Pittsburgh Trib debacle

[cougargirl]

he's making about $800-$900 a week.
and every mistake is aired in public - potentially fireable.

while most bozos earning three times as much make mistakes nobody ever knows or cares about.

great job. a maximum of risk for a minimum of reward. requires the ethics and purity of a priest, and a vow of poverty, and for every mistake, somebody wants to hang you. great ****ing job.

He's making THAT MUCH a week at the Trib?

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Or combined between his dual commitments of the Trib and morning sports guy on WDVE. ('DVE, your home for Molly Hatchet)

 

[zagoshe]

HenryHecht -- Are you kidding?

It is one thing to make a mistake -- everyone makes them. I

It is totally something different to write something THAT IS NOT TRUE before really dotting the i's and crossing the t's -- mostly because you want to be first.

That's called irresponsible and it undermines the credibility of all of us.

 

[Oz]

Kevin Gorman of the Trib is on a local Sunday night round-table sports show now. They asked him what happened with the Grimm story and he claimed the Steelers changed their minds and did a 180 in one day and offered the job to Tomlin.

So basically the Trib is throwing the Steelers under the bus on this.

I'm not buying Gorman's company line.

I'm not buying it, either, because that's simply not how the Rooneys do business.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

he's making about $800-$900 a week.
and every mistake is aired in public - potentially fireable.

while most bozos earning three times as much make mistakes nobody ever knows or cares about.

great job. a maximum of risk for a minimum of reward. requires the ethics and purity of a priest, and a vow of poverty, and for every mistake, somebody wants to hang you. great ****ing job.

As opposed to those jobs like....

"Police and sheriff’s patrol officers had median annual earnings of $45,210 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $34,410 and $56,360. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,910, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $68,880."

It's a cruel world, Henry.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Another Pittsburgh sports thread.
No mention of that Madden guy yet.

 

[markvid]

If there was no offer ever made to Grimm, The Steelers need to publicly mention that and cut the "we're indecisive" spin by the Trib.
This sounds like to me it was a mistake that was made and yet the Trib is trying to find ways to point the finger everywhere else but at themselves. And using the Steelers that way is unfair and unprofessional.
Should Dan Rooney publicly address this at the press conference today, I think it'd be smart.
Also, I'd like to see someone else have the cajones to ask in the conference if there is any truth their original story or the spin they are putting on it.

 

[henryhenry]

he's making about $800-$900 a week.
and every mistake is aired in public - potentially fireable.

while most bozos earning three times as much make mistakes nobody ever knows or cares about.

great job. a maximum of risk for a minimum of reward. requires the ethics and purity of a priest, and a vow of poverty, and for every mistake, somebody wants to hang you. great ****ing job.

As opposed to those jobs like....

"Police and sheriff?s patrol officers had median annual earnings of $45,210 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $34,410 and $56,360. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,910, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $68,880."

It's a cruel world, Henry.

law enforcement officers earn a ton of overtime and paid details - most of them double their base salary.

besides, i'm not talking about them - they earn it - and sometimes get shot at - they deserve more money.

how about a junior accounting associate - earning 65k-75k at a decent firm - working in anonymity - no public airing of mistakes - nice cushy job with regular hours.


zagoshe - he was under pressure "to be first" - it's not like he wanted to rush out there with bad info - but if he gets beat that's another strike against him - a few of those and he walks the plank - same outcome

it's a cruel and thankless job - maximum risk and minimum reward

 

[DyePack]

he's making about $800-$900 a week.
and every mistake is aired in public - potentially fireable.

while most bozos earning three times as much make mistakes nobody ever knows or cares about.

great job. a maximum of risk for a minimum of reward. requires the ethics and purity of a priest, and a vow of poverty, and for every mistake, somebody wants to hang you. great ****ing job.

it's a cruel and thankless job - maximum risk and minimum reward

Tell you what, henri. Once the industry gets some basic standards and stops displaying the lack of standards as some sort of badge of honor, then you'll have a gripe.

Until then, your claim of "maximum risk" is ludicrous. Right now, the only risk is that someone might have to wake up and read the stuff a little more closely for the next week or two in Pittsburgh. Then it's back to blissful slumber.

 

[henryhenry]

explain "basic standards".

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Come on HH,

This was a BIG mistake: I dare say comparable to the "Dewey defeats Truman" magnitude.

Prisuta wasn't working the weekend metro desk and someone said: "Hey, we're short-handed. Can someone check into this SI report on the Steelers coaching situation?"
This guy's beat was the (in-part) Steelers. He didn't make a mistake, an error or an omission. He flat-out got it wrong.
The city's biggest (sports) story of the year and he (they) got it wrong. Not only do they - and the P-G - get scooped in their own backyard, when they do their own investigation and reporting it's incorrect!?
The guy's job - I don't care what he's being paid - was to report on the Steelers.
You took the job, you do it as best you can. I'm sure Prisuta did his best ...
I feel sorry for the guy. I really do. But this a screw up of major proportions at a paper that already has credibility issues.
I don't think I'd fire anybody for this, but I our girls high school basketball coverage would be off the charts for the next month or so.

FWIW: I don't buy the Trib's argument that the Rooneys had a change of heart on Grimm. I think Tomlin has been the man for a few days now.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

This is why it's better to be scooped than to be wrong...

The thing with coaching searches is that everybody lies... In those circumstances, unless you have the story from the coach himself, the owner or the GM or someone on the record, you don't go with it.

I feel terrible for this guy. Is it a fireable offense? I don't know, but this is really bad....

 

[Ace]

If this was a "mistake" by the reporter -- which would be along the lines of "Oh, my source said Tomlin but for some reason I wrote Grimm -- he should be fired.

If Pittsburgh is at least a semi-normal newroom, then there would be discussions among the writer and editors and someone above the writer would make the call about how they proceed. So -- assuming the writer did not mislead anyone -- he would have been simply following orders.

Don't know how it went down, but that's embarrassing.

 

[Agitator]

Another Pittsburgh sports thread.
No mention of that Madden guy yet.

The best case for abortion yet.

 

[moonlight]

Did anyone hear if Prisuda said anything about it on DVE this morning? That would have been his perfect opportunity to say, "Well, what ha-happened was, well, I uh..., well..."

 

[floridasun]

Reporters covering the University of Alabama made a similar mistake when they reported that Rich Rodriguez would be the Alabama coach, but they did what you do when -- like mizzou says -- you don't have it from the head honcho -- they left themselves an out like "Sources say Rich Rodriguez is expected to be the next Alabama coach. An announcement could come as early as today, unless Rodriguez changes his mind."

If someone high up told the Trib guy it was Grimm, he's got some splaining to do and should go on record (which of course will never happen).

 

[shotglass]

I'm curious, and I'm not saying anyone's wrong here.

But anyone who believes somebody should lose their job over this, I'd like them to spell out why that should be the action taken.

 

[Ace]

I'm curious, and I'm not saying anyone's wrong here.

But anyone who believes somebody should lose their job over this, I'd like them to spell out why that should be the action taken.

If the reporter misled his bosses over his information or if the bosses pushed so hard they refused to believe they didn't have the story, heads should roll.

Otherwise, it seems its the typical cart before the horse stuff that happens all the time.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I'm curious, and I'm not saying anyone's wrong here.

But anyone who believes somebody should lose their job over this, I'd like them to spell out why that should be the action taken.

I find this peculiar, too. Wouldn't the reaction of people on staff be to take no chances and wait for the official announcement instead of risking their jobs by trying for a scoop?

 

[Ace]

You shouldn't take chances, Frank. You either have the story or you don't.

You don't slap type on the page and cross your fingers that you are right.