Intelligencer breaks its own one-day record for most PR releases passing as news stories

On Monday of this week, the front “news” section of the Wheeling Intelligencer published six public relations releases disguised as news reports. Three of them were from West Virginia University, and there was one each from a local realtor, Bethany College, and a month-old state AARP release on what the organization hoped to accomplish during the legislative session. (All six were word-for-word from the original.)

By the way, Monday’s front section did contain two local stories and four Associated Press stories, including one on Jane Fonda speaking at Kent State and my personal favorite:

Exes Reported Ohio Driveway Shootout Kills Stuntwomen, Husband

about a shooting in Yellow Springs, Ohio in the western part of the state. I have no idea why this story has any relevance to anyone living in the Wheeling area.

Intelligencer mostly ignores Trump’s actions and other national news stories

One of the Trump controversial actions involving Attorney General Barr was part of the story on page 9 of Thursday’s paper. Otherwise, the Intelligencer ignored President Trump while paying considerable attention to the in-fighting in the Democratic Party.

Here are just a few of the AP stories that were ignored in the last few days:

Intel officials say Russia boosting Trump candidacy

Trump picks pardon requests from wealthy pals and GOP donors

Trump ally Roger Stone sentenced to over 3 years in prison

Additionally, the only mention of the coronavirus was in a stock brief on how it might affect Apple’s stock.

80% of this week’s editorials were about Ohio

Wednesday’s and Friday’s editions each carried one editorial about West Virginia; the other eight featured Ohio.

Favorite headline of the week

Yesterday’s sports page carried this headline:

Wheeling U. Men Surge Past Falcons

If you read the story, however, you will learn that Wheeling lost 79-78.