Lives Of Local TV Reporters More Dramatic Than ‘Gossip Girl’

Do you think Dan Gross has a corkboard with all the “stars” of Philadelphia media’s faces on it? You know where I’m going here: He can now cross off another one, because Lori Delgado has quit NBC 10. Who’s Lori Delgado, you’re saying? She did mornings, sometimes filled in on 10!, got sued by Vince DeMentri, etc. Yes, it’s like Dan Gross is shooting them down one-by-one. Alycia? Ping. Larry? Sorry, buddy. Ping.

DeMentri, a former fake ATF agent, filed a precursor to a lawsuit recently against NBC 10, Delgado and “a male security guard identified only as ‘Don.’” Wow, you can just sue “some guy named Don,” huh? Man, if somebody ever tried to sue Fred from Comcast Sportsnet, heads would roll.

The Inquirer’s Michael Klein explains the backstory:

NBC had been investigating alleged incidents at the station. In one, Delgado’s personal property (a hair dryer, curling iron and handbag) was moved from her desk drawer to another spot under her desk. In another, a deep scratch was found on her Lexus, parked in the NBC10 lot in Bala Cynwyd. DeMentri, 44, had been questioned by NBC management. He was fired in August.

I’ve always thought WPVI’s policy of not letting its reporters talk to the media was stupid; it treated its employees like they were high schoolers. As we can tell from recent events over the past year, though, the local news business is pretty much just like high school. Maybe it’s a wise policy.

Lori Delgado resigns from NBC 10 [The Insider]
DeMentri sues NBC 10, Delgado, for libel and slander [Phillygossip]

Gossip Girlfriend

And you thought I’d forget? Puh-leeze. After the first installment was such a hit, it’s clear my girlfriend and I needed to do a second. Naturally, we managed to finish it a few minutes ago. But it’s perfect: Tonight is the Gossip Girl season finale, and what better time than just a little over four hours ’til it airs to recap last week’s episode and set the stage for the end of the first season.

After the jump, a bunch of jokes youse will probably whine about in the comments. Talk all you want, it will only make my resolve stronger.

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Poopgate At The Courier-Post

Jim Hopkins of the Gannett Blog sends along the story of Poopgate at the Courier-Post. Morale is apparently low at the Camden/Cherry Hill paper, so much that somebody shit on the floor of the bathroom:

“Two months back, it was discovered that someone defecated on the floor of the editorial men’s restroom. It went 13 hours before being cleaned up, I might add. 13 hours. The ‘evidence’ was nowhere near any of the toilets, so one of the operations folks designated it an act of vandalism… The event was christened ‘Poopgate.’ Fast forward to today when the same thing happened in the editorial women’s restroom.”

Somebody used to do this with cupcakes at my high school, and it closed the downstairs bathroom every couple of days for a few months. I supposed the editorial team is pissed at management, because at every newspaper everywhere ever, the editorial team is pissed at management. It’s good to know the commenters on the paper’s forum… are actually Courier-Post employees?

Corporate said probing Cherry Hill’s ‘Poopgate’ [Gannett Blog]

Outsourced Social Networking: It’s Just Like Regular Social Networking!

Last year, two New Jersey teenagers were complaining about how overpriced the school yearbook was. Rather than forgetting it 25 minutes later, these young go-getters decided to boost their college resumes and create their own social network! Ta da!

Catherine and Simon Cook, of Stillman, N.J., created myYearbook.com. Well, they didn’t “create” it so much as have their older brother invest a cool 250k and hire programmers in India to make the Myspace- and Facebook-like site. (But, actually, that’s even more impressive. No programming work to do themselves!)

So what makes this different from any other social networking site? The Inquirer sat in on a meeting of the site’s employees, where they discussed ideas, including a “social safety” card that will certify that a student is enrolled in a certain school. (One possible slogan for such a card is: “Get independence and smell great!” Naturally.)

Body odor aside, if you haven’t heard of myYearbook, you should check it out. (Especially if you like social networking site 9/11 memorials.) I mean, look at the members featured on the front page:

Three blurry photos of girls trying to look cute, and a profile created for a a video game character. Fits right in!

myYearbook
The next page in yearbooks [Inky]