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The InkRapture®: God Is Angry, God Is Vengeful

leftbehindThis whole thing — there’s just so much weirdness in it.
For one thing, we didn’t even know that you could file for bankruptcy on a Sunday. Like Brian Tierney, we were raised Catholic, with an angry and vengeful god whom, if you were so impudent as to bother him with complicated paperwork while he was watching 60 Minutes, well, then, you got what you deserved. It is an especially cruel irony that it all happened on a Sunday, because really, pick up any Sunday Inquirer — it’s where the rot has been most apparent for the longest.
For another thing, it’s super ultra weird that Dan Gross, of all people, now pens these Guild memos, as if he is the persistent totem of relevancy at Broad & Whatever. (Yes, we know that Gross is the President of the Newspaper Guild/Local 10; that also strikes us as completely bizarre, given, oh, well, you know.)
More cud to chew on: That initial Guild memo (see below) got it wrong: It’s Philadelphia Newspapers, not Philadelphia Media Holdings which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. An hour or so after the first one went out, the Guild issued a new one, clarifying that, and then cutting and pasting the same “don’t freak out” imperatives. Sigh. They even fucked up the suicide note.
And finally, Philebrity and Twitter had this story out before the Inky did. By like an hour or more. Way to lead your own story, guys.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm.

  • emilyg

    I had a feeling we were gonna get some shit for not vomiting our internal memos onto the website the instant we got them.

    Can you seriously not acknowledge that it takes a little more time to write 500-odd editorially approved words on your own company’s bankruptcy than it does to tweet Inky’s bankrupt! or slap a blockquote tag and a sarcastic headline onto a forwarded memo?

    And what’s with being all pedantic about the corrected difference between Philadelphia Newspapers and Philadelphia Media Holdings? Why on earth would you give a shit?

  • tips

    Emily-
    We can absolutely acknowledge the time taken for real, solid reporting. What we can’t give a pass for is Inky staff not having their ducks in a row enough to lead on their own story, with God only knows how many hours to do so.
    And as far as the accusations to pedantry here regarding Philadelphia Newspapers vs. Philadelphia Media Holdings, the difference between the two is notable: Philadelphia Newspapers refers to the Inky and DN, while PMH includes those as well as Philly.com.
    I would think that you’d know the difference.

  • emilyg

    If the error hadn’t been corrected that night or if the incorrect information had made it into the paper’s coverage I would say you had a point. But… it was a memo. It was written for employees, not for the public, and the people who were originally emailed the thing can, I think, forgive a minor, corrected error made in a raaaaaather hectic couple of hours.

    And seriously, the purpose of your drawing attention to it was not to clear up confusion about whether philly.com was involved in the bankruptcy proceedings, it was to point and gloat as if PMH, like, broke up with you on prom night twenty years ago or something.

  • tips

    Emily, you’ve got this one wrong. It was to SPECIFICALLY point out that Philly.com was not a part of the proceedings. Being web people, it’s a hugely important distinction for us. And there’s a shitload of deep, dark truth-telling in the fact that it wasn’t as important for you.

    I’d strongly suggest you cool off a bit.

  • emilyg

    The deep, dark truth is that frankly I was a little preoccupied with scanning for the words LAYOFFS, MERGE and CLOSING to really parse that first sentence. But never mind, I’ve already broken my rule about arguing on the internets three times tonight, I will now leave you alone.