Some of you expect me to blast back at disgraced former Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick after a desperate-for-attention post -- yes, he still blogs, who knew? -- in which he finds fault in both the Las Vegas Sun's multiple award-winning series on Vegas health-care problems and me for being in position to cover that paper's possible second Pulitzer in three years. I did toss off a few quick replies via Twitter, but I'm otherwise going to abstain. Frederick is a sad, infirm, irrelevant man whose tenure at the helm of Nevada's largest newspaper will be remembered for:(a) Catty, juvenile, occasionally off-colored feuds with competitors and political adversaries
(b) A disastrous inability to capitalize in circulation numbers on one of America's most intense population booms in history
(c) A failure to comprehend or embrace new media in a meaningful or convenient way, thereby placing his entire enterprise in grave jeopardy
(d) Some of the most foolish and now demonstrably inaccurate political commentary of our age
(e) Having, through a completely inappropriate and obsessive jeremiad, undermined the credibility of several fine and hard-working reporters attempting to cover the most important Senate race in state history
(f) This somnolent, mumbling, coffee-cup-fondling moment of greatest glory, a Fox News appearance:
and
(g) Having his inaccuracies vivisected on national TV and later being so tone-deaf as to be proud of this:
So, yeah. I'm gonna lay off. It's the only appropriate thing to do.
6 comments:
Best. Blog Post. Ever.
you left out the most important - approving the Righthaven-share-in-the-money-fake-lawsuit agreement. Journalism has never fell so quickly and demonstrably
High road all the way!!!! And funny doing so.
I have to say, I think you made the right choice in your response. Taking the high road in this case is by far the wisest decision you could make in my opinion.
Honestly, that blog doesn't deserve a response, except for this: The Sun has won a Pulitzer and been the finalist for another in three years. When was the last time the R-J won a Pulitzer or been a finalist for one? Never. Enough said.
Everyone knows why Sherm was removed from the R-J, for rants like this (usually against Reid)
But I ask Steve -- anyone, really -- doesn't Frederick have a point when he says the Sun has ceased being a real newspaper, threw all their resources into one project a year and hopes to win an award?
I read the Do No Harm series, and it doesn't compare to the Chicago Sun Times piece that won. If you've read it, I bet you'd agree. That was stellar journalism. The Sun's series just felt "fake," as if they were writing one long cover letter to the Pulitzer board. Just IMO
ex-Vegas journo
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