Pensacola's Sopranos Mystery

Last night the final episode of the six-year series The Sopranos aired on HBO. USA Today's Robert Bianco covered the cultural event. His report appears to have been repeated by many of mega-media Gannett Corp.'s wholly-owned children, including the Pensacola News Journal.

The Pensacola paper gave it front-page coverage, with an assist by "News Journal writer Thyrie Bland" who "contributed to this report." What did the regrettably-named Ms. Bland contribute? The grumblings of "Pensacola resident Ray Mayer, 50" who -- so we are told -- "was not impressed."

"It just ended ... very poorly," Mayer said. "It left you hanging. It left you up in the air. It was quite a let down. It just ended like it wasn't the end of the show."

So, just who is this "Ray Mayer, 50" and why should we care? A local TV critic? UWF drama coach? Budding Gulf Breeze screen writer working his way through Pensacola Junior College? One of Troy Moon's bar habitues? Thyrie Bland's boyfriend? A Bay area mobster?

Who knows? Ms. Bland isn't saying. For all we are told, Mr. Mayer might as well be that uniquitous "anonymous source" Beltway journalists are quoting all the time when they want to look like they are superior to the rest of us. All we know for sure is this Mayer fellow was so stunned "he had to watch the ending" twice.

It's no wonder dead tree journalism is in trouble. Adding "local flavor" like this to someone else's cookie-cutter synopsis can be outsourced to India as easily as tweaking software or running a call center.