Pittsburgh Media Scoops and Gossip
Welcome, newsroom pros and moles. Here's the spot for all the latest dish and debate on what's happening in Pittsburgh media. This is a forum to talk about issues affecting the Pittsburgh media scene.
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ABOUT THE DOG: Since so many have asked, the photo is simply a dog delivering the paper. He has no connection to any past advertising campaigns for any newspaper. He's a nice dog.
- Why I love the good old P-G -- Sam Slamrock, 12:25:49 09/16/09 Wed [7]
Sally Kalson does a feature on comedian Paula Poundstone:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09257/997823-67.stm
She leads with:
"You may know Paula Poundstone as a quick-witted panelist on National Public Radio's comedy quiz show "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me,"....
There are probably 44 people in Pittsburgh who listen to that show, but that doesn't prevent Kalson from devoting a sizable chunk of the story to it. Hey, if I listen to it, everyone else must, right?
The story, which deals with math books Poundstone has written for kids, makes no mention that Poundstone pleaded no contest to a felony charge of child endangerment that led to two foster children being removed from her care.
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- PG copy desk: sleepin' at the switch! -- Spelling Bee, 03:01:53 09/16/09 Wed [6]
"Jod," eh?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09259/998288-122.stm
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- Jack Kelly Column -- Sgt. Carter, USMC, 15:57:00 09/16/09 Wed [6]
Word is Jack Kelly's Sunday column was removed from the PG website and his archives due to gross factual inaccuracies in his attack on resigned Obama appointee Van Jones. Apparently they realized you CAN have your own opinions, but you need to base them on solid facts. Perhaps Jack better spend more time researching and less time on his fitness writing.
Funny the best One of America's Great Newspapers can do for conservative voices is Gomer Pyle and Sister Ruth Ann.
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- What protest? -- Black Francis, 11:42:39 09/13/09 Sun [20]
Estimates for the crowd size at Saturday's tax protest in Wash.DC. are up to 2 million people and the US media largely ignores it. Is there something I'm missing here? Any takes on this?
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- John Harris -- Just wanted to know, 19:30:03 09/15/09 Tue [14]
How this guy landed this sweet job as Steelers columnist? I've read his stuff and it is awful to put it lightly. Nothing original, poor writing, many factual errors. And no insight.
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- Bennett finally hits bottom -- Interventionist, 00:38:33 09/10/09 Thu [3]
This may be her worst ever for the PG. Not only did it appear AFTER the Woodstock anniversary, it's a bunch of lame association gimmicks ("don't remember what music I was into. Definitely more Old McDonald than Country Joe McDonald"). Like most of her other work, it lays there, too flat and weak to be entertaining or even mildly amusing.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09253/996665-151.stm
Free associating "Sesame Street" with Woodstock makes no sense. A simple, stand-alone column about her ties to the world of Big Bird would have made more sense than whatever this is.
Her sole lucid moment is the lede: "I'm being intentionally dense of course. Usually, I do that without trying."
Sad, but true.
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- Politics As Usual -- Harriet, 08:11:19 08/26/09 Wed [13]
Here's why nobody takes the Trib seriously. Sen. Kennedy's death is announced early this morning, and there isn't even a headline to be found on the Trib's Web site.
But there is a review of "Adventureland" prominently displayed at the top of the page.
Fitting, don't you think?
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- Query -- Clueless, 08:01:32 08/22/09 Sat [12]
Can someone tell me who the op-ed page editor at the P-G is? I know it used to be John Allison.
Thanks a bunch.
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- Another Space-wasting PG Columnist -- Yankee Doodle, 23:36:46 08/23/09 Sun [2]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09236/992844-152.stm
I ask you--who cares? How much money could the paper save cutting a few of these has-beens who never were? Let Ms. Holier-than-thou set up a private blog and rant away on the things that bother or please her, so she's not wasting space in the incredible shrinking PG.
The only thing funnier than this: Pittsburgh Magazine's very questionable "Best-Of" naming Gene Collier best local writer.
Oh, yes, and speaking of over the hill, they included (snicker!) LYNN CULLEN and her City Paper talk show that can't yet take calls in their "best of" as well. Of course, when did Pittsburgh Mag have any cred on anything? About the last time Ruth Ann did.
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- The P-G's page one sports obsession -- Bloop Blast, 18:33:13 08/16/09 Sun [15]
Are you kidding me? The Pirates lose a game 17-2 on Friday and the P-G puts the story on page one above the fold?
The Pirates are terrible. They've been terrible for 16 years. Their being terrible doesn't qualify as news. It's status quo. Doesn't matter if you lose by a lopsided score, because that's the nature of baseball. They lost games 10-0 and 16-3 in the 1960 World Series and still won.
Somebody there is convinced that sports stories belong on page one. In a lot of cases, like this one, they're wrong.
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- Sam's Unfunny Column Ride -- Erma Beckbom, 04:43:53 07/17/09 Fri [8]
For a long time I thought Ms. Bennett's critics were unfair with some of their comments. Then I started to see things like her self-congratulatory ego trip last week.
Finally I read this yesterday and wished I had not.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09197/984116-151.stm
The first thing that bothered me. Bennett's main gig now is communications person and spokesperson for Mon Valley Hospital yet she sees nothing untoward in adding a flip remark to her PG column about melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer? My God, what desperation to be clever. I'm sure victims and their families who read that little remark weren't amused. Where the hell are the PG editors? Contemplating their navels? This remark should have been excised whether she liked it or not.
And what the hell does anyone care about her "speed racer," an obvious reference to a boyfriend, his racing hobby and her attempts to understand it by going to some racetrack in Beaver County. And she got to ride in a race car. Wahoo.
Honestly, not a bit of this was amusing or even clever. And though she's no longer on staff the paper PAYS her for this crap? Was this part of the buyout deal?
It's been said here before about her work. So funny I forgot to laugh. Maybe her buds at NSNC can give her another award which she can use to write another column.
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- "Mother of Mercy! Is this the end of Rico{ (P P-G) -- Little Caesar, 08:15:23 08/19/09 Wed [5]
http://tinyurl.com/lt3b8r
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- Big Ben's accuser and harassing phone calls -- Joe Person, 08:09:08 08/07/09 Fri [13]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09219/989146-66.stm
No mention of when the complaint was filed? Oh, because it was eight days ago.
But still a great scoop. Oh, wait. The Trib had it two days ago. The Nevada papers the day before that.
Another from today's $.50 miracle:
Unusable engines beginning to pile up in junkyards
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09219/989175-185.stm
Looks familiar... to the story the Trib ran Wednesday.
Please tell me again how much superior the P-G is?
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- All the news that's fit to print (according to the P P-G) -- Howard Scripps, 10:25:04 08/19/09 Wed [2]
Google "Mylan." You get the following:
Mylan sues Pittsburgh paper over plant articles
Reuters - Lewis Krauskopf, Ted Kerr - 2 hours ago
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Mylan Inc (MYL.O) said on Wednesday it was suing the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper over "sensational and ...
Mylan files suit against Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Bizjournals.com
Mylan sues Pittsburgh paper over document stories Atlanta Journal Constitution
Mylan sues Post-Gazette over stories West Virginia Record
NASDAQ
all 56 news articles »
There's 56 articles on this. NOT ONE OF THEM is from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But then, I guess it wasn't news to them.
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- Total Catastrophic Breakdown At The PG! -- Not So Funny Papers, 09:10:39 08/10/09 Mon [6]
Imagine the horror I experienced this morning (that's Monday, August 10, 2009) when I opened the Post-Gazette to find that nearly half of the comic strips in the paper were repeats from either last Friday or Saturday.
How can this happen?
Of all the missteps committed by the PG in the recent past (which have been thoroughly documented here), I can't imagine the paper ever recovering from this total breakdown of journalistic oversight.
'Tis a sad day, indeed, in our fair city.
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- Plushtastic -- The Monopoly Guy, 19:35:13 08/13/09 Thu [3]
So,
Plush...The newest section of post-gazette.com
http://www.post-gazette.com/plush/
obviously is not going to be a weekly section; or a monthly section; or a quarterly section. Are they maybe going for a biennial section? Or did they, just possibly, decide that after urging people to spend $186,500,000 on a bathroom sink, while it sounded good up at the lake house in New Hampshire, find that it maybe didn't translate all that well into the less rarefied air and in fact, was one of the more tone-deaf moves made by an increasingly disconnected and rapidly dwindling staff.
Reason I'm asking is, way back in April, I ran right out and bought my $18.5 million bathroom sink, and now I'm wondering where to find the $465.8 million hand towels to go with it.
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- Prisuta gone? -- Kevin Smiffed, 07:20:43 08/03/09 Mon [33]
I've heard Prisuta tendered his resignation after being told by management he was going to be asked to do more GA type stuff. Anything to this? Or is my anonymous source as credible as the one Prisuta used for the Russ Grimm story?
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- Boulevard of Champions -- Photo fan, 10:33:50 06/16/09 Tue [42]
Did anyone pick up today's "Boulevard of Champions" Souvenir Edition of the P-G? Online, they mention a special 8-page section about the Pens parade available in print, though the print edition (below the fold) references a 7-page section. (page 8 is a Verizon ad).
The A-1 photo is beautiful, and leads one to believe some of the same quality content might appear in the special section. The E-1 (special section) photo is also great.
Once you open the section, you get black and white player pictures, a color picture of a burrito, a color ad, a story about public transit traffic nightmares (a downer in a 'celebratory' section) more black and white player pictures, and a full page of full-color fan pictures. Couldn't the P-G splurge on color for the team photos? The fans were there to cheer on the Pens. Don't they deserve some color pictures of the event they attended? The text was nothing special. It would have been nice to have a recap of a story or two from a sports writer
The photo content is skimpy. I expected better. Is the P-G short on photographers? The could have paid a few of the fans for their own pictures. There were some nice professional cameras in the crowd.
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- LA Fitness shooting -- To the Trib..., 19:16:07 08/04/09 Tue [34]
You guys got your asses handed to you. Your web site is worthless.
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- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- To you without a clue, 03:30:10 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Well Duh, 06:06:56 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Troop B, 06:41:53 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Clark (Building) Kent, 06:43:26 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Swing and a miss, 08:57:35 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Human, 09:06:37 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting - Also the latest Roethlisberger story -- P. G. Zette, 11:24:17 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Nick Tating Membrane, 17:56:13 08/05/09 Wed
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- mencken, 16:47:03 08/06/09 Thu
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Joe Person, 07:49:30 08/07/09 Fri
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Puko, 17:49:07 08/08/09 Sat
- Re: LA Fitness shooting -- Onlooker, 11:33:26 08/09/09 Sun
- The P P-G's crack sports department -- Sore Head, 06:21:51 08/09/09 Sun [3]
They published a picture of a fan who fell from the stands while trying to catch a foul ball. He scraped his face. However, the caption under the picture didn't indicate that:
"Pirates first base coach Perry Hill and Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols attend to a fan down the first base line struck by a Garrett Jones foul ball in the seventh inning Friday night. Paramedics took the fan from the field."
He WAS NOT hit by a foul ball.
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- Whine and Cheese with Ruth Ann Dailey -- Della Street, 15:02:27 07/20/09 Mon [7]
Today's Ruth Ann Dailey freelance column in the PG defending embattled US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan raises an interesting question. Dailey, as many of you here remember, was a regular on "Off Q." She and Bill Greene were "conservative" pundits. Valerie McDonald-Roberts and the ever-annoying John McIntire were and are the "liberals."
In late January, 2007 Dailey was replaced by WQED. They slotted Republican attorney Heather Heidelbaugh into her slot. No reason was given for the change.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07023/755943-237.stm
Since Wecht's case was thrown out, Heidelbaugh and Green, like other Republicans, have been scathingly critical of Buchanan's conduct and and execution of the case. On "Off Q," Heidelbaugh's been particularly rough on Buchanan. Most of Dailey's column is carping and whining disguised as a defense. She barely mentions any Buchanan achievements (were there any?). The column, so poorly done it makes McNickle look like David Brooks, leaves one wondering if Dailey's shots at Buchanan's critics could possibly be motivated by "sour grapes" over her "Off Q" ouster.
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