Dan Gross Will Have None Of Your Merrymaking — Oh, Pardon Me, I Have A Piece About Lindsay Lohan’s Dad To Finish Up
Mike Newall has a nice piece in today’s City Paper, chronicling the immediate aftermath at the Daily News offices, as he goes door to door, collecting a little bit of batshit-crazy from each stop. First, he checks in with Byko as the old codger bites the head off of a bat and screams, “THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE WHO GET THEIR NEWS FOR FREE CAN EXPECT FROM ME!” Then, he encounters Dan Gross, who reveals that A) Dan Gross cannot read very well and B) Dan Gross will do anything, anything, not to utter the word “Philebrity” in print:
A few doors down, gossip columnist Dan Gross, who is also president of the Newspaper Guild Local 38010, has just returned from a union meeting. Gross is in his early 30s. He wears glasses and a blue sweater over a button-up. A Fletch poster hangs on his wall. He takes a minute to address the glee local bloggers are expressing over the bankruptcy.
“It’s the wet dream of some of these people that the Daily News goes out of business,” he says. “Well, that’s just a shitty attitude. For the most part, the city’s news still originates from us.”
Then he excuses himself. He has a column to write: Charles Barkley is facing jail time over DUI charges and Lindsay Lohan’s father, Michael, has agreed to fight Q102′s Rocco in a local celebrity boxing bout.
We’re not sure if that last bit was supposed to be intentionally hilarious, or just contextually hilarious — that the high-minded notion of having “most of the city’s news” should naturally include celebrity boxing and a rehash of some shit Gross heard on Q102. In any case, if Dan The Dan Gross actually thinks we want the Daily News to go out of business, he’s reading us all wrong: We want The Inquirer to go out of business — it is a piece of shit that sold its audience out a long time ago, is full of junk reportage, and generally just deserves to die in shame and misery. We just want Byko and Gross to be fired for their collected high crimes as being The Shitty Beatles of Journalism. Also, we’d like Zach Stalberg to come back to the DN, lay down the axe, and return The People Paper to its glory days. Is any of this too much to ask?
CP: Me Read Pretty Good
February 26th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
What about that sandwich paragraph, though? What the heck was that about? And Byko and Ann Jillian? I almost expected a similar revelation about Chevy Chase after the mention of the Fletch poster.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Not for nothing, but when a gossip writer (Philebrity) rags on another gossip writer (Dan Gross) for being a gossip writer, and then demanding his unemployment for being a gossip writer, it smacks of something more insidious, and unfortunate, than simple hypocrisy.
Poor showing here, Philebrity.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Conor, I know you are somewhat caught in the middle here, and that is a terrible place to be. However, your parsing of the situation is a little bit too simple. Gross’ failures as a journalist over the last two years have been numerous and in some cases, egregious to the point that his credibility may be ruined forever. (Keep in mind here that a DN reporter and a blogger are not held to the same bar, and thank God for that.) What’s more, he takes his audience for rubes — which is something we didn’t see in his earliest columns, which, to be fair, I was a big fan of, and have the links to prove it. Worst of all, he’s never acknowledged any of these failures — if anything, his column has gotten steadily worse. What we get from Dan Gross these days is bluster at best and total ignorance at worst. Saddest of all, I know Dan — and I’m sure you do as well — to be a personable and intelligent guy. How he got himself into such an existential funk, I’ll never know, and how he’ll get out, I know even less. But I do know this: His readers should not have to wait around while he figures it out.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
i used to feel bad for Dan when you picked on him, up until it came out that he had a role in the sabotage of that newsbitch’s career. now, i think it would be only fitting for his career to crash and burn as well.
February 26th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I wouldn’t blame Dan Gross. On any day, take a look at the main page of philly.com next to, say, nytimes.com. I think the dumbing down is coming from way up the ladder and he’s just doing what they’re asking of him.
(For the record, I don’t know Dan Gross.)
February 27th, 2009 at 9:32 am
While I did mention Fauxlebrity as a blog celebrating the bankruptcy, the site I told Newall was hoping for the
death of the Daily News is that of some douchebag who ran the Chicago Sun-Times 20 years ago and thought if he was
the first to forecast the death of the Daily News this time around that he would be linked on Romenesko and would
somehow become less irrelevant for a few days.
Maybe you don’t wish the Daily News closed (as well you shouldn’t), but if you really do want a couple hundred Inquirer staffers to lose their jobs, you’re still a dick.
And you want me and Byko fired? Nice. Stu Bykofsky has broken more stories and entertained more readers than this
site ever will, unless reporting where Adam Sparkles is spinning or who has $2 PBRs on Wednesdays are scoops.
The last time we spoke, outside of the comments on your site, was when you wrote that I had not returned a request
for comment over an item you posted. I called you that I had never gotten the request, you e-mailed me, I immediately replied and you never posted an update, something that any journalist at any of the newspapers you mock would have done. Many bloggers, such as your former co-hort Jonathan Valania on Phawker, always seek comment.
As my column has “gotten steadily worse,” its readership has continued to grow. I’m not sure why you think your
readers don’t notice that when you link to a story I’ve written and say nobody cares, that what you’re really
saying is “I have nothing to write about so I’m just gonna shit on someone else,” which describes most of your posts. Attacks for the sake of attacks. Perhaps you are the one treating your readers as rubes.
As for the apology or explanation you feel that I owe my readers, I find it hard to believe that you are stupid enough not to realize I have been advised by very capable attorneys not to discuss the meritless case that we are
defending over what you allege are my “failures as a journalist.” I no longer report on a particular duo as I have become part of the story. My readers seem to understand this even if you pretend to not.
While we’re discussing explanations to readers, feel free to explain to yours about the meeting you, and a Philebrity staffer I do respect, had with Philly.com in which you pitched a partnership, and according to one person at the meeting, even proposed the notion of Philly.com purchasing Philebrity, which you later denied to me.
I’m sure you’ll reply with something oh-so-clever, but I’ve said my peace. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write yet another shitty column that nobody cares about.
Oh yeah, and it’s Zack Stalberg, not Zach. You’ve been spelling his name wrong for years, cocksucker.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Zing!
February 27th, 2009 at 11:14 am
@DanGross: That would be the second time around that you’ve tried to invoke the “B-b-b-b-but Philebrity tried to sell itself to Philly.com” conspiracy theory when we’re taking you to the cleaners. I’ll let you have your say on the rest of this, but I must correct that: We’ve never had any interest in selling off Philebrity. To do so would pretty much be the end of it.
February 27th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Also, Dan, Newall checked in: He says you’re full of shit about this mysterious Chicago blogger, and didn’t mention this cat until a follow-up interview.
You should really begin to think about not taking the bait anymore.