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Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 09:41:33
Dan Coody: on the record about government interference with the Government Channel
This is sort of interesting, in a Twilight Zone kind of way. Before he was mayor, Dan Coody spoke before the Fayetteville City Council on September 19, 2000 (while running for mayor) about the Government Channel, and the dangers of having the council micro-manage the Cable Board (the original name of the Telecomm Board).
Warning: this is Coody Classic speaking, so it doesn’t quite jibe with the actions of the current Coody administration.
Mr. Dan Coody, an area resident, stated if they had the Council over the Cable Board it would only bring more politics into the process than what were there already. He thought that was a big mistake. As far as bringing the debates onto the Government Channel he thought it was very appropriate, because they needed more political dialogue rather than less. They needed to open it up so there would be more dialogue and free exchange of ideas and perspectives.
There’s just nothing I can add to that.
******
Susan Thomas: That statement is no longer operative?
If anyone should get a Nixon reference, it’s someone from the Coody Administration.
At our Telecomm Board meeting last week, I asked Dr. Susan Thomas, Public Information Officer for the city of Fayetteville, whether repeats of past issue forums were still allowed on the Government Channel. In a clearly unguarded moment, she said yes.
After the meeting, I told a reporter from the NWA Times that I was going to request that certain past forums be played on FGC, so that folks could see the value in them. That remark was printed in the paper.
Now Thomas has instructed the staff not to replay the old forums - until the council takes a position on the subject - something Coody Classic was opposed to all those years ago.
This is not the first statement in recent days that Thomas has made that is no longer operative.
Upon terminating Cable Administrator Hilton, she told the press that his position would be advertised, but she told the Telecomm Board last Thursday that his responsibilities were to be shifted around to other employees.
Cynics are already saying that this falls in with her original plan last winter to dissolve the CA position and spread the work-load around.
I’m sorry, but isn’t a Public Information Officer supposed to provide accurate information - I don’t know, like, all the time? To do otherwise would be less than respectful to the people of Fayetteville.
*****
I think I’m about to get Candy Clarked!
Speaking of disrespect, I see that I have been “disrespectful” to the Public Information Officer. From the Northwest Arkansas Times this morning:
Thomas also wrote that she wanted to be removed from her assignment with the Telecommunications Board because of the "negative working environment"and conflict between her and certain board members.
Asked about that, she chose not to identify specific members; however, at the last Telecom Board meeting, Chairman Richard Drake made comments that could be perceived as disrespectful.
He told Thomas that her making some progress on the city's franchise agreement was like being a little bit pregnant and, when she said a decision on the forums was a council decision, he disagreed, saying he wasn't being rude but the decision was "up to you."
Thomas said once aldermen have made it clear what they expect of the Telecom Board, she would be happy to provide staff support to the board.
As you might imagine, I am in a state of terrible anxiety this morning. Could I be removed from the Telecomm Board because I refuse to let the Board become just a stenographer for the current administration, or because I don’t like being told one thing one day, and then another thing another day - by the same person?
And quite honestly - talking about the "progress" that was made on a franchise agreement with Cox that never came to pass? You either have one or you don't. I know it, and Dr. Thomas knows it.
****
What to do? What to do?
If I am removed from the Telecomm Board, or pressure is put on me to resign, how can I speak out on these issues?
If only I had a public access interview program?
If only I had a blog.
If only I wrote for an alternative newspaper - and had a drawer full of FOIA requests that I’ve been sitting on ever since I joined the Telecomm Board.
Oh, wait! I do!
Jim Bob Duggar: If a tree falls without sending out a press release, does anyone hear it?
Sitting in doctor’s office today, I was thumbing through a copy of People magazine, and came across an item about Michelle Duggar expecting the couple’s 18th child.
Jim Bob, whose media contact list (including the liberal media) must surely reach half-way to the moon, is no doubt expecting the TV camera crews to descend once more upon the little home for yet another documentary on the Science Channel, another smiling segment on the nightly news (local and national) as soon as he hits the “send” message within seconds after the baby is born.
The happiest story I have seen so far on the impending birth is on the website of the infamous David Duke:
“A Happy Mother’s Day Story: White Family expecting their 18th Child!”
Turns out that quite a lot of people who think white people are pretty darned wonderful think the Duggars are national heroes. Wonder why the Science Channel or even Channel 29 leaves out that part of the story?
******
Coming soon - Road Rage, the SUV
Saw a car today with the odd name of “Avalanche.”
Why would you name a vehicle after something that, well, crashes around your ears? Why would you buy one? Just trying to beat the odds?
What’s next in automobile names?
Titanic?
*****
Be Careful What you Pray for Department
true story:
When I was a young lad - 18? 23?
No, about 6, I think - I prayed to God that one day I might have my own TV show. I should have been more specific in my prayer. I should have asked for a TV show that included a paycheck . . .
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 00:17:09
KFSM: We love parades!
KFSM’s Junior Varsity news crew had an almost perfect day on Monday. They had memorial Day parade footage galore, tornado and election news from around the country - the only thing that might have ruined their day would have been the intrusion of an actual Arkansas news story.
As bad luck would have it, someone opened fire at a wedding in Arkansas, and they felt compelled to report on it. Not worry, though - they made up for it with lots of parade footage.
******
KFSM II - What a great story for us to run on Memorial Day!
In the midst of stories of folk honoring America’s military veterans, Channel 5 obviously felt Memorial Day was the perfect time to run a story on Friends Forever, a pet cemetery which will be opening its gates in June.
A full-on ad for a pet cemetery on Memorial Day?
Now, that’s tasteless.
I hope the cemetery folk paid well for the chunk of news time they got.
*****
Come to Radio Shack - cuz we don’t need your stinkin’ money
I had to buy a mouse for my computer today, so I stopped in at the Radio Shack on North College. In the window was a large poster advertising a “Memorial Day Sale,” extending through Monday.
On the door was a piece of paper announcing that the store would be closed on Memorial Day.
****
Descent
It’s true- I’m a sucker for submarine stories. And I love to tell others about them. Why else would I make my wife sit with me while we watch season one of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” and I try to explain to her what a great show it really was?
There just seems to be something extraordinary about the willingness to slip into a sardine can - no matter how big or small - and explore the ocean depths. And stories don’t come much more exciting than the tale of Otis Barton and William Beebe, who descended half a mile down in the world’s first bathysphere.
In “Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss,” Brad Matsen tells the fascinating (an overused word, but in this case absolutely true) tale of two men from vastly different backgrounds who came together under the auspices of the New York Zoological Society and the National Geographic Society to build and launch such a craft.
Imagine it if you will, two men with barely enough room to turn around, descending half a mile down into a dark world no one had ever seen before, and describing it for a fascinated radio audience. If that doesn’t make your blood race, you need to check your pulse; you may be in a coma, and not realize it.
Sunday, May 25, 2008 - 09:27:57
Steve Percival and his petty peeve
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran a profile today on Steve Percival, president of the Fayetteville Board of Education, which contains this interesting nugget.
In his “Self Portrait,” he lists as his “pet peeve”:
“My pet peeve about society is that the quiet majority too often acquiesces to the vocal minority.”
Quiet majority - sounds an awful lot like the old Silent Majority which gets trotted out every so often, which often never turns out to be the majority at all, in all-too-many cases.
I wonder if Bobby New is the one telling him who the quiet majority are, and what they really want
Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 11:22:53
Stop the Presses! Bobby New doesn't surprise anybody!
“This superintendent has listened to the dialogue of the community.” Bobby New, quoted in NWA Times, May 24, 2008.
Well, there is a difference between listening and actually paying attention, isn’t there?
At the upcoming Fayetteville School Board meeting, Brother New will recommend that the they sell Fayetteville High School to the University (we must have more land!) of Arkansas.
Stop the presses!
Oh, wait a minute.
Was there ever a day when New didn't think the UA should be able to buy the existing school site?
This is my favorite paragraph from the article:
New suggested that members of the public could e-mail board members and administrators with their feedback. New said he hopes public input at the meeting on the topic will focus on new ideas not heard before.
The advantage of having the public just send in emails to board members and administrators is that - to take a cynical view here - they so often end up in the electronic version of the old “circular file.
Bobby New is very well aware that this may be the last opportunity for the community to make impassioned, well-reasoned pleas to the school board. These arguments will be made before television cameras and the media.
Honestly, so what if Bobby New doesn’t want to hear the same arguments expressed again?
It’s not like he really paid attention to them the first time he heard them.
******
On the Air - Domestic Partnerships
This coming week we’ll be replaying a show I did with Michael Walsh, who spearheaded the campaign in Eureka Springs to have domestic partnerships recognized by the city. In the wake of what has happened in California, it seemed an appropriate show to run this week.
Show times:
Monday - 7pm
Tuesday - noon
Saturday - 6pm
As always, C.A.T. cam be found on Channel 18 of the Cox channel line-up on Fayetteville.
Those interested in the topic can contact C.A.T. at 479-444-3433, for a copy of the show.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 09:37:54
What is your problem, Washington Regional?
Tracy has a nasty infection - flu like symptoms, ear ache, etc. - that her doctor’s medication hasn’t been fixing, and since her temperature was hovering around the 102 mark, we decided we needed to take a trip to Washington Regional’s Emergency Room.
A few months ago there was great fanfare in the press about how the emergency room procedure had been streamlined. Well, I’m pleased to report today that their flirting with such new fangled notions seem to be a thing of the past.
Over an hour went by, while we sat in the waiting room, and no one called Tracy up to ask for her insurance information, take her blood pressure, or ask about symptoms - you kinow, the usual sort of thing they used to do before you’d sit and wait for about six hours.
Three people got called forward in the space of that hour. In the meantime, people were bringing food in for people who had been waiting a long time.
One couple came in with food to eat while they were waiting; I guess they have the routine down pretty well.
In the end, we went home and monitored her temperature throughout the night.
Maybe next time a reporter does a story on the emergency room they shouldn’t just take the self-serving press release the hospital hands out, but instead should sit in the ER for a few hours, and just observe what is going on.
******
If too many people like Lioneld Jordan, I may have to run - for your own good, you understand
So Grand Moff Coody claims that he and others are worried about the “extreme” right and left positions of the current crop of Fayetteville mayoral candidates?
Well, other than an obvious slam at Lioneld Jordan, what on earth is he talking about? Who could possibly be so far right that Coody wouldn’t approve of him - save for Jay Cole, Jr.?
When pressed, expect Coody (like George Bush and his barbs about Obama last week) to deny that he was singling out anyone in particular.
The truly ironic thing is that if Coody Classic - the fellow who sat on the city board of directors in the early 1990s - ran for mayor now - New and Improved Coody might see no choice but to run against him.
He’d be too “extreme.”
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 23:46:57
Captain Berlitz of the Titanic
It’s true - you don’t always have to wait for the translation. Also, this sad but true story proves that I have always been devious - even in high school.
Captain Berlitz of the Titanic
In 1970, in the midst of a bitterly cold German winter, I managed to sink both the Titanic and my standing in the family. The situation began, as do most journeys to Hell, with the best of intentions.
My father had just been stationed Zweibrucken Air Force base, a new American base near Saarbrucken. We all found ourselves in the position of midwifing the birth of this new base. As anyone who has grown up in the military can attest, it is very much a team effort.
Though we had a bowling alley, theater, and a small (very small) library, there was one amenity very much felt the lack of - TV.
Listen, it was cold outside. And while I may not watch much television now (I do, though) in 1970 I was a TV junkie. There were days when I would watch anything, as long as it was on the tube, and I could vegetate.
When I say there was no TV I mean there was no American TV, as in AFN (Armed Forces Network), the small network set up in Europe to service American bases. Now, to receive AFN, we a had to be hooked up to a special antenna, and it would take over a month to set up. Cold turkey. Oh. no.
There just had to be a way around this situation. It presented itself to me in a spectacularly simple manner.
One day, in German class, our teacher, Mr. Waldman, was telling us about watching an old movie on a German TV station. He urged us all to watch the German television offerings at least once a week because it might help us with our own study of the language. He laughed and told us we could always watch American shows like “Bonanza” and “Mannix” if we didn't want to tax
ourselves too much.
Eureka! I had found it. We could watch German TV until our antenna was hooked up. There was just a slight hitch.
I was failing German. And not just failing; I was failing miserably. I was setting standards of failure for decades to come. If my parents knew just how poorly I was doing, they probably wouldn't let me watch TV in English, let alone another language.
But . . . they didn't know. While I was not averse to telling them how well I was doing in my other classes, I tended to gloss over my inadequacy in German. They'd find out soon enough.
Until then, however, I might be able to get just a little TV time, even if in another tongue.
"Listen, " I said. "I'm doing well enough in German, that I could probably translate a little of what we see on TV. Why don't we try it?"
My parents must have been as bored as I was because they readily agreed.
Now, in my defense, let me state that there is historical precedence for my actions. In England, in the 1700s, lived a very successful confidence artist. At one point, he passed himself off as a Chief from a tropical island. He volunteered to teach the language to missionaries about to
depart for the region. They felt it might be an advantage to learn the language since cannibals were reputed to inhabit some of the islands. He taught them a language, true, but not one connected to any tongue on this planet. The missionaries were never heard from after they arrived in the islands.
Like him, I found that my game went over very well.
At that time, luckily for me, a lot of German programming was actually American series and films, "dubbed" into German. “Hawaii Five-O,” “Ironside” and “Gunsmoke” were all on TV at that time. Even luckier, I had seen many of the episodes before we had left Missouri.
All I had to do was remember the big details, like who the villains were, and the small details would take care of themselves. To say that it was a smashing success would be an understatement. The TV was on all the time, and I was having the time of my life. Oddly it was even helping my understanding of German, and my slowly raised from F to C.
Now we were getting into shows I hadn't seen before, and I was improvising like crazy. I soon found out that, be they German or American, most crime shows are pretty simplistic, and that helped immensely. I just made up dialogue to fit whatever action was on the screen.
The only program I stayed away from was “Mission: Impossible.” If I had trouble following it in English, I certainly wasn't going to attempt it in another language, I was having tremendous fun though, feeling like Scheherezade from the Arabian Nights, only I knew I couldn't get caught.
And then one night my mother's favorite movie, “A Night To Remember,” came on. If you recall, this film was about the sinking of the Titanic.
This is what we call "irony."
"I love this movie," she said. "I've seen it four times." I resolved to go all out and really give her a treat tonight.
If I had been a little less cocky, I would have stayed well away from the decks of that particular ship. When someone says, "I've seen it four times," it means that they've also listened to it four times.
I was on a roll that night, sometimes making up dialogue before the actors had finished speaking. I had one hell of a story going. Of course, it bore little resemblance to what had been written, but I thought my version was probably better.
I went on for about an hour, when I paused, and glanced at my mother. She was watching me, not the screen, and her eyes were narrowed so tightly that her pupils were like a dim memory.
She took a deep breath and said, "You've been making this up all along, haven't you?"
Caught? Unmasked? I felt like Batman about to be mangled by yet another villain's death trap. There was only one chance at survival.
I smiled broadly. "It kept you happy, didn't it?" As it turned out, it was entirely the wrong thing to say. At least Scheherezade would have only gotten her head cut off; she wouldn't have had to live forever with the consequences of a badly told story. You'd have thought I was Jack the
Ripper. My family had this odd thing about being hoodwinked. They couldn't accept it in the spirit in which it had been given.
And after all this, I still flunked German.
Grapevine, May 11, 1990
Bell bottoms in space
NWA Times: You're not a candidate till we say you are?
Telecomm meeting moved to next week
The I Love Dan Channel?
KFSM - you are so lazy!
FGC roundtable abruptly killed by City Hall
Well, this mayoral race just gets stranger by the day . . .
Bankruptcy - sauce for goose should be sauce for the gander?
Marvin Hilton does the perp walk
City of Fayetteville fires Cable Administrator Marvin Hilton
Adam Fire Cat - Fastest Bus Boy/Mayoral candidate in America gets first endorsement
If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium - sorry, I mean Primary Day
Paper of Plastic? 55 gallon drums?
July 1: UA goes Tobacco-free - for the most part
Reverend Wright to the rescue
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