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 Chris’s 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, Casie Hunt of CNN, and of
course the biggie, Morning Joe Scarborough. I can’t help but harbor a
suspicion that Chris 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 The Plain Dealer is caught in.

Although many of Chris’s letters are repetitious, I must admit that
recently one of them caught my eye. Get this–Chris actually believes
The Plain Dealer opinion pages “are balanced between right and left.”
Chris, a little fact checking may be in order. To prove his theory of
political fairness, Chris 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 Chris’s 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 Chris’s 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 Black, a Gay, a Latino, an Indigenous,
and a token Conservative. It’s a perfect representation of all the
supposedly oppressed groups in our society. A gaggle of hyphenated
wokies, if you will. 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 like to hurt people. Did I mention that
he hates Trump?

There we have Chris’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. Chris’s 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, Chris chooses Ted
Diadium. 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 Chris, 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.

Sandra O’Brien
State Senator 32nd District