ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS THE PARTY LINE: Over a hundred people showed up at Cleveland City Hall yesterday for a rally called by the Coalition for Responsible Development. The goal was to meet with Mayor Campbell, present a stack of petitions, and urge her to stop courting Wal-Mart as an anchor for the Steelyard Commons Development until a full economic impact study is completed.

The largest part of the crowd was union grocery store workers, but there were also members of ACORN, some church social action leaders, a couple of small business owners in addition to Dave's, and other supporters. They were hosted in City Council Chambers by Ward 17 Councilman Matt Zone while attempts were made to connect with Campbell (who was supposedly meeting with Wal-Mart executives yesterday.)

Campbell refused to see the group personally, but a delegation was able to meet with her chief of staff, Chris Ronayne.

I'm telling you all this because apparently no one else will.

The Plain Dealer, which had City Hall reporter Olivera Perkins on the scene interviewing participants, ran no story today. Channel 3, which had a camera crew there, posted a short article on its website but gave the rally no on-air coverage. There was nothing on Channel 5, 8 or 19/43.

And that's the way we do fair and balanced coverage of "the big box issue" in Cleveland.

(Since I wasn't there personally, I should tell you that my source for this original coverage is Harriet Applegate of the Cleveland AFL-CIO. Harriet says there were 150 people, but I've cautiously rounded down.)
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