The national media, this time MSNBC, needed an example of industrial decay, and they found “Youngstown, Ohio.”

The story came out today. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31332585/ns/us_news-the_elkhart_project/" target="_blank">Click here to check it out.

There’s nothing new about the story or the media modus operandi. But the timing of this story is funny to me because of what I endured Wednesday.

On Wednesday, there was good economic news about our region, and this was the news alert that was moved across the country by the Associated Press:

GM-CRUZE
LORDSTOWN - Even though it's living on government loans, General Motors is pouring millions into a huge factory complex near Cleveland. The Chevrolet Cruze compact car that the Lordstown, Ohio, factory will make is key to GM's plans to stand on its own after it emerges from bankruptcy protection. By Auto Writer Tom Krisher.

"Near Cleveland?"

When it’s a bad news story, national media has no hesitation using “Youngstown, Ohio.”

But a great industry story was happening yesterday, and The Associated Press could not summon up the conscience to cite us.

So I sent along an email to the AP complaining about it.

Here’s what happened the next time the news alert came out:

GM-CRUZE
LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - General Motors has a lot riding on Lordstown. A sprawling small-car factory in the town near Youngstown will be retooled to start making the Chevrolet Cruze compact car early next year. The car is a sleeker, lighter replacement for the Chevrolet Cobalt. The market for years has belonged to the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

Now granted, it was corrected just for AP's Ohio news alerts. The alerts that went to the country still read “near Cleveland.”

Oh well. Little by little.