Sour Notes from Cleveland reach NY Times

Former BJ type Abe Zaidan is having fun with his new Grumpy Abe blog. There's no end to fodder in politics and music and Abe is watching them both. Here's his latest on the "reassignment" of PD music critic Don Rosenberg which has now caught the attention of the New York Times in an article today headlined "Music Critic vs. Maestro: One Loses His Beat."

Here's Abe's take, stolen verbatim, except for the photos and the link to the New York Times Click on the headline for that.

Rosenberg's wake in NY Times

THE NEW York Times picked up the beat today on the Plain Dealer's rendition of its longtime classical musical critic Donald Rosenberg. In a lengthy report on Rosenberg's demotion that exceeded the paper's own spare announcement by a kilometer or two, the Times filled in much of the score while at the same time failing to get some clarifying words from Susan Goldberg, the paper's editor. She was quoted as saying that she couldn't discuss the issue because it was an "internal personnel matter." Oh?

At this point, I should tell you that I was a colleague and friend of Don at the Beacon Journal, where he was an astute, sensitive and dedicated workaholic. That friendship continues to this day. Make of it what you will.

Having said that, I still must wonder about Goldberg's decision that was bound to raise suspicions that the mighty PD serves masters outside the newsroom, a matter that should alarm most caring journalists in a day when the newspaper business is in tattered retreat both in circulation and credibility. We can hope that his dark event will not be picked up around the country as another Cleveland joke.