That’s how LBJ’s right hand man Joe Califano famously described cigarette smoking when he was Carter’s HHS Secretary. It fits what’s happening at the New Orleans Sometimes Picayune since NOLA tycoon/unsuccessful political candidate John Georges bought the Advocate.
Here’s my pal Kevin Allman on the latest turn of the screw:
Since New Orleans businessman John Georges boughtThe Advocate
just a week ago, things have been moving quickly. Georges installed
former T-P managing editors Peter Kovacs and Dan Shea as editor and
general manager, and there was word thatThe Advocate‘s Baronne
Street offices were adding several additional parking spaces
immediately. It was a poorly kept secret that the paper had been talking
toT-P city editor Gordon Russell, and only a slightly better kept secret thatThe Advocate was also interested in Martha Carr, a veteran of the city desk known as a meticulous editor.“If Gordon and Martha go,” a city reporter toldGambit Saturday night, “weall go.”
And that’s what seems to be happening. This morning Kovacs announced that Russell would be joining the New OrleansAdvocate (not the New Orleans bureau ofThe Advocate, but “theNew Orleans Advocate“, a change in terminology). Also leaving theT-P: city reporters Claire Galofaro and Andrew Vanacore. (FormerT-P
staffer Sara Pagones, who had been helming the New Orleans bureau since
it launched last fall, will now be St. Tammany bureau chief.) Russell
becomesThe Advocate‘s managing editor for investigations, while Carr will be the New Orleans paper’s managing editor.
Another term for this could be, “dying the death of a thousand cuts.” There’s a simple word for what Advance Media did here in NOLA: stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
A quick word about now former city editor Gordon Russell. He’s not only an outstanding investigative journalist and editor, he’s also a friend who lives a long stones throw from Adrastos World Headquarters. I am very happy that he’s getting off the sinking ship before it hits bottom.
So much forTPStreet, which sounds like a bad cop show from the Freddie Silverman era at ABC.
The newspaper war is turning into a rout.