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.
Things to remember:
1. Do not post under the name of a Pittsburgh media person, past or present, unless it is YOUR name.
ALSO...Do not post under a name that has been established by another poster.
2. No personal attacks. You may post opinions about the work that people do but personal attacks will not be tolerated.
3. We're not interested in screeds about how useless the board is. That's a sure way to get deleted.
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.
- Greece is the word -- Aristotle in a Bottle, 16:46:12 06/07/09 Sun [15]
Is the P-G kidding? China Millman writes a lead Sunday article on where to find the best meals in Greece? How many P-G readers are going to Greece? Is this paper deliberately trying to be totally irrelevant as part of some giant inside joke?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09158/975129-34.stm
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Mulletmedia -- Biz in front, 10:13:12 06/22/09 Mon [2]
I wonder if anyone else has noticed the decline in news on the Trib's web site. I read both sites and find that if I start with the Trib, the PG has at least twice as many breaking news stories. The day Pittsburgh won the livable city title, the Trib had nothing for most of the day. Is the desk on vacation?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Delicious Irony -- Lincoln Highway, 21:27:38 06/18/09 Thu [2]
A Trib story about a business run out back of a motel on Route 30 in Westmoreland County, a motel where $ 25 buys customers three hours in a room.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_630128.html
Good thing it wasn't Doug's Motel along the same road. Writing background in that case would be kinda awkward.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Way to go, Trib! -- Ketching Up, 03:04:04 06/21/09 Sun [2]
My Sunday paper (June 21) has the weekly reference to Teresa Heinz as "pickle heiress!"
I'll bet the old man laughs himself silly when he reads that!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Carpenter: 1, Owen: Zero -- Ray Ban, 22:14:47 06/18/09 Thu [5]
Mackenzie Carpenter on storm TV coverage Friday:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09170/978427-455.stm
And Thursday, what do you get from Rob Owen?
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/tunedin/archive/2009/06/17/this-time-weather-cut-ins-warranted.aspx
Mac, with much more experience and being many years Rob's senior, positively CLEANED HIS CLOCK with her story.
High time the PG bigwigs decided if "the kid" should be covering TV at all since he's increasingly ignoring it in favor of insipid celebrity journalism. Maybe he ought to see if Entertainment Tonight is hiring because the paper's take on the storm coverage proves once again he's no real journalist, much less a TV critic.
Believe it. Not all the deadwood at the PG is over 40.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- The stupidity of Eric Heyl -- Cabb N. Hill, 21:21:33 06/12/09 Fri [11]
Honestly, along with a total lack of insight this guy is about as engaging and witty as Samantha Bennett and that isn't saying much.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/columns/heyl/s_629203.html
He goes through this whole done-to-death business about what will happen to Iron City's sales once they move to Latrobe, and then at the end, he opines...
"But if customer backlash is severe at the old-man bars where the beer remains popular, Iron City might well have to consider breaking with the past and changing its name to reflect its new home turf.
Anyone up for a nice cold Placid Pasture?"
A crappy punchline, to say the least. He also mustn't get out to Westmoreland very much since he was too lazy to check the brewery's actual location. Latrobe is a CITY. The old Latrobe Brewery that's being utilized isn't far from Excela Latrobe hospital. No "pastures." If he was trying to be funny, he missed by a dozen miles. Hell, Google Earth (if Heyl even knows what that is) would have shown him. Even in a Trib opinion column, you can't have your own facts.
Of course, why would Eric the Untalented need bother to do any checking? Trib Court Jesters play by different rules. Don't have to be right so long as you're FAR right!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Who edits these things? -- Don Cherry, 19:30:29 06/05/09 Fri [14]
The P-G hockey blogger was a topic of discussion a few weeks ago on this board. I have to ask, is the guy edited at all?
In his blog post from Game 4, he actually posted the office phone number of NBC TV executive Dick Ebersol and implored Pens fans to flood his office with calls in regard to the network not showing the game on the screen outside Mellon Arena.
Is it Seth's goal to piss everyone off? Does the P-G condone this kind of stuff that seems more befitting a radio talk show? And who the hell edits his blog?
I have heard the guy has pissed everyone off in the sports department and can see why now.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Bennett bores 'em again! -- Easy Rider, 16:14:09 06/04/09 Thu [9]
Why does the PG waste their time printing this baloney?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09155/974671-151.stm?cmpid=bcpanel0
If Ms. Bennett were any good she'd be writing for a way bigger market than Pittsburgh regardless of her standing with that national newspaper columnists association she's involved with. Her columns are generally silly and trifling. They read like she's writing them to amuse herself not anyone else. A two-seat bicycle trip as a means to amuse people?
There might be a columnist who could make this work but it would have to be someone with considerably more talent and wit than Samantha Bennett.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- What is this man thinking? -- Mr. Curious, 11:36:09 06/10/09 Wed [7]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/p_148591.html
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- The absurdity of P-G courtesy titles -- Dealer, 00:42:18 06/17/09 Wed [2]
It really hits home when you see the area's most notorious cop killer referred to as "Mr. Poplawski" throughout the front page story.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Person of Interest -- G Real, 05:41:44 06/09/09 Tue [3]
Can anyone explain the purpose of the "Person of Interest" feature in the PG? Why is this person interesting? Why should we care? Because she looks good in a photo? Baffling.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Bulletin! PG Finds New Place to Dump Interns! -- Uncle Junior, 23:12:59 06/10/09 Wed [6]
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/summerburgh/default.aspx
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- RE: BCTimes -- Mike Bires (truth, accuracy, truth), 11:30:10 04/28/09 Tue [19]
Obviously, the person who started this false report about Mike Bires submitting a letter to a suburban paper or a weekly about stringing got the facts totally wrong.
There were conversions recently, as there has been in the past, about the BCT's sister paper in Uniontown sharing some of Bires' Steelers' stories. To some degree, that's been ongoing for years.
John Perrotto, the former Times' baseball writer, used to have many of his Pittsburgh Pirates stories printed in the Herald Standard.
Often when high school teams in those two papers' coverage areas played each other, stories are exchanged.
Mike Ciarochi, the sports editor at the Herald Standard, used to have his Steelers stories published regularly in the Beaver County Times.
And in the case of Bires being printed in the Herald Standard, or Ciarochi in the BCT, there is never a stringer fee. They work for the same company!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Trib Kiddies wouldn't sink THIS low! -- Grande Stander, 02:47:47 06/10/09 Wed [2]
http://www.pgharts.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=144643
You've got Rogers, Allison and Norman wasting their time doing gigs with this pathetic guy who can't keep in job in local broadcasting (ex-PCNC, ex-WTZN--AKA the "Man Station") and has a "mercy gig" arguing on QED's lame-o "Off Q" with three other stiffs. He's an awful standup comedian and goes wild if anyone criticizes his crude, unfunny ideas of "humor." His p***ing contest with some of his critics with his YouTube standup postings is a hoot.
And PG editorial staff appear in public with him? Tells me a lot.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Cliches, anyone? -- Bully Varde, 13:11:03 06/07/09 Sun [3]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09158/975782-388.stm
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Rob Owen's excited! A new TV drama shot locally! -- Film Office on the Boulevard, 23:56:04 05/20/09 Wed [9]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09141/971612-67.stm
Hey gang! Expect breathless updates! Fawning butt-kiss interviews, the insight of a gnat and the breathlessness of Ryan Seacrest as Rob "Skippy" Owen lets us in on every hot detail! Odds are, it'll be his next Golden Quill!
Alongside Beltway Dave, Jack "Sgt. Carter" Kelly, "Cat's Call" and China "Tipmaster" Millman, "Skippy" (aka Rob-O) is one of the reasons the PG remains "One of America's Great Newspapers!!!!"
Damn, aren't we lucky?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- BCTimes -- Just Curious, 07:37:22 04/22/09 Wed [19]
What's going on at the BCTimes now that Briscoe is gone? The last few threads posted here were full of angst. Just curious if things are better now or headed that way? Has anyone else left? Updates please!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Re: BCTimes -- jackson knows, 11:17:06 04/22/09 Wed
- Re: BCTimes -- Huh?, 21:58:28 04/23/09 Thu
- Re: BCTimes -- Ted, 04:14:27 04/24/09 Fri
- Re: BCTimes -- jackson knows, 04:48:36 04/24/09 Fri
- Re: BCTimes -- What a shock, 05:31:29 04/24/09 Fri
- Re: BCTimes -- Just curious, 19:44:18 04/24/09 Fri
- Re: BCTimes -- Elvis O'Sewickleyheights, 05:31:50 04/25/09 Sat
- Re: BCTimes -- jackson knows, 07:06:22 04/25/09 Sat
- Re: BCTimes -- Ok, so I asked..., 11:10:38 04/28/09 Tue
- Re: BCTimes -- Yetta Nuther Alum (What I heard), 09:32:33 04/30/09 Thu
- Re: BCTimes -- jackson knows, 04:49:56 05/07/09 Thu
- Re: BCTimes -- Just Asking, 23:54:57 05/09/09 Sat
- What'll Trib Total Mediocrity do to get G-20 attention? -- US Ambassador to Beltzhoover, 03:38:16 05/29/09 Fri [9]
I'm predicting Scaife puts a big sign somewhere downtown that says:
"ATTENTION! G-20 LEADERS!
DON'T VOTE FOR SPECTER IN THE 2010 PA PRIMARY!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Why is this even here -- Clark Barred, 22:38:07 05/30/09 Sat [2]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_627364.html
- No mention of KQV's Scaife ownership.
- A ridiculous fan-boy tone throughout.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Kudos to City Paper and Rich Lord -- Elwin Green, 21:06:29 05/30/09 Sat [2]
The current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review features a cover story saying, in essence, that the business press missed the boat in covering the subprime mess. Along the way, they commend Rich and CP for their coverage.
Here's the story: http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/power_problem.php?page=all
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Some love for Millman (once!) -- Mess Kit, 02:32:01 04/23/09 Thu [4]
Note this review. Marylynn Uricchio's family's restaurant. The connection is duly disclosed and what's more China did not bend over backwards to give them a gushy review. It was actually pretty critical, all told. I share many of the negative views about Millman's "me" style of writing and tendency to talk down to readers. Still, I can't knock her on this score. The paper sucks more every week but at least the core ethics are intact.
The trouble is things like this stupid new "Plush" section just alienate the PG from the majority of readers who don't lived in gated communities, mansion or aren't members of Fox Chapel country clubs.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Can anyone explain the meaning of... -- Webster Dick Shunarie, 03:14:39 05/26/09 Tue [3]
...the meaning of the term "dimmycrat." The Trib editorial editor used it in one of his contrived smart-alecky Sunday columns and I cannot, for the life of me, fathom the meaning of the word. It's not in the dictionary. Does it exist, or is he just attempting to be clever?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- The latest message from Mt. Olympus -- Yinzer Peon, 23:41:51 05/23/09 Sat [2]
I feel so UTTERLY BLESSED that the PG gives us the weekly insights of the one and only David Shribman. I find it so enlightening to find out all that he knows about the wonderful world of Washington (DC not Mount Washington or Washington PA), the Georgetown section of DC, New Hampshire, and now, the Berlin Wall, which fell 20 years ago.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09144/972068-372.stm?cmpid=bcpanel2
Just don't ask him about Point State Park, the North Side or Mt. Oliver. All that is beyond his scope. Of course he might have seen a few places in one neighborhood if he walks Kid Robbie's dog Clementine. Maybe. Unless he wore blinders.
Conclusion: the Trib is a subsidized joke. The PG is an unsubsidized joke. Aren't we lucky?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Non-disclosure, Trib style -- Paula Abdul, 23:25:48 05/24/09 Sun [2]
Talk about blatant flackery:
First a piece by the GA assigned to the Greensburg area:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_625397.html
Then by Harrop, (aka "J"), whose new video feature should be retitled "Not So Hot Picks" to reflect her own skills.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/more/s_626068.html
And finally a piece by another Trib Greensburg GA:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_626631.html
Nowhere does it mention Greensburg Community Days being sponsored by Trib Total Media even though the flyers did.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- just curious... -- moneymaker, 19:46:02 05/18/09 Mon [5]
who profits from the google ads on this site?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Yo! Trib-Bashers! Check THIS out! -- Pot Metal Quill Awardee, 04:41:03 05/15/09 Fri [9]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_625262.html
How's about that? NO ONE ELSE won any awards! Just Trivial Total Mediocrity and their no less mediocre "newsgathering partners" at WTAE!
Oh, I forgot! In Scaifespeak there ARE no other media outlets in the Pittsburgh area! More get added as he buys them!
Note also that TTM and Scaife's law firm were among the sponsors.
But drat! Then there's THIS little bit of annoyance!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09135/970331-28.stm
Oh, those rascals and scamps at the Trib! Over there, it's Dickie-boy's world! The rest of us just live in it.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Shameless Trib Promotion Stunt # 249 -- Vanity Project, 13:35:55 05/12/09 Tue [12]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_624785.html
Awww....isn't this sweet? In a super-lame promotional ploy to get people to think highly of this POS known as Trib Total Media, they get a bunch of the local stuffed-shirt establishmentarians to "honor" the "good kids." On the surface, there's nothing wrong with that.
There is plenty wrong with the Trib's motivation. And who is the speaker, TAE's Jennifer Miele. Aside from the fact she's a tool as a reporter, it wouldn't have anything to do with the paper's "news partnership" with TAE, would it? She also writes lame bits for the Westmoreland fanfare page.
And the judges! One is a Republican State Legislator who worked for Strassberger McKenna, the law firm who's long represented Scaife.
http://www.vote-pa.org/Intro.aspx?Id=PAKriegerTim
Of course, they also recruited another judge: Jo Anne Boyle, Seton Hill University's President, the subject of a lot of puff piece stories that make Trib Westmoreland the school's second PR department.
This outfit is so shameless I wonder if this team might up the ante by creating a second competition for the kids at the opposite end of the achievement spectrum. They could call it "Trib Total Media's Most Wanted Youths" or, "Not Penn State--State Pen!"
This is what limited sense and unlimited money gets you.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Yo Adrian! How about a cliche -- Tradio, 08:42:59 05/19/09 Tue [5]
Only Adrian has the "talent" to work two cliches into a one sentence lede.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The pending sale of Sheridan Broadcasting's three Pittsburgh stations is sending ripples through the local radio market, and there are still more questions than answers.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Thought this guy took the buyout -- Cecil B. DeMille, 21:26:59 05/13/09 Wed [10]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09133/969619-388.stm
If he didn't, it's too bad. "Film critic emiritus?" For years he talked down to his readers, kind of like Shribman, Simpson and Millman do today.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- The "I" word from Colin. -- Second Person, 17:20:12 05/11/09 Mon [9]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/mcnickle/s_624335.html
If Colin were a real editorialist, he'd have an intellect that could make his political opponents cringe instead of laugh.
If Colin had depth, he wouldn't have to rely on being a right wing John McIntire, favoring snark over substance.
If Colin had talent, he wouldn't need to grind out that aforementioned snark to please the single-minded, paranoid oldster who signs his paychecks.
So there.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Trib sports is such a joke -- Ty Cobbler, 16:23:02 05/10/09 Sun [10]
Saw the Trib had a huge spread on the Pirates' Dominican training facility this weekend, sending their reporter Rob Biertempel down there.
Didn't Dejan Kovacevic at the Post-Gazette write the exact same thing oh, about four or five months ago? Right down to the interview with that rotund Gayo guy, where Biertempel pretty much asked the same exact questions Dejan did?
The Trib sports department never leads and it isn't so much that they follow, but Kevin Smith and his crack staff can't even come up with any original ideas.
Is the problem with the leadership or the writers or a little of both.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Yo, PG Copy Desk! You missed a doozy! -- Mommy Track, 21:17:14 05/10/09 Sun [9]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09130/968526-51.stm
"My husband and I were ready to settle down and have kids and buy a house," she says, and when he got a job offer in Morgantown, W.Va., they moved to a five-acre country home in Washington, Pa."
Aside from certain residences in Dubai and a few uber-wealthy elsewhere, can anyone think of a residence, an actual structure, as large as five acres, not counting the lot itself? I don't even think Joe Hardy has anything like that. You're slipping, Mervis.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Trib Is Top 50 Employer -- Ted Turner, 05:58:04 05/04/09 Mon [10]
Just glanced through the PBT list of 50 largest Pittsburgh-area employers. Was surprised to see Trib Total Media at #42, ahead of Alcoa and Howard Hanna. Post-Gazette was not on the list. I loathe the Trib, but you gotta give Scaife credit for business sense. Is this the first time Trib is on the list?
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Once again, Shribman snubs the Burgh -- Snob Hill, 23:59:34 05/03/09 Sun [5]
Pittsburgh loses three police officers in the line of duty.
The PG does an excellent job of coverage.
Not a word from the Executive Editor in his column.
Compare:
Jack Kemp dies Saturday.
The same Executive Editor devotes an entire column to him Monday, complete with the "blockbuster" revelation Kemp saw the film version of "Les Miserables" three times over 20 years ago.
If you think criticizing Shribman is off-base, there's your smoking gun. To quote Dana Carvey's Church Lady, he sees himself as "just a little bit superior" to this region of Yinzers. Heaven forbid he get his dainty hands dirty!
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- PG Mea Culpa, Sorta -- Uncle Junior, 00:18:32 05/04/09 Mon [3]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09124/967525-181.stm
Note that nowhere does the reporter note the gross overkill practiced in the coverage/slobber-fest of Mayor Fetterman by her own newspaper, which prematurely knighted the publicity-hungry politico. Now we get the rest of the story.
If this is the overall direction of the PG in decline, not even Dr. House can save it.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- Legal Implications of Destroying Notes -- Shredder, 07:07:13 05/01/09 Fri [5]
A couple weeks ago the PG reported that Dennis Roddy testified in court that he destroyed his notes and interview recordings for the stories about the old lady who alleged had money misappropriated from her by a county councilman.
This surprised me, because when I worked for a paper, I kept all my notes. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do. I'm curious about what other reporters do, and what PG policy is on the matter.
Here are a couple of relevant lines from a relatively old (1997) AJR article:
"Most lawyers would concede that, once litigation has begun, journalists no longer have any option--they may not destroy materials that could be relevant to the case. But until a lawsuit is filed, news organizations have the right to make their own determinations about what they will keep and what they will discard.
This decision suggests that the news media have an ethical and legal obligation to keep indefinitely any newsgathering materials that might be "potentially relevant" to lawsuits that may or may not be filed in the future. If they don't, juries will be empowered to draw the worst possible conclusion at trial."
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
- From the Trib a.k.a. "Pittsburgh Specter-Rebuke" -- Club For Gross, 21:26:39 05/02/09 Sat [6]
Look at the editorial section: a Specter slaughterhouse. Fine. Of course, no one will read this stuff as it's repeated over and over.
Look for Specter bashing (like the Clinton-bashing of old) to infect Trib news sections for at least the next year, as hack editors strive to keep their jobs by keeping the old man giggling and snickering as opposed to practicing real journalism.
Oh, and note this this bit of political insight from Zito, the faux-analyst and eerie doppelganger for Tony Soprano's fictional sister Janice:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_623278.html
It's like proclaiming to the world that people rob banks because they want the money.
[ Post a Reply to this Message ][Edit]
Replies:
