Saturday, April 23, 2005

Downtown Joseph-Beth Store?

Nick Spencer posted on news from Joseph-Beth Booksellers that they are interested in opening a Fountain Square location.

This is wonderful news for downtown retail and the movement to build up the Fountain Square area as a beacon for entertainment and shopping. Where might it go?

Housekeeping

I have added several additional local blogs to the blogroll, including a couple right leaning bloggers and a couple of extreme right wingers. I also added two blogs of folks who helping out with some web work for the Fringe Fest.

In addition, I have updated my comments to include a "preview" function to allow people to see what their post will look like before publishing it. That is most useful for those will to post links. If you do post links, try to use the "a" tag when possible. Long URLs tend to look bad and cause havoc when trying to read the post.

If there are other blogs out there I am missing or if there are other improvements I could easily make to the blog, please let me know.

If It Doesn't Bleed Gallons, Don't Bother?

Why is that when a car bomb goes off in Iraq it just gets a quickly little headline, the number of dead, and that's it. Every time a car bomb goes off in Israel we get the cable channels going live with breaking news?

There are some factors at play here that are structural bias. Israel has a bigger media community of its own, so they of course will carry it live and the cable channels can just feed off them for coverage. The second reason is that at this point in time there are fewer bombings in Israel, so when one happens it is more newsworthy.

What may be the biggest structural problem is that no television journalists are really in Iraq on a big scale doing much on the ground reporting. I don't know if I have seen much more than random footage of events in Iraq recently and that is when the journalists are on patrol or escorted by US troops.

Those aside, why is that when multiple car bombs go off on a single day in Iraq we don't get live Baghdad coverage of it? Are we so unphased by 10 killed or 8 killed because we now only get on our ears about terrorist acts that kill in the hundreds? Now, if those 10 or 8 were Americans you get more attention, but now a days even that is not enough.

The news media, ALL if it from FOX to CNN to NBC to Talk Radio, have illustrated their callousness and total attention to ratings (or other agendas), not to journalism. The print media, as usual, has done a better job, but if its not on TV it just doesn't matter to most Americans.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Small World

John Bolton, nominee US Ambassador to the UN was one of the GOP Lawyers in Palm Beach County, FLA in 2000 for the post election maneuvering. This has no real bearing on his confirmation, but it is interesting. I first thought this was a fake picture, but apparently not. I do wonder, did every lawyer or activist who went to Florida in 2000 get a spot in the Administration?

[VIA Kos]

Susquehanna Media Co. For Sale

Media division of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Co. is looking sell all of it's media holdings. Locally it includes radio stations WRRM-FM (WARM 98), WYGY-FM (96.5), and WMOJ-FM (MOJO 94.9). Which media giant will get them? Would a major radio ownership shift cause more format changes?

Kaldi's Closed

In what can't be deemed a surprise, Kaldi's closed. When you give up your liquor license, close at 7 PM, and then expect to make money with a location in the Main Street Entertainment District, it should not shock you when it does not work.

Word is that a deal is close on a new owner who hopefully will get a liquor license, and then return it to a similar, yet improved structure. Speed of the service staff would be priority number 1.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

I'm So Vain, I Do Think This Song Is About Me

Call me vain, but I think this is about me.

My response: hmmmm. Do I have to be kind, courteous, and forgiving? Can I spew some venom? Do I always do that? I have my regular targets. Everyone knows, well those who read me regularly that is, that I rebut Peter Bronson. Do I do it to every column? No, I do not. Do people have to like what I write? No, they do not.

To be honest for a minute: Let me say that I am not doing this to win an award. I am not doing this to get a job writing professionally. I don't write well enough for that. I do this because I enjoy it. It is an outlet for me. I can say what I want, and surprisingly there are a few people who read what I write. Am I out here in some kind of altruistic crusade to improve the world, hell no. I am hear to render my opinion. People are generally free to bitch back. When I get bitched at, like now, I might bitch back, like now.

I say what I think. I also say things to piss people off. I try to parse my words as carefully as I can, and often people do not want to catch on, because they assume I am just like every other person on my side of isle. Those who know, I think know differently. I am not out here trying to be Mr. Universe, though I do have the legs for it. I am out here to put my two cents into the fray. If I can air ideas that you can't read about any other place in town, then good. I will not be what others want me to be. I try to be what I want to be. Call me vain, call me an ego maniac, call me Fred. I will not stop you. Don't call me a one trick pony. You can say I am beating a dead horse (when you have a belief and stick to it, that is what it can look like), but for fuck sake, if I suck so bad, and people hate posting here, then don't do it.

Otherwise, have a nice evening!