Inky at 180: Is Brian Tierney More Important Than Walter Annenberg?

By Liz Spikol
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 2 | Posted Jun. 3, 2009

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Under Walter Annenberg, the Inquirer survived and thrived. But Brian Tierney is more prominent in the paper's anniversary celebration.

Perhaps you saw the Inquirer's Sunday supplement, celebrating 180 years in business -- not an anniversary that's typically memorialized. Thick with history, some of the section was quite rewarding. It's great to remember the way the paper was when it was vital to the community and life of the city, when it led daily newspapering nationwide. And it brought back so many memories of a town that has a vaunted historical legacy in politics, sporting, arts and culture.

But sections dealing with more recent years -- the recent years being those during which the paper has been tanking and is in bankruptcy protection -- were ridiculous. How could they even spend all those pages congratulating themselves for running this paper into the ground? Poor editor Bill Marimow: Here he is with a dedicated staff and a serious mission, and his business is being led by an idiot.

So guess whose image appears more than anyone else's in the Inky's 180th Anniversary Keepsake Section? That's right -- the paper's holy savior, the sultan of spin, Brian Tierney. Four times. How many photos of, say, philanthropist Walter Annenberg, whose family purchased the paper in 1936 and owned it for some 30-plus years? None. The visual focus is on Tierney's ownership, which has been nothing but an embarrassment, even within the context of a beleaguered industry.

So this one's for you, dear departed Walter. Whatever your faults, you gave the Inquirer much more than Brian Tierney has or ever could.

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1. Anonymous said... on Jun 3, 2009 at 07:11PM

“Annenberg was a dick! When he was first introduced to the queen of England he complained to her about the towels in his hotel room!
”

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2. Kenneth Stanley Mugler said... on Jun 4, 2009 at 09:42AM

“Ambassador Annenberg was a consummate gentleman and philanthropist
par excellence.His record of giving to educational institutions speaks for itself. The Annenberg that most people never saw was a caring, kind person.As when he attended a funeral mass for Penn football great "Reds"
Bagnell at Villanova's Chapel in 1995 despite being in poor health. He sat with Bagnell's widow and family. While being assisted down the aisle of the chapel, he remarked, "I had to come. He was my friend."”

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