Inky Reports on Tierney’s Return, Never Mentions “Bankruptcy”
We hate to pick on the Inquirer during a time of turmoil and upheaval, but the news waits for no human. In this case, yesterday’s news that Brian Tierney is returning to the company as an advisor to interim publisher Gerry Lenfest got curious treatment by the paper.
Tierney you’ll remember, was the owner and chief operating officer of the Inquirer’s parent company during the latter half of the aughts. That’s mentioned in the Inky story. What’s not mentioned? That the company slid into bankruptcy under Tierney’s watch, and emerged from that bankruptcy by being purchased at one-quarter of what he’d paid for it just a few years earlier.
Eight paragraphs: No bankruptcy mention. It would seem to be the most salient detail on Mr. Tierney’s newspaper resumé, no?
The Daily News does mention it, pointing out headwinds that worked against Tierney while he ran the paper, and fair enough: American papers were going into the toilet right when he bought into the industry, so it can’t be all his fault. Still, that doesn’t make it any less a weird omission by the Inquirer.
