By: Mark Fitzgerald These days, Brian Tierney frequently is in the pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He's leading a group of local investors to buy the paper and its tabloid sibling.
But a decade ago, Brian Tierney frequently got in the face of Inquirer editors and, especially, its religion reporter, Ralph Cipriano. Working on behalf of the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Tierney berated the newspaper for the way it covered then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
Current and former Inquirer journalists who remember those contentious days say they shudder to think he might end up owning the Inquirer or the Philadelphia Daily News.
They say Tierney bullied the newspaper into spiking investigations into Bevilacqua by Cipriano in meetings with editors and the reporter in 1996 and 1997. Cipriano ultimately wrote a long story for the National Catholic Reporter about Bevilacqua, including some material the Inquirer refused to publish.
When the Inquirer?s then-Editor Robert Rosenthal was quoted in the Washington Post as saying some of Cipriano?s reporting could not be proven, Cipriano sued him, the newspaper and Knight Ridder for libel and slander. Cipriano was later fired, and the case was ultimately settled for an undisclosed sum, widely reported as $7 million.
"There was significant negative reaction among the staff" when the Inquirer first disclosed last week that Tierney was assembling a group of local investors, said Henry Holcomb, an Inquirer business reporter who is president of the Newspaper Guild local. The guild, backed by billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies, is preparing a bid for the Inquirer, Daily News and the ten other papers McClatchy is buying from Knight Ridder, and immediately put up for resale.
The general newsroom sentiment, according to those interviewed, is that Tierney's group is unlikely to succeed in its bid.
"People like to talk about it, joking what a nightmare it would be if he bought the paper but I don't think people take it very seriously,? said Paul Nussbaum, national correspondent for the Inquirer.
But the Inquirer, in a story by staff writers Joseph N. DiStefano and Bob Fernandez, reported this weekend that Bruce Toll, founder of the luxury home construction firm Toll Bros. Inc., is the lead investor in the Tierney group. When Tierney's bid was first reported, he told E&P he had commitments of "well in excess of $100 million" for the bid for the two papers.
And Tierney?s spokesman, Jay Devine, told E&P late Monday that he is serious about getting a bid in before Tuesday?s reported deadline. ?It?s a fairly dynamic situation, but our hope is to make a bid before the deadline,? he said.
Cipriano, who is now working on a biography of a storied Philadelphia lawyer, says he hopes Tierney has ?toned down his act.?
?When I knew him he was threatening reporters and bullying editors, and that's not exactly the kind of guy you want for an owner,? he said in a telephone interview Monday. Cipriano added, "He was really a formidable, powerful character, and I think he saw the whole thing as sort of bending the newspaper to his will.?
E&P reported extensively on the dispute between and among Cipriano, the Inquirer and the cardinal, including a Feb. 5, 2001, cover story by former Associate Editor Joe Nicholson headlined, ?Stop The Press: The inside Philadelphia story of how a cardinal and his publicity agent cowed a great newspaper.?
Inquirer editors at the time denied that Tierney had ?bullied his paper away from a full rendering? of Cipriano's investigation into the cardinal.
But in an interview for the story, Bevilacqua told E&P that Tierney was "a great help to us." The meetings at which Tierney reportedly railed at the Inquirer journalists worked, the cardinal said.
"He (Tierney) stopped the story,? E&P quoted Bevilacqua as saying, adding: ?That was the important thing."
Cipriano said Monday that editors at the time sat docile during those meetings, ?as if they were in the confessional.?
Tierney spokesman Devine, who also helped the Archdiocese with public relations at the time, said the issue hadn?t arisen in connection with the bid for the Inquirer and the Daily News, either in forming the investor?s group or in public reaction.
All the principals involved in the dispute are gone from the paper now, he noted.
?It?s sort of ancient history at this point,? Devine said.
Cipriano, though, had some laughing advice for Inquirer journalists if the bid succeeds. ?I would, convert to Catholicism...The Archdiocese won?t need (its weekly newspaper) the Catholic Standard and Times, the Inky will do the job.?
(Jennifer Saba contributed to this article.)
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