Wow. This I did not expect. The Jolly Brit won't be able to claim -- as he did last July -- that there's no feud now that The Patched One wrote this incendiary paranthetical in today's "Norm! Vegas Confidential" column:(Local celebrity blogger Robin Leach insists he tweeted the Miss Universe move to Las Vegas two hours before the pageant. His Twitter feed Sunday shows no mention of Miss Universe and when asked -- multiple times -- to provide proof, he offered none. Leach may have been busy. He's been under fire of late from Twitter followers who are challenging his use of the term "exclusive" on "Dancing With the Stars" updates that aired on East Coast TV feeds.)
You can read the context in Norm Clarke's column; it's not necessary for me to show that there is clearly some pretty intense bad blood brewing between the two. Norm's expressed dissatisfaction with Robin in the past, but usually it's subtle or muttered. This is so pointed, so explicit and in print. Ka-boom.
3 comments:
Good for Norm! I'm so sick of Robin spoiling every damn Top Chef Masters this season because the East Coast feed of a pre-recorded show on cable is apparently breaking news.
I respect and admire much of what Robin does, but the non-stop spoilers has forced me to unfollow him on Twitter.
I respect the body of Robin's work over the decades. No one can refute that Lifestyles was a ground-breaking show and big success. I know that when I was a kid, I watched it every week. Having said that...
Robin has been hot air since he moved here. While Norm has held a steady line on not over-sensationalizing things and being understated on stuff he could have run harder with*, Robin seems to be a rumor-monger who seems to pin the word "exclusive" on everything.
* Months before the Tiger Woods scandal, Norm reported that he was seen with "blond friends" and similar. But he didn't run with a headline like "Exclusive: Tiger and a Blond -- Who Isn't Erin".
Around here, when we get a press release that has celeb news in it, we joke that Robin's next "Exclusive" will be the story in the press release using the same info that was made available to everybody.
I didn't go to journalism school, so I'm not sure what the proper use of adjectives like "exclusive" are. In my mind, it is like this:
You sit down with Steve Wynn for a special one-on-one, that is exclusive. You have someone tell you info and you are the first to hear it, that is exclusive.
But... if you are shooting photos with 20 other photogs around you, that's not exclusive. When you are just one of many journalists doing a short sit-down with someone on a given day, not much exclusive about that. Oh, sure... your interview and photos are only and specifically yours. But that doesn't mean it is some kind of "exclusive" breaking news.
He is the "boy who cried wolf" one too many times with "exclusives" and frankly it has probably hurt his following.
I've noted it before so I won't belabor it, but Leach has basically been a failure since he landed here in town (and landed here to take over Norm's turf). His TV station and other video ventures basically failed (or went nowhere best I can tell). His web traffic numbers (as estimated by a reputable outside company) are nowhere even CLOSE to what a GMG site with someone of Leach's stature should be pulling in.
If Brian Greenspun renews any contract/deal with Leach than he's more dense than even I thought (and you have to be pretty dense to run that empire into the ground the way he has). I wouldn't pay Leach and his blog assistant for the numbers they are doing. Hell, we could just start taking the press releases we post and making up salacious titles and stamping the word EXCLUSIVE all over the place if that is all it took to get readership.
I was here when Norm got to town. He's been nothing but professional and straight in the realm he reports in. He's always treated me with respect in the few dealings we've had. While nobody is prefect, I've never heard a bad word about him and you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone (outside of GMG or Pete Rose and Criss Angel) here in town that wouldn't have his back. I'm not sure the same can be said of Robin.
I've come to the same conclusion. It seems leach is living on his past reputation, and pretty much mailing it in. I used to read his stuff right alongside Norm's, but I stopped months ago.
Leach reminds me of the small-town newspaper columnists I would see back home in Kentucky, trying to make themselves bigger than what they were.
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