Friday, October 03, 2003
Example of Overt Racism from a Blogger
Zee over at SpicedSass seems to just not care about what she says on her blog. I find it amazing that a human being is this racist and bigoted and prejudice all wrapped up in one.
WMD Revisionism
Some local revisionism on why we went to war.
We invaded Iraq because they we thought they weren't living up to their end of the UN resolutions. These finds, without a single WMD find, prove that they weren't.What Rob does not answer is why the war could not wait until say, now? Why not wait until we had the whole world on our side and we had a plan for what to after we won? What was the rush??? Oh yea, we were under imminent threat from WMD, that is why couldn't wait. Now of course we know there were no weapons, just plans for weapons. There are "plans" for weapons at UC. Why don't we invade Clifton? Those evil Bearcats are a threat to my Redhawks, damn it!
Detecting a Pattern?
Am I detecting a pattern with the latest Maggie Downs column? It is a very well written and a nice column, but why is it in the Metro Section? Is this coffee shop going to advertise with the Enquirer or the new Weekly? When is the weekly supposed to come out? It was slated for Fall and it is now Fall. Is Maggie the poster gal for the Real Life, Real News program? This is real life, but is it news? This column would make a very entertaining piece if it ran with video and was played during the 5 PM "news" hour on any of the Local TV stations. Is Maggie the manifestation of what Gannett wants to make its newspapers into? The print version of the Today Show?
I like Maggie's writing, and she is a really great person as well, but I wish she would write more about what is going on, not on what people could do in their spare time.
UPDATE: Wes Flinn adds some comments.
I like Maggie's writing, and she is a really great person as well, but I wish she would write more about what is going on, not on what people could do in their spare time.
UPDATE: Wes Flinn adds some comments.
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Young Politics
Greg Korte has a good take on young voters. This part is a bit self serving, but still very very true:
Notwithstanding the Internet, television remains the primary source for news for young people. And television does a poor job covering local campaigns - especially one in which 26 Cincinnati City Council candidates are competing for attention.Radio does a little better than TV in covering local politics here in Cincinnati, but the internet I think does a great job. And yes, that was very self-aggrandizing.
Real Life, Real News, Real Crap?
Jim Romenesko's Media Memos has a lengthly memo purportedly from Enquirer Editor Tom Callinan about a new program hitting Gannett newspapers and how it specifically affects the Enquirer. This plan, "Real Life, Real News" amounts to basically human interest market driven news. What we are going to get now is giving readers what they want, or say they want. We therefore can expect to get less of hard news. The marketing study part of this program indicates a gender and age gap. It seems that all that means to the Enquirer Management is that we (the readers) want to make the Metro section in a Tempo part deux. This except sums up what they are going to do to change their age gap:
A second negative appears to be an abandonment of the City of Cincinnati. The suburbs will now be the focus of the paper. Every example from the memo dealt with suburban issues. The Enquirer seems to be following the ways of WLW.
The only positive thing from this memo is the realization of the importance of the internet and an increase in special content for the internet. What that exactly entails was not detailed. The Enquirer has recently increased the number of times a day they are updating the front page of their website with news stories. This is a positive step. It would be nice to do this on the weekends too, but they would need to hire some new to do it, or just break down and hire me to do a blog (cough, cough).
More from Gannett.
UPDATE: Dr. Andrew Cline at Rhetorica has a very different view on this "new" program.
Real Life source: As we developed a product aimed at 25-34s, we created an e-mail list of several groups of young professionals and creatives and invited them for several get-acquainted discussions over the summer. The discussions reinforced much of what we have talked about - they are interested in local news about neighborhoods and things unique to Cincinnati, places to go and things to do, goods things happening in the community, news from their neighborhoods, restaurants, local music, travel ,careers, health and fitness, arts and culture. They want to see and hear from their own generation, not what they see as our out-of-touch critics. And, they talked about looking forward, not to the past (complaints about the "riots" obsession…and, Pete Rose - many of them were born after the Big Red Machine days).We are now going to get Dateline NBC and People Magazine in the pages of the Enquirer. If we young professionals care about what our politicians are doing I guess we are just shit out of luck. Charlie Luken, Simon Leis, and Phil Burress can do what ever the hell they want, but since the Enquirer seems to think "we" want to burry our heads in the sand, I guess we get the same crap you can watch on every Local TV station, FLUFF. Callinan tried to say this was not fluff, but it is. It is human interest gone amuck.
A second negative appears to be an abandonment of the City of Cincinnati. The suburbs will now be the focus of the paper. Every example from the memo dealt with suburban issues. The Enquirer seems to be following the ways of WLW.
The only positive thing from this memo is the realization of the importance of the internet and an increase in special content for the internet. What that exactly entails was not detailed. The Enquirer has recently increased the number of times a day they are updating the front page of their website with news stories. This is a positive step. It would be nice to do this on the weekends too, but they would need to hire some new to do it, or just break down and hire me to do a blog (cough, cough).
More from Gannett.
UPDATE: Dr. Andrew Cline at Rhetorica has a very different view on this "new" program.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Feeding Racists
Talk about generous, according to an inside source Cincinnati Tomorrow fed Nate Livingston and Amanda Mayes tonight at a special "After-Five Walk." It appears that Nate and Amanda were using the computers at Media Bridges and after the CincyTomorrow event there ended the word was passed in the building that they had a bunch of food left over and the first people to partake were Nate and Amanda. Doesn't that violate the boycott? Doesn't eating the "white man's" food somehow taint Nate? Is Kabaka Oba going to have to "purify" Nate from the "devil's" food?
ISP Problems
My cable Internet connection is giving me fits, so my posting will be intermittent. I am skipping my VigPol column this week. I apologize to my readers for that, and I promise to be back next week.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Local "Big" Media Blog
WCPO's Dennis Janson is trying his hand at blogging. DJ has in the past done commentary on WCPO's news broadcasts, but now is attempting it with his blog: Spare Change. So far there is only one post from last Friday. The post was purely commentary on the "No-Call List" which is about to take effect, but is being challenged in court.
Some criticism: first Dennis needs to loose the "centering" in his posting, that makes his post look like a poem. It might be poetry to DJ's ears, but it will not be taken that way by most readers. The more troubling problem is that this is written as broadcast copy, right down to his tag line at the end. Blogging is a literary form of journalism. Broadcast journalism conventions come across even more hokey in text form than on air. I hope Dennis revised his method and writes to a reading audience, not to one watching him. I also am disappointed that there is not more than one post. The element of blogging that makes it fun is the timeliness to it. If he is going to hand his copy to the web editor once a day, they might want to not call it a blog. He might want to provide reference links to what he is talking about, that adds depth to a blog post, and is generally part of the "standard" format for blogs. I welcome the addition of a professional outlet's blog, but at this point it needs more in it before I can even blogroll it, which is something he needs. Blogs are built on networking, and DJ's blog lacks any links to other blogs.
In light of the SacBee controversy of newspaper blogs, I wonder what kind of editing Dennis is subject to. So far it sounds like he will be edited to a degree, but until more posts arise, we will have to wait and see.
Some criticism: first Dennis needs to loose the "centering" in his posting, that makes his post look like a poem. It might be poetry to DJ's ears, but it will not be taken that way by most readers. The more troubling problem is that this is written as broadcast copy, right down to his tag line at the end. Blogging is a literary form of journalism. Broadcast journalism conventions come across even more hokey in text form than on air. I hope Dennis revised his method and writes to a reading audience, not to one watching him. I also am disappointed that there is not more than one post. The element of blogging that makes it fun is the timeliness to it. If he is going to hand his copy to the web editor once a day, they might want to not call it a blog. He might want to provide reference links to what he is talking about, that adds depth to a blog post, and is generally part of the "standard" format for blogs. I welcome the addition of a professional outlet's blog, but at this point it needs more in it before I can even blogroll it, which is something he needs. Blogs are built on networking, and DJ's blog lacks any links to other blogs.
In light of the SacBee controversy of newspaper blogs, I wonder what kind of editing Dennis is subject to. So far it sounds like he will be edited to a degree, but until more posts arise, we will have to wait and see.
Midpoint Music Festival
This is what happens when local people put on a local event with the cooperation from nearly all corners of the community, success. 30,000 people!!! I was one of those partake in MMF. I was impressed with both the turnout and the quality of the music I heard. I hope this event returns next year and I hope the national media takes notice. If the city would put the 100K earmarked for John Elkington instead into hiring a PR person to market MMF to the national market, we might double the turnout.
Monday, September 29, 2003
Being Made an Example?
Could Judge Patrick Dinkelacker have picked a worse target than an alleged rape victim to make an example for those who refuse to testify in court after filing complaints against people? His actions have been protested now by presumably rape victims support groups. Dinkelacker could have done a service to society by not picking this person to jail, while dismissing the case against the accused. I am concerned as to why this woman who go this far and now choose not to testify against her alleged attacker. Either she is being threatened or she made up the whole incident. Either way this is just a mess, and Dinkelacker's actions do nothing to help the situation.
The Fallible Peter Bronson
Greg Mann of Notes from Ground Level takes Peter Bronson to task for his column bashing the Ohio Supreme Court's Ruling on Conceal-Carry. Mr. Mann exposes Peter's ignorance of the law and even more his ignorance of the "Conservative" ideological view on interpretation of the law, which is generally how the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in upholding the existing law banning the carrying of concealed firearms. Peter seems to not like to hold true to his conservative values when they conflict with a need to appease a core constituency of the "conservative movement."
Meet the Whistleblower
The Genie is out of the bottle for Jim Schifrin, the one man show behind the Whistleblower Newswire. Mr. Schifrin is 64 years old, older than I would have thought. That is not a slam, by any means, just a credit to him. He has more sources than the best reporters in town. Often some of what he writes is mean and harsh and offensive, but in general he is mean and harsh and offensive to just about everyone. I am not surprised the Blower has been banned from City Hall, but I am saddened by it. If Dusty Rhodes can take the ribbing, why can't Luken and Lemmie? My highlight is that in tomorrow's edition of the Blower, the regular "Real Faxes From Real Subscribers" feature, my blog here got a reference in response to an email I sent on the Plain Dealer article:
At least the Blower doesn't get all blogged down. --The Cincinnati BlogI am happy I have not been skewered yet, but if he reads this I am sure to get my comeuppance.
New Blog: Unfolio
Unfolio a new locally based group blog has opened its doors:
After considerable deliberation on a name and design for this blog, we have finally opened our doors. Welcome! We are a blog, nay, a community, for the discussion of architecture and design and the events and ideas that surround them. (So of course we would take a while on the design.) My colleagues, Cindy, Carl and Mary, and I are all students of architecture at the University of Cincinnati with varying interests and aspirations. We hope that you will enjoy our discourses and possibly even join us in discussing the issues that shape our world today.I bid everyone a welcome to the Cincinnati Blogging world, and I hope they enjoy what I consider fun. My readers may disagree, but hell, it is fun for me.
Sunday, September 28, 2003
MIAMI 42, UC 37
Friday, September 26, 2003
More Miami U. Strike
The University has issued a press release on the Strike and they appear to not be backing down on anything. The rumors on the Strike are rippling throughout the campus. Reports are that the bulk of the push for the strike came from the Dinning Hall staff, who are amongst the lowest paid of all full time employees on campus. Less than half of the almost 900 staffers "covered" by the union were actually union members, around 400 to 450. Allegedly 70 of those members quit the union from the point the negotiations when down hill last month, and only 300 voted on the contract, so likely many more are no longer be members. Reports are that most of the non-dining hall staffers will break picket lines on Monday, no matter if the Strike is resolved or not. The physical facilities crews had a large percentage show up for work today, likely a majority of workers in those departments.
Reports also were made that some Professors either held classes off campus, or planned to do so because some students or the professors themselves did not want to "cross the picket line." That seems stupid. I assume if those students want to honor the same picket line they will not eat anywhere on campus, and will not even enter their dorm rooms, in fact since the grounds crews are covered here, they can’t step foot on campus and should just leave all together.
Reports also were made that some Professors either held classes off campus, or planned to do so because some students or the professors themselves did not want to "cross the picket line." That seems stupid. I assume if those students want to honor the same picket line they will not eat anywhere on campus, and will not even enter their dorm rooms, in fact since the grounds crews are covered here, they can’t step foot on campus and should just leave all together.
Niger-Gate?
This is fresh news via Talkingpointsmemo.com: MSNBC is reporting that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate the White House for allegedly leaking the identity of a CIA agent, a violation of federal law. The agent in question is the wife of Joseph Wilson, former Ambassador to Iraq and envoy sent to Niger to investigate reports or speculation that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African country. Wilson “discredited” those reports, but Bush still used the claim in his state of the Union address.
This story hitting on a Friday night is not a shock, burying news is the standard MO for this administration top to bottom. The timing may not matter, assuming the press does not ignore it. No one in the Bush camp can escape the power of the subpoena. This will be a test of life after the Independent Council Statute. Will John Ashcroft conduct a fair and impartial investigation? Will Congress hold hearings? Will Congress at least keep tabs on the thoroughness of the DOJ investigation?
This story hitting on a Friday night is not a shock, burying news is the standard MO for this administration top to bottom. The timing may not matter, assuming the press does not ignore it. No one in the Bush camp can escape the power of the subpoena. This will be a test of life after the Independent Council Statute. Will John Ashcroft conduct a fair and impartial investigation? Will Congress hold hearings? Will Congress at least keep tabs on the thoroughness of the DOJ investigation?
Miami University Workers Strike Causes Football Game to Loose TV Coverage
Well, this will accomplish nothing but make another generation of business leaders hate unions. Good Long term planning there Local 209 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees! Do you even have strike fund? Here is the kicker:
This is the kind of union that I really can't support. What are they fighting for? Now, I don't mean for people to spout off Union Rhetoric. The dispute was down to something like 6 points. The issue was about power. The union wants to take away power from the University. I can understand this point. Power to the people is a tempting path, but when only 35% of the people the union claims to represent actually vote on striking, and only 165 people voted to strike (19% of the total 860). How is that power to the people? That is power to a small minority of the people.
The TV coverage of "the Game" is being cancelled according to this post on www.miamihawktalk.com from a credible source. Reasons for the cancellation are related to the strike, which looks to make its big show at the football game. Having no TV coverage does take away a possible PR weapon the Union could use if they wanted to disrupt the actual game. Miami may be able to pick up another game later in the season, but official word will come later on today.
UPDATE: Here is the official press release from Miami on TV coverage being cancelled. No details were given as to why, specifically the game was cancelled in this release.
More details on the strike from the Miami Student: Here and Here. Both stories are very fair and show mutliple sides of the issue.
UPDATE#2: The Enquirer has caught up with the story.
About 300 union members voted.The union claims to represent 860 workers. In reality the 560 other workers, or close to it, are likely not actual paying union members. They will probably still be at work today. Miami is bringing in temporary workers to help feed the students. I wonder how many workers from the dining halls will actually not work and make it difficult to feed the students. That is kind. An unconfirmed report from last night indicated that the Shriver Center (the student union, aka the “Res”) was locked up. It is normally open 24 hours a day.
This is the kind of union that I really can't support. What are they fighting for? Now, I don't mean for people to spout off Union Rhetoric. The dispute was down to something like 6 points. The issue was about power. The union wants to take away power from the University. I can understand this point. Power to the people is a tempting path, but when only 35% of the people the union claims to represent actually vote on striking, and only 165 people voted to strike (19% of the total 860). How is that power to the people? That is power to a small minority of the people.
The TV coverage of "the Game" is being cancelled according to this post on www.miamihawktalk.com from a credible source. Reasons for the cancellation are related to the strike, which looks to make its big show at the football game. Having no TV coverage does take away a possible PR weapon the Union could use if they wanted to disrupt the actual game. Miami may be able to pick up another game later in the season, but official word will come later on today.
UPDATE: Here is the official press release from Miami on TV coverage being cancelled. No details were given as to why, specifically the game was cancelled in this release.
More details on the strike from the Miami Student: Here and Here. Both stories are very fair and show mutliple sides of the issue.
UPDATE#2: The Enquirer has caught up with the story.
Always Glad to Help
Jack Shafer of Slate's newest piece, "The Rat of Baghdad" came out on Wednesday and believe it or not I actually was able to provide some background information for his story. I tracked the reporters who were in Baghdad during the Iraq War, so he was able to get an idea of the players in question that affected New York Times reporter John Burns, the subject of Jack's story. I am not mentioned in the piece; my posts back during the war were just a research too for Jack, but hell, I will take credit for anything I remotely may have had a hand in. If my work can provide any positive service or value to anyone, then I actually feel like what I do is worthwhile, beyond keeping me sane of course.
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Even Liberal FOX News
FOX News has a story that David Kay's report on WMD in Iraq has so far produced little or nothing. What I find most interesting is that there is no author listed for this story other than "Fox News" and that the following was included in the report:
Seriously for a second, I think FOX News can no longer consider that they, in their own minds of course, are even remotely objective or "Fair and Balanced" if they don't report the fact that Bush's main reason for going to war was that Iraq was a threat to the USA through the existence of WMD and a future threat with on going WMD programs. If there are leaks from the administration that David Kay has found neither WMD nor any serious ongoing WMD programs, then Bush may be losing some of his conservative support. No one likes to be lied to. Liberals did not like being lied to be Bill Clinton, but in the end his lies did not harm anyone outside his family so it was easier to overlook them. Bush misleading people on this did cause harm to others, and that is unforgivable, even for one of his fellow Republicans. They will still support the ends of the Iraq war and defend Bush on that, but they will not be able to refute the lack of WMD, and thus loose one edge in the debate on Bush’s foreign policy.
This is really wishful thinking on may part for FOX News. I hope this is their tact, even if just for one day it is still a nice respite from the propaganda. The rest of the conservative media will likely still rattle on by downplaying the importance of WMD to Bush's threat claims or by just ignoring it all together. And so it goes.
UPDATE: What was I thinking? I am a sucker. FOX suckered me, well a little. I missed a key word in the excerpt I used above, "weapons programs." I missed the "programs" part and just read weapons, and thought it meant WMD. I should instead be screaming about the clear bias in this story, but it is a shock they even ran it. I guess Bill O'Reilly should get the praise still, even thought he did not really follow up with Rice when she failed to answer the WMD questions.
UPDATE#2: Nothing yet from the 800-pound gorilla nor the Corner on this story. If is from a source they can't claim is "biased," now can they?
The United States and Britain made their case for war arguing that Saddam's weapons program was an imminent threat to their national security.Couple this with the fairly tough questions asked of Condi Rice by Bill O'Reilly, one has to ask, has FOX News turned on Bush? I know, I know, they have always been "fair and balanced." (Cough, Couch) The only other possibility I can fathom is that Al Franken infiltrated the GOP News headquarters and spiked someone's coffee.
Seriously for a second, I think FOX News can no longer consider that they, in their own minds of course, are even remotely objective or "Fair and Balanced" if they don't report the fact that Bush's main reason for going to war was that Iraq was a threat to the USA through the existence of WMD and a future threat with on going WMD programs. If there are leaks from the administration that David Kay has found neither WMD nor any serious ongoing WMD programs, then Bush may be losing some of his conservative support. No one likes to be lied to. Liberals did not like being lied to be Bill Clinton, but in the end his lies did not harm anyone outside his family so it was easier to overlook them. Bush misleading people on this did cause harm to others, and that is unforgivable, even for one of his fellow Republicans. They will still support the ends of the Iraq war and defend Bush on that, but they will not be able to refute the lack of WMD, and thus loose one edge in the debate on Bush’s foreign policy.
This is really wishful thinking on may part for FOX News. I hope this is their tact, even if just for one day it is still a nice respite from the propaganda. The rest of the conservative media will likely still rattle on by downplaying the importance of WMD to Bush's threat claims or by just ignoring it all together. And so it goes.
UPDATE: What was I thinking? I am a sucker. FOX suckered me, well a little. I missed a key word in the excerpt I used above, "weapons programs." I missed the "programs" part and just read weapons, and thought it meant WMD. I should instead be screaming about the clear bias in this story, but it is a shock they even ran it. I guess Bill O'Reilly should get the praise still, even thought he did not really follow up with Rice when she failed to answer the WMD questions.
UPDATE#2: Nothing yet from the 800-pound gorilla nor the Corner on this story. If is from a source they can't claim is "biased," now can they?
Hats Off to Todd Portune
Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, the only Democrat on the commission, has been the GOP's political enemy here for many years. People on the right really don't like his politics and his political tactics. Todd has been going through some very difficult health problems that have left him in a wheel chair. He still has long road ahead before he will be able to walk again, but for now he goes forward and now is able to get around town on his own. I hope people can look at Todd, no matter his politics, and admire the man for this kind of effort. He gets a lot of flack from people, and often it is not underserved, but I tip my hat to him for his courage, ability to face life head on, and his strength to keep on working towards walking to work real soon.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)