Shoot The Dog!

Remember the National Lampoon Magazine in the 1970's that threatened to "Kill This Dog" unless we bought the magazine? A couple of times recently I've come across similar threats...like NASA's proposal for the International Space Station that we've spent $100-Billion on...fly it into the Pacific in 2016 unless we come up with more operating cash.

Even closer to the National Lampoon cover was The Boston Zoo's weekend threat to not only shut down operations, but to kill some of the animals too unless they get more funding. "Fund This Zoo or We'll Shoot This Llama?"

To me, convincing folks to do something by threat always seems a bit over the top, so let me suggest modifications. Instead of threatening to send the space station to the bottom of the sea, NASA can say it will have to start renting it out for church services..."Get your flock truly closer to God!" That will get the Liberals in an uproar and make the Conservatives mad too, as they fight over which denomination should go first. And as for the Boston Zoo...instead of threatening to kill the critters, just say unless more funding is forthcoming, we'll have to open the cages and let the animals find their own dinner. Lions and Tigers and Llamas on the Commons, oh my!

MMMM #51 - Ethical "Lapses" - Here come more!

You may have read the ombudsman's column in the Washington Post over the weekend, criticising the paper for its ill conceived scheme to raise cash. The paper was to charge big bucks to lobbyists and other people in power to come have dinner with Post journalists and important invited government guests in an off-the-record gathering. A major "stain" on the Post's reputation, he wrote.

I suspect there are already other such "ethical lapses" occurring. Because sometimes, when times get rough, the rough get weak-kneed. And times, as anyone with any knowledge of the media knows, are very rough indeed. Newspapers especially are under such pressure to produce income there are bound to be temptations. Wrap the front page in a look alike "wrapper", logo/masthead and all, that is really an ad? No problem said the L.A. Times and our own Anniston Star. Hack into private cell phone conversations and records? Full speed ahead said NewsCorp (allegedly). When staff cuts at an Alabama TV newsroom causes staff to plummet from about 90 people to about 30, but the number of newscasts stays the same...how many ethical lines will be crossed to keep producing "news"? I'll bet this is a great time to be producing VNRs (Video News Releases). Stations are probably inhaling, without so much as a word to viewers that they were produced by interested parties. And frankly, it's a tough time to take a hard line. I know where those reporter salaries come from. And its not subscription income.
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a weekly feature of this blog.]

Paul Hemphill 1936 - 2009

Birmingham author and journalist Paul Hemphill has died. He passed away in Atlanta after a battle against throat cancer that had spread to his lungs, according to the Times obit. I interviewed Hemphill about his next to last book, Lovesick Blues, a biography of Hank Williams, in January of 2006, including a conversation at Williams' grave in Montgomery. You can watch the interview online here. I also interviewed him about an earlier book "Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son" in the Magic City. The late author's official site is here. Go in Peace, Paul.

The Ethical Unemployed Blogger

This is the 500th post on this blog during 2009.

...and I'll have to confess, blogging this year has especially been a challenge. I write my posts during a full-time job search, constantly mindful of the fact that potential employers may (and likely will) read them. At the same time, the journalist in me grates at editing my copy for those reasons. Lennox the editorial writer/columnist/commentator is likewise hesitant to pull back even an inch because of those concerns. If readers of this blog can't trust me to report what I know to be true, to denounce what I know to be false, and to take principled stands on issues, then what the hell is any of this worth? I'm sure the answer for some is "not much".
I'm willing to bet that if you were to read all 500 posts, you'll find something to anger almost any potential employer. Candidates and political parties of all stripes will find comments to dislike. Public and Private Broadcasters and newspapers too will find critiques not to their liking. Potential advertisers haven't been ignored, nor have state and federal government agencies. But that's really no different than all of the stories I aired over the decades in print or on-air. I would ask all of them to consider that my service to this blog is exactly what you'll get if you hire me.
The rules are fairly simple: Be honest. Don't try to protect friends or hurt enemies, or visa-verse. And above all, avoid conflicts of interest. And because of that last consideration, I have found it impossible to blog while walking on could-be would-be employer eggshells. I'm certainly not perfect, as I'm sure commentators to this posting will concur. But I do try my best. And no, not all of the posts here are serious political commentary, anymore than every story and word in a newspaper. There has to be some levity, even in unemployment.
Quit blogging? I could, for sure. But during my career I have spent my day gathering information from public and private sources, finally disgorging that data, hopefully in readable or understandable form, in a newscast or column or talk show. It's more than a habit with me. It's my life. And this blog has allowed me to have an ongoing receptacle for the day's output. I need it. It keeps me relatively sane while I decide what I want Tim Lennox to be when he grows up.

[ADDENDUM: Lots of employment councillors warn job seekers to be careful what they post on Facebook and Twitter etc, because potential employers will Google them. But also remember to check the "Live-View" photos of the place you live. While there's nothing you can do to change the existing pictures, if somebody parked a clunker in front of your house the day the camera-equipped truck drove through, you might be able to bring it up in an interview in a joking way to make sure they know it wasn't your clunker.]

NewSverse
Source Death
By Tim Lennox

Gannett bleeds
as do the leads
of the tube stories
stolen from them.
What will happen
Post Obit?
Static?

[NewSverse is a regular feature of this blog.]

Call Wasting (i.e. TTK's)

Have you noticed the trend of people calling you when they've got time to kill? It's folks who call on their Bluetooth from their car, or while walking between stores in the mall, or waiting in line somewhere or for an appointment. They've got nothing better to do--time to kill--, so...they call YOU! Of course you may be actually doing something relatively important, but you stop to talk because, well, they are your friends, no? The TTK's usually come while you are doing things that don't especially lend themselves to TTKing, but that doesn't matter to the callers, cause they do have TTK. The only time TTK calls work is when someone calls someone else and they are both in the TTK Zone, driving or waiting in line or sitting in a bathtub or whatever. Serendipity! What I want is for the brilliant people at Apple to provide an "app" for that! Screen out the callers who, friends or not, are calling for no reason whatsoever whenever, because they have TTK, while I am doing non-TTK extremely important stuff. Like writing this blog post. (-:

Last Festival Standing

Montgomery's Jubilee CityFest is actually older than the recently deceased CityStages in Birmingham. The Capitol City's downtown music festival was started in 1976. And now there's a hint of an impending death. WSFA TV is reporting that new Mayor Todd Strange has told the music festival's executive director to plan her budget without any city money for next Spring. This year's event, jokingly refers to as RainFest on the official website, lost $27,000. The TV report says Strange also proposes changing the very nature of the event:

"He wants the event to be more family friendly and possibly indoors to avoid the rain. He says the city will still support the festival with services like security, and garbage pick-up."

"Family Friendly?"

"Indoors?"

Why not just change it into a gospel choir marathon inside the Civic Center? I wish the reporter had pressed Strange, asking just what was family unfriendly about previous Jubilee events. The mission statement of CityFest itself includes "family": a premier tourism attraction... creating a family weekend festival, featuring entertainment, cultural events, visual and performing arts, sporting events, and educational children's activities that enhance the quality of life in the City of Montgomery, Alabama and surrounding areas.

But with that said, can't there be part of the event that is "adult friendly"? Leave the kids home with Grandma for a night? Isn't the entire idea of a music festival to make it a street level event where people roam from one venue to another, enjoying music and food and companionship? "Family Friendly" sounds almost like a political statement. Is the Mayor running for reelection already? I can imagine how the volunteers who make events like it possible feel, knowing the city itself won't invest in the event. What does former Mayor and now Congressman Bobby Bright think?

Roadblock Ruling

The use of police roadblocks has been an issue in some Alabama communities, including Montgomery, over the years. Recently the focus from police in the Capitol has been to prove to the city council that they are not using the traffic roadblocks more in one area of the city than in others. But a Federal Court in Washington has questioned the actual use of roadblocks, not the way in which they're been implemented. According to The Washington Post and other publications, Chief Judge David Bryan wrote for a three judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:

"It cannot be gainsaid that citizens have a right to drive upon the public streets of the District of Columbia or any other city absent a constitutionally sound reason for limiting their access."

I don't believe a ruling in that particular district has any immediate effect on the 11th Circuit, which covers Alabama. But it adds another layer of complexity to the issue.

Ssssssssssssslither

I've never been much of a snake fan, believing that the best kind is behind twelve foot thick glass in a zoo or dead. We have snakes in Alabama...I once found a six foot "rat snake" in Birmingham, and a pet cat once came home with a much smaller garden snake sticking out from either side of its mouth, slithering in the air on both ends. I sent both of them back to their maker, presuming that all snakes are poisonous or capable of killing me in some other fashion, until proven otherwise. But TIME magazine is reporting on a much more seeerious snake problem in Florida that could become an Alabama difficulty soon. Pythons, bought as "pets" (these are troubled people!) and then let go in the wild after they get to big to care for. (They can grow to 20-feet!) TIME reports a python in Oxford, Florida killed a 2 year old child last week. Oxford is about 50 miles Northwest of Orlando, and the article says the growing python population is ssssslowly sssssslithering northward. Sssssounds to me like time to act!

My second N.Y. Times photo credit

A couple of weeks back the Times solicited cellphone photos for its "Lens" photo blog. I submitted one that you may have seen as the "Top Photo" on this blog...this almost B&W shot of the Verazanno Narrows Bridge taken from the limo carrying me and family members to the cemetery for the burial of my Aunt Eileen in January.

I was notified Thursday afternoon that my shot was selected to be part of the cell-pix gallery they've published in today's Times. Here's the link.