Julius didn't tell you that the Daily News reported Inquirer TV columnist Gail Shister lost her column. (And this is the guy who lectures KYW on news judgement and presentation.)
I say, "Good riddance." She is a terrible writer, reusing the same cliches and pet phrases repeatedly. It sometimes seems like she has a cliche generator installed on her computer.
The article says the official line is she is losing the column because her column was "almost exclusively devoted to network news divisions, morning shows, and anchors," and the paper "can't afford a column so narrowly focused," according to Inky features editor Sandy Clark.
I say her focus is narrower than that. Shister has been publicly out as a feminist and gay activist for several years. She often focuses on: (1) Lesbians and Gays in broadcasting; (2) Women in broadcasting; (3) Anybody with a connection to Philadelphia, no matter how long removed or tenuous. I agree with Clark that she tends to restrict herself to TV news but one wonders why it took him so long to notice? It almost seems like she's working on a point system: A lesbian local news producer in Fresno who went to Temple will get a full column profile, even if few readers ever heard of her. Topical TV stories get ignored. She also seems to completely fawning in her coverage of her "regular suspects" and to really stretch a comment to make an innocuous interview comment into news.
She keeps her job. Maybe the affirmative action and EEOC police watch newspapers like they do radio and TV stations. Or maybe management is afraid of some backlash from the politically correct Inquirer news staff if they let her go.
