Andrew Zajac
Respected Cleveland muckraker Roldo Bartimole offers a parting thought on the just-concluded Ohio primary.
Writing on Cool Cleveland, a local news and arts web site, Bartimole notes that Cleveland State University had to pick up a hefty tab for hosting the Democratic debate on Feb. 26 and wonders why.
Here’s his take on the bill-paying arrangements:”Are we all stupid or what?
Cleveland State University, a college of working class and middle class students, had to raise $300,000 to help put on the Democratic debate last week at the Wolstein Center.
Why?
Debate sponsors NBC-TV, its affiliate here WKYC, and its cable network MSNBC are all profit making entities. They all enjoy government-anointed, semi-monopolies using the public air waves. They are being fed by millions and millions of dollars of election advertising. Yet CSU had to go take $300,000 out of this community to host the event. I don’t understand why the profit-makers didn’t pay their own way.
The Cleveland debate drew 7.78 million voters, a historic best for MSNBC, according to Nielsen Media Research.
So shouldn’t NBC pay CSU, rather than the other way around?
MSNBC has been running ads saying that the debate in Cleveland got it great ratings, but CSU had to pay some of the cost of providing the network a stage.
Doesn’t seem right to me. However, it does seem just the way the private sector operates here and everywhere. It’s all take, take, take.”