What I really meant to say

When I walked into The Pittsburgh Press newsroom the Tuesday after Labor Day 1989, the Dow was trading at 2,750, a share of PPG could be had for $11, and U.S. Steel was part of USX Corp., an energysteel conglomerate that former Chairman David Roderick cooked up to enhance shareholder value.

As I leave, the Dow is perched at about 26,500 and PPG shares are fetching almost $110. U.S. Steel, unchained from Marathon Oil to unlock even more shareholder value, is still confounded by the challenge of consistently turning a profit.

Old-line corporate media relations staff, who realized that an educated reporter could do less harm than an uneducated one, are long gone. In their place, for the most part, are handlers who don’t answer questions as much as stay on message, regardless of the veracity of that message. Like our president, companies use social media to convey the message they want to get across.

And we all know that social media is nothing but the unvarnished truth.

Not exactly a sunny-dispositioned, fresh-faced scribe to begin with, I am surely not one after 29 years of writing about financial statement manipulators, dark knights touted as white knights, MBA wannabes, and downsizing executives with oversized paychecks.

But there is good in my notebooks. Salt-of-the-earth characters who had interesting stories to tell. People who unselfishly, efficiently performed difficult jobs with quiet grace. People who saw problems and tried to solve them. Entrepreneurs who built something from scratch while humbly treating their employees fairly and respectfully.

Others spoke up about injustices at personal risk. That is not an easy thing to do, yet there were many good people who were compelled to do it: Ace, Deuce, Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Green Jeans, and the countless other anonymous sources who weren’t burdened with an alias.

I am indebted to the educators who expanded my knowledge, improved my writing and sharpened