BY DAN VALENTI Part 2 of a Two-part Series Up, down, and in between, many have made much of The Planet’s recent analyses and criticisms of the Berkshire Eagle, dubbed by this site as the Boring Broadsheet. Be clear. Our concern takes the form of tough love. Growing up in Pittsfield in the 50s and […]
BY DAN VALENTI In Septmber 1995 Denver-based Media News Group purchased the storied Berkshire Eagle from the Miller family. A bad combination of a faulty real estate purchase and switch over to color presses left the Millers deep in debt. They had leveraged almost $18 million at a time when the market was going south. […]
BY DAN VALENTI In my weekly op-ed column this week for the Pittsfield Gazette, I shall be writing about the Berkshire Eagle. I shall comment on its sad descending from winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 to its present-day toothlessness, a situation prompted by an out-of-state chain ownership that cares nothing about Pittsfield, Mass., except […]
BY DAN VALENTI The Mayor Responds The Planet heeds Mayor Jimmy Ruberto’s call to let the DPW land deal “cool down,” since the project has “taken on a life of its own.” First, though, we share the mayor’s comments on Patrick Sheehan, sent to The Planet this afternoon. Dan: “Sorry for the delay. (1) It […]
BY DAN VALENTI How these things start is often a source of amusement and always one of conjecture, but it has gotten around that Media News Group has inquired into the purchase of this website. The Planet is not for sale, though everything has its price. We can categorically state that no one from the […]
BY DAN VALENTI As always on The Planet, a ton of “stuff” is in the works. Let me knock off some of them in rapid fashion. Oxymoron — We learned today that Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Airhead) is on the House “Intelligence” committee, another sign that Armageddon is nigh. One of Bach Baby’s GOP colleagues, who […]
BY DAN VALENTI The Planet has enjoyed record days of traffic this week, and we thank readers for sampling the soup and, many, coming back for more. The Planet is building gravitas and momentum, far ahead of our admittedly conservative business plan. The question of advertising is for down the road somewhere. For the moment, […]
BY DAN VALENTI It is not so much a triumph for The Planet as a victory of the bedraggled taxpayers over the robber-baron politicians who would commit evil in their name. The Planet did show what a enterprise journalism can accomplish. In this case, our fearless, muck-racking efforts saved Pittsfield taxpayers at least $4 million […]
BY DAN VALENTI People of Pittsfield, rejoice! The Planet just saved you $4 million. Sweeter than that is Jonathan Lothrop crediting The Planet for the save. The fattened Ward 5 councilor told the public last night that he thought they had the deal sewn up, but the cat got out of the bag. He means […]
BY DAN VALENTI Lost in all the early election talk yesterday (there’s more later in this post) was the story of PCBs on the site the city of Pittsfield wants to buy to relocate the DPW. THE CITY MUST NOT BUY THIS PROPERTY! The Planet has talked to several former employees of GE’s defunct Power […]
BY DAN VALENTI The political fallout from Jimmy Ruberto’s decision not to run for mayor in 2011 won’t be felt until later this year, in May, when nomination papers become available. These papers are as every bit mind altering as substance within the papers used to roll and smoke mother nature. The euphoria produces in […]
BY DAN VALENTI NEWS ITEM: From the Associated Press RICHMOND, Calif. – Attorneys say a teenage girl who was gang-raped outside a Northern California high school reached a $4 million settlement with the school district. The value of the deal in the civil claim against the West Contra Costa Unified School District was revealed this […]
BY DAN VALENTI The customer is king, right? This is true especially in a down economy, where a business can’t afford to alienate even one member of its clientele. Some companies get it. I think of R. J. Stohr’s Jewelers on North Street, who have made customer service part of their advertising tag line and […]
BY DAN VALENTI One is the loneliest number except when you’re first in the race. What do these stories have in common: EPA fines Interprint, Bill Hines to step down as PEDA chief, stores closing on North Street, stores opening on North Street, school custodians dump green glop into the Housy, the CEDS failure, candidate […]
BY DAN VALENTI Readers of this website were not surprised by Mayor Jimmy Ruberto’s “surprise” announcement to the Boring Broadsheet that he would not be up for re-election in 2011. The Planet had this information weeks ago and shared it with many. The Eagle once again eats our dust on another big story. We shall […]
BY DAN VALENTI Today on The Planet, we take up the thorny case of discrimination and also take another look as economic development seen through the lends of the CEDs process. In our first story, our guest columnist kicks the hornet’s nest that is the issue of gay rights vs. private freedom. Discrimination bad. Right? […]
