Pittsburgh Media Scoops and Gossip
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- Scaife -Kangas Death Anniversary -- Dili Gent, 01:03:05 03/31/09 Tue [15]
It's been 10 years since the anniversary of Steve Kangas's death, perhaps suicide, perhaps homocide. Kangas ran a liberal website, critical of conservatives, including Dick Scaife. Interesting man and story.
Just throwing this out there since I don't recall many follow ups except for a post on this site from 2005:
http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2005/11/steve_kangas_st_1.htm Perhaps an enterprising soul may be interested in having their paper do a follow up.
Kangas's body was found, sitting slumped on a toilet with a gunshot wound to the head, on the 39th floor, 60 ft. from the door of the Pittsburgh offices of none other than Dick Scaife. No above ambient gun powder residue was found on his hands. Deputy Police Chief Charles Moffett said the suicide/homocide was "under investigation in the homicide section," at the time.
"This isn't the first time Scaife has been linked to a strange suicide: in 1973 former mentor and close friend Pittsburgh District Attorney Robert Duggan, under Federal investigation for Mob payoffs, was found shot to death with a shotgun bearing no fingerprints." He "shot himself on his hidden farm property on the day the grand jury returned the indictment for corruption." "Scaife had cut all ties with Duggan, who had married Scaife's sister Cordelia shortly before his death." -Chris Potter, Managin Editor, of the Pittsburgh City Paper, 1999
Really interesting story by PG's John Craig on Sunday, March 28, 1999 with the sub-head:
Dick Scaife couldn't keep his probe of Kangas a secret
http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/19990328edcraig4.asp
Interesting also is a summary of Scaife's scandals on Kangas's website from -well, from 1999 or prior to 1999. Interesting that it is still online.
Head lined with -Myth: There’s no "vast right wing conspiracy" to get Clinton.
Fact: Richard Mellon Scaife and the Republican Establishment have poured millions into the effort.
(some excepts)
In 1997, Scaife donated $550,000 to Judicial Watch, whose director, Larry Klayman, has filed 18 lawsuits against the Clinton Administration. (10)
Scaife also assigned one of his newspaper’s reporters, Christopher Ruddy, to a full-time, ongoing investigation into the deaths of Vince Foster and Ron Brown, trying to find evidence that the Clintons murdered them.
Scaife also gave $2.4 million to American Spectator magazine. This money went to create the "Arkansas Project," a massive investigation trying to dig up dirt on Clinton’s past. The Arkansas Project gained notoriety when it was revealed that David Hale, the only Whitewater witness who claimed personal knowledge of Clinton’s wrong-doing, had been paid at least $5,000 by Parker Dozhier, one of operatives of the Arkansas Project. Parker’s girlfriend and her 17-year old son both claim they saw Parker give Scaife-money to Hale on numerous occasions. When reporters confronted Parker, he warned that the 17-year old son "was destined to become a chalk outline somewhere." Alarmed by such threats and prospects of witness tampering, the Justice Department has ordered an investigation, the results of which are yet to be revealed.
Scaife has also given $450,000 over three years to the Independent Women’s Forum. (13) This is a media-booking agency that heavily seeds female conservative pundits into the media. (This is an attempt to reduce the "gender gap" that Democrats enjoy in the polls.) The IWF has given generous public support to Paula Jones in her lawsuit. In fact, one IWF pundit, Ann Coulter, heard at least one of the Linda Tripp tapes before it even reached Ken Starr. This proved that she was deeply involved with the Paula Jones’ camp (who received the tapes first), even though she was pretending to be an objective commentator on the scandal in the media.
But perhaps most alarming is Scaife’s ties to independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Starr’s conflicts of interest are almost too numerous to mention. Early on, Starr had been given an open-ended job offer as the dean of Pepperdine University’s Schools of Law and Public Policy. At first, Starr planned to accept the job after finishing his investigation. But it turns out this school is a heavy recipient of Scaife money, and the resulting media scandal finally convinced Starr to refuse the job. But the appearance of Scaife attempting to pay off Starr for getting Clinton lingers.
There are many other connections between the two men. Between 1988 and 1996, Scaife gave $3 million to the conservative Washington Legal Foundation, where Starr sits on the board. Scaife also gave $920,000 to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization where Starr is a member. Scaife donated $650,000 to the Landmark Legal Foundation between 1992 and 1996; Starr has done work for this organization, which has helped Paula Jones in her lawsuit. (15) Starr also prepared a legal brief for the Paula Jones lawsuit on behalf of the Independent Women’s Forum, which is substantially funded by Scaife.
Scaife’s personality profile is similarly interesting.
Pat Minarcin knows Scaife well, after serving as one of his magazine editors. "He [Scaife] has the emotional maturity of a very angry 12-year-old, and he has all this money and he can do whatever he wants with it," says Minarcin. While the magazine was operating, "[Scaife] presented a list of people who he wanted the magazine to attack, a kind of enemies list." Minarcin eventually resigned.
(Kiddies -still want to argue that the Trib is non-biased with no direct control of content by Scaife?)
It’s also well-known that Scaife is obsessed with proving that Vince Foster’s suicide was actually a murder. He goes so far as to call his death "the Rosetta Stone of the Clinton administration." But why? Scaife’s history is revealing. In the 1960s, he financially supported Robert Duggan as a candidate for district attorney. The two men angrily parted company after Duggan came under investigation for corruption. To make matters worse, Duggan then eloped with Scaife’s sister, Cordelia. A few months later, Duggan was found dead, apparently by suicide. But the shotgun used was found several feet away from Duggan’s body, and it had no fingerprints.
Another interesting site:
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/steve.htm
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- Who Is Taking The Trib's Offer? -- The Seeker, 16:01:44 01/22/09 Thu [87]
So who is leaving the Trib under the buy out? Anyone of importance?
I've there are some major editors and high ranking middle management thinking it through.
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- Gene Gene, the writing machine -- Just a lowly reader, 23:30:59 04/05/09 Sun [5]
Gene Collier had this lead on Sunday's column:
"Gushers of architectural praise counterbalanced by all the appropriate populist blowback over the two new baseball stadiums in New York will likely consume most of the summer, but with the 2009 season beginning tonight, you wonder sometimes how baseball will sustain itself at some point where it is not constantly demolishing its cathedrals and unveiling new theatres."
Wow. I don't know if the column was good. I had to go to AGH for immediate treatment of sprained eyeballs.
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- How about Scaife's NEW Court Jester? -- Pair A. Noya, 07:24:19 04/04/09 Sat [4]
Everyone knows the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting is not coming back. Because a few on the far, far left have advocated this stupid idea, the far, far right want to believe it is surely going to happen even though it's not.
To stir up their ranks with Godzilla-like fears, Craig Smith, never much of a reporter, chats with James Gattuso from, you guessed it! THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION!
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_619148.html
Of course, in keeping with Trib non-ethics, the author, who gets a real kick out of using the term "thought police" during the "interview," doesn't bother disclosing this little tidbit.
http://www.heritage.org/About/Departments/trustees.cfm
How does it feel to be the latest addition to Dick's stable of Court Jesters, Smitty? A real career-booster, eh?
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- China needs a copy editor!!! -- Uncle Junior, 04:21:49 04/02/09 Thu [4]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09092/959839-242.stm
Note three grafs begin with the words "The restaurant," two of them consecutive grafs.
I also appreciated the insights of her special "dining consultant" in this review:
"I'd also like to try the spaghetti with baseball-sized meatballs ($15.95), probably the restaurant's most popular dish. The spaghetti was the tastiest of the pasta shapes and an adorable toddler seated to my left one evening expressed his strong approval for the dish."
Hmmmm...I have a better idea. Sideline Ms. Ivy League and engage the "adorable toddler" to review restaurants. They'd probably do a better job, without the repetitious sentences.
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- Took the buyout, clearly burned out -- Bully Varde, 04:07:50 04/02/09 Thu [4]
Well, the the president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists hasn't gotten any funnier since she took the buyout, has she?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09092/959746-151.stm
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- Lead or step aside -- Newshound, 21:58:07 03/31/09 Tue [11]
As someone who has worked in the field for more than 20 years and still has hope the nation is not done with good journalism, I am disappointed when I read some of the threads on this site.
Sure it's bad, and many of my fellow journalists probably wish they had studied engineering instead right now. But the sense of hopelessness is appalling.
Go ahead and vent, but the blame game solves nothing. It takes more than a handful of people to make or break a newspaper, magazine or television station. And it will take a lot more than a handful of people to fix things.
So, if you still have a job be thankful, but what are you going to do with that job? It's time to look beyond the artificial barriers we have placed on ourselves. We need more cooperation between media outlets, not less. And we need to become serious about finding a business model that reflects the changing market without damaging our ability to produce the journalism this nation and this area deserve.
As broken and beaten down as we might feel now, and as many of my comrades are either jobless or finding a new career, giving up is not an option. We owe those who have come before and those we hope will still come to find a way out of the gloom.
How about we discuss some options about how we can do that?
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- Has the Belle of the Ball retired, dahling? -- Hedda, 16:13:19 03/30/09 Mon [10]
Picked up the Trib today to ogle the socialites in "Fanfare" and the page was written by Kate Guerriero. The page also included a see-ya-later to longtime Fanfare mistess Jean Horne. Did she take the buyout, or do the glamorous people even trifle with things like buyouts?
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- Briscoe fired at BCT? -- timesoffline, 19:14:21 03/31/09 Tue [7]
The hot rumor is that the BCT showed Keith Briscoe the door today.
This was apparently a reaction to the Lori DeLauter lawsuit.
Confirmation, anyone?
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- Trib Total Media trims the fat at Gateway -- Big Ben, 21:19:44 03/26/09 Thu [7]
I thought it was kind of sad that a couple of those papers closed. Some have been around more than 100 years.
Oh well.
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- PG Circulation Area Reduction -- Red Waggon, 15:21:30 03/31/09 Tue [3]
Saw this in the Trib last week:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_618062.html
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- BCT story in the PG -- Brandy Andy, 16:01:41 03/31/09 Tue [1]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09090/959540-100.stm
Why didn't the PG seek comment from Briscoe or the BCT, or its attorney, or Calkins, or whatever/whomever? If the reporter did so, there's no indication in the story as it appears now.
Just because a story runs online instead of the print edition doesn't mean different rules of ethics/fairness apply. At least, said rules should apply at reputable online news outlets.
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- And out in the sticks? -- Father Time, 15:43:10 03/30/09 Mon [5]
As this whole happy board seems to revolve around the Dahn Tahn rags and the Times of Beaver, what's up in the provinces? Butler, Washington, Indiana, New Castle, Oil City, Somerset, Johnstown, Altoona.....
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- BCT's latest misstep -- America's Least Wanted, 16:23:18 03/23/09 Mon [30]
They are now blowing almost one entire page on something called "Mug Shot Monday." These are photos of people "who were admitted to the Beaver County Jail in the last week on the following charges. Some may have posted bail and were released."
Monday's paper has 48 mug shots of people. For 12 of them, it's name, age and "additional information unavailable." Some of the crimes are less than heinous: school attendance charges, several bench warrants and a couple of criminal conspiracies. Anyone who's worked a police beat knows that criminal conspiracy is a catch-all that cops slap on anyone who's accused of a crime along with another person.
In other words, this is crap. Most of these people are habitual screw-ups rather than dangerous criminals. Some of them are drug addicts who got caught shoplifting. Publishing the photos serves no purpose. These people are not fugitives with a solicitation for the public's help in finding them. It's just garbage. And it's typical of what the BCT stands for these days.
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- The Wannabe Music Critic: McNickle -- Yawn Wenner, 14:57:53 03/29/09 Sun [3]
This made my day. Maybe resentment over his failure to succeed as a "music columnist" in Martins Ferry, Ohio explains the sourness that colors his weekly rants, all designed to please Master Scaife.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_618162.html
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- Harlan's Oops -- Chica, 13:36:52 03/23/09 Mon [9]
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/03/an_apology.html?wprss=nationalsjournal
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- Rob Owen is a snotty little (bleep) -- Frank Bookman, 22:23:11 03/26/09 Thu [6]
This week's online TV Q & A column is devoted to questions that Rob deemed too silly for his attention.
Has anyone ever had had more blatant contempt for his readers?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09086/955412-42.stm
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- Props to Beltway Dave! -- China Syndrome, 01:20:46 03/29/09 Sun [2]
He's coming closer to Pittsburgh!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09088/958823-372.stm
Maybe on his mandatory unpaid week-long furlough he can take some time, get out and see the community he's so diligently ignored up to now!
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- Bill Steigerwald leaves -- Don, 02:53:19 03/16/09 Mon [6]
We know one person who took the Trib buyout. Bill Steigerwald wrote his farewell column Sunday:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_615999.html
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