Drew Carey Series Soon

I'm really excited to see the Reason.tv series 'Reason Saves Cleveland', just five days from launch. As posted earlier, I am one of most of my friends who left Cleveland. Of my close friends, I was the last to leave. I moved to Indiana and gave myself an immediate, large raise, just because the taxes were so much less here- and Indiana isn't even my idea of a low-tax state!

Cleveland has been more or less controlled by Democrats and Democratic, liberal, progressive ideas for more than 100 years, starting with Mayor Tom L. Johnson. Those ideas have done nothing to save the shedding of more than half the city's population since 1950. I tried to build interest in libertarian ideas, but who am I, right? So, it's exciting that Drew Carey, one of Cleveland's most prominent favorite sons, who also left town for better opportunities, is the face of this Reason documentary. I don't think Cleveland would give it a serious look if it weren't Drew Carey.

On Monday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer put the series on the front page, above the fold. Here's an online version's highlights:

Cleveland's woes -- population loss, failing schools, lack of economic spark -- are no joke to comedian and native son Drew Carey, who advocates for less government, more competition and lower taxes to bring the city back.

Carey took time off from his gig as host of TV's "The Price Is Right" to help produce and star in a series of Web reports detailing Cleveland's woes and a number of proposed fixes that will be launched next week on reason.tv, the Internet arm of the nonpartisan, libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation, on whose board Carey serves.

Carey established reason.tv three years ago and has developed a number of short Web documentaries to highlight government's heavy-handedness. Now, the lens turns to his hometown with a six-part series called "Reason Saves Cleveland." It comes on the heels of Cleveland's "most miserable city" ranking by Forbes.com.

and

The series, reported and produced by reason.tv's editor Nick Gillespie, explores problems in Cleveland and other rust belt cities and offers solutions using examples from other cities -- such as Houston -- that are enjoying success and population growth.

Bottom line? As the Web site's motto reads, "Free minds and free markets." In other words, move out of the way, government. In a town like Cleveland, with big government bureaucracies, cumbersome regulations and old-school unions, the series argues, it's no wonder times are so tough.

Now, will Cleveland listen? Hard to say, especially in light of repeating failing policy for 100+ years. When I lived there, I always found myself muttering, "What will it take?" Maybe this is the thing. I hope so.

Dying Newspapers

A friend who grew up in Cleveland with me sent me a link to a Time Magazine article, saying that Cleveland's only remaining daily newspaper might close, and is among the 10 most endangered US papers.

I have a twinge of sadness about that, because I was a carrier for the Plain Dealer when I was a teen, and was a big team player. (We hated the Cleveland Press, advancing the rivalries managements had. We had rivalries with the kids who carried The Press, and celebrated when The Press folded. We picked up many of their former customers.) I have a twinge of sadness now for the rapid death of the newspapers, because they were once great institutions, at least when there were the rivalries, and papers tried to get the scoop on- get this- the local news!

But I do like to chuckle and enjoy the idea that the writers at any American daily tend to be left-of-center, that those left-of-center tend to believe in evolution, and that their livelihood is dying because they have failed, no, refused to evolve.

Going back to Cleveland, I'll never forget how The Guild refused to write for Cleveland Live when it started, because they were The Guild, and therefore above that newfangled internet fad. Cool by me! I was a free lance writer, and picked up some supplemental income on the 'fad'. Then The Guild reversed course after boatloads of money was spent on freelancers- because they were The Guild! The true professionals that belonged as the face of the 'newspaper'! Bwaaahahahaha!

I believe that newspapers made themselves irrelevant by refusing to be local. Hell- I can get all the national news I want as it happens- on cable news, talk radio, and internet. What do I need a repeat of what I know for, especially when that AP report is printed tomorrow? Even if they gave it as they happened, what makes their carriage of an AP report different than anyone else's? Look at the Indy Star, the Plain Dealer, or any other American daily, and you'll see the bulk of the paper filled by AP reports, or articles from the Washington Post or New York Times.

It's foolish. We have the national papers that have made their national niches: the NY Times, by virtue of being in NY; the Washington Post, by virtue of being in DC; the Wall Street Journal, by virtue of being on Wall Street. Every other paper in the US is dooming itself to go the way of the dinosaur, for refusal to evolve. Hell- those papers are national in a large way because they are local! Their locality happens to generate news of national interest.

Most papers have pretty good sports sections. Well, that's local news. How can they be so blind?

Darwin, newspaper! Darwin!