Gold ticket and a shower

Dear blue-ticket holders who didn’t get in to see President Barack Obama speak last week,

What is wrong with your self-esteem? I don’t mean your politics. I mean the idolatry of politicians has to stop.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

You’re right. Having any president, sitting or former, stop by to use a local community venue as his bully pulpit is an honor. Obama's message last week to increase opportunities for college bound students was important.

But to those of you who were there hoping for a glimpse or the opportunity to shake his hand I would like to address something about his stop in Central New York that has me a little bit concerned: the way his staff treated the people outside and the reverence you have for him because he is the president.

Please, don’t get me wrong. I firmly hold that any sitting president deserves the respect of every United States citizen. He was elected to serve us all, even if we did not cast a winning ballot. Likewise, all of our elected officials work for us and deserve our respect for their willingness to hold public office. But they must return that respect for We the People. And we do not owe each other awe or veneration.

According to local news reports, when the tickets to attend Obama’s remarks were meted out, some of you, the blue-ticket holders, queued overnight on Monday Aug. 20, just for a chance to get a ticket. 

You blue-ticket holders waited again for several hours on Thursday Aug. 22, just for the opportunity to get inside the high school auditorium. And when the skies opened up with a typical late-summer rain and its torrents drenched the people outside, not one of them had an umbrella. 

The sacred pass forbade them from carrying one. 

And then it was you, the wet, tired blue-ticket holders who were turned away at the door when the seats were filled.

Meanwhile, the elite red tickets were handed out in offices across the region to other politicians, local officials, and high ranking community members. A red ticket allowed its holder to pass through a shorter ‘express’ line where it has been reported in social media that bottled water and granola bars were served.

My questions here for you, the blue-ticket holders, is this: would you treat anyone in your life the way you were treated? And, why would you let your government - which is supposed to be working for you – treat you this way?

The Syracuse Post Standard reported that among those turned away was Susan Fahey Glisson, the president of Parents for Public Schools. You would think that she would be an important person to have in the room during a discussion about education. Where was her red ticket?

In a report the following day, reporter Tim Knauss, wrote:

“Glisson got all dressed up, as did most of the people who went, including lots of young children, she said. For an hour, they all stood in the rain while the line did not move, Glisson said. The metal detectors could not be deployed in the rain. Then came word from inside the school: Nobody else would be allowed in.

“Glisson's shoes -- bone leather pumps -- were ruined, she said this afternoon. Her iPhone no longer worked, despite sitting for a day in a cup of rice to remove the water. … Glisson said she believes Obama would be concerned if he knew how badly some of his fans in Syracuse had been disappointed.”

Wait, what? Fans? As in, an enthusiastic devotee, follower and admirer of the famous?

Ugh.

Obama’s staffers owe each of you blue-ticket outcasts an apology for making you wait in line all night, not arranging to have adequate shelter when their ticket asked you to leave your umbrellas home and for not telling you that the auditorium was overbooked as soon as they knew.

The president owes you an apology for being so isolated that his staff felt they could treat you all this way. He also owes you the gratification of knowing what ramifications they suffered for treating We the People so badly. Because he is a lame-duck, your vote no longer has any power over him.

Meanwhile, you should have checked the weather before you left home, worn something drip-dry, the old veneer pumps and put your iPhone in a plastic bag. 

Best always,

Reb

'Feel good?' Criminals applying conscience selectively does not restore my faith in humanity

A sexual assault services office in San Bernardino County was burglarized July 31, causing thousands of dollars in damage and with thousands of dollars in office equipment stolen.

According to this ABC News story, “Inside, (the center’s director) said, the building’s telephone wires had been cut, its Internet connection was down and six computer towers, a laptop, speakers for the laptop, children’s story books and 100 bags of small candy had been stolen.”

Hours after the break-in the center’s director found a shopping cart outside the building containing the stolen items.

Now legions of news reporters - from NPR and Huffington Post to The Christian Post and FOX News are telling me this story is supposed to restore my faith in humanity due to the following note left inside one of the stolen laptops:

“We HAD

NO IDEA

what we were

takeing. Here

your stuff Back

we hope that

you guys can

continue to make

A DiffeRerence

in peoples Live

GOD Bless.”

Sorry folks, it ain't workin' for me. I get no warm fuzzies here.

What would restore my faith in humanity?

• If the burglar(s) had taken the note, the stolen items and him or her self(s) to the local police department and offered to do whatever necessary to make reparations for the damage caused, regardless of the type of services offered by the agency. Or even just turned themselves in to the agency.
• If these savvy burglar(s) – smart enough to break in through a utility area and not get electrocuted – enrolled in a local literacy program and worked toward learning how to read and write.
• If they hadn't closed with "God Bless." Really? A group of people dedicated to helping victims of sexual assault have now been blessed by the criminals who've taken resources away from the victims (in cost of repairing the damage to property and sense of security) and made their jobs that much harder?
• If there was no need for rape crisis centers.
• Or, even if any of the news agencies that reproduced the note in the text of their articles had done so accurately.
• How about if he/she/they didn't break into the office to begin with? That would have worked.

Criminals don't get a bye, especially not when their conscience is plaguing them. It means they knew that what they were doing was wrong in the first place.

Something's wrong, captain

Saturday August 10, 2013 update: 

Officials in the town of Deer Trail were split in a 3-3 vote Tuesday on a law that would allow drone hunting within its borders. The matter will now go to a public vote, according to this
Amanda Kost, ABC7 News update.

And:

On July 25, Sara Morrison of The Wrap reported that three producers at KTVU in Oakland were fired over a racist error announced live during a newscast about the Asiana crash landing that left three dead.

"Reached by TheWrap via email, investigative projects producer Roland De Wolk wrote : "My hard-earned reputation is intack (sic). There are lawyers, so eager as I am to anser (sic) all questions, I must refrain."

TheWrap presumes the spelling errors were unintentional."

I think that The Wrap is being far too kind to Mr. DeWolk.

The other producers named in Morrison's article are Brad Belstock and Cristina Gastelu. Although, as of this writing, Gastelu still lists KTVU as her employer.

You can read Morrison's article here:

Fired KTVU Producer in Asiana Gaffe: 'My Hard-Earned Reputation is Intack' 

_ _ _
Original blog post July 20:

There were two things in TV news this week that coursed through the Internets’s series of tubes and caught my attention: one was the removal of the heart of a story about government spying, the other was a brainless (and racist) error. Both stories involved careless reporting.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

Heartless spin

The mayor of the town of Deer Trail, Colo., is trying to send an important message about government surveillance of Americans by drafting a measure to allow bounty hunting of unmanned drones in the town's airspace. With recent revelations provided by whistle-blower Ed Snowden about the National Security Agency and its questionable tactics collecting information and spying on Americans, this is an important conversation the country needs to remain engaged in until we have come to a constitutional resolution.

Or not.

In the online version of her story, in an interview with the town’s mayor, ABC7NEWS Reporter Amanda Kost said she asked the town official if he had ever seen a drone flying over.

"No," Mayor Phillip Steel responded. "This is a very symbolic ordinance. Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society, and I believe we are heading that way."

Unfortunately, that quote never made the on-air news cast. 

Instead, the story became a silly fluff piece focused on the kind of money that could be made during a “drone days” festival, the sale of licenses and the fact that you can’t actually shoot down a drone with a shotgun.

If I were Steel I would have felt like my heart was ripped out.

It’s no wonder people are afraid to talk with reporters about anything important and that they take delight in the errors that supposedly trained journalists make - sometimes even provoking them.

Holy Fook

When an airplane crashes and people are killed, maimed and injured it is hard news and newsrooms across the country and around the world are rightfully compelled to report such occurrences. The ‘media’ has the responsibility of being the source of public record.

While each story is different and there is no protocol for covering tragic breaking news, from this former daily newspaper reporter’s perspective, covering developing news was the same each time: get to the scene; collect personal observations; talk to eyewitnesses and experts; source and fact check everything; then inform the public.

Asiana Flight 214, where three teen-aged girls lost their lives and dozens of people were injured, was that kind of tragic breaking news.

But days after the deadly crash, in a frenzy of trying to continue to be first on air with more ‘breaking news’ (despite that it was several days after) San Francisco television station KTVU ‘presenter’ Tori Campbell read the names of four people the news station claimed to be pilots of the plane. Because the preliminary cause of the crash pointed to pilot error (although I do not know the origin of this information), it was certainly relevant to the story.

After Campbell read the names aloud, “Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi To Lo, Ho Lee (Fook) and Bang Ding Ow,” she added, “We are working to see what role each of them played.”

{Here Reb gently rests face in palm.}

Really? Maybe that would have been a good thing to do before taking this on air.

The news station offered an immediate, tepid and unapologetic apology and then later a formal written one that blamed an unnamed National Transportation Safety Board summer intern as the source who confirmed the bad information.

So it’s OK that no one on the staff seemed to notice what the copy actually SAID regardless of the source? OK to just blame the source and not acknowledge the producer’s and anchor’s actions are unacceptable? Were they all unpaid summer interns?

Couldn't she hear herself speaking?

Was the crew even listening?

Despite being a tactless, racist prank, many people found it to be hilariously funny. (OK, if you are now lost, I urge you to go back and re-read the pilots names in order, a little faster, or watch the video if it’s still available …) 

The television agency has not yet explained publicly who was responsible. It is my belief that the news station’s errors compel disclosure as a matter of public record.

I will try to fix you

Maybe we can get KTVU’s Tori Campbell to host the ABC7News coverage of Drone Days.

Or maybe it’s time to raise the bar folks.

We’re too low.

Bang, ding, ow.

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