Cleveland reporter Paul Orlousky retired earlier this year after five decades in news. Now, he鈥檚 back with a new book looking back at his career.
He says the title -- 鈥溾�� -- comes from the hazards of reporting stories such as one in the 1980s when he found that police officers assigned to a hospital weren鈥檛 working the hours they claimed.
鈥淚 put the story on the air and 35 of them were suspended. Two of them got the bright idea to pay me back. So, they wrote some fake tickets on me, so there was a warrant out for me. It was a stressful thing, but it put me on the map in Cleveland [and] people thought of me, now, more as a Carl Monday or a Tom Meyer 鈥� some of the seasoned investigators in town.鈥�
Orlousky also remembers other controversial stories in his new book, such as the Ariel Castro kidnapping case, the Cleveland corruption scandal involving Jimmy Dimora, and the murder of supermarket magnate Julius Kravitz. He also managed to get tipped off about a secret visit by Prince to Cleveland at the height of his fame. That story also inspired part of the new book鈥檚 title, given how the singer鈥檚 bodyguard put a stop to any press coverage.
Changing times
Orlousky says the TV news business has changed a lot since he started.
鈥淭V news was white males and if there was a woman in the show, she鈥檇 be the 鈥榃oman鈥檚 Editor.鈥� That started to change, and then there were very few African-Americans; and then that started to change. And someone with your name 鈥� they wouldn鈥檛 have considered you 20 years ago. So from that regard, journalism and broadcasting in general is opening; they're going to become irrelevant unless they reflect the community that they鈥檙e trying to serve.鈥�
Orlousky was recently on the Buckeye Book Fair's "Modern Ohio" virtual panel, .
