Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Philadelphia Weekly profiles Brian Tierney, the public relations and advertising executive who will be heading Philadelphia's former Knight-Ridder papers. As a PR man, "when reporters called his customers," Tierney "called the reporters -- and their editors." Reviewing Tierney's often-heated arguments with reporters on their coverage of the Philadelphia Orchestra, banking executives, and -- most infamously -- the Catholic Church, Steve Volk writes, "The most disconcerting thing about his taking control of the [Philadelphia] Inquirer and Daily News may not even be Tierney's noted conservative tilt, which is considerable. ... What really has some people quaking is Tierney's unique diet, which for a time included journalists. For breakfast, lunch and dinner." Former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano, whose story on the Catholic Diocese's questionable spending was squashed by the newspaper after Tierney's repeated contacts, said of Tierney, "He doesn't understand what reporters do, and more important, he doesn't think it should be done."
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