Sunday, April 5, 2015

PG, I'm done with you.

As a 40+ year subscriber, I have canceled my subscription to the Post-Gazette. My carrier, Malcolm Andrews has been providing excellent service for many years, and I thank him and his family for their dedication. This is not a reflection on you, Malcolm, but it is based solely on John Hayes' weekly lies. The final straw was in his article today, Other towns also face deer dilemmas.
If protesters think Mt. Lebanon is done with its deer debate, they’re wrong. About 200 pregnant does are expected to deliver 300 or more additional deer to Mt. Lebanon in the coming months.
Where the hell are you getting your numbers, Mr. Hayes? Is this based on your estimates that Mt. Lebanon has THOUSANDS of deer?  I'm tired of you, Mt. Lebanon commission, Mt. Lebanon staff, and other media sources blaming "protesters" for Benner's blunder.

You write:
Activists opposed to the municipality’s plan to kill enough deer to decrease deer-car collisions by 50 percent in five years are still celebrating their victory.
The deer-car collisions plan is BOGUS!
  • In Mt. Lebanon, people got hurt in over 90% of reported car crashes that involved pedestrians and/or bicyclists. (This is compared to 35% for regular car crashes and 3.8% for deer/car crashes.)
  • In the last 4 years, there have been 50 reported injury-causing crashes involving pedestrians and/or bicyclists. (This is compared to 6 reported injury-causing deer/car crashes. In other words, there are 8 times as many for ped/cyc as for deer.)
Tom Moertel's in-depth analysis will be posted on Kelly Fraasch's blog in the near future.

Try to cancel a subscription online. It can't be done. I ended up finding this, Subscription Questions. I am sooooo done with you, John Hayes.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cut off your nose to spite your face? If you only read and listen to like opinions, and never hear two sides of an issue you are doomed to ignorance. I guess that you can't read the Trib either since their editor believes that culling is necessary.
Well, you can watch Fox news and listen to Rush for your daily news.

Anonymous said...

Now they or at least the PG's Hayes know there are 200 pregnant deer and they're about to give birth to 300 fawn.
What did he do... have sex with all those does. Must have if he's as fertile as his imagination.

Lebo Citizens said...

2:11 PM, I can always count on you for being the first to criticize.

Where is Hayes getting his numbers? From the PIO? From the Commission? From Feller? They are using numbers from 2013. How does he know we have 200 pregnant deer? How about facts from the PG? Getting opinions from editor is one thing, but a reporter is passing on BS as if it is fact.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

2:11, you could silence the critics very easily, just show where Hayes' numbers come from! That shouldn't be too difficult, he is after all pretty specific in his opinion.
Do you have sonograms from the pregnant deer?

Anonymous said...

Hayes is trying to make Mt Lebo residents fearful of deer--just as the procull commissioners attempted. However, if residents are to fear anything, it is the epic neglect of the truth and authentic public safety. The numbers are clear: the motorists in Mt Lebo are out of control and nothing is or has been done to address this issue that causes the most harm.

Anonymous said...

Elaine i feel the same way, i never read the rag even though ive had delivery forever...ive been wanting to cancel but have hung on but the John Hayes pieces about the deer in lebo have pushed me over the edge.. I'll be cancelling my subscription next week..the only negative is no more green dog poop bags but no worries i can buy them..

Lebo Citizens said...

Yeah, 5:10 PM, I'm going to miss those green plastic bags too.

Hayes' numbers remind me of a prokill resident speaking at a commission meeting a few months back. He did some crazy math and did ten or twenty year projections, using the same method that Jan Klein used for her twenty year projections.

I wrote to the commission asking who is feeding Hayes those numbers. Realizing this is a holiday for most, I am hoping to get an answer in the next couple of days. Doubtful, yet optimistic.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Part I

John Hayes hopes I will fear deer,
Even though I never, ever veer.

He hopes the fear will come soon,
So his friends can play Daniel Boone.

But sorry, John, I can read and write,
And I do so for more than one sound bite!

Anonymous said...

"By 1991, Fox Chapel was listing 80 to 100 deer-vehicle collisions annually. The borough bucked the sentiments of some voters and instituted a state-permitted program of police sharpshooting as well as controlled archery hunts during deer seasons. In 2013-14, police shot 77 deer, archers took 23 and just 20 were killed by cars. There were no shooting accidents."

Notice how Hayes deftly avoids giving the deer accident numbers for Fox Chapel in 2013-14.
Mr. Hayes are there more of less accidents than 1992 now that they are culling.
One might ask the same of the yearly deer accident rate in USC. Have their culls changed the accident rates from year to year.

Anonymous said...

I stopped the P-G delivery a long time ago due to their biased reporting. I read it online as long as they allow it for free. When they lock me out, I seek news from other sources. It's not worth paying for.

Anonymous said...

Elaine and other bloggers - canceling your PG subscriptions will have no effect, unless you call the Joseph Pepe, President of the PG, and tell him why you are canceling, or send him a letter or fax and include your phone number so that he can call you. You have good reason to complain to the President of the PG.

John Hayes' title is the Outdoors Editor and writer. He's a pro-hunting opinionated columnist! 98% of everything he writes is as a pro-hunting columnist promoting hunting, and promoting hunting in suburban neighborhoods. His constituent readers are hunters. He's a mouthpiece for the Pa Game Commission. Together they work to try to open up all the suburban parks and neighborhoods for their hunter constituents. His articles are completely biased. All of his "expert" references have a pro-hunting and culling bias. OK, so no problem as an opinionated pro-hunting columnist when he is publishing in the Outdoors section of the PG. Everyone there pretty much knows he biased. However, the PG allows him to switch hats and pose as an objective reporter to write articles published in the main sections of their newspaper. This is extremely unprofessional and unethical journalism; i.e. he brings the same bias to these articles, and most of the public don't realize he's an opinionated biased columnist. In addition, apparently his articles are not being reviewed and fact checked, which is another major problem, especially when he is writing as a reporter.

He apparently has nothing better to do than to try to keep this Mt. Lebanon controversy going to justify his relevancy at the newspaper, because he gets a lot of comments on his articles, and I'm assuming that's one measure on how they get judged.

He is promoting the use of lethal weapons in densely populated and developed communities, that threaten the safety of families, children, and pets in those communities. I don't think this is the job of the Post-Gazette. He also regularly promotes teaching children to kill, and has pictures of 8 years old children posing and smiling with deer that they shot and killed. I personally think that's child abuse, and again not the job of the Post-Gazette.

So he will continue posing as a reporter, published unsubstantiated facts, and promoting the use of lethal weapons in our community unless residents complain to Joseph Pepe, President of the PG, and tell him that it is extremely unprofessional and unethical journalism to allow a biased pro-hunting columnist pose as a regular objective PG reporter to report about the deer issues in Mt. Lebanon and other communities, and that if Pepe doesn't understand this conflict of interest and bias and stop it, that you are canceling your subscriptions, and asking your friends to do the same.

The main PG number is 412-263-1100. Ask to be connected to Joseph Pepe.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Posti's husband, who works at the PG, is supplying the numbers. Barb Logan is the one who supported Josie's initial school board campaign. go look up the donors from way back when and follow the money.

Lebo Citizens said...

I emailed Joseph Pepe at jpepe@post-gazette.com
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Elaine, let us know if that email for Pepe works. I tried to find one but couldn't. Thanks!

Lebo Citizens said...

The Post Gazette Customer Service number is 1-800-228-6397. After being on hold for nine minutes, a very nice customer service person answered my call. She asked if she could list a reason for canceling my subscription. I told her that I was tired of John Hayes lying about the deer situation in Mt. Lebanon. I had also emailed Joseph Pepe about it.

Sorry to see the green plastic poop bags go, but I don't see how Hayes can continue to write the trash that he is writing even though the editors of the PG had taken a position against the deer culling in Mt. Lebanon.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Colin McNickle over at the Trib and John Hayes are of like minds - both want all the Lebo dear killed and hate the anti-cullers. Maybe he'll offer Hayes a job as a proofreader ?