"Revenge is a dish best served cold," so the old saying goes.
At the Santa Barbara News-Press, revenge is, more often than not, served warmed over and rehashed.
Take editorial page editor Travis Armstrong's op-ed page column that appeared in Saturday's edition of the paper. Emerging once again from Armstrong's microwave oven --for what seems like the umpteenth time-- is, TV station KEYT.
No. There will be no reprieves, no pardons and evidently no clemency granted for the local ABC affiliate's "crime" of having covered the meltdown of the News-Press over the last two years.
For that, Armstrong has never forgiven KEYT.
In the two years since the meltdown, Armstrong has never passed up an opportunity, and certainly created a few opportunities that didn't even exist, to lambast the station's management and on-air talent.
Last February, he took up the cause of KEYT's competitor KSBY out of San Luis Obispo, when they complained to the Nielsen rating service about KEYT.
In September, he ridiculed the station's coverage of the Gap fire and pummeled them over the holiday party video.
So, on Saturday, the KEYT leftovers were once again removed from the freezer, thawed-out, reheated and served up.
And it's the same old leftovers; the Gap Fire, Nielsengate and the video.
Why bring all of this up again? Turns out it's just a pretext to serve up a new morsel that has recently come to Armstrong's attention; a link to an incoherent website that was put together by KEYT reporter John Palminteri's former girlfriend who apparently is seeking some revenge of her own.
I somehow got the distinct feeling though that even Armstrong is not willing to fully embrace whatever it is that Palminteri's ex is trying to say. Rather than summarize what the allegations are, he just mentioned the URL and said "decide for yourself."
Kind of like throwing a rock at a window and then running away.
Which is pretty much all that ever happens these days over at the News-Press opinion pages.
