Cleveland’s alternative progressive newspaper Scene Magazine has been repeatedly betraying its progressive heritage with its fawning coverage of the Republican Party County Executive nominee, Corporate Stooge and Washington lobbyist, Lee Weingart.
Scene Magazine’s progressive heritage was built by alternative journalism pioneers like Roldo Bartimole (formerly of Point Of View, The Cleveland Free Times and The Cleveland Edition), the legendary Village Voice that once owned The Free Times, the Phoenix New Times that once owned Scene, plus scores of reporters/staff from various local underground and alternative papers in Cleveland from the 1960’s until the Scene/Free Times merger of 2008.
The point of an alternative newspaper is to be a counterpoint to the Republican/Corporate Democrat viewpoint of a daily newspaper like The Plain Dealer. Remember how The PD union busted their reporters in recent years.
Also remember Scene only has two full-time writers to do the bulk of what news they choose to cover. They are not obliged to cover any particular news story at all. Especially to positively cover a member of the party of violent fascism, bigotry, The Big Lie, abortion bans without exceptions and so much more of the opposite of the progressive agenda.
We all understand how all print media is in a weaker financial state in today’s social media age. That is why I almost hope Scene is getting a couple pieces of silver for these Judas actions. But remember their owners, Euclid Media Group, also own ten other publications around the country. How impoverished can they really be?
Still, Democratic candidates should advertise in Scene this election year. It is always embarrassing when Trump fundraiser Tony George buys the Scene front page for a Republican candidate before every November election for the cost of a couple months rent in a decent apartment.
Don’t take my word that Weingart is a typical shit Republican. Accept progressive Cleveland journalism icon Roldo Bartimole’s reporting from his Point Of View newsletter during Weingart’s two years as a Cuyahoga County Commissioner 1995/6. Weingart has never won an election in his life. He was appointed to the commission by the Republican Party to finish the term of Jim Petro when he was elected to a statewide office. Weingart lost to future Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, Chris Ronayne’s former boss, in 1996.
“Weingart wanted to fund the Cleveland Stadium renovation by taking sales tax revenue away from the Regional Transit Authority (RTA).” (POV Vol. 28 No. 2)
Weingart championed the tax money giveaway to pay further costs for building what is now Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. (POV Vol. 27 No. 9)
Roldo called Weingart a Corporate Establishment “County Stooge.” (POV Vol. 28 No.7)
Weingart was going to be the leader of the Municipal Stadium renovation Sin Tax ballot issue with the CEO of Sherwin-Wiliams. (Cleveland Mayor Michael White took the lead instead when the Browns announced their move to Baltimore.) (POV Vol. 28 No.2)
One Christmas Roldo wished Weingart a “Scroogie” gift of, “A single emotion not politically motivated.”
(Roldo’s Point Of View newsletter can be found online at Cleveland State University’s The Cleveland Memory Project.)
After losing his County Commission seat Weingart went on to become a Washington DC lobbyist. ‘Nuff said?
Nevermind Weingart’s claims to be a “different” Republican. He has been kissing up to the various MAGA clubs around the county for a year, including the Cuyahoga Valley Republicans that chartered buses to DC for the January 6th insurrection. Trump has transformed the Republican Party even more than Reagan did.
If Weingart is truly opposed to MAGA, as he claims, he should have ran against Ronayne in the May Democrat primary. If he really is against MAGA he should endorse Democrat Tim Ryan for the U.S. Senate against the vile J.D. Vance. But he won’t, he knows what team he’s on.
That is why Scene publishing this nonsense is so disheartening. “Weingart Calls for New Leadership at County Health and Human Services” (July 14,2022). “Basheer Jones Back Lee Weingart for County Executive” (before we knew of Jones’ FBI subpoenas… July 7, 2022). And the dueling interviews with Weingart and Democratic nominee Chris Ronayne with Weingart listed first, the obvious sign of bias against Ronayne, “Talking Policy and Smack with Lee Weingart and Chris Ronayne” (June 15, 2022). There are no articles with Ronayne news from Scene to balance things out.
Ronayne is endorsed by the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus. They do not hand out their endorsements automatically to every Democrat. They stand with Ronayne without reservations.
The reason we are concerned is not the remote possibility of Weingart defeating Ronayne. Weingart is running, other to promote his lobbying business, is to run a vigorous well financed campaign that can have an updraft effect for the statewide GOP MAGA slate. In the new hyper-partisan Trump era, if Weingart can do five-seven points better than the 2018 Republican County Executive candidate, DeWine, Vance, Yost, et al should follow upward in Cuyahoga County. In 2018, Peter Corrigan, the GOP County Executive candidate, got 32 percent of the vote to be the top Republican vote-getter in the county. Governor DeWine got 31 percent in Cuyahoga County on his way to victory
Remember, Cuyahoga County is more than ten percent of Ohio’s total vote. For the sake of our statewide Democrats, we must duplicate or improve on our two-to-one margins from 2018.
As we head into fall we will continue to watch the congressional January 6th hearings showing the ongoing treason of the Republican Party. Hopefully Scene Magazine will find the character to stop promoting that party. As Roldo Bartimole said, “Tell the truth and shame the devils.”
Richard May administers four Facebook groups that shares local professional reporting, The Cleveland Beacon, The Ohio Beacon, Ohio Press-Leader and The Cleveland Lantern. He was the Circulation Manager of The Cleveland Edition, an alternative weekly newspaper, from 1987 to 1989 which had Roldo’s reporting in each issue.
