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More from Lean Dean

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Left_Coast, Nov 3, 2006.

Page 41 of 60
  1. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Bird: I'll disagree on the point that he was let go was because he covered L.A. sports because his columns have been picked up in the Daily News and also Torrance and if he's writing about Cal State San Bernardino, that's not going to play in the Valley or the South Bay. It's clearly a money thing. Period. They looked at what he made and cut him.

    But they didn't look at WHAT he did. Or fully appreciate what they had. One-day trips to Las Vegas and Phoenix to cover events (avoiding hotel stays to save money). Blogging. Working on his off days. Etc.

    He put in 30-plus years and did everything, putting his heart and soul into that paper. I want to say 12 Olympics. 7-10 Super Bowls. Pan Am Games and World Cups. Most of that for Gannett, but it continued, somehow amazingly, during the past nine years of MediaNews.

    But he didn't think he was too big to go to the Little League tournament every year. Cal State or Redlands basketball. The Redlands Bicycle Classic. He was and still is a HUGE I.E. high school football guy. His knowledge of Inland Empire sports is unmatched.

    One of my great memories when I was working for him was in 2000. He was in Sydney for the Olympics. Busting away as usual. But what's he also doing? Calling high school football coaches from down there and filing a weekly column for the Sunday paper. That's just what he did, and stuff like that showed me -- and others -- a lot, despite the craziness/insanity of it.

    At events, he would do the hat trick: Gamer, column, notebook. He was -- and still is -- a machine at cranking out copy -- and very good copy at that. Clean, crisp, with a strong, passionate voice. And he didn't just stick with sports; he is a big-time history buff and he also was a very good news-side columnist for a few years.

    Paulo got it. And, no, you didn't always agree with him. Or the methods to his madness. And while sometimes there would be snickering on the desk at 30-inch EDIT messages that would land on days you weren't expecting it about what he liked -- and especially didn't like -- about the section, you soaked it in and absorbed it and learned from it. He wasn't above teaching. And you took away something from him that would make you better. Work ethic, certainly. Working hard, no doubt.

    He continued the tradition of Claude Anderson of The Sun sports section and took it to a new level. And it's just astonishing that he gets thrown onto the scrap heap like he did, shoved out the door as if his work didn't matter, that the section has been allowed to get reduced to a pile of ash after it was built up into a highly respected product by him and others. But especially him. He led that section to great heights that forever are gone.

    Robo sums up my thoughts nicely. He pushed and cajoled and molded young journalists and integrated that with the older talent that was at 399 North D St. And there was some very good talent that went through those doors.

    I wrote earlier that I owe a huge debt of gratitude for my career to him. I learned a lot of what I know about this business and being a journalist from him. And in talking with former co-workers from there today, every one of them is stunned and shocked beyond belief this has happened.

    But that's what Paulo has meant to many journalists out there who worked with him. I hope, too, he finds something soon. Not only because he deserves but because he's damn good and he makes any product 10 times better with his presence.

    The Sun and MediaNews took away the voice of San Bernardino, and really, Inland Empire, sports with virtually no care in the world. It's a sad day. But it will be sadder with each passing day he's not on their Web site and on their pages. It's their major loss, and the MediaNews folks won't know it because all that matters to them is what comes after the dollar signs.
     
    MileHigh, Mar 7, 2008
    #481
  2. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Fantastic tribute, Mile High. Too bad only we get to read it.
     
    Frank_Ridgeway, Mar 7, 2008
    #482
  3. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    "The product suuuuuukkkkksssss . . . (but)
    Our suits are here to stayyyyyyyyyyyy . . . "

    (apologies to the Gershwins)
     
    Ben_Hecht, Mar 7, 2008
    #483
  4. funky_mountain

    funky_mountain Active Member

    i was thinking the same thing frank. maybe send it to lean dean execs via email over and over and over and over and over and over. not that it would do any good and not that they would care. maybe we can pitch in and take out an ad in the sun with milehigh's words. beancounters would be so happy to get a full page ad they wouldn't care what was on the page.
     
    funky_mountain, Mar 7, 2008
    #484
  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Anybody know who got BANG'd?

    And I think you could argue that "loss of advertising to the Internet" thing. Aren't all of the papers affected on-line? Really, it's the inability to retain market share. I dislike any store that excuses newspapers of culpability. It's kind of like car makers complaining about gas-saving imports when they were fighting higher mileage standards back in the 1970s.
     
    DanOregon, Mar 7, 2008
    #485
  6. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    I sit corrected. Excellent post.

    I knew that the LANG suits hated it when he would venture out of his little IE cage, since they didn't want anyone, say at USC, other than Scott Wolf and a DN columnist. But perhaps PaulO had special dispensation to go where he wanted.

    Regardless, the Sun is a worse read today for his absence.
     
    Birdscribe, Mar 7, 2008
    #486
  7. Editude

    Editude Active Member

    Like him or not (and I have been mixed in that regard), PaulO was the face and voice of the Sun and the I.E. for decades. Fontana-Ike high school football, pro soccer, Olympics -- that guy was prolific and varied in his subject matter. His ability to step back from the (diminished) day-to-day coverage will be missed.
     
    Editude, Mar 7, 2008
    #487
  8. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    What bottoms out first -- staffing or the credit rating...
     
    slappy4428, Mar 7, 2008
    #488
  9. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Debating whether PaulO "deserved" this or not, in this context, is like dwelling on the police rap sheet of someone killed in a terrorist attack. Even if 1 in 10 of those whacked somehow had it coming on merit, the way it all is being done has nothing to do with merit. These pricks go after the salaries and the positions.

    Even if they tried to pick and choose according to quality, do we have any faith they would have a clue as to what or who is good vs. what or who is not?
     
    Joe Williams, Mar 7, 2008
    #489
  10. dragonfly

    dragonfly Member

    The PaulO thing was entirely personal. The main editor there has had it out for him for a long time. I have no idea why. But the main editor got promoted.
     
    dragonfly, Mar 8, 2008
    #490
  11. iancahir

    iancahir Member

    I know MileHigh knew him longer and more closely than I did, but PaulO was the guy who let a 21-year-old kid learn how to be a professional. I will NEVER be able to thank him enough for how much he let us try and fail in San Bernie. By the time MileHigh came back to the desk, he raised the average age of the desk from 23 to 25.

    Favorite PaulO story has to be when he drove to Denver (almost) for the Broncos/Jaguars AFC playoff game in his Chevy Corsica, almost got there before the snow made him turn back, then he heard the final field goal as he came out of desert radio silence... and he wrote a column that night.

    We did more with no budget than any paper anywhere. I was a young little prick back then (now I'm an old prick), but I never had as much fun as I did putting out sections with Nate, Mikey, Doug (yes, Doug), Dilbeck, Chuck, Bryan, Joel and Dan. And yes, even Nic the agate monster.

    I grew up reading PaulO. I had vowed to never move back to San Bernie. Now I have four major points that stick out as sad in San Bernardino journalism:

    1. The day Gannett gave the paper to Singleton.

    2. The day Ricardo Pimental and Tom Bray were thrown under the bus.

    3. the day the Sun left downtown.

    4. the day PaulO was gone.

    I literally lost my breath when I saw this. And MileHigh is right in his tribute.

    Although I did beat PaulO in the Sun Baseball League twice. So I've got that going for me.
     
    iancahir, Mar 9, 2008
    #491
  12. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Not for a year,
    Forever and a day :(
     
    slappy4428, Mar 10, 2008
    #492
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