Media: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Now the Kochs target newspapers

Max Brantley — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:27:00 -0500

The billionaire Koch brothers have a massive imprint, from energy to forest products to multi-tentacled political front groups including the likes of Americans for Prosperity, important in the Republican takeover of the Arkansas legislature.

It ain't enough.

Now they want to control the messengers, too.

NY Times reports on their interest in buying major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Los Angeles Times.

As in most things, for people with the Kochs' money, I'd note that Arkansas could be bought cheaply. A good offer to Walter Hussman and Warren Stephens and, in a twinkling, the Kochs would control the editorial voice of most of the daily newspaper circulation in Arkansas. I hasten to add that's not on the table. Yet anyway.

The Times observes on the Kochs' interest in the Tribune newspapers:

The papers, valued at roughly $623 million, would be a financially diminutive deal for Koch Industries, the energy and manufacturing conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenue of about $115 billion.

Politically, however, the papers could serve as a broader platform for the Kochs’ laissez-faire ideas. The Los Angeles Times is the fourth-largest paper in the country, and The Tribune is No. 9, and others are in several battleground states, including two of the largest newspapers in Florida, The Orlando Sentinel and The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. A deal could include Hoy, the second-largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, which speaks to the pivotal Hispanic demographic.

One person who attended the Aspen seminar who spoke on the condition of anonymity described the strategy as follows: “It was never ‘How do we destroy the other side?’ ”

“It was ‘How do we make sure our voice is being heard?’ ”

Also: How do you make sure there are no other voices, or voices so weak they can be easily outshouted by a conglomerate of legislative lobbyists, political pressure groups and dominant news media.

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Politico plugs the Times' David Ramsey

Max Brantley — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:01:00 -0500

Nice plug in Politico for the Times' David Ramsey's coverage of the unfolding Medicaid expansion debate in Arkansas:

— ARKANSAS REPORTER MIXES IT UP WITH FORBES COLUMNIST OVER EXPANSION — David Ramsey, whose reporting for the Arkansas Times on his state’s unusual Medicaid expansion approach set the tone of a national conversation, shredded Forbes’s Avik Roy yesterday, contending the columnist ignored important facts on the subject. Roy used a column yesterday to disparage the deal Arkansas is working on — namely to take Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion dollars but use them to buy private coverage through the state’s insurance exchange. Roy called the arrangement a bad deal in part because Medicaid patients are supposed to have access to “any willing provider” of medical services, regardless of cost. But Ramsey reported that Arkansas’s version of expansion wouldn’t be subject to the “any willing provider” rule and would still engender competition on the state exchange. The Roy column:

And

Ramsey’s response.

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Alice 107.7 DJ DC McGhee issues statement

David Koon — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:54:50 -0600

A short statement from Alice 107.7 morning show host DC McGhee (whose real name is Willard Moran), was posted on the Alice 107.7 Facebook page last night. Moran was reported missing last Friday morning after he didn't come to work, sparking a wide search around his house and much fretting by fans of the popular show. He was later found sleeping in his own attic. He hasn't appeared on the morning show since.

The message:

"To my family, my friends and fans of Alice 107.7. After the events of last Friday, I have decided to seek treatment for certain personal and medical issues that I have been dealing with for some time. While I regret being away from the show during this time, I look forward to getting back to work in the near future. I appreciate your support during this difficult time.
Much Love, DC"

The message reminds us of another beloved local radio personality who has been through his own share of troubles of late.

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Popular morning DJ DC McGhee reported missing

David Koon — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:22:51 -0600

Alice 107.7 morning show DJ Eugene "DC" McGhee of the "Heather and D.C. in the Morning" show has been reported missing after failing to show up for work this morning.

Family members reportedly became concerned, and went to McGhee's house. His car was found there, but he was nowhere to be found. The Lonoke County Sheriff's Office is investigating the disappearance as a missing person's case, and is reportedly searching woods near McGhee's home in Cabot. A post on the Alice 107.7 Facebook page says the station doesn't know anything more than the media right now, and asks listeners for prayers.

Here's a 2004 story we did on McGhee when he and his partner Heather Brown won our Best of Arkansas Poll for Best Radio Personalities.

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Russellville publisher wants news-collecting drone

David Koon — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:08:00 -0600

Rick Fahr, former publisher of the Log Cabin Democrat, has found a new job, taking the publisher's seat of the River Valley Leader in Russellville on November 26. The more interesting news is the direction he's thinking of taking news collection, as in: straight up, via unmanned, news-collecting drone aircraft.

Recently on his Facebook account, Fahr said that he's had theories he's wanted to put into action for years, and will pursue those with his new position. "First wild thing we're gonna pursue?" Fahr wrote, "Eye in the Sky. We'll probably call it RVL1 — a camera-equipped helicopter or drone that will give us the ability to cover all sorts of happenings like never before (at least for any media outlet not a major TV station)."

Crazy idea? Sure. But not as crazy (or expensive) as you might think — even for a small media outlet like the River Valley Leader. Politico reported in November on a project by a Missouri NPR affiliate which would use a $25,000 grant from the University of Missouri to research and build several news-collecting drone aircraft.

As the North Little Rock Police Department could probably tell you, the FAA has strict regulations on drones and slip ups can lead to catastrophic crashes — not to mention death, given that a drone is basically a flying lawnmower. But if the red tape ever clears, media drones would be loads cheaper than the news helicopters of yesteryear.

Arkansas Blog Air Force, anyone?

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Investigative reporter Dewayne Graham, dead at 63

David Koon — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:49:44 -0600

Former Little Rock TV News investigative reporter Dewayne Graham, who made a name for himself as the face of KATV's "7 on Your Side" and later ran for public office, passed away yesterday at age 63 after what a friend said was a long illness.

Graham worked as an investigative reporter for both KATV and KLRT during his long career. He ran for U.S. Congress in 2000 and was defeated in a runoff by Mike Ross, and ran unsuccessfully for Pulaski County Sheriff in 2006.

I spoke to Graham for the Arkansas Times media column in January 2005 following his departure from KLRT, where he said his assignments amounted to running "rat and roach patrol" at local restaurants, and doing “live shots in front of empty buildings in the dark." Quite a character, as I recall.

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Neal Gladner resigns as GM of Crain Media

Lindsey Millar — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:49:27 -0600

Longtime Arkansas radio personality Neal Gladner offered his resignation to Crain Media today. He'd been the general manager of Crain Media for two years in addition to hosting the morning show on Fresh Talk 93.3 FM. Before that, he was director of sales for US Stations, LLC in Hot Springs for two years, which followed 24 years as general manager and morning host on KARN in Little Rock.

Gladner said he's leaving Arkansas for another opportunity that he can't yet divulge. He won't be on-air in his new position.

"It was a very difficult decision. I've made so many friends in my time here," he said.

He'll continue on Fresh Talk for at least another week.

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The Daily Show revels in Fox's election night 'avalanche on B.S. mountain"

Max Brantley — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:10:50 -0600

An Obama victory, Karl Rove, Fox News — a priceless opportunity for Jon Stewart who slam dunks.

Sorry, the embed function isn't working, but you can watch the clip at the Daily Show site.

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Desperate days for the Republican attack machine

Max Brantley — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:04:58 -0500

How desperate is the Republican attack machine?

Yesterday, Drudge, Hannity, Daily Caller and other foot soldiers in the Republican echo chamber breathlessly trumpeted release of a video of a speech Barack Obama gave five years ago.

Startling revelation: Obama said nice things about Jeremiah Wright, then his pastor.

Problems: The speech was open to the press. Copies of the speech were distributed. The speech was covered by press. Fox News reported on it. MSNBC reported on it. Jeremiah Wright, you've heard about.

This is what passes as an "exclusive" in Drudge and Hannity Land, the faith-based world where they are never dictated by fact-checkers.

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New Oxford American editor Roger Hodge shares plan

Lindsey Millar — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:59:00 -0500

Roger Hodge, the new editor of the Oxford American magazine, spoke to a full crowd tonight at the Clinton School. With prompts from moderator Jay Jennings, he talked about his time at Harper's, where he spent much of his professional career, "clawing his way to the top" from an intern in 1996 to editor, a position he held from 2006 until 2010. Lewis Lapham, long time editor of Harper's had been a mentor, he said, imparting to him the "importance and sancity and the power of the first person singular." Which I think means he believes in empowering writers (Lapham has used the first-person singular line before, including in his praise for Hodge in the OA release). Inspired by working at Harper's along with "a group of people who...have now taken over magazines," including Mother Jones co-editor Clara Jeffrey, GQ editor Jim Nelson and Texas Monthly editor Jake Silverstein, he said he hopes to foster a similar culture, where talented, if often unproven, editors and writers can flourish.

Later, after a question from someone in the crowd about the ownership structure of Harper's, he joked that he wasn't going to say anything bad about Rick MacArthur, the publisher and primary benefactor of Harper's who fired Hodge in 2010, if that's what the questioner was after. (He's been more candid elsewhere.) He also sidestepped an opportunity to be critical of his predecessor, Marc Smirnoff, when asked what he didn't like about the magazine, saying things like every editor does things differently, that he "will enter into a conversation with the traditions of this magazine with the same amount of respect I expect our writers to approach their material" and that an editor should be a coach, not a dictator. Adding more character- and narrative-focused literary journalism is a priority, he said.

Left up to him, the magazine wouldn't increase frequency beyond a quarterly. He covered all of his bases on the "is web the future of magazines?" question, embracing the likelihood of some ever-evolving, not-yet-imagined technology as the true future of magazines and talking of his love for gadgets, while expressing his fondness for the physicality of printed magazines, but noting how environmentally devastating they can be. He was less convincing when talking about the place of long-form literary journalism in a world driven by social media: "Social media is a fad. In some form its going to continue just like everything else that comes along continues, but the enthusiasm that people have for it is going to abate... Eventually you're going to have to nourish your soul, and I'm sorry, but 140 characters isn't enough." Social media and long-form journalism or fiction aren't necessarily, or even often, oppositional forces, I'd argue. They're complementary.

Though he's spent most of his adult life in New York, he has Southern bona fides. His family has been ranching in southwest Texas since the 1880s. And Texas, he said, is obviously Southern, "culturally, historically, politically." He went to college at Sewanee, The University of the South. His great-great-great grandfather was born in Tennessee. Kudzu grew all the way up to his grandmother's porch. Andrew Lytle taught him to drink bourbon. Most of that came in response to a question about his relationship with the South, though I suspect he has anecdotes at the ready for those who would criticize his CV as not sufficiently Southern (charges lamely leveled at Smirnoff and publisher Warwick Sabin in the past).

While I suspect the OA has survived at least partly on the largess of people who see it as vehicle for preserving and promoting the South, but care little of it beyond what it symbolizes on their coffee table, I'm hopeful that Hodge mostly ignores issues of Southern identity and the rah-rah South stuff. It's boring and terribly limiting. There are many more great stories to be found that happen to be set in the South than there are great stories about the South. I say this, in full disclosure, as someone who worked at the magazine almost a decade ago.

I asked Hodge about commuting to Conway, which was noted in an initial New York Times piece on his hiring. He said he has a very-strong willed family with a teen-aged son in a strong arts school in Manhattan and on the varsity soccer team and suggested that his wife might be hesistant to move, though he joked, "I think when I bring her down here and you all go to work on her, we can get something done." He plans to be in the office often, he said, but will also work remotely.

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No cure for insomnia: The Atlantic on Obama and race, cars, sex and more

Max Brantley — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:59:10 -0500

A body clock jangled by the time zone change kept me up most of the night. I devoted my waking hours to a cover-to-cover reading of the latest copy of The Atlantic.

Give it early my rave of the week for fresh reporting and insight. It's on-line for those who don't subscribe. Among the good stuff, along with fiction and criticism worthy of note:

* PRESIDENT OBAMA AND RACE: Ta-Nehsi Coates has written a tour de force on President Obama's racial dilemma. He had to be "twice as good" and "half as black" to be the first black president, an achievement Coates doesn't diminish. But he's also had to avoid mention of race almost entirely and, when he does, it's inevitably with damaging political consequences (Trayvon Martin, Henry Louis Gates and more). "Fear of a black president" is still a large and disturbing factor in American politics, only underscored by the Obama experience. It's a long and nuanced article. Snippets:

The election of an African American to our highest political office was alleged to demonstrate a triumph of integration. But when President Obama addressed the tragedy of Trayvon Martin, he demonstrated integration’s great limitation—that acceptance depends not just on being twice as good but on being half as black. And even then, full acceptance is still withheld. The larger effects of this withholding constrict Obama’s presidential potential in areas affected tangentially—or seemingly not at all—by race. Meanwhile, across the country, the community in which Obama is rooted sees this fraudulent equality, and quietly seethes.

... After Obama won, the longed-for post-racial moment did not arrive; on the contrary, racism intensified. At rallies for the nascent Tea Party, people held signs saying things like Obama Plans White Slavery. Steve King, an Iowa congressman and Tea Party favorite, complained that Obama “favors the black person.” In 2009, Rush Limbaugh, bard of white decline, called Obama’s presidency a time when “the white kids now get beat up, with the black kids cheering ‘Yeah, right on, right on, right on.’ And of course everybody says the white kid deserved it—he was born a racist, he’s white.” On Fox & Friends, Glenn Beck asserted that Obama had exposed himself as a guy “who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture … This guy is, I believe, a racist.” Beck later said he was wrong to call Obama a racist. That same week he also called the president’s health-care plan “reparations.”

... Michael Tesler, following up on his research with David Sears on the role of race in the 2008 campaign, recently published a study assessing the impact of race on opposition to and support for health-care reform. The findings are bracing. Obama’s election effectively racialized white Americans’ views, even of health-care policy. As Tesler writes in a paper published in July in The American Journal of Political Science, “Racial attitudes had a significantly greater impact on health care opinions when framed as part of President Obama’s plan than they had when the exact same policies were attributed to President Clinton’s 1993 health care initiative.”

Provocative. Recommmended.

* HOW THE SMART PHONE CHANGED AMERICA: Less provocative, maybe, but still eye-opening to me was this column on the dip in car and home buying by younger Americans, a trend that the writer ties not only to a tough economy but more fundamental changes in our world wrought by technology.

Smartphones compete against cars for young people’s big-ticket dollars, since the cost of a good phone and data plan can exceed $1,000 a year. But they also provide some of the same psychic benefits—opening new vistas and carrying us far from the physical space in which we reside. “You no longer need to feel connected to your friends with a car when you have this technology that’s so ubiquitous, it transcends time and space,” Connelly said.

In other words, mobile technology has empowered more than just car-sharing. It has empowered friendships that can be maintained from a distance. The upshot could be a continuing shift from automobiles to mobile technology, and a big reduction in spending.

Housing is affected, too. Younger people seek denser city cores and rented space rather than suburban homes. Or so the theory goes. Check it out.

* AND MORE: There's an iconoclastic take on how the "hookup culture" is actually about female empowerment, not a further debasement of women. (By a woman writer.) There's an examination of whether certain kinds of booze — say tequila — make you crazier drunk. (No evidence.) An exposure to Iranian culture. A travel article on a visit to the Nevada nuclear test site. (Yes, you, too, can take the tour.) Fox News' glam treatment of women with pageant-worthy makeup and hairdos — guests and their own employees.

All good stuff.

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Romney, race baiting and the mainstream media

Leslie Newell Peacock — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:31:10 -0500

Paul Waldman of MSNBC has written an excellent analysis of why the mainstream press lets Mitt Romney off the hook when he makes remarks about his birth certificate (as opposed, in the minds of the wacko right, to President Obama's), his understanding of America (he said Obama didn't) and advertises the utter falsehood that “Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check." Romney's words are thinly-veiled nods to the ultra right wing, whose biggest problem with Obama is the color of his skin. Waldman writes:

The only way to get Romney to stop would be for the media to call him out clearly enough that the costs of the strategy started to outweigh the benefits. But that's not likely to happen, because most of the media doesn't know how to talk about this. They all know what Romney is doing, but they also know that even the suggestion that Romney is race-baiting will be met by conservatives with faux-outrage and accusations that the "liberal media" has it in for the Republican candidate. There's just enough vagueness in what Romney says to afford him deniability. So long as Republicans stay unified in denying that any thought of appealing to racist impulses ever crossed their minds, they'll have the conventions of "objective" journalism on their side.

Pass it along, into the mainstream.

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Obama on the 'false balance' in news coverage

Max Brantley — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:43:15 -0500

The Poynter Institute has put together a roundup of reporting on President Obama as media critic. For example, from the New York Times:

Privately and publicly, Mr. Obama has articulated what he sees as two overarching problems: coverage that focuses on political winners and losers rather than substance; and a “false balance,” in which two opposing sides are given equal weight regardless of the facts. …

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, was previously Time magazine’s Washington bureau chief. He said the president thought that some journalists were more comfortable blaming both parties, regardless of the facts. “To be saying ‘they’re both equally wrong’ or ‘they’re both equally bad,’ ” Mr. Carney said, “then you look high-minded.”

Amen. Facts matter. Consequences matter. Differences of degree are differences.

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So-called liberal media favor Romney in coverage

Max Brantley — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:53:29 -0500

Yet another media analysis blows up the myth of the liberal media (as seen on Romenesko).

Survey says: Republican voices quoted more often. More negative remarks toward President Obama.

No surprise to me. It's a product, I think of two things: 1) The victimization game the Republicans/conservatives have long played well (the one in which, for example, Christians, who dominate the culture in every respect, are able to get away with saying they are being persecuted in the U.S.) and 2) Republican superiority in social media.

You see results of the latter all the time and the media don't even notice. A paid Republican mouthpiece Twitters: "Why doesn't some reporter ask Designated Democratic Candidate if she's still beating her husband?" Before the day is out, the question has been asked, awkwardly denied (loaded questions are meant to be hard to deny) and the resulting "fair-and-balanced report" (allegation/denial) is circulated. This floats the talking point in free media, which is then rebroadcast via Twitter, Facebook, blast e-mail, blogs and other media outlets. Democrats are currently getting routed in this war.

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Founder and editor Marc Smirnoff out at Oxford American

Lindsey Millar — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:23:00 -0500

Founder and editor Marc Smirnoff and managing editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald are no longer employed by the Oxford American, publisher Warwick Sabin said today. Asked about the circumstances and whether they were fired, Sabin said, "as with all Oxford American personnel matters, the details are confidential."

Sabin will serve as interim editor.

"The plan is to continue publishing the Oxford American and delivering additional content over our website and proceeding as normal," he said. "The organization is in good health and we feel confident about the future."

Sabin said the end of Smirnoff and Fitzgerald's employment at the magazine happened unexpectedly, so he doesn't have a time frame for finding a permanent editor. He said the magazine would release details and decisions as they happen and would be contacting its contributors in the coming days.

The next edition will be published on Sep. 1 as planned, Sabin said.

Smirnoff founded the magazine in 1992 in Oxford, Miss. Fitzgerald joined the magazine in 2003, near the end of its time in Little Rock. She continued once the publication was put under the control of The Oxford American Literary Project nonprofit and moved to the University of Central Arkansas in 2004. For at least several of the years the magazine's editorial offices have been in Conway, Smirnoff and Fitzgerald have dated and lived together.

In full disclosure, I worked with Smirnoff and later Fitzgerald from 2002 until 2003 and then again in 2005.

A personnel issue at the magazine became apparent last week when employees were locked out of the publication's editorial offices on the campus at the University of Central Arkansas. A routine police report on the action noted that a personnel review was underway, according to this account in the Log Cabin Democrat.

MAX HERE: I'm trying to reach the departed employees for comment. I probably also should note for any who might not know that Publisher Sabin is a former associate editor at the Times. Sabin tells me that the remaining Oxford American staff — three full-time employees and five interns — are not yet back in offices at UCA, but he hopes to accomplish reopening of the offices today or tomorrow. He wouldn't comment on any specifics related to Smirnoff and Fitzgerald, including what arrangements might have been made for them to retrieve personal items from the offices. Sabin was in New Orleans Sunday to participate in an event announcing a planned TV program on Louisiana music by Harry Connick Jr. It will air in December, the same month as Oxford American's annual music issue, this year devoted to Louisiana music.

UPDATE II: Smirnoff responds.

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Mike Huckabee: Spinning another myth

Max Brantley — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:49:52 -0500

Victimhood is one of the most popular themes of modern Republicanism.

Christians, despite cramming their points of view down throats of the unwilling near and far, are being victimized.

Unions, though outspent 10 to 1 in Wisconsin, are the bullies.

Gay kids, bullied to suicide by oppressors, are a threat to the "religious freedom" of others.

And on and on.

Which brings us to Mike Huckabee, who spouted on one of his media venues yesterday that national press is in the tank for Barack Obama. Really? You'd be hard-pressed to find even a liberal commentator cutting the president much slack. The Atlantic hoots at the Huckster:

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism analyzed reporting on all the Republican presidential candidates over the course of one year, ending May 6, 2012, then compared them to President Obama’s media metrics. They found that Romney has received overwhelmingly more positive media coverage than President Obama, although coverage of both men remain in negative territory.

“You can argue that negative coverage of the administration is justified,” The Atlantic‘s James Fallows explained. “You can argue that incumbents are — and should be — held to a tougher standard, since they have a record to defend. But you can’t sanely argue that the press is in the tank for Obama, notwithstanding recent ‘false equivalence’ attempts to do so.”

Facts DO count. There is some negativity in the evaluation of Mitt Romney's ideas on the economy, such as from economist Joseph Stiglitz:

Speaking to reporters in New York on Monday, the Nobel Prize-winner and former World Bank chief claimed that if former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) is elected president in 2012, the risk of another recession will go up “significantly.”

“The Romney plan is going to slow down the economy, worsen the jobs deficit and significantly increase the likelihood of a recession,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.

RELATED: Columbia Journalisn Review rips Politico a new one for giving aid and comfort to Republican victimhood in a thinly disguised attack on its own competitors.

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The death of the American newspaper — New Orleans

Max Brantley — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:45:21 -0500

This news in NY Times really just about brought me to tears:

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which distinguished itself amid great adversity during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is about to enact large staff cuts and may cut back its daily print publishing schedule, according to two employees with knowledge of the plans.

Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the Times-Picayune, will apparently be working off a blueprint the company used in Ann Arbor, Mich., where it reduced the frequency of the Ann Arbor News, emphasized the Web site as a primary distributor of news and in the process instituted wholesale layoffs to cut costs.

A request for comment late Wednesday night from the newspaper’s editor, Jim Amoss, was not returned.

The plans have been kept under wraps, but the newspaper will likely publish two or three times a week rather than daily, according to the employees.

In the current national context, particularly, I don't think it a stretch to call the T-P a great newspaper. It continued to cover the news of record deeply with a large, vigorous and educated staff under the guidance of leaders who never lost sight of big pictures — prisons, coastal erosion, the New Orleans schools, government dereliction in Katrina. Beyond that, I can't think of a newspaper in the country more knitted up in the fabric of the city and region in which it worked. You want to know about po boys? The T-P knows po boys. I'm sentimental because I grew up reading the Picayune, but I've read it recently and that experience only heightened my admiration. A sad day for New Orleans and all who love newspapers.

PS — And then there's the matter of the New York Public Library removing books to turn libraries into cybercafes.

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Fox News — dangerous to your learning

Max Brantley — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:40:44 -0500

I'll just throw this out and step back so that mud throwing may begin.

Survey says, in summary: Fox News watchers are less informed. NPR listeners are the best informed. From a Poynter report on the survey:

People who watch no news at all can answer more questions about international current events than people who watch cable news, a survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds.

NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative news outlets, while exposure to partisan sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC, has a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge.
People who watch MSNBC and CNN exclusively can answer more questions about domestic events than people who watch no news at all. People who only watch Fox did much worse. NPR listeners answered more questions correctly than people in any other category.

The survey of 1185 random people conducted by landline and cell phone in early February follows a similar poll FDU conducted last November, which surveyed only New Jersey residents and returned similar results.

PS — Good suggestion from a reader: A listing of those restaurants that force those who choose to eat there to watch Fox News. It's under consideration.

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Oh, that social media

Max Brantley — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:38:39 -0500

You tell your kids, don't you, that the Internet is immortal? That anybody with a computer can see what you've posted on Facebook and Twitter? That future employers might look askance that things you might put there?

I hope people who work in higher education are driving that message home, even if they aren't always practicing what they preach.

Like Anthony Chelte, the fired UALR College of Business dean, whose travel activities are under scrutiny, including conversion of a ticket charged as a business expense to a Hawaiian journey. Maybe he needs a new Facebook photo?

For now, you can also see a few photos and posts from his trips to France on his Twitter account. For example:

In the Eurozone this week. working with partner business school, Sup De Co Amiens, France.

The Twitter account went silent Dec. 29, days before he lost his deanship.

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Sweltering Sunday — Goober, Brokaw and Clinton

Max Brantley — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:37:31 -0500

The sun shines and the line is open. Closing out:

* GEORGE LINDSEY DIES AT 83: Actor George Lindsey, forever known as one of the Mayberry sidekicks, Goober Pyle, on the Andy Griffith TV series, has died in Nashville. His fame led briefly, old timers like me will recall, to a chain of family steak restaurants. At least one of them operated for a time in North Little Rock, at McCain and JFK, if my dim memory serves. There was also one on W. 65th, this KAAY ad indicates. His comic fame belied his background as a college educated former teacher. "Judy, Judy, Judy."

* ME AND TOM BROKAW: Maybe it was on Twitter, and not here, that I commented the other day that the White House Correspondents Dinner, with big "get" celebrity guests, after-parties and growing glitz approaching Oscar-style self importance, didn't reflect so well on the working press. The New York Times no longer takes part in the social aspect. Tom Brokaw today chimed in. Time to "rethink," he says.

* RIGHTEOUS RANT: I enjoyed this blog rant from a former employee of the newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., who tears the publisher a new one for a disingenuous response on why the newspaper hasn't editorialized — pro or con — on the Amendment 1 campaign to further discriminate against unmarried couples. It's not the implicit endorsement of discrimination that prompts the rant (though that would be understandable); it's the sheer cowardice. Not, of course, that newspaper endorsements mean much anyway. And speaking of North Carolina's Amendment One: Bill Clinton has taken to the phones to encourage a vote against the measure for its hidden consequences. Full call here. Doesn't seem to matter. Polls indicate it will pass; linking the words "marriage" and "homosexual" remains toxic in the South, though not "civil unions." Also on the human rights front, Vice President Joe Biden today said he supported equal rights for same-sex married couples. Republicans will jump to rouse the anti-gay vote on this. The GOP implicit message being, of course, that they favor discrimination against gay people on account of their sexual orientation, in marriage and every other way. But we knew that. Clock's running on that point of view, even if it doesn't run out in 2012.

* FORMER FELON GOES GREEN: Michael Cook is reporting that former Rep. Fred Smith, the former Harlem Globetrotter who resigned after conviction of a felony and tried to file again this year but lost a court challenge by the Democratic Party because of his criminal past, has been nominated as a candidate for state House of the Green Party. He'd opposed incumbent Democrtic Rep. Hudson Hallum. A legal question lingers over whether Smith's theft conviction, for stealing money from a school district, was truly expunged.

Pat Lynch has posted the full slate of Green Party candidates, provided by Jim Lendall after their nominating convention Saturday. Their 15 candidates range from constable to president. Greens have fielded a candidate in each congressional district for U.S. House.

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The next cable TV meme — crime, race, media

Max Brantley — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:21:46 -0500

A group of an estimated 30 youths — black youths — attack a white couple in Norfolk, Va. The couple works for the local newspaper. The newspaper doesn't run a story about it.

Now a columnist has broken the silence.

Romenesko has picked it up.

Political correctness or a newspaper's considered decision to treat crime equally? In light of the columnist's detailed account, looks like the newspaper blew it. Forget race (though you'll see in reading that this will be hard to do). Local cops blowing off a mass assault? It's news.

This story has legs.

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Stop the bullying: An Iowa newspaper speaks

Max Brantley — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:05:57 -0500

Sad story. The week the anti-bullying documentary "Bully" opened in Sioux City, Iowa, an area 14-year-old committed suicide because, his family said, of bullying in and out of school after he said he was gay.

The Sioux City daily newspaper devoted the front page to an editorial and cartoon against bullying, Romenesko.com reports.

Perhaps a good time to remember the 30 members of the Arkansas House, nearly all Republicans, who opposed or did not vote, same as a no, on anti-bullying legislation that passed in 2011.

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Correcting the record: TV rarely does

Max Brantley — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:41:58 -0500

New York Times media columnist writes today about the rarity of on-air corrections on TV news. He focuses on NBC's misleading edit of police tapes in the Trayvon Martin case. The network investigated and took a number of steps to remedy the error, but never announced it on air.

What is it with television news and corrections? When the rest of the journalism world gets something wrong, they generally correct themselves. But network news acts as if an on-air admission of error might cause a meteor to land on the noggin of one of its precious talking heads. NBC used all of the powers at its disposal to amend the mistake, except the high-visibility airtime where the bad clip ran in the first place.

I wonder if Fox News will correct the misleading impression one of its announcers left by manufacturing a quote by Barack Obama related to his silver spoon remark.

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Taliban launches attacks in Afghanistan

Max Brantley — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:36:31 -0500

The big morning news appears to be a round of co-ordinated attacks and suicide bombings in Afghanistan, where a hotel and foreign embassies in Kabul have been hit.

No local angle, other than Arkansas's shared investment in life and treasure in this unending conflict. But I have to note that the Taliban apparently has a spokesman and announces its news developments, such as sneak attacks, via text message and Twitter. #quagmire

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Sesame Street: Brought to you by Mitt Romney

Max Brantley — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:19:07 -0500

This is not good news.

A U.S. appellate court has struck down the ban on political advertising on public TV and radio stations.

That means everything from Big Bird to Gwen Ifill could be bracketed by Super PAC ads. The irony, of course, will be if Republican Super PACs eventually swamp public broadcasting to elect people who've vowed to end public finance of broadcasting.

This will allow issue advertising, too, of course. Should it take effect by fall, the gas drillers will own every hour of public programming in the campaign to protect their low tax rate. Don't know if things can happen that quickly. The ruling came from the 9th Circuit, which doesn't cover Arkansas.

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