May 24–31, 2001

media

Soundbites

Another Philly first! Last week, Copley News Service, which syndicates the comic strip Nest Heads, among others, withdrew the strip from the Metro because it already was running in the Inquirer. Typically large papers don’t mind if a smaller paper — a community weekly or shopper, for example — in the same market happens to pick up one of the strips it carries, says Glenda Winders, Copley’s editorial director. But apparently the Inquirer felt the Metro was sufficiently similar — it is a Monday-Friday daily, after all — that it didn’t want Nest Heads appearing there, and Copley "naturally" respected the wishes of the paper that had it first, Winders explains. "It’s the first time ever this has happened," Winders adds. Nest Heads (www.nestheads.com), by the way, is about baby boomers whose kids have grown and left the house (they’re empty-nesters, hence the strip’s name — get it? Ha). So maybe the Metro won after all.

Prior to Martin Sheen’s visit last week to receive an award from the Philadelphia Immigration Resource Center, an organizer of the event indicated that Sheen and co-honoree Father Dan Berrigan would hold a press conference, but would not address the controversy that erupted after their selection by the PIRC board. (Both men have made comments in support of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.) But with a few dozen anti-Mumia picketers outside the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, where the banquet was held, the first question, naturally enough, was about them. Sheen made no effort to sidestep the matter. "I didn’t get a chance to talk to them — I was late, and we were kind of driven right through them," he said. "But I’m never bothered by demonstrators — I’ve been one on a number of occasions myself, so I know how they feel. And if I had my way they’d be up here celebrating with us, because we have far more in common than we have [differences]."

Philly-based Pew Charitable Trusts figures prominently in "Behind the Scenes: How Foundations Have Quietly Seized a Role in Journalism, Commissioning Content," a report from the Poynter Institute. The report is available online at poynter.org/centerpiece/foundations/index.htm.

Inquirer associate managing editor Philip Dixon was not surprised to get a call this week asking for comment on the rumor that he’s leaving for the Bloomberg news service, home to several members of the Inky diaspora. "Actually I heard it myself — someone here came in and told me last week," Dixon says, adding that he asked this person what he’d be doing there and whether he was to get a big raise. But Dixon says that while he admires Bloomberg’s work, he’s staying put.

"Who are you hiring there? Are you buying out contracts of guys with the knowledge and experience to have not allowed this?"

—from letter in Monday’s Daily News, from reader upset about cursory coverage of Perry Como’s death.

—Frank Lewis