I only read the online version of FL Today and his column hasn't been published in quite a while. Anybody know why?

He was let go by Florida Today a few months ago. I say good riddance as I thought his articles sucked.

Thanks for the information, but we will have to agree to disagree. Do you know why?

At newspapers these days, merely keeping your job is an accomplishment. 

For example, the Washington Post is gradually disappearing.

Sorry, I don't know. Maybe he left on his own. He was there one day and the next all his stuff was removed from floridatoday.com. I didn't like him due to he was a gator-homer and never wrote anything positive towards UCF. Thus, I'm a biased hater towards him. I thought his articles were boring, but I wasn't the intended audience to his stuff. Google his name and you can see what others thought about his articles. I'm sure he is a good guy, but I think he lost his audience, like most journalist who work for mid-tier newspapers are.

Florida Today needs more writers. But, I guess they are down sizing. So, we get what we can get!

Edited: 10/22/2011 at 05:16 AM by Central Floridave

I ran into him a few times at UF due to a friend in the journalism dept., and I couldn't stand him. Fair and balanced, I suppose, but he had my sarcastic view and routinely ragged on the gator world. The only problem I saw was that he was an actual writer who voiced his sarcastic opinions to a broad audience. I accept my misgivings to this small slice of surfer-forum world.

I worked with him during the early days of the Shuttle, before he went to college. I was not a fan of him personally, but, I always thought his columns reflected the problems and joys of modern sports and reflected the fans' perspective. It's funny to read that CFdave thinks he was a Gator homer and pompano thinks he routinely ragged on the gator world. For what it's worth, he was the guy that essentially brought Charlie Pell down when he was at the Alligator. I didn't always agree with him, especially when he talked about the Yankees, but I generally respected his opinions and liked his columns.

He and many others were let go, Florida Today is a dying entity- how about the poor weeklies editions, full of useless ads and not even a story, absolutely no content- The daily features mostly AP news, nothing local, limited sports, surfing info- publishing industry is going south fast!

I worked for Florida Today in the 90's and know Peter. He's a good dude and I thought he brought a certain element of surprise to his columns. He could certainly generate emotion from his readers, whether it be positive or negative. That's the sign of a good writer in my opinion.
Saying his columns sucked because he didn't write favorably about your team is a pretty immature stance. The guy went to UF and routinely bashed the Gators, used to piss me off! Anger is an emotion.

Here's what PK wrote about his dismissal:

"The bad news is that, three days before learning I'd won this award, 22 years at Florida Today newspaper ended with another bloody round of layoffs. The good news is that, on the very next day, I got an email from a gentleman in Nigeria who needs to funnel $26 million to this country. He needs my help to do it; and he's willing to split the sum with me. So I should be set. If not, I WILL NEED WORK. So what is my résumé? I've been writing for 33 years. I've worked at the Dallas Times Herald, the Los Angeles Daily News and Florida Today, where I was the columnist the past 18 years. As a beat writer, I've covered the Los Angeles Rams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Dolphins and the Florida Gators. Keep all that in mind, because if that Nigerian dude doesn't come through I WILL NEED WORK. I've won numerous writing awards, including first place finishes in APSE and the Florida Sports Writers Association for column and feature writing. The past three years in the FWAA writing contest, I've finished third, third and honorable mention for column writing. And now this - a first. Which is good, because if that big payday from Nigeria doesn't come through, I WILL NEED WORK."

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www.timebaughdesigns.com

I hope he got his half of the $26M. As I said before, I thought his columns reflected the fans' perspective and gave voice to a lot of the issues with sports today. I always looked for his column and agreed more than disagreed. The only perennial disagreement I had was his praise of all things Yankee. I HATE THAT TEAM AND EVERYTHING IT REPRESENTS!!!!!!!!!!!

Garcia, we see eye to eye. I'm a career Yankee hater.......so very nice to see them get dropped on their heads in the first round this year...

One of my favorite shirts....



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www.timebaughdesigns.com

A writer can either write for himself or write for his audience. A journalist who is a subset of a writer has to be writing for his audience and not himself. That was what was wrong with his articles. Not that I'm imature (well, maybe a little bit). I didn't like reading his stuff and after his alienating articles with the local ucf fans we all stopped paying attention to him. Florida Today probably looked at the numbers and his readership was dropping. His articles were boring and condescending. Thus, who wants to read that? Not me, so I thought they sucked. Sorry to offend a friend. Like I said, I'm sure he is a great guy, but I was not a fan of his articles. Good riddance...

Dave, Dave, Dave .... you have those gold & black goggles strapped on so tight it distorts your vision.

You think that Lil Mikey B is a great writer and wonderful human ..... when in fact his writing is grade school (at best) and is major prick in real life.

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"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do." - Bertrand Russell


"Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.


If I do not answer you .... nothing personal, I just have you on ignore.

Where did I say Bianchi is a great writer and wonderful human?

He is just a troll. But, occassional he writes pro -ucf articles. Thus, I read him. I would read stuff from Peter Keratosis if he wrote ucf articles also. But, he never did, and when he did it was very negative.

The last straw was when UCF won the conference last year against SMU. Instead of praising what a major achievement it was he knocked us down by pointing out the game wasn't sold out. Needless to say, UCF didn't know they were hosting the game until two weeks prior and SMU being based in Dallas, their fans were thin. No mention of that, just negative crap. Thus, yes, I'm biased. I admit that. The problem is he doesn't.

gotta know your audience.

Have a great day!

I think they let Mike Brown go as well in that same batch of asshattery.

Mike shot photos of every shuttle mission. He is a great photog and a great guy.

You know I just love to gig you on the whole UCF thing.

Lil Mikey is the ultimate homer columnist ..... when he was in Jax, the Jagwads and Gaytors never did anything wrong.



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"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do." - Bertrand Russell


"Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.


If I do not answer you .... nothing personal, I just have you on ignore.

Wow, sorry to hear that. Mike took some killer photos of me in a 1977 skateboard contest that ran in FT. Nice guy.

Of course unemployment sucks, but when a ship is sinking, it's the lucky ones who get off first. Best wishes to all of them, even Kerasotis.


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That boy's got somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata.

I'm not offended at all. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine
But your still bemoaning his treatment of UCF......it's certainly not because "his readership was dropping". Newspapers aren't equipped with Neilson boxes. Print news is on the outs and everybody knows that.
Gannett as well as all major dailies are cutting back big time. PK probably commanded the highest pay in the Sports dept. so it was a logical cut. More to come I'm sure.





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www.timebaughdesigns.com

"A writer can either write for himself or write for his audience." Is that the same as saying, "If he doesn't tell me what I already believe, good riddance"? I usually read people who DON'T agree with me, which, I hope, opens my mind to different perspectives. The problem nowadays is that too many people only read those that agree with them. Everybody else is stupid/ignorant/a tool of (fill in the blank). BTW - Mike Bianchi is the WORST homer I have ever seen - he is a huge cheerleader for giving the public's money to any sports interest that may come to Orlando (Magic, UCF, major league baseball, NHL, whatever) so he can get tickets (free) to see sporting events. He has no concept of ANYTHING except sports and we should give them anything or do anything the powers want or else we aren't a "major league city". I say to them, "Good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the arse."

yep i wrote for weeklies last year and a little sports here and there they laid off Ed Pierce editor of Weeklies and Marlyn Meyer, longtime person in charge of the weeklies the paper that comes in the little yellow bag for those of you who do not suscribe it is a tragedy that print media is defunct- I decided that going back to houscleaning was gonna be more profitable than writing for now- it is all about money and ads cannot support these wonderful little papers evidentally so to all the kids that were and are in little league sports, etc. no more coverage for ya, kinda miss that - local events are now just a column by Maria Sonnenberg- boring - oh well