, we tell the story of his gambling leading to jailtime, and his rise to the face of the Cleveland sports network STO. Check it out here.

What can you tell about someone from a picture?

In September's issue, I wrote a story called "First Impressions," which involved a kind of experiment. Here's how it worked: We went out and took a bunch of pictures of folks in downtown Cleveland, and we asked people to give us their first impression of those in the pictures. Their answers often said as much -- or more -- about them, than about the person photographed. We then used some of the respondents photographs as the next picture held to scrutiny. You can see the story here.

Well, we've now launched a new blog to let YOU comment about people's photos. We started out with this guy:


He gave comments about our editor, Steve Gleydura. Click HERE to comment on him.

And we're giving you one more way to participate as well. You can upload your own picture by clicking HERE, and our online readers will post their impressions of you, just based on the picture. Have fun. Be honest. Tell your friends.

Fans: 'D.A., D.A., D.A.!'

In today's Plain Dealer, reporter Tony Grossi says Browns backup QB Brady Quinn is handling his position as backup really well:

Quinn has adopted the perfect attitude about handling his plight as Anderson's backup. He doesn't mope about it, but he doesn't insult anyone's intelligence by denying it hurts.

That honest attitude is refreshing. Athletes tend to follow a script when answering questions. Listen to the occasional extended interview on WKNR, and you can probably guess the quote coming out of just about any athlete's mouth within a word or two.

That's why I like Quinn. Check out our cover story on him and his buddy, Pro Bowl lineman Joe Thomas, from our January issue. You'll see some of the same candor.