Judging from the content in the latest edition of the state’s largest newspaper, the Maine Press Association has apparently come up with a new contest category:
“Fluffiest PR Rag”
The winner by acclamation has to be the Portland Press Herald, the hardest-hitting ‘newspaper‘ east of the Mississippi.
The paper’s so-called article on the Portland Museum of Art’s new deputy director pulled out all the stops.
The museum’s new head of art and exhibitions “is an affable, good-looking 46-year-old with penetrating blue-gray eyes,” according to the newspaper of record.
The question arises as to whether the paper’s art critic was on a journalistic mission or a hook-up.
Since the new museum guy comes with a handy read-all-about-him descriptive tag and he works mounting artwork, it’s surprising the paper didn’t add “well hung.”
The same edition of the snoozepaper described a surf-shop owner going out of business as “looking more grizzled fisherman than surfer dude.”
All Looks Matter – Portland Press Herald.
In another ground-breaking piece, the alleged editors also allowed that “the best of Maine movies this week include a sexy biker flick.”
The paper also ran a guest column by a boy’s parent dreading the state’s upcoming referendum forbidding alleged girls from playing on female sports teams.
The parent was quoted saying she and her partner “nine years ago made the very difficult decision to change her name and pronouns.”
Actually they changed their son’s name and pronouns, but who’s to quibble with gender confusion on an overworked editorial desk?
And just to erase any doubt about serious journalism, the largest, oldest paper in Maine did a “Fact Check” column on hand sanitizer.
“No, hand sanitizer does not work against norovirus.” – Portland Pressed Herring
Perhaps it’s no surprise why the Poynter Institute last year ran a piece headlined ”What Went Wrong At The National Trust For Local News?”
Scorecard:
✓ Maine Wire: 149,000 Facebook followers
✓ Portland Press Herald: 93,000 Facebook followers
Portland Press Herald On New Museum Boss: “Good-Looking With Penetrating Blue Eyes”
By Ted Cohen
