September 25–October 2, 1997

on media

Beat The Press

It seems that dynamite-tempered Ed Rendell just can't keep his hands off reporters and photographers.

Sources at the Philadelphia Inquirer say that reporter Howard Goodman became the latest victim of a Rendell assault out in Las Vegas.

Well-placed Inky sources say the mayor, angry at the Inquirer over its coverage of him, grabbed Goodman by the neck and shook his head for about 10 seconds before calming down and offering the reporter a piece of a roast beef sandwich as a way of apologizing.

Goodman declined comment, but well-placed Inky sources say this is just the latest in a series of incidents involving the mayor physically attacking reporters.

Rendell spokesman Kevin Feeley failed to return a detailed phone call about Goodman, who is one of at least four Inky employees to be attacked by the mayor.

Sources say that Rendell once grabbed former Inky City Hall reporter Amy Rosenberg by the arm. In his book about the mayor, Buzz Bissinger writes that Rendell attacked photographer Sharon Wohlmuth at a party for her book Sisters when he mistakenly thought she was going to take a photo of him.

"He lunged at her," according to a paraphrase from the book in the Daily News' Clout column, "grabbed her arm, ripped her Japanese jacket and started dragging her. 'He attacked me,' Wohlmuth told Bissinger. 'I felt assaulted.'"

The mayor also had an altercation with former City Hall reporter Suzanne Sataline. After that incident, sources say, Inky Editor Max King mailed a letter to Rendell complaining about his actions. King did not return phone calls seeking comment about the mayor's actions or his letter.

Rosenberg could not be reached for comment by press time. Sataline refused comment.

Officially, Inky editors are downplaying the Goodman incident.

"I do not know much about the incident," says City Editor Marc Duvoisin. "It was not serious enough for Howard to ask me to do anything about it, in terms of lodging a protest on behalf of the paper."

Duvoisin, who has been city editor since January, says he does not "discern any trend" regarding attacks by the mayor against journalists.

"No one has complained to me on my watch" about being assaulted or abused by Rendell. "This little thing with Howard in Las Vegas, as I understand it from Howard, does not rise to the threshold where [a formal complaint] would be called for."

As a reporter, Duvoisin says he often came in contact with Rendell.

"He never laid a hand on me," says Duvoisin. "I have seen him get hot and lose his temper, but he never touched me physically. He never touched me in a hostile fashion."

- Howard Altman