Filmmakers: Moroney Wanted To See A ‘Treatment’

It’s no secret that the new documentary called Stop The Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril pretty well skewers Belo’s Dallas Morning News. Filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Manny Mendoza (from left, with Ed Bark, at Saturday’s Uncle Barky Show at Stratos Greek Taverna) set out originally to examine the DMN buyouts, after all, before casting their nets much wider. But it was still interesting to hear the filmmakers describe this weekend how DMN bigwigs Robert Decherd and Jim Moroney III conducted themselves during the documentary’s making. Jump to find out.

During Bark’s live show, Mendoza recalled for a good-sized crowd at Stratos how the filmmakers had approached Moroney about doing an interview to be included in the documentary, only to be told: “Let me see a treatment.”

They put something together and delivered it to the DMN publisher, Mendoza went on, but after reading the summary Moroney declined to appear in the film at that point, adding, “come back later.”

Eventually, the filmmakers decided to hold out for an interview with Decherd only. They made “a couple of calls” to the Belo CEO, Mendoza said, but “never heard back from him.”

Shouted a voice in the Uncle Barky audience: “What a shock!”