Category: Media Watch

*Says it all: Monday’s Tampa Bay Times featured a classic (page-4) photo of Tropical Storm Debby doing Bayshore Boulevard. Four images were well framed: the top of the balustrade, a tow truck, a Mercury Capri and a kayaker. Where else but on Bayshore when it floods would you incongruously find a car and a kayak?

Note to adults: A flooded Bayshore is an understandable, cell-phone video allure. So also is the temptation for your kids to be kids and wade right in, oblivious to the backed-up sewer scenarios. Especially when they’re already in bathing suits. Of course, it’s really not safe. You don’t know what’s under their feet and swirling around their legs–other than bacteria.

* Some stories are just so compelling that it’s entirely likely that both the Times and the Tampa Tribune will accord them front-page, above-the-fold status. But in this case, they’re also a reminder of our priorities. Both papers went with assault charges being dropped against the Bucs’ thuggish Aqib Talib as front-page fodder last Tuesday. They then came back the next day with Armwood High, the avatar for football ineligibility, officially finding out what it had known for months–that it would be forfeiting a championship and lots of games.

* “That’s My Boy.” Imagine, Adam Sandler has been around long enough making awful, juvenile movies that he’s now playing the role of a father in one.

* Look who has resurrected his career after being so reviled not that long ago: erstwhile political consultant Steve Schmidt. He is, arguably, the one most responsible for imposing Sarah Palin on the 2008 GOP presidential ticket as well as on the American psyche. Now, thanks ironically in part to “Game Change,” the HBO movie about the McCain-Palin campaign, he has never been more sought after in that uniquely American hybrid of political-show business punditry. He’s a big shot with a big time public relations firm (Edelman) and is a regular, GOP-criticizing commentator on MSNBC.

And here’s his take, which dawned on him, he concedes, shortly after orchestrating the Palin selection: “She absolutely should not be president: no way, no how,” he recently noted. “I’ve watched her on the public stage over the past four years. There has been zero effort–zero–to improve any of her obvious deficiencies.”

But there’s a point totally missed when analyzing the re-emergence of Steve Schmidt, political guru. His job in 2008 was to find a possible “game changer” for a candidate who increasingly looked–and sounded–like an election loser. A candidate, ironically, whose campaign theme was “Country First.”

Schmidt was complicit in putting someone on the ticket who would have been that proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency. In this case, an office that would have been held by a septuagenarian with a history of cancer. That was an unpatriotic, hypocritical “Candidate First” calculation that blatantly ignored the best interest of this country. But it was a helluva career move.

* You know what was more disturbing than that Daily Caller website hack who recently interrupted the president’s prepared remarks? The conservative talking heads and bloggers who actually defended such disrespectfully arrogant behavior.

* “Nobody goes untreated, no matter how poor or rich they are. I think that is very reassuring for people. I understand the arguments against it, but it’s something that everybody buys into, everybody believes in, and it works. It shows that there is something that really binds us together.”–Boris Johnson, the conservative mayor of London, explaining his support for socialized medicine in Britain.

* “Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a strong and sensible manner. They are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstance of each case.”–Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

* “I still believe in you. I need you to still believe in me.”–President Barack Obama at the HCC campaign rally.

* “Not sufficiently Reaganesque.”–Ron Reagan Jr. satirizing how today’s Republican Party would assess his father.

* “I really don’t have tremendous political ambition. I have policy ambition.”–Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, House Budget Chairman.

* “We spent the 20th Century protecting nature from people, and we will spend the 21st century protecting nature for people.”–Glenn Prickett, chief external affairs officer for The Nature Conservancy.

* “This slavish devotion to coal and oil, and sneering at environmentalism, contradicts the GOP’s long tradition of environmental stewardship that some Republicans are still proud of: Teddy Roosevelt bequeathed us national parks, Richard Nixon the Clean Air Act and the EPA, Ronald Reagan the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer and George H.S. Bush cap-and-trade that reduced acid rain. Does the GOP really think it will attract the idealism of next-generation voters with mottos like “Coal=Jobs”?–Thomas Friedman, New York Times.

* “A system that lets one individual pump so much money into supporting a favored candidate threatens to substitute oligarchy for democracy.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.

* “When this many people are this overweight, you have not only an epidemic. You have a new normal, a context in which each obese person is less likely to recognize and appreciate the magnitude of his or her health problem because it’s entirely unexceptional.”–Frank Bruni, New York Times.

* “All paparazzis should be waterboarded.”–Actor Alec Baldwin.

* “Nobody wins. We’ve all lost.”–Mother of an accuser in the Jerry Sandusky sexual-assault case.

* “The function served by daily newspaper journalism is critical  to the very maintenance of democracy. It’s time we recognized that.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “I guess the way this works is any job Florida loses is the fault of the president and his economic policies, and any job we gain is due to the governor’s efforts.”–Former state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami.

* “Voters don’t like him, Republicans won’t campaign with him, and he’s hurting the GOP up and down the ticket.”–Brannon Jordan, Democratic Party of Florida spokeswoman, on Gov. Rick Scott.

* “There seems to really not be any method to our madness right now.”–State university Board of Governors’ member Ava Park questioning the fairness of the process used to determine tuition hikes for all 11 universities.

* “It allows us to get pedestrians out of a very unsafe environment. As a linkage in our downtown core, it’s just as important as a road. … Those kinds of things, as mayors understand, not only create jobs but also create economic development opportunities.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on the importance of landing the $10.9 million federal TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant that will help the city finish the 2.6-mile Riverwalk.

* “Anarchy is a tactic, versus a group. It is used by different groups. Typically, they are loosely organized and misguided individuals who break the law and disrupt the event.”–Laura McElroy, Tampa Police spokeswoman.

* “The reality is that they’re on the verge of a choice between having a nuclear program or an economy. There’s nothing like no money in your wallet to straighten your senses.”–Cliff Kupchan, senior analyst on the Middle East at the Eurasia Group, on the pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.

* “There is no time for political games. The country must be governed. We will cooperate with our European partners to boost growth and tackle the torturous problem of unemployment.”–Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party that finished first in the Greek election.

* “Economic growth and fiscal discipline are not mutually exclusive; they go hand in hand.”–Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

* “After the fall of Communism and the reunification of the two Germanys, the country had to learn to act like a real sovereign state again. Now we need to learn the next lesson: to use German power wisely and with a good portion of humility.”–Clemens Wergin, foreign editor of the German newspapers Welt and Welt am Sonntag.

* “He has total respect for her. She’s very Midwestern in her own way: She tells him exactly what she can and can’t do, will or won’t do.”–Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman on the relationship between President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

* “In America as in Europe, Republicans argue, the welfare state is failing to provide either security or dynamism. The safety net is so expensive, it won’t be there for future generations.” —David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Standing a few feet away from Jerry Sandusky, as he laughed and reminisced with friends in the front row of the courtroom, made me want to take a shower. Just not in the Penn State locker room.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “Being a mayor–that’s a real job. And they know where you live. You, among any group of elected officials, have seen up close and personal the negative impact of this god-awful recession we inherited.”–Vice President Joe Biden at last week’s U.S. Conference of Mayors gathering in Orlando.

* “In the short run, infrastructure investment would stimulate business growth and employ otherwise unemployed resources of labor and equipment. In the longer run, when these assets are in good working order, they would support faster growth of the economy, a prerequisite for bringing down the national debt and putting workers back on the path to higher after-tax incomes.”–Charles O. Kroncke, associate dean of the USF College of Business.

* “Is it symbolic that (Rick) Scott and Romney aren’t spending more time together? Yes. Is it surprising? No.”–Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

* “If my opponents want to debate me, that will only help Sen. Nelson.”–U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV.

* “We’ve been losing millions in revenue each year since the housing market tanked in 2008, but we have cut marginal routes and cut people to maintain an above-average service–more than many transit systems have been able to do. We are now down to essential services. Any cuts beyond this are going to be painful and they won’t go unnoticed.”–Steve Feigenbaum, HART official who oversees schedules and routes.

* “A test is not necessarily the answer to a problem.”–Hillsborough County School Board Chairwoman Candy Olson.

* “As our family looks to deepen its roots in this community, I believe establishing the company’s home base here is a natural step. We continue to remain bullish on Tampa Bay and its future, and we look forward to opening our operation downtown later this summer.”–Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik who is relocating his investment firm, Vinik Asset Management, to downtown Tampa.

Word is that HBO and Tom Hanks will collaborate next year in producing a 13-part mini-series on the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It will mark the 50th anniversary of that tragic event.

Word also is out on what the mini-series’ agenda will be: proving the accuracy of the Report. To that end, it will rely heavily on the views and writing of former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, the author of “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy” in 2007.

Look for Mark Lane–of “Rush To Judgment” fame–and other, still-active Warren Commission Report critics to weigh in. This could be the last major go-round for the controversy that won’t quite go away–and probably never will. Among other counterpoints, look for Lane to accuse Bugliosi of overreliance on “sources” that moonlighted as CIA media assets.

Prediction: Warren Commission skeptics will not be convinced, although another ascending generation will now get to cringe at horrific Zapruder footage.

* “A humbling experience.”–Queen Elizabeth II’s reaction to the enormous crowds greeting her on the four-day celebration of her Diamond Jubilee.

* “Reaching the limits of our patience.”–Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s assessment of the relationship with Pakistan.

* “If Arab and Muslim peoples believe Americans are hypocrites who cynically consult their strategic interests before bemoaning Arab and Muslim victims of terror and war, do they not have a point?”–Patrick Buchanan, Creators Syndicate.

* “One of the best things that every happened to 41 (George H.W. Bush) was having his rowdy son get it together after prodigal decades and join the family business of politics. And it was one of the worst, because Poppy had to watch W. distance himself, run as the heir to Ronald Reagan and then tar the family name by governing destructively, egged on by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (41’s old nemesis).”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “To my knowledge, the Constitution has not been amended to include charity as a legislative duty of Congress.”–Walter E. Williams, George Mason University economics professor.

* “The austerity drive in Britain isn’t really about debt and deficits at all; it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs. And this is, of course, exactly the same thing that has been happening in America.”–Paul Krugman, New York Times.

* “I will end this civil war. That is something the people of this state want.”–Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after winning his recall election.

* “The problem for Democrats in Wisconsin and elsewhere is that state and local budget debates unite conservatives while dividing voters who believe in active government.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* “I am deeply concerned about the culture of Florida A&M University.”–FAMU President James Ammons.

* “It’s strike two. Three strikes and you’re out.”–Solomon Badger, FAMU board chairman, commenting on President Ammons’ status after the board’s vote of no confidence in him.

* “I am ready to pause the notion of using tuition as the main source of getting us out of this problem.”–University of Florida President Bernie Machen in recommending  that UF ask for a 9 percent tuition hike–short of the 15 percent increase UF is allowed to seek under state law.

* “Registering citizens to vote is part of our core mission, and we’re excited to get back to work.”– St. Petersburg League of Women Voters President Darden Rice after a federal judge temporarily blocked parts of the new Florida elections law as violations of the First Amendment.

* “In 1965, almost 50 percent of people aged 65 and older had no health insurance. Medicare now provides health care coverage for more than 95 percent of the population that is 65 or older.”–Larry Polivka, director of the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University.

* “Is it the vibe of this place (Miami) that promotes such a bounty of derangement, or do the deranged simply move here for the vibe?”–Miami Herald’s Carl Hiaasen on that notorious, naked-cannibal attack.

* “Every CEO wants to leave on his own terms. I’m making this decision. Nobody else is.”–Port of Tampa director Richard Wainio in announcing that he will be resigning in September.

* “Build the ballpark for them–please. They play well, they got a great organization now. I think now they deserve it. They’ve earned it. … Get them a new stadium. I’ll put a couple of million in.”–Ozzie Guillen, Miami Marlins manager.

* Tampa Tribune columnist Steve Otto recently commented on feedback about newspapers’ seeming penchant for “bad news.” Steve said it was more balanced than is generally acknowledged, but at any rate let’s not “blame the messenger.”

Personally, I’ve always liked the late Walter Cronkite’s answer to criticism about the media’s (seeming) preoccupation with “bad news.” Cronkite responded: “Most viewers are not interested in all the cats that did not get stuck in trees today.”

It’s true. The uncrashed plane and the unbribed judge are not “news.” But there’s a thin line between relevantly informing readers and viewers and lustily pandering to the least common denominator. There are  reasons why “If it bleeds, it leads” still resonates.

* If ever there was a time for the media to forego its habit of interchanging “not guilty” with “innocent,” it was the John Edwards trial.

* It was a feisty week for the Tampa Tribune in its uphill competition with the Tampa Bay Times. First came a Trib front-page story on Bern’s Steak House that was a counterpoint response to a recent unflattering Bern’s piece by the Times. It was over the degree to which Bern’s utilizes its farm, which is now relocating to a new site, and its commitment to “farm-fresh organic produce.” The upshot, including a bit of embarrassment over unflattering publicity for the iconic restaurant, is that (owner) David Laxer’s menu note has now been tweaked to read, in part: “… we grow what we can on our own farm, organically, without pesticides or other toxic materials.”

A couple of days later, the Trib did a front-page piece on the non-profit Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the parent organization of the closely-held, for-profit Times. The story on the renowned Poynter is that it’s scurrying for financial help, and can no longer rely on the Times, which like most newspapers, is looking for ways to cut back.

Both stories included references to Times personnel who either did not return calls and emails or declined to comment. For obvious reasons, media don’t like coverage subjects who don’t call them back or won’t talk on or off the record. They, therefore, take a perverse delight in letting readers know that. It’s no less perversely delightful when they can note that about a competitor.

* Much was made this week over Johan Santana throwing the first no-hitter in the 51-year history of the New York Mets. But the accomplishment was accompanied by some controversy. An umpire missed a call that would have given the St. Louis Cardinals a hit. While the players responded with a “that’s baseball” attitude, some New York and St. Louis media outlets were hardly studies in equanimity. The back page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch flippantly declared: “No-Hitter*.” The New York Daily News fired back with: “Kiss Our Asterisk.”

Seemingly lost in the partisan exchange: Better use of instant replay would have settled it on the spot.

* “Neither is the epitome of the back-slapping pol. Both of them are almost shy, which is amazing in this business.”–Former (Democratic) Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell on Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

* “Presidential candidates are largely self-selected, which favors ambition and self-regard above, well, all other traits. A vice presidential field results from a party’s consensus on talent and competence.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* “Here is the telling difference, and the sad, perhaps inevitable, trajectory of any political dynasty, from idealism to expediency. George Romney railed–indeed, he battled–against what he saw happening. Mitt Romney has adapted to it.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.

* “There should be no military action authorized by the United States that does not include income- and corporate-tax surcharges … sufficient to cover all of the operating costs of the war … and a trust fund to provide for lifetime support for those who serve and sacrifice in the war.”–James Wright, former president of Dartmouth College and author of “Those Who Have Borne The Battle.”

* “I am all too afraid that Benjamin Franklin correctly saw our nation’s destiny when he said, ‘When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.'”–Walter E. Williams, George Mason University economics professor.

* “But even readers who love Facebook, or at least cannot imagine life without it, should see its stock market failure as a sign of the commercial limits of the Internet. … It’s created a cultural revolution more than an economic one. … It’s telling that the companies most often cited as digital-era successes, Apple and Amazon, both have business models that are firmly rooted in the production and delivery of nonvirtual goods.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “Our research shows that real estate values increase as neighborhoods became more walkable, where everyday needs, including working, can be met by walking, transit or biking.”–Christopher B. Leinberger, George Washington University School of Business and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

* “We’d like to know why (Gov. Scott) believes, in the absence of real evidence, that there’s a voter fraud problem in our state. We’d also like to know if he’s been communicating without organizations or national party leaders about this.”–Ashley Mushnick, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton.

* “I will stand on the sidelines and support their efforts. … This is not about me.”–State Sen. JD Alexander’s reference to the newly-formed Florida Poly Vision Inc. booster group.

* “He gave people a language they desperately needed for talking about death and dying, which also taught us a lot about living.”–Baltimore talk-radio host Tom Hall on Tampa native and journalist Dudley Clendinen, who recently died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

* “This is not a gay pride event. This is a showcase of businesses in this great landmark historic district.”–Carrie West, president of the GaYbor District Coalition, in reference to Ybor City’s five-day GaYbor Days festival.

* “We want to show what the Tampa area offers. I’ve been looking forward to doing this for a long time.”–Mise en Place proprietor Maryann Ferenc, who has opened the First Flight wine bar in the main terminal of TIA.

It’s no secret that these are the digital days from hell for newspapers. More and more advertisers take their business online; fewer and fewer folks read a daily paper. It’s incumbent for print survivors to do more with less. Too many, as we’ve noticed locally, do less with less–a formula for extinction.

So plaudits to the Tampa Bay Times for showing the journalistic initiative and old-school enterprise to staff the recent NATO summit in Chicago with a reporter and photographer. While the Tampa Tribune used AP photos and after-the-fact interviews, the Times went proactive for first-hand coverage, including on-scene observations from Tampa Assistant Police Chief John Bennett.

The NATO summit was, of course, a kind of de facto dress rehearsal for this summer’s GOP National Convention in Tampa. Protecting First Amendment rights, differentiating edgy demonstrators from criminal anarchists, and employing security tactics–from logistics to common sense–were all on display. Notes were taken. Applications considered.

Belt-tightening mandates notwithstanding, the Times was where it should have been–where the news, utterly relevant to this city, was being made. Proper priority. Some things don’t change.

Among the more distracting givens of any political season are the interminable number of polls that are sure to ensue. Each one with a context, including inquiry language and sampling specifics, that falls shy of scientific certitude despite that presumptuous “margin-of-error” claim. At best they are snapshots of something, often too far out to be meaningful. At worst they are self serving. Ever wish Quinnipiac University was better known for its football team or its chemistry department than its polls?

Well, last week Quinnipiac rolled out a poll showing Mitt Romney ahead of President Barack Obama in Florida, 47-41. At the same time, however, an NBC/Marist poll had Obama ahead 48-44. The devil, of course, was in the sampling details. Among other variables, Quinnipiac’s included more Republicans than Democrats. The Marist version had more Democrats than Republicans. Then there were the quibbles over the difference between party “identification” and party “registration.”

In the end, all sides got what they wanted. Campaigns could claim their candidate was “ahead” in the polls and that could keep morale up and fund-raising on track. And the polls could claim that their products were well referenced once again.

It peaked media interest when the Connie Mack IV senatorial campaign put out an endorsement of the candidate by Puerto Rican Gov. Luis Fortuño. In a press release to reporters, the Mack campaign quoted Fortuño as saying Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, along with President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, were “lockstep liberals,” a favored Mack phrase.

But that’s not what Fortuño actually said and the campaign later put out a corrected, updated version sans any “liberal” reference. It called the previous release an “erroneous working draft.”

Nice try. But since when is the question of what to actually attribute to someone–via quotation marks–a function of a “draft”?