The Rhode Island local media usually is a rather cordial “club” with competitors usually being supportive and giving credit where credit is due. However the gloves came off this week as both WJAR CH 10 and Golocal Prov both found themselves under fire in stories covered by the Providence Journal. The fireworks began with a Golocal Prov story involving the hiring of the new URI basketball coach. While schools usually ignore rumors of various candidates being mentioned in the press, URI broke their silence and issued a statement from URI President David Dooley calling the Golocal Prov story a “false story,” and requested it be removed regarding Rick Pitino.

 The Journal followed with a story on the controversy adding more fuel to the war of words between the university and Golocal Prov. Sources say the incident infuriated URI with what they called a completely “false, made up story meant to disrupt their hiring process.” Golocal continues to defend their story. 

Meanwhile, Frank “coffee cup salute” Coletta found himself along with sidekick Alison Bolonga the butt of jokes and the subject of a front-page story in the Providence Journal regarding their owners and the subject of “fake news.” The “team you trust” suddenly was being mocked on a national level for lowering the bar of TV news. The Projo reached out to both morning anchors who refused comment on why they were repeating a pro-Trump message during their news. Where have you gone Doug White? Will Governor Raimondo continue her weekly segment on CH 10 after this Trump controversy? Progressives were all over twitter and Facebook demanding all progressives boycott CH 10 over the “fake news” issue. What would Matt Brown do? 

There is a history of bad blood between WJAR CH 10 and Golocal Prov after Golo posted video of CH 10 Bill Rapleye caught on an open mic discussing which local political leaders he thought  were secretly gay. Back in the fall, CH 10 Bill Rapleye did a news story regarding Hasbro moving, without giving credit to Golo, but instead referred to them as an  “local online website.”In the past, Golocal Prov has had to deal with media outlets stealing their work without giving proper credit which is plagiarism. 

 On a positive note, congrats to talkradio  WHJJ which can now be heard on 104.7 FM. Hannity and Rush have never sounded better than on FM. 

To find out the latest on everything local, listen to the John DePetro show weekdays from 11:AM-2:PM.