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« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 11:21:18
The Funky Train left the station a while back
On television I see all sorts of wonderful ads for cities across the United States - come to Scranton! - and I have often wondered , just how do we promote Fayetteville? Especially now that our tax receipts are way down?
We used to be the “Athens of the Ozarks,” but few even remember that wonderful description. To some, we are the “New York City of the Ozarks,” but that hasn’t caught on far and wide just yet.
We used the known be known as the town where old hippies came to die, which, while sounding a tad ghoulish, has a certain charm about it. But somewhere along the line, somebody - with more influence than common sense - decided that Fayetteville was really no different than say Rogers or Bentonville - two more prosperous but really boring cities.
Fayetteville has a lot of character and a lot of history. We have a lot to offer those who visit our town - more than just the over-blown “Entertainment District.” Just imagine the ads promoting our fair city.
Because we really are different from other communities in Northwest Arkansas, and proud of it. We are innovative, and creative, and unique.
Why not promote that? At least we could say, “Come to Fayetteville - at least we’re not Rogers or Bentonville.” Works for me.
We ain’t “funky” no more, though. I think the Funky Train left the station a while back. Maybe it’s time for a new description. Ideas, anyone?
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Democrat-Gazette gets headline wrong
Arkansas Democrat Gazette Business section headline:
Spirit of U.S. shoppers droops to two-year low.
What? American shoppers are calling Suicide Hotlines in record numbers? They are on anti-depressants? They’re beating their kids?
No, just turns out they are spending less money. It’s the retailers whose spirits are at a two-year low, I suppose.
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It Could Still Happen Here Department
Most novels dealing with a possible fascist takeover of the United States deal with great political battles. Philip Roth's excellent "The Plot Against America" instead tells the story of one Jewish family (the Roths) in Newark, New Jersey, and how they are affected by the election of Charles Lindbergh to the office of president.
It is a gripping story of a family torn apart by the smug fascism that "Lucky Lindy" brings to America. There are scenes dominated by famous figures like Walter Winchell and FDR, but they are figures on the horizon. The real story here is age-old - how a family stays together in the middle of a national nightmare.
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Quote of the Day
Serving God is doing good to man. But praying is thought an easier service and is therefore more generally chosen. - Ben Franklin
***
A politician’s favorite quote - just think of the most inept mayor, alderman, or president that you know of.
I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. - Hal; "2001 A Space Odyssey."
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 10:48:42
When not to watch local TV news
Ah - Halloween will be over in just a day or so, and then we'll be hit with a barrage of Christmas commercials, Christmas music, and Holiday news broadcasting. What's that, you ask? Well, Just pay attention over the next two months and see how many times local news stations will grab the opportunity not to do any actual news reporting.
When Not to Watch Local TV News
These days, it seems even sillier than usual
Written by Richard S. Drake
Maybe Elvis Presley had the right idea.
No, not the one about gorging himself on Eskimo Pies all day, but the one about shooting his television set. After all, there is probably something on the tube every day to annoy just about every one of us. But if we really took his example to heart, we'd probably be so outraged that we'd be
running next door to shoot our neighbor's set right in the eye, too, and then be moving on down to the local Circuit City.
Best to stick with the remote control, I suppose.
For me, local television news is the prime offender in my house. Not all the news, to be sure. There are many things at which news programs excel. They are really good at crime reports, for example, or local sex scandals. But when they are bad, they are really, really bad.
Admittedly, there is a lot to poke fun of (and we all do) at local TV news. >From inane anchors with their insipid giggling to the "outdoor" shots - mostly often done ten feet from the studio doors, to the increasing use of the dreaded video news releases sent out by corporations to hawk their
products, local stations have a lot to answer for.
You've probably noticed yourself that there are a lot of times when there doesn't actually seem to anything "on" the news. Or even less than usual, as a cynical observer might point out.
But don't take my word for it. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are right around the corner, and you can put my theory to the test yourself.
Thanksgiving and Christmas, with all the opportunities they provide families to kick back and enjoy themselves, seem to provide TV stations with the same excuses for not actually working. News coverage on these days is the journalistic equivalent of sitting back in your recliner after
dinner, loosening your pants, and taking a snooze.
You like warm and fuzzy shots of charity soup kitchens? Images of returning troops spending the holidays with their families? Holiday sales in stores? Well, you're in luck, because TV stations seem love them, too. These wouldn't be so bad, except that they take up so much of the news broadcast.
Stations should probably all pool their resources at the holidays, and give more employees time off, since they will all be running the same stories, anyway. Better yet, why not run just run the footage from last year?
Who would notice? And how do we know they aren't?
Ah - New Year's Day. The obligatory story on the first baby born at the local hospital. This is called "human interest" - or laziness, take your pick.
This sort of heart-warming fuzziness aside, I often have the sneaking suspicion that news doesn't actually stop for holidays, though local TV journalism often seems to.
The wintery glow of journalistic sloth aside, there are other times when it is best to either avoid local news broadcasts, or take it in the spirit in which it is - or it is not - offered.
Many times we are aware that a holiday is fast approaching simply because of how much air time it takes up. A recent July 4 saw almost an entire local half hour of one "news" program taken up with firecracker safety tips - plus stories on where the family could go to have a good time that weekend.
Of course, here in Northwest Arkansas we have the Rodeo of the Ozarks; that's excuse enough for barely covering news while that's in town.
Memorial day? I hope you love shots of cemeteries and the Veteran's Hospital. This shouldn't be taken as disrespect for veteran's and what they fought and died for, but for those who have no idea what a news broadcast is actually meant to do.
Labor Day is pretty much safe. There might be a lot of stories about how people are spending their days off, but how many stations are really going to do an in-depth analysis of the status of working class people in the United States today - especially in the middle of Wal-Mart country?
On the other hand, press releases from Wal-Mart are often treated like manna from Heaven. It doesn't matter what it is about, or how inconsequential, it can almost be sure to get loving attention from anchors. Then again, some stations have an almost sycophantic attitude when
it comes to anything from local businesses; is it news or a promotional puff piece?
And do they care?
Is the station a sponsor of a special event, like a telethon? News items about the telethon and those it serves are likely to pop up on the news throughout the week preceding the event.
Or perhaps they sponsor a musical event? "News" about the event will take prominent place in the news program.
Yes, they are good at crime reporting, which doesn't require much in the way of explanation, or understanding on the part of the reporter. But viewers are fascinated by politics, and election issues - issues which seem far above the comprehension of those reporting for TV.
I am writing this in September, less than two months before the November elections, and as usual, the local stations are doing a poor job of reporting political news, either statewide or local. Tomorrow we have a school board election in Fayetteville, and there are several hot buttonissues which are driving voters, but you won't find them discussed on television.
For the most part, unless political issues can be broken down into what amounts to a sort of political baby talk, news stations will veer away into crime reports as quickly as they can.
If a city has public access television viewers have a pretty good chance of being informed. If not, they are most likely out of luck - unless a politician is involved in a crime, that is, then TV cameras will be rolling away.
And then, of course, there are those odd times when national or international news is given prominent coverage on local broadcasts, which means that even less local "news" is offered that day.
Sports news, of course, must never, ever be trifled with. In fact, many times a sports item will find itself as the main item on the news.
Our cynical observer might suspect that, all too often all throughout the year, we can discover that news stations seem to find all kinds of excuses not to actually discover any real news in the community, unless it involves sex, sports or some other sort of scandal.
Sometimes one must wonder if the correspondents themselves are happy with the stories they are reporting on. A lot of people make jokes about television news reporters - most of them too cruel to repeat here - but not all of them fit the stereotype of shallow people who wouldn't know a real story if it ran over them.
Many are sincere professionals. So who is responsible for all the crap we see on our screens? A lot of the blame can be laid at the feet of consultants - the same people who think that making someone go three feet outside the studio door fools people into thinking that they are on "location."
But I wonder what might happen if enough viewers complained, and said they wanted real news, and less fluff? What if we had less banter (and less inane giggling) and more complex news reporting?
Why not pick up that phone today and call that viewer hotline and complain? Or email? Surely those stupid station websites must be good for more than merely selling the goods of those who advertise on the news?
As I write this, Elvis Presley has just come on the radio. Maybe he did have the right idea, after all . . .
Richard S. Drake is the author of a science fiction novel, "Freedom Run," and "Ozark Mosaic: Adventures in Arkansas Alternative Journalism, 1990-2002." He can be contacted at rsdrake@nwark.com.
Arkansas Free Press - 2006
Monday, October 29, 2007 - 12:57:01
Is Dickson Street recession proof?
A question that many long-time Dickson Street watchers have pondered for some time:
Is Dickson Street recession proof?
The answer used to be a resounding “yes!” But that was before so many upscale business settled in. Used to be, upscale businesses sat side by side with business that catered to folks with more modest incomes.
That was before it became an “Entertainment District.”
Entertainment District.
Entertainment District.
No, after all these years it still sounds pretentious.
One bad recession might have Dickson looking a little like it did a few short years ago.
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Stupid ideas Department
Politicians want stores to recycle plastic bags
The Daily News - October 29
The damn things fall apart now before you get them in the house - now they want to make stores reuse them?
Ha!
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Trashing a classic
I finally watched the remake of the great film, “The Wicker Man” this weekend. A really stupid movie for really, really - well, not so bright folks. A great - and funny - dissection of the movie can be found at:
www.ubercine.com/WickerManRemake-G.html
There are good horror films out there. Sometimes the really scary part is wading through all the garbage to get to them.
Sunday, October 28, 2007 - 10:39:28
Mike Masterson versus the mainstream media
Yesterday I was reading Mike Masterson in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and was taken aback by his carping about the “mainstream media,” and the “corporate-owned media.”
Sometimes I agree with Mike, sometimes I don’t. But I always think it’s sort of silly when someone who is employed by an organization with millions of dollars at its disposal to whine about “main stream media” - or the MSM, as our inbred cousins at Free Republic like to refer to it.
Hoss, you are part of the mainstream media - “just another brick in the wall.”
It ain’t just Mike Masterson; all around we have the well-paid journalistic stalwarts at Fox News, Glenn Beck (who works for CNN’s Headline News, for crying out loud!) and Rush Limbaugh, just to name a few, who make their living from attacking “main-stream media” - you’d think they all thought they were members of a modern-day French underground.
You guys are the mainstream media.
******
Product placement and “Smallville”
I see that every time a computer is shown on screen on television anymore, the camera almost always seems to hover lovingly on that Dell logo. And so it was on “Smallville” this past week, when Clark was talking to Chloe at the daily Planet. My annoyance with product placement aside, another thought struck me:
Don’t most newspapers use Macs?
Has my favorite newspaper fallen on hard times?
Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 11:11:11
Domestic Abuse - one possible approach?
October is domestic abuse month. Many of us have known women who have had relationships with human monsters who are all too set on - as the writer Alan Moore once wrote - breaking all the bones of their soul.
And it’s all too true that many of these men go from relationship to relationship, oozing charm at first, but soon enough showing their true colors. So I’ve been thinking. How about when one goes for a marriage license, the state is required by law to tell someone if a potential partner has ever been convicted of domestic abuse?
It might not save every woman, but surely some - if not most - would say, “No, thanks, buster.”
How about it, lArkansas egislature?
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Child Abuse website
The state of Arkansas a new website devoted to child abuse: www.arkansas.gov/reportARchildabuse.
Sad there has to be one, but let’s help make others who may have need of it aware of it.
*****
On the Air with Wayne Fincher
Next week those fascinated by all things Fincher can see a 2006 interview I conducted with the Commandant of the Militia of Washington County on Fayetteville’s Community Access Television - Channel 18 on the Cox cable line-up in Fayetteville.
Days and times:
Monday: 7pm
Tuesday - noon
Saturday - 6pm
So - how does one get to be a commander in a militia? Are there, like, militia academies?
According to one blog I read this morning - http://thatgirltasha.blogspot.com/2007/07/ficher.html - the militia sometimes held their meetings at “the local courthouse.”
Say what?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 10:06:21
Protecting us from the Union menace
Unions a menace, business leader says,” proclaims the headline in the Business section of today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Seems the chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees unions as a threat to the nation’s economy.
And that’s news? When hasn’t the Chamber of Commerce hated the very notion of working men and women organizing for the common good? The list of changes that unions have brought to the workplace - and which have been bitterly fought by such stalwart folks as the Chamber - is too long to list here.
Good grief.
Maybe we can see an article detailing the benefits of belonging to a union next. In the Democrat-Gazette? Sorry - bad joke.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - 10:53:35
Burn, Dumbledore, Durn!
The Internet is alive with debate this week.
Children’s health care is a mess. The war in Iraq has no end in sight, fires are engulfing California, and people are whining about the fact that J.K. Rowling’s character Dumbledore is gay?
Even the cretins at Free Republic are in on it. No doubt Glenn Beck will be waving his arms around like the madman that he is, and screaming about the subject.
For some, it ain’t the fact that Dumbledore is gay (though they are red faced, eyes bulging and voices screeching about that) but about the fact that he didn’t exhibit any signs of it before hand.
You know - he didn’t act like he was auditioning for “Will and Grace,” or that fellow who likes hats on the Martha Stewart commercial.
Which is kind of interesting, in an odd sort of way. Americans have become to used to gay characters in films and television shows acting in a certain manner. If you watch British television - a plug for BBC America - gay men and women are presented as just regular folk.
A case in point: there is a terrific series on BBC called “Torchwood,” which is a sort of amped-up “X Files.” Torchwood is a group which deals with alien threats to earth. The main character is Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman.
As written, Harkness is bisexual. In actuality, Barrowman is gay.
He auditioned for the role of Will on “Will and Grace,” but was turned down, because he came across as “too straight.” One is left with the feeling that gay men are only acceptable on American TV if they act “gay.”
For a further look at Barrowman, check out:
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Is Stephen Colbert channeling Pat Paulsen?
Thank God a real candidate is running for president - Stephen Colbert!
I am so tired of all the pretentious cliches from candidates from both parties.
But does no one remember Pat Paulsen, who ran in 1968? The comedian, who was featured on the Smothers’ Brothers show, ran under as a member of the STAG (Straight Talking American Government) Party. CBS did a great “documentary” on his campaign back when he ran. I wonder if it is on DVD?
Not to be outdone, Snoopy also ran that year - and got some votes.
The Family Values Network
Way to go, Wal-Mart!
John Boozman feels your pain, poor people
John Deering and the "private contractors"
Dan, they hardly knew ye?
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