Local Tie to Bush in 30 Seconds Contest

I missed this article from a few weeks back on the local ties to the MoveOn.org contest to create a 30 second commercial on President Bush. 2 people from Cincinnati were among the finalists who produced commercials for the contest.

The MoveOn.org contest grew added attention recently when CBS refused to air their commercial during the Superbowl this weekend. The reason given was that the "spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising." This seems odd because CBS is airing an anti-drug commercial funded by the Bush Administration which if is the same one that aired on FOX in 2002 links drug use to support for terrorism, a highly dubious and discredited claim.

UPDATE: Rick Bird reports the controversy in his media column.

'Liberal' Hawks

Eric Alterman in a Nation column hits hard on the big media journalists/analysts who are professed or perceived to be liberals, but were supporters of the Iraq war, in general principle. I like the last line of the column:

America is truly Groundhog Day Nation: insisting on our right to ignore our own history and forever condemned to repeat it.

I would pose an additional question: what makes a liberal hawk into a Bush supporter? There are many bloggers out there who are not conservatives in the least, and have in the past been liberals or a "liberal-libertarian" or neo-liberal, who side with the Democrats most of the time, or at least feel most comfortable with Democratic leadership. They still will mock leadership, but mocking leaders is something that I hope everyone does from time to time, just to keep them from growing iron feet.

This group I think includes Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis, Dennis Miller, and others. Increasingly I read or listen to what they are saying and it is becoming a personal attack on "liberalism" or Democrats or it becomes homage to Bush on an issue, mostly 'War on Terrorism' or the Iraq War related. Is this division an anomaly or a trend? On the conservative side there is a growing split against Bush as well, on the War and on his domestic spending plans. Is this a period of political realignment or of conception of a four party political system?

One note: the term ?liberal hawk? traditionally would include me. I am not a peacenik in any sense of the word. I supported the Afghanistan War, the Kosovo War, and Gulf War I. I think in this case the term is meant specifically on the Iraq War which initially I was open to using force, but not in a pre-emptive non-UN sanctioned manner.

Are You Threatening Me?

BushCo pushed the "Threat Meme" to a constant stream of propaganda. The Center for American Progress has a list of many of big public mentions that Iraq was a "threat" to America. No WMD, No threat. Who in the administration read the intelligence and let all of this dogma go on? It couldn't be a specially created group in the Defense Department, could it? Who did the "Office of Special Plans" report to, and where they the filter of the intelligence that spun the level of "threat" of Iraq?

Former Campaign Treasurer for John Boehner Sentenced

Republican Rep. John Boehner's former campaign treasurer, Russell E. Roberts, was sentenced to two years for stealing $617,562 in contributions. Roberts reportedly took to the money to feed a gambling habit. He has been ordered to pay for restitution. If you hire a dishonest person, does that mean your judgment is lacking, and maybe you are not the best person for public office?

Mike Allen on the Stand

A Federal judge has ruled that Mike Allen, Hamilton County Prosecutor, can be required to testify in a lawsuit filed by families of individuals involved in the incidents surrounding Cincinnati photographer Thomas Condon's action in the county morgue. Allen, and others can be questioned "a possible cover-up of an investigation into the county morgue that resulted in serving a prison sentence."

The judge went out of his way to say that his actions do not mean he thinks there was a cover-up, but that questions may be asked in a civil suit. What is at stake here is that no senior county morgue officials, especially the coroner, have yet been prosecuted for allowing Condon to photo graph corpses in the morgue, and that theories have been floated that the Prosecutor's office did not pursue or knowingly quashed an investigation into anyone other than one low level morgue employee.

97X Owner's Speak Out

Sledge has direct comments from Linda Balogh, who along with her husband Doug own WOXY. Sledge also has some additional detail on what will happen with the staff of the website.

State of the State: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Taft spoke. Did anyone listen? The Enquirer has commented. We have around 6% unemployment in Ohio, higher than the national average. How will Taft's plan of doing the same old thing make it any better?

Surprise Surprise Surprise

Damon Lynch opposes City Manager Valerie Lemmie's plan to hire police from Cleveland.

"Cleveland cops kill more people than Cincinnati cops do," said Lynch, an Over-the-Rhine pastor who emerged as a key civil rights leader after the police shooting death of Timothy Thomas in 2001. "It's just unfathomable."

So if Cleveland kills more people than Cincinnati, why is Lynch and company making such a fuss about the cops here? Why is there not a boycott on Cleveland? Where is the Cleveland Black United Front? Is Damon Lynch thinking about starting a franchise there? He has had experience with franchising.

Twitty's Record Clean

Former Assistant Police Chief Ron Twitty has his misdemeanor conviction relating to his an incident with his police issued car. The benefit and meaning of this is

A clean record will allow Twitty to seek another law enforcement job, if he chooses.

Reportedly Twitty had law enforcement job possibilities, but is not giving details.

Pre-emptive Warning?

If you are planning a Spring offensive against Al Qaeda, why would anyone leak that to the press? Is it another smoke-them-out plan? Make them think you know where they are which forces them to move, then they are out in the open and vulnerable. Now that is a good idea, but if I am right about why they are doing it, what keeps a terrorist from figuring it out?

Bam, the Future of Rock and Roll Looks Bleak

97X, WOXY-FM Oxford, Ohio, has been sold to a Texas company for $5.6 million. The company spokesman indicates over air broadcasting will change format:

According to Stern, the Oxford station plans to continue its format online, while First Broadcasting puts other programming on the frequency.

On woxy.com the news was broken with a bit of confusion:

We're a little stunned ourselves to announce the sale of WOXY to First Broadcasting Investment Partners of Dallas. The FCC approval process takes about three months, so the switch should occur sometime around May 1st. So that's a big change...

But! Our plans are to continue 97X The Future of Rock and Roll right here at woxy.com, including our internet broadcast. Over the next 90 days we'll be looking for sponsors or investors who will enable us to make this site and stream better than ever. We may be the first terrestrial radio station ever to make the full-time jump to the Internet!

Online the Future is bright, but will the airwaves in Oxford fall back into a county or bland pop music fog? Will First Broadcasting own the online station? Will the online station work a special deal with Miami to channel the signal through local cable stations? Will 97X send a feed to any of the satellite radio services? Will 97X survive?

The best independent radio station in America is no more. I think one could call this selling out. I think in fact few could call it anything else, at least not with a straight face. I hope 97X can find a way to grow online and become an even bigger international source of new rock music. I fear, however, for the local radio listeners in the Oxford area.

UPDATE: According to Sledge's Blog which has a copy of the full press release, the sale is only of the over the air station as indicated in this quote from 97X owners:

Balogh comments that "we always envisioned a time when we would separate and sell our local terrestrial broadcast signal and continue to grow our website and Internet broadcast. The Internet has proven to be the perfect environment for a cutting-edge, niche format like ours. We are currently pursuing sponsors and investors for this venture."

That sounds like a better future for the station, more freedom to air what they want, but what will happen with the studios. This sounds like to me that 97X will keep its studios, and the new company will either lease them or build new ones. The may just relay prefab network programming, which kills another local source of information. More McMedia brought to you courtesy of the FCC.

UPDATE#2: Sadgirlseven reports that most of the people at the station are being laid off in three months. If the station continues online with backers, I don't know if that means they might keep their jobs. I will speculate that the new owner will not be hiring them, so unless the online station gets off the ground, they will be gone. That news is horrible. It makes me think of Mrs. Carlson coming in and replace everyone at WKRP with a machine. I don't think that is far from what will happen with the over-the-air station.

UPDATE#3: After a bit more research I believe that at this point the staff situation at 97X is up in the air. The business side of the operation will likely have a different fate than the production side. Sadgirl's information according to what I can decipher is not the whole story.

UPDATE#4: The Hamilton-Journal has a story. Also the Press Release from First Broadcasting.

UPDATE#5: Some 97X history for you, including a historical mp3.

CinWeekly: Go Miami

If you scroll down on Cinweekly's "You Tell Us" page, the "Brian G." mentioned might be someone I know.

LaShawn Pettus-Brown Googled into Custody

LaShawn Pettus-Brown is not a professional fugitive. He went on a date with a computer literate women who maybe saw right through Pettus-Brown's act and thought that maybe he was to good to be true. She decided to Google him, and that led her to the FBI. Score one in the fight against crime to Google.com.

UPDATE: This made a Guardian column.

Luken and Miller Sitting in a Tree

Greg Korte writes today about Mayor Charlie Luken sitting next to Dennis Miller at the SOTU. A coup for Korte for getting this scoop on "hot" topic, at least on my blog. I could take this as a joke on me, but with Dean being the Blog candidate it still makes perfect sense beyond my myopic view of the world:

But when the speech started, Miller cheered like a blogger at a Howard Dean rally. "He must have stood up 70 or 80 times," said Luken, who said he himself only stood up half as often.

Greg also showed Councilman Chris Smitherman continuing his rookie mistakes. I think Smitherman has a bit of an ego and over worked sense of self-importance. Pointing out Smitherman's lack of explanation regarding why he needed to know what High School each police officer attended is something that I wish more local media would pick up. It would be very interesting to learn why Smitherman needed to know that less than 60% went to Cincinnati area schools. The line referenced Chris's father being the principal of the #2 school was classic and I think the Whistleblower had it first too.

New Miami Prof Media Blog

Christopher S. Kelley, a professor at Miami, has a media watchdog blog called "Media Watch." I will be checking it out and may add it to my roll.

Cincinnati Post Editorial

The Post comes close to calling out the President on where the WMD's are. Will the Enquirer do the same? I will guess they will stick to their spin from last year. They were ahead of the Bush spin by a few months, or were just willing participants to ignore the WMD issue from the start. I guess being lied to is something journalists are used to, and they discount it, even from a President.

Missing Questions for Jack Espelage

Mr. Espelage: Have you forgotten about WMD? Or do the ends justify the means and getting Saddam was worth it? I wonder when we invade North Korea to free their people. How about China? How about Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria? How about half of the former Soviet Republics?

Bottom line for Jack: Yes getting Saddam was a positive for the world, but the means to do so were not good in the long run. We could have waited 6 months or more to act, but politics prevented that from happening. We did not need to fight this war. Bush chose to fight it. You can like that choice, but you will have to ignore the misinformation you were given about Iraq's WMD's and ties to "terrorism." If you like being the manipulated fool, doing the bidding for your dear leader, that is your right. I would suggest you understand that the rest of us don't like being lied to, and Ted Kennedy was right to shake his head at Bush during the SOTU.

Playing to the Ignorant Crowd?

I know the Enquirer is trying to appeal to the suburbs, but are they trying on purpose to appeal to extreme religious groups who embrace myth and try to make it into a faux-science, a step below pseudoscience. Answers in Genesis does not need the press, what it needs is critical journalism. All this article does is provide a tourism advertisement to a den of theocratic indoctrination.

Secret Service Say's No to City

The U.S. Secret Service will not review the 1998 video of a police officer being interrogated when he allegedly used the "N-word." There reason for no helping was that they do not want to establish a precedent of examining information for something not involved in a criminal investigation.

Blood, Blood, Blood Makes the Ice Red

Miami University sports teams get little coverage here in Cincinnati. The Miami Hockey program get even less. It is great to see my classmate Enrico Blasi and his team get good press.