Pittsburgh Media Scoops and Gossip
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- Weekly "Whispers" checklist -- Right Out Loud, 02:14:09 07/05/09 Sun [6]
Yes, it's there! July 5th edition of Trib "Whispers" contains the usual John Kerry note and refers to Teresa Heinz as the "pickle heiress."
Nice to know there are still some things you can always count on!
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- TribReefer -- GanjaJim, 13:12:14 08/01/09 Sat [10]
The Trib calls for the legalization of marijuana and the Trib Bashers go into hiding. That's about par for their zealous course.
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- Point well taken -- Shooter, 21:35:38 08/07/09 Fri [4]
Keep Thinking you raise a good point. Think about this. People remember good pictures. They don't even have to be great pictures. But nobody remembers the words except pantywaist reporters. Lots of people order reprints and then hang them on the walls of their homes and businesses. The only people who hang stories are the subjects and narcissistic candy-ass reporters.
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- Rob Owen: Once too often over the line -- Highway Robbery, 22:34:33 07/28/09 Tue [13]
I know he has to report. The PG is spending plenty to send Rob-O to La-La Land to play celebrity reporter and do his unpaid cheerleading for locally produced TV shows, his bizarre obsession. But he crossed a line that should bring down the wrath of his superiors.
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/tunedin/archive/2009/07/28/press-tour-coverage-begins.aspx
Since when is it proper for the TV critic to say "Vote for Wendy Bell" in a blog? Owen has been critical of Bell's on camera mugging and egocentrism in the past. He is right to report this event. But in THIS MANNER?
It's one more nauseating manifestation of Rob-O's "rah-rah" mentality for the hometown team. It is unethical and unprofessional. PG Editors should ponder what to do. Maybe if Shribman knew who Owen was he might be concerned. He damn well should be. Owen's actions prove he's not even fit to work for Trib Total Media or the BCT.
He proudly hypes his membership in Television Critics Association. But he is not a TV critic at all. Based on "work" of this sort, he comes off a a shallow, showbiz-dazzled youngster with a travel budget and an ego, nothing more.
It's time the PG began acting like the "great newspaper" it claims to be and put a stop to his blatant promotional blurbs disguised as journalism.
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- Why the CBS network is crowing -- Aff-Flack, 21:24:08 08/04/09 Tue [3]
They don't have to spend as much money on press agentry! No way, baby! Not when they have ROB-O on the job for them!!!!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09217/988546-67.stm
Shameless, clueless and dazzled by the glamor and glitz!
Dawn Keezer, hire this boy! He's EARNED IT!
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- Eberson at Comic-Con? -- Bluto, 14:55:00 07/22/09 Wed [18]
I don't get this. Sharon Eberson goes to Comic-Con again? This amid tight money, buyouts, mandatory furloughs?
And who gives a crap about what her son is doing there? What's this? Eberson family promo week?
Is the PG paying for her trip? If so, priorities have gotten more perverse than I figured. It'll cost plenty to ramp up G20 coverage in September. And they think this matters?
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- PG's Sheridan goes Proletarian -- Orange County Chopper, 00:08:12 07/27/09 Mon [3]
So who does "Petty Patricia" have "breakfast with" today? Jesse James, aka Mr. Sandra Bullock, motorcycle builder, reality TV star, "Apprentice" contestant and glorified stuntman. In her ever-penetrating interview she asks why he once referred to himself as a "white trash kid."
See? All those criticisms on this forum about the PG having an elitist focus are making a difference! Here's proof! Sheridan doing a "blue collar" breakfast! Will wonders never cease?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09208/986598-129.stm
What's next? China Millman reviewing blue-collar bar food?
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- Next Week: Nancy & Sluggo? -- Justice League of America, 14:25:02 07/23/09 Thu [3]
I waited all week to read something this clever, insightful and uplifting.
How could anyone not be moved to tears?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09204/985547-151.stm
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- Overkill in the Trib Sports Dept, what's new? -- Hines W, 09:21:30 07/15/09 Wed [2]
Anyone else notice that the Trib publishes a Santonio Holmes story every other day? Overkill if you ask me.
Harris writes the same redundant stories. And the 'exclusive' videos online are pretty much the same.
Aren't there more stories out there to cover other than Steelers? Besides, training season doesn't start for a month!
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- Furloughs -- DogMan, 09:26:53 06/26/09 Fri [16]
The Tribune-Review today offered all full-time employees one week of unpaid vacation "to reduce costs and expenses."
The time off is strictly voluntary.
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- Trib cooks books again -- Hydra, 06:10:39 07/21/09 Tue [4]
I know, carping about Trib circ. has been done on this board. Still, the PBT's recent "25 largest tri-state area newspapers" list bears noting.
"Tribune-Review" is #2, 165,000 daily. PG is listed at 208K daily. And can you believe it? Trib circ. up 10 percent over last year, while almost everybody else on the list is down. But wait. What's that footnote? Oh, the Trib's numbers are for NINE newspapers, including the South Hills Record. (Isn't that a weekly?) Hell, why not just throw in the Pennysaver and claim the top slot?
Is the Pgh. Trib still hovering around 20K circ.? If so, that puts it around #14, between Uniontown and Sharon.
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- Princess Di Abdicates her Throne -- Daily Mail, 20:14:23 07/21/09 Tue [7]
PG website has a story Diana Block stepped down as PG President to spend time with her kids. Chris Chamberlain replaces her. Oh, and JR is now PG "Chairman."
What up with this?
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- Pirates Beat -- Ball watcher, 05:24:27 07/07/09 Tue [19]
P-G had a great piece today about Lastings Milledge, the new Pirates recruit. Where is the Trib's version? Oh wait, maybe next month.
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- Where have all the cowboys gone? -- Moving On, 20:55:58 07/14/09 Tue [10]
Can anyone discuss where the most recent Trib and PG departures ended up working? For example, I know Jim Ritchie ended up at Port Authority because he's quoted in the Trib almost daily.
I'm curious because I should be thinking about what's next... just trying to get ideas.
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- Amazing -- Wastemorelander, 00:50:52 07/20/09 Mon [5]
Yo! Published AUTHOR in da house!!!!
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_634447.html
I'm surprised they didn't just omit mention of his staff position, given the Trib's longstanding disdain for ethics. Really, this smacks of, "See? We DO TOO have talent in our midst! This guy published a BOOK for some ricky-ticky outfit no one ever heard of! So don't be disrespecting the Trib! It might even outsell Bumsted's book on the riots in York PA!"
Wonder if Scaife got an autographed copy?
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- Dispatch from a man STILL on the Moon! -- Tranquility Base, 02:08:43 07/19/09 Sun [5]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09200/984713-372.stm
Man did the seemingly impossible by landing on the moon. Next impossibility: getting the author of this column to acknowledge he knows something about the area where he resides, unless he's convinced himself the Mon is actually the Potomac.
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- BCT @ U.S. Open? -- Just_Asking, 01:43:52 06/19/09 Fri [15]
Any idea why the Beaver County Times has a writer at the U.S. Open? This paper doesn't cover the Penguins, Pirates or Steelers on the road, but has some guy in New York for this?
I'm confused. No wonder they're laying people off.
http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2009/06/18/sports/doc4a3b08658400c563898494.txt
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- Rob Owen -- PG Reader, 21:48:34 07/19/09 Sun [3]
I've never before complained about Rob Owen, mainly because I almost never read him. But the out-of-control mixed metaphors in the opening paragraph of his "appreciation" of Walter Cronkite (I almost never make it beyond the first sentence or even the first phrase of his articles) left me aghast:
Walter Cronkite was the trusted news anchor of a generation -- perhaps the last to be embraced by a wide swath of Americans before the rising tide of cable news pundits helped cement America's current ideological divide.
This is pathetic.
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- Slumming with Ambassador Dan -- Green Manalishi, 04:34:00 07/19/09 Sun [2]
I see Dan Simpson participated in John "If You Disagree with me You're a Right Winger!" McIntire's stupid "Comedy Pundits" show Saturday night, swapping snark and nonsense with GOP lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh and the unsufferably pitiful team of McIntire, sidekick Gab Bonnesso.
Funny. I thought Dan just made an ass of himself on the PG Editorial Pages. He must be branching out.
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- Opinion or News? -- Kid Tribbie, 03:19:41 07/18/09 Sat [4]
Craig Smith, the newest far-right Trib columnist, seems to not quite be sure what part of the newsroom he works in.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_634204.html
This "news" story looks a lot like something that belongs on the editorial page. But it's not there. And it has a clear point of view aimed to keep Pappy Scaife happy. When people assail the Trib for biased reporting, this is the kind of stuff they mean.
Only difference: Smitty's no Trib Kiddie. He's an aging scribe turned op-ed writer, who doesn't do either terribly well.
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- Stanley Cup at the Trib? -- Bully, 21:58:05 07/03/09 Fri [21]
The Stanley Cup went to the Trib the other day and several reporters and photographers got their picture with it.
So much for journalistic integrity.
Discuss.
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- Trib departures? -- Lola Maddona, 05:23:18 07/07/09 Tue [6]
Rumors are swirling at the Clark Building about the possible departure of one, if not several, of the Trib's star reporters. Discontentment and apathy are building, insiders say. Those atop the list of talked-about departures include some of the folks on the special projects desk.
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- Owen doing it right -- The Guardian, 06:55:49 07/10/09 Fri [5]
Rob-O can do his job when he wants to drop the rah-rah for filming TV shows here and report. Kudos for once. Make this kind of reporting a habit, Rob.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09191/982906-67.stm
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- Paging David Shribman -- AWOL, 08:48:23 07/12/09 Sun [2]
John Allison has been the PG panelist on the KD/PG Sunday morning show for the past few weeks.
Where's Shribman? Oh, yes. The program has been discussing local issues.
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- Do what PG Sports -- Hacker, 09:28:56 07/12/09 Sun [2]
In today's PG Sports golf notebook, penned by Gerry Dulac, there was a note plugging the "Gerry Dulac Parkway West Golf Outing"
It was complete with contact information and everything.
Now, if that isn't a conflict if interest, I don't know what is.
So does everyone who has an outing now get their notice in his notebook? It seems that is what the can of worms has been opened up to.
Let's hear you explain this on PG people. Dulac has been known to have an ego the size of a sand trap, but this one takes it to a new level.
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- YO! PG! Where's the English Translation? -- Mark Trail, 22:32:27 07/11/09 Sat [3]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09193/983094-372.stm
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- Millman lectures the lowly working stiff, again. -- Dunder Mifflin, 11:38:58 07/09/09 Thu [4]
I just love China's premise for one of her "cool," "aren't I trendy and hip?" columns, written from Mt. Olympus for the lowly office drones of the Burgh.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09190/982510-46.stm
Check out her lede:
Millman: "The brown bag lunch is one of the most visible examples of Americans' new frugal habits. But people miss out on more than extra calories and table service when they eat lunch in the office."
Well, duh. Did anyone tell little Ms. Ivy League that brown bag lunches were around when her ancestors drove Model T Fords? And were you keyboard pounders aware you miss out on more than "extra calories and table service" by eating at work? Ah, the insight of a "dining critic." Apparently we should should forget the grocery and gas money, so we can live it up Millman style.
Millman: "Think of a restaurant lunch as a midday mini-vacation, yielding amazing powers of rejuvenation. Lunch also gives diners a chance to try top-notch restaurants at often significant discounts."
Hmmmm. If it's a vacation, then why the hell didn't the PG Travel desk handle this story? Restaurants rejuvenate? Well, yes, but only if you take China's learned advice and go to her chosen bistros. And did YOU know you got discounts at lunch? Golly. We dummies learn so much from her lectures disguised as consumer advice.
Millman: "Noon is prime time in Downtown Pittsburgh, so don't even think about having a European late lunch at 3 p.m. (something that restaurants might want to reconsider while the G-20 is taking place). Lunch pacing also can be surprisingly leisurely, so if you're shooting for three courses in an hour, let your server know."
Wow! "Noon is prime time!" Hey, now THAT is insight! I always wondered what all them folks was doin' sittin' around outside when the sun was overhead. And now that I know about "lunch pacing," I can plan my whole day around it!
Thank you, thank you, China. For enlightening we minions of the cubicles on how we should be handling our lunch hour and finances. First you lecture us on tipping, now what to do at noon to unnecessarily spend more during a recession.
Only in one of America's Great Newspapers...
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- YO! John Robbie Block! Colin's callin you out!!! -- P. Sing Contest, 21:35:59 07/04/09 Sat [22]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_632321.html
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- PG Columnists and Space-wasters -- T. Pott Tempest, 03:24:40 07/03/09 Fri [14]
What happens when a PG columnist normally flush with stuff to rant about can't come up with anything interesting?
Well, Shribman always dishes the international, national and world view so he doesn't have to dirty his hands talking local about an area he doesn't care about because he only resides here.
O'Neill lays out local affairs in such a trite, predictable way he's hard to read even when he makes a valid point.
Jack Kelly gives us a Sunday Sgt. Rock/Rambo routine that reads like a print version of Colbert, not thoughtful neocon argument.
Ruth Ann offers Church Lady viewpoints delivered in such a sickeningly sweet manner her stuff reads like a cross between Shirley Temple and Salina Zito.
And in a slow week, what gives with Baloney Tony, the pal of John McIntire and Lynn Cullen?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09184/981500-153.stm
Yawn.
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- Block Spending Priorities -- Kahn Crete Block, 02:24:52 07/08/09 Wed [2]
All the cutbacks, buyouts, quality compromises (not to mention motorcycle columms) and talk galore about the need to cut back and possibly lay off, there's THIS!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09189/982338-374.stm
Beltway Dave's lofty international counterpart, Ambassador Dan, The Doubletalk Man, can jet to Africa, the continent where he was once an ambassador (Central African Republic and the Congo, according to his online bio). While Beltway pontificates on great issues facing America, lecturing all from on high like they are backward children, Danny Boy expounds on the state of the world. Either way, nobody cares except them and JR Block.
Danny's wife, Lizzie the lackluster former restaurant critic, is the paper's "wine writer." What an essential job in financial bad times! Wine writer! Amid fiscal free-fall and Block mandated belt tightening, they want to be able to say, "look at these prestigious people we employ! They don't even connect with readers, but damn! having them makes us feel good! It's almost as cool as Clementine's treadmill!"
I think the PG the better of the two dailies but Block Communications in some ways isn't much better than Scaife.
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- The Trib is flexible -- Peter Paul or Mary, 12:36:36 06/28/09 Sun [3]
This week's pissy John Kerry note in Whispers identifies Teresa Heinz as the "ketchup heiress." It's usually the "pickle heiress," but today they switched. I'll bet the Old Man spit out his coffee when he saw that! You never know what the wacky sycophants will do next!
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- Nothing to say and it's not okay -- Fifth Column, 03:26:19 07/01/09 Wed [2]
Had to read this twice and it still makes no sense.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09176/979517-151.stm
Honestly, who down on the Boulevard is dedicated to keeping Bennett's weekly blather in circulation? She gets worse every week and no one seems to care.
My question to PG'er: did your management agree to carry her column as part of her buyout or is this part of Shribman's troubling logic about what's really good and bad?
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- Rob-O Again -- Sidney Falco, 03:53:40 06/14/09 Sun [3]
Hey! I'm from Pittsburgh and I drove within 300 miles of a Hollywood studio on my last trip to the coast. You think Rob-O, the ultimate fan-boy and fifth-string TV critic might be interested? Since he doesn't know the difference between being a journalist and being a flack, I can't wait for another of his seemingly unending trips to Tinseltown (paid for by a newspaper that's allegedly on the ropes financially). Surprises me he doesn't try to land a real flack job out there, so he can tool up and down Mulholland Drive in a Corvette wearing those stupid shades of his.
Why go off on the boy? Well, here's one more reason.
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/tunedin/archive/2009/06/12/pittsburgher-makes-goode.aspx
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- Billy Mays -- Surfer Dude, 09:51:00 06/28/09 Sun [8]
12:45pm on the 28th and the Trib has a localized story on their website about the death of McKees Rocks native Billy Mays.
Not a word on the PG site
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- What the....? -- The Linguist, 15:42:56 06/25/09 Thu [2]
Seen her bashed before, thought some of the criticisms were overkill. But then I saw this.
http://www.post-gazette.com/podcast/detail.asp?id=17
Is there an English translation available?
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- Observer Layoffs -- Confused, 12:55:46 06/25/09 Thu [2]
What is going on at the Washington Observer? Anyone know what's happening?
http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/06-25-Layoffs
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