The penis mightier

Looks like reporters at the Mercury and other local Knight Ridder can't put away those post-getting-fired plans just yet.

Gary Pruitt, CEO of McClatchy, made history yesterday by becoming the first person ever to declare that San Jose is not sprawling enough. So, after buying 32 papers, the company that makes its money selling papers in rural areas getting overrun by development is selling off 12, including Nemesis of Evil nemeses the Mercury News and the Palo Alto Daily.

Far be it from me to add to the incredible amount of coverage about this maneuver -- as Lou Alexander, a former Mercury ad man blogging on Grade the News, put it: "It is like all of the journalists in the world have suddenly had to confront their mortality and have felt compelled to write about it."

I will say, though, that those concerned that the new owner might be noted paper-destroyer ANG should take heart. Where else but ANG do you find a story like this one my predecessor Grace Rauh wrote for the Fremont Argus last year.

(Why is that so many of my co-workers have gone on to bigger and better things, so to speak?)