Category: Media Watch

To Lynn Marvin Dingfelder, it was not unlike giving birth. The necessary labor, the gift-of-life reward. Only the gestation period was about two years.

The media-savvy, erstwhile TV reporter and wife of former City Councilman John Dingfelder recently finished editing her “labor of love” project: “JFK in Tampa: The 50th Anniversary.” It debuts this Thursday, Nov. 7, at Tampa Theatre. Soon it will be seen across the state on all PBS affiliates. Copies are destined for the city of Tampa, USF, the Tampa Bay History Center and the Kennedy Library.

“For the past two years I’ve lived in 1963,” says Marvin Dingfelder. “I was holed up months where I’d go to bed at 3:30 a.m. and be up at 7. Looking at photos, viewing film footage and editing. And now it’s ready. I’m really proud of this work.”

What Marvin Dingfelder did was to research, fact-check, interview, write, edit and produce an hour-long documentary–in partnership with WUSF Public Media–that is meant to celebrate John F. Kennedy’s Nov. 18, 1963 visit to Tampa–the first in history by a sitting president.

The historic occasion, a five-hour, 28-mile-motorcade visit that included stops at Al Lopez Field, Fort Homer Hesterly Armory and The International Inn, was Tampa’s de facto coming out party on the national political stage. Tampa and Florida now mattered electorally. Richard Nixon had barely carried the Sunshine State in 1960. The 35th president of the United States was in charm-offensive, campaign-outreach mode–literally–and the crowds were enthusiastically responsive.

The documentary is also intended, in effect, to provide an emotional counterweight to all the sadness and heartbreak inherent in being part of the same infamous time frame as Dallas. JFK was assassinated just four days after his Tampa visit.

“I wanted to do this tastefully and not exploitatively,” explains Marvin Dingfelder. “It was a way to pay homage to someone I’d admired and loved for years, but it was also a way to do something for the city I love and live in.”

But, yes, security is covered–ominously so–in “JFK in Tampa.” In fact, it’s revealed that the Secret Service, in reconnoitering Kennedy’s parade route a week in advance, had made sure that all downtown office buildings taller than two stories had a police/military presence on each floor. Comments from local officials as well as Secret Service agents are reminders that “the threat level was very high” and that “it” very well “could have happened here.”

In fact, there were rumors of rogue Cubans and Klan concerns. Tampa’s mob roots were a given. There had been death-threat letters and at least two suspects warranted hands-on follow-ups.

“JFK in Tampa” is also a vehicle for Marvin Dingfelder to go beyond her (WTVT Channel 13) newsroom experience back in the (pre-Fox) day to do something significantly substantial. “PBS allows for more depth,” she explains. “You don’t need a 4-6 second sound bite. You can do longer takes. I love the substance, the production values. I love something that isn’t, as we used to say, ‘quick and dirty.’ I hope it’s a think piece.”

While she was hardly a novice when it came to Kennedy history and even JFK’s Tampa visit, Marvin Dingfelder admits she was surprised at how truly accessible the president was. On the parade route, in speech venues. “Today you have to be a big spender, donor, know somebody,” she notes. “But Kennedy’s visit to Tampa was a wonderful, accessible visit. That made it so special.”

She also concedes the emotional roller coaster that was inevitably part of her work environment.

“As much of a joy as it was, it was also incredibly difficult,” she says. “I wanted to show honor and tell the truth–but you always know the ending that’s just days away. I didn’t want it to feel like just another sad story of Nov. 22. So the onus was on me to produce something that people would want to watch, not dread to watch. The challenge was to make a piece that was happy. I wanted to focus on the happy anniversary.”

To that end, Marvin Dingfelder had plenty of help from those sharing vintage photos and home movies. An African American-Anglo- Tampeño eye-witness mix gives “JFK in Tampa” a vintage Tampa feel.

*”He had that charisma…and you were the only one in the crowd.”–Michelle Patty.

*”I swear when he passed by, our eyes locked. … I loved him.”–Helen Gordon Davis.

*”The very first president I ever saw.”–Dick Greco.

*”He was a Catholic, and the nuns let us off school to see him. For teens, he was better looking than Troy Donahue or Richard Chamberlain. He was a rock star.”–Kathy Betancourt.

For Marvin Dingfelder, there was one other priority. Posterity deserved her best shot.

“I’ve accumulated as much as possible into one neat time capsule,” she underscores. “That’s important because we’re losing too many of these stories that should be cherished. I wanted to weave a story line to last–to help preserve our history.”

Indeed, it’s a keeper.

General seating tickets are $12 for Thursday’s (7:30) documentary debut, $13.50 online at Tampatheatre.org. A Q&A follows the presentation. VIP tickets, which include a (5:30) cocktail hour, appetizers, a JFK book (“Kennedy Detail”) and an opportunity to mingle with JFK Secret Service agents, are $125 at the box office and $130 online.

* “The United States of America and Europe face common challenges. We are allies. But such an alliance can only be built on trust. That’s why I repeat again: Spying among friends, that cannot be.”–German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

* “The look-back is, would more testing have helped? You bet. On the other hand, we will get this site up and running.”–HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the launch of HealthCare.gov.

* “Hope and change are great, compassionate conservatism is all well and good. But you know what? There is also something to be said for just getting the job done. Competence is the new sexy.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “The GOP-led House has become a small-minded, parochial place where collaboration is considered treason, where science is considered a matter of opinion, where immigration is considered a threat, where every solution is a suboptimal compromise enacted at midnight and where every day we see proof of the theory that America is a country that was ‘designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots.'”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.

* “Sen. Ted Cruz … conveyed not the libertarian element in Republican philosophy that advocates for smaller government and less intrusion into the personal lives of citizens, but a new, virulent strain of empty nihilism: ‘Blow it up if we can’t get what we want.'”–John G. Taft, author of “Stewardship: Lessons Learned From the Lost Culture of Wall Street.”

* “I would say that in the end he did more harm. I think it was not his objective. I think his objective was a laudable one.”–Rick Santorum, former senator (R-Pa.) and Republican presidential candidate, assessing Sen. Ted Cruz’s role in the partial government shutdown.

* “It was kind of like when you go through your drawers and your pants pockets and you collect the dimes–you can’t do that again.”–Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., on why the sequestration must end.

* “There will be less opinion, less yelling and fewer celebrity sightings.”–Ehab Al Shihabi, acting chief executive of Al Jazeera America, a new cable channel created specifically for consumers in the U.S.

* “Everyone is trying to position themselves for the new style of information technology. The fittest will survive.”–Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.

* “While Finland admits only the best and brightest to its teacher preparation programs, colleges of education in the United States consistently accept students who, based on the Graduate Record Exam, rank among the lowest applicants for postgraduate study at the nation’s universities.”–David R. Colburn, director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida.

* “Florida has some of the world’s highest solar power potential, yet solar represents less than 1 percent of Duke Energy’s electricity production here. That’s shameful and inadequate.”–Julia Hathaway, Florida representative for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

* “The grass roots are going to be excited about the election no matter who our nominee is. Rick Scott is our greatest unifying feature.”–Mitch Caesar, Democratic chairman of Broward County.

* “I have said I have no plans to run for governor and I have no intention of running for governor, but I will say … the state’s going into a ditch. The state’s going in the wrong direction.”–Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

* “If we get rid of Rick Scott and we elect a Democrat as governor, that Democrat is going to be right on the bandwagon for whoever our (presidential) nominee is–named Hillary Clinton.”–Former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman.

* “This is exciting as we see downtown destinations expanding with a greater base of tourism.”–Donna Chen, Tampa Downtown Partnership’s director of marketing and communications, on news that Tampa will gain a fifth cruise line (AIDA Cruises) next year.

* “I haven’t lost a game in 3 1/2 years. … I would like to give coaching one more try.”–Jon Gruden, ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and former head coach of the Buccaneers.

* “When I quit coaching here, the thing I missed the most was not football. It was the booster dinners.”–Former FSU football coach Bobby Bowden.

* Now that those fraudulently freed killers from Orange County are back in jail without further incident, this fiasco can be chronicled in its proper forum: More Flori-duh material for Jon Stewart.

* George Will has finally made it official. ABC News’ uber articulate, long-time, house conservative, who’s been noticeably drifting farther right for some time, is now leaving for the Fox News Channel. One note of caution to Fox: Watch what other panelists you include with Will. He’s well-informed, very smart and self-aware enough that he won’t be comfortable if propping up, in effect, lightweights such as camera-mugging Sarah Palin.

* As expected, gun backers flocked to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas last weekend in response to a flier exhorting them to “Get your guns & head to San Antonio.” The gun-rights crowd said they had a simple goal: to remind ordinary citizens and law enforcement officials that they are allowed in Texas to legally and openly carry what are known as “long guns,” including shotguns and assault rifles.

Two words: Secede. Please.

* “I was not looking for this opportunity. But when I received the call, I could not refuse it.”–Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s former top lawyer, in accepting President Barack Obama’s nomination as secretary of homeland security.

* “Their (Tea Party) ultimate destination, I believe, is the 1780s and our dysfunctional government under the Articles of Confederation. The states were sovereign in that post-revolutionary arrangement, and the federal government was virtually powerless. … Their core convictions are pre-Great Society, pre-New Deal, pre-Keynes, pre-Freud, pre-Darwin and pre-Constitution.”–Joseph Ellis, author, “Founding Brothers” and “Revolutionary Summer.”

* “Some of the same folks who pushed for the shutdown and threatened default claimed their actions were needed to put America back on track. But probably nothing has done more damage to America’s credibility to the world. … It’s encouraged our enemies. It’s emboldened our competitors. And it’s depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.”–President Barack Obama.

* “We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win.”–House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

* “To me, it’s a very sad day, because his (President Obama’s) agenda is going to go forward, and he gets an immediate victory lap.”–Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

* “I’m tired. Concluding this crisis is historic. But let’s be honest: This was pain inflicted on the nation for no good reason.”–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

* “(The deal) postpones any significant action on pro-growth and spending reforms and does nothing to provide working class Americans even one shred of relief from Obamacare’s harmful effects.”–Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in opposing the deal.

* “With the feeble House Speaker, John Boehner, and majority leader, Eric  Cantor, consistently appeasing the Tea Party extremists, it is no wonder the party went over a cliff and almost took the country with it.”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.

* “Will the Tea Party be chastened by recent defeat? Not likely, or for long. Because Tea Party leaders inhabit an alternative political reality–sheltered in safe districts or states, applauded by conservative media, incited (or threatened) by advocacy groups, carried along by a deep current of anger and frustration among activists–they have no incentive to view defeat as defeat.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* “I’m shocked at how dumbed down the process is. Looney Tunes without the Merrie Melodies.”–Robert Redford on Washington’s dysfunction.

* “It’s a huge honor just to even honor her.”–Elton John on bestowing his foundation’s first Founders Award on Hillary Rodham Clinton for her work combating AIDS.

* “In the past everything you heard from a pope was prepared or formally released. And that was intentional–not to say anything ad hoc. And it’s also intentional that this one does. I think his entire focus is outside the church. That’s huge.”–Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News.

* “Anonymity is a last resort.”–Stylebook of the New York Times regarding use of anonymous sources.

* “Our country lost a natural treasure; our state lost its finest representative; our city lost its biggest advocate; and me–my friend and mentor.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster on the passing of U.S. Rep. C. W. “Bill” Young.

* “I can tell you, there will be more arrests.”–Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey in the aftermath of the capture of murderers who had used forged documents to escape their life sentences.

* “Our ability to attract talented workers, create high-wage jobs and improve the quality of life for citizens  is directly linked to improved transportation options and regional mobility.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe.

* “Tampa is a gateway to Latin America, and increasing trade with Brazil can be an economic game-changer for the region.”–Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who is leading a trade mission to São Paulo and Porto Alegre, Brazil.

* “The revitalization of Water Works Park is really a linchpin to the rest of the Tampa Heights community.”–Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez.

* “I think if you ask six economists what’s the size of a ‘small business,’ you’d get six different answers.”–St. Petersburg City Council Chairman Karl Nurse.

Next month will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The occasion will be recalled in print and on air. We’ll be reminded that JFK was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who went on to win re-election in 1964. It might also be noted that Johnson vied with Kennedy for the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 1960 and finished runner-up at the national convention with 409 first-ballot votes to Kennedy’s 806.

But ironically Johnson, the Senate Majority leader and a major national player, had helped seriously kick-start Kennedy’s 1960 ambitions. The account is part of Robert A. Caro’s well-written, superbly-researched best seller: “The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power.”

The year was 1957. Johnson was the unquestioned, upper-cased Leader of the Senate and was already planning strategies for a presidential run. John Kennedy was the undistinguished son of wealthy Joe Kennedy. The latter asked Johnson in 1957 if he would fill a vacant seat on the Foreign Relations Committee with his son. He said he’d “never forget the favor for the rest of his life.” Johnson liked that scenario. Besides, by appointing Kennedy, he could pass over Estes Kefauver, who looked like a serious presidential contender again in 1960. Johnson didn’t consider young Kennedy a threat. In fact he often referred to him as “the boy.” The Foreign Relations seat, however, would give Kennedy the sort of national forum he needed for his own presidential aspirations.

The real irony is that Johnson felt that by elevating Kennedy, the junior senator from Massachusetts might become a “useful asset” to Johnson, a southern presidential candidate who could likely use a running mate from the Northeast. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea to build one up,” writes Caro, “particularly one who had a father as powerful as Jack Kennedy’s.”

* “We need to move towards a trust-building road map with the Westerners. To them, trust-building means taking some steps in the nuclear case, and for us this happens when sanctions are lifted.”–Abbas Araghchi, deputy foreign minister of Iran and a nuclear-talks negotiator.

* “My question is whether the supreme leader and more conservative factions, including the Islamic Guard, will be willing to give (President) Rouhani enough flexibility so that he can offer the kind of nuclear concessions the U.S. will demand as a condition for sanctions relief.”–Gary Samore, President Obama’s former coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, proliferation and terrorism, in a presentation at USF.

* “Even though most Israelis dislike him, they see him as the best advocate–he knows how to deliver the goods when we are talking about talking. He’s a professional whistle-blower. He’s a professional prophet. But all the time pessimistic, threatening.”–An assessment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Ben Caspit, a Netanyahu biographer.

* “An important step (Affordable Care Act). … But if you don’t make America healthier, you’re not going to control costs. And ultimately that’s what we have to do.”–Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent.

* “While I think we all agree … that more needs to be done to strengthen the recovery, particularly for those hardest hit by the Great Recession, we have made progress. The economy is stronger and the financial system sounder.”–Janet Yellen, who was recently appointed by President Obama to succeed Ben Bernanke as leader of the Federal Reserve system.

* “There’s a toughness to her that there isn’t in Bernanke.”–Christina Romer, former chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

* “I don’t know that I would pick out one thing. It’s a lot of things. My family, my job, my rehabilitation from my back.”–U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young on his retirement announcement.

* “We need some kind of change up there. We need better people, or different people. Maybe I can be part of the solution.”–Alex Sink on the possibility of running for the congressional seat, Pinellas County’s District 13, of retiring U.S. Rep. C. W. “Bill” Young.

* “I have heard from many in Tampa Bay–including Republican members of Congress–and the message is clear: End the shutdown and focus on the big-picture budget for future years.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “This is affecting real people who have nothing to do with this. This is not their fight. This is a bunch of Tea Partiers who are trying to make a point, holding the U.S. government hostage.”–Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn on the impact of the federal government shutdown, including the abruptly postponed four-day national defense and intelligence conference at the Tampa Convention Center that would have meant 7,000 hotel nights and an estimated economic impact of $5 million.

* “We cannot have constant growth, small government, maximum liberty AND a life-sustaining environment.”–Chris Meindl, USF professor of Florida Studies.

* “I wish Jeb Bush had been elected president instead of ‘W,’ who I like, but he didn’t have the skill set to do the job like his little brother.”–Tom James, chairman of Raymond James Financial.

* “This is bigger than landing the Super Bowl, a national convention or the Olympics. It’s a mega-storm of growth that’s hitting our county with feeder bands that will create economic growth all over this area.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman on Amazon’s completion of a real estate deal to build a massive distribution center in Ruskin.

* “Never lose sight of the power of your badge, and the absolute requirement that you never act in a way to bring dishonor to yourself or this organization.”–Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor.

* “In our community, the name Dottie stands for passion, integrity, tenacity and love.”–Former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio on the late Dottie Berger MacKinnon.

* “(Owner Stuart Sternberg’s) job is to represent the interests of the Tampa Bay Rays. Mr. (Commissioner Bud) Selig’s job is to represent the interests of Major League Baseball. My job is to represent the interests of St. Petersburg.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster.

* It is, of course, way too late now. Too bad the media, then Democrats and the president himself, ultimately helped mainstream the term “Obamacare.” That was a Republican coinage meant to personally demonize the Affordable Care Act and make it easier to rally against. The media, a good chunk of which loves informing via bumper-sticker sound bite, yielded early and adopted “Obamacare,” which made it easier for the agenda-driven opposition. The “ACA” or “Affordable Health” short-hand never got traction.

* According to Bright.com, a job board that looks at college majors and salaries in their related fields, these are the top five majors with the highest average salaries: accounting, pharmacy, finance, business administration and public relations. Business and health-care related categories make eminent sense. As for all those other majors, including the lowest: social work, criminal justice, psychology and elementary education, they’re going to need some serious PR help.

* Not to pick on the Tampa Bay Times or its well-regarded movie critic Steve Persall, but that “Critics Calls” checklist the Times runs weekly is hardly helpful. The category keys are: “Don’t miss,” “Don’t hurry” and “Don’t bother.” Don’t think that’s enough. Something’s obviously amiss. A recent example: The Times’ “Don’t miss” category included: Blue Jasmine, The Butler and Kick-Ass 2. C’mon. How does that help a reader? Or is that not its purpose?

* “I thought I was too ambitious, bordering on naiveté. But I saw that some of my colleagues were even more ambitious and wanted to do it faster.”–Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on fast-tracking nuclear negotiations.

* “It’s theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death. … The convention afterlife is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”–Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

* “I don’t think what Washington needs is more compromise.”–Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx.

* “It’s revealing irony that the harshest critics of compromise should call themselves constitutional conservatives. The Constitution itself resulted from an extraordinary series of compromises. And it created the system of government that presupposes the same spirit.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* “The Republican Party has just spun itself up around this issue. And the fact is the Republicans’ biggest fear at this point is not that the Affordable Care Act will fail. What they’re worried about is it’s going to succeed. … All this would be funny if it wasn’t so crazy.”–President Barack Obama.

* “The entire world looks to us to make sure that the world economy is stable. You don’t mess with that.”–President Barack Obama.

* “I believe this is something the American people have a right to know, whether NSA has ever collected or made plans to collect cell site information.”–Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., addressing NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

* “What I don’t want to do … is put out in an unclassified forum anything that’s classified.”–Gen. Keith Alexander’s response to Sen. Wyden.

* “It’s very hard to write regulations that will keep people from acting foolishly, particularly when acting foolishly has proven very profitable over the preceding few years.”–Warren Buffett.

* “You never say never in this business because you don’t know. I still have plenty of fire. What is it going to be directed at is the question.”–Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate, on whether he would consider another White House run in 2016.

* “He’s captured the world’s imagination. Like Jesus, he’s always saying, ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner.'”–Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, describing Pope Francis.

* “After standing by him, he kind of left and I guess kind of went on a victory tour without me.”–Shellie Zimmerman, estranged wife of George Zimmerman.

* “Baseball is what I do, not who I am, and that’s the difference.”–Recently retired New York Yankee great Mariano Rivera.

* “We can talk all we want, and that doesn’t make the mayor–whoever that may be–listen.”–Tampa City Council member Mary Mulhern.

* “This was a hotly contested sale. There was a lot of interest in it, and this became very competitive. That’s good news for us that a lot of smart people thought the site has potential that has not been realized.”–David Conn, executive vice president of the real estate services company CBRE, on the sale of Hyde Park Village to WS Development for $45 million.

* “It’s not gangbusters yet, but it’s getting there. It’s good, but it’s still not where it was in 2006.”–Tampa’s Robert Elder, president of the Elder Automotive Group, which owns Ford and Jaguar dealerships.

* We truly expect it to be a celebration of college football, the crown jewel.”–Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, on the motivation for pitching Tampa as host for college football’s national championship game.

It was an informal brainstorming session before going on the air with Mitch Perry, the host of WMNF’s “Last Call Thursday.” We chatted a bit about the St. Petersburg mayoral election and an upcoming debate that Perry would moderate. He was looking for a question that had somehow not yet been asked of these candidates. My contribution: “Where does St. Petersburg fit in this Tampa Bay marketplace?”

My rationale: For too long the bay had been a second gulf and underscored the counterproductive competition between St. Pete and Tampa. Pinellas County had even seceded from Hillsborough back in the day. Both cities had competed for USF, TIA, professional sports franchises and Busch Gardens, among others. While Tampa was the hub of the market, St. Pete was no mere retiree spoke. It has downtown charm and a waterfront that would rival Monte Carlo. It has a burgeoning mix of research and educational vitality. It’s a key component in regional Super Bowl, Bollywood Oscars and national political convention pitches.

And, of course, my follow-up: “How would the next mayor see St. Pete’s complementary role–in fulfilling both its potential and that of the Tampa Bay area–and how critical is mass transit in accomplishing that?”

Anyone who has ever professionally hovered over a keyboard knows the feeling. Writing is a process. Sometimes it flows; sometimes it trickles. And sometimes it’s, well, damable.

Even J.D. Salinger agreed. We now know this from outtakes of “Salinger,” a 700-page biography by David Shields and Shane Salerno. They quote Salinger’s assessment that writing is “the hardest of the arts.” Salinger explained: “Our instrument is a blank sheet of paper–no strings, no frets, no keys, no reed, mouthpiece, nothing to do with the body whatever–God, the unnaturalness of it. Always waiting for birth, every time we sit down to work.”

Thanks for the reminder, J.D.