dying by the sword you live by

"We were just talking — I was ranting — and he wrote about it. That isn’t right. We all say stuff we don’t want printed,"

– Helen Thomas

idea thread: how to reinvent the roundtable?

How can Teddy Bart’s Roundtable and the Public Forum reinvent itself?  Format?  Funding?  Venue?  Mix of old and new media?

I’d like your thoughts.

blogs: the cocktail napkin of history

If journalism is the first draft of history, then blogging is the semi-legible scribbling on the cocktail napkin of history.

Yesterday Bill Hobbs linked to a thought-provoking piece by Bob Cauthorn about blogging.  The gist of it is that because the mainstream media has a “publishing apparatus” and a “broadcasting apparatus” they do not get to blog.  Cauthorn, a former journalist himself, takes the media to task for trying to be “cool” by doing “that blogging thing.”  Cauthorn is largely correct, but let me add to his essay.

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roundtable: swan song or phoenix?

Some of us are meeting up to watch the last airing of Teddy Bart’s Roundtable from outside their “posh studios at the corner of Sixth and Church” tomorrow (Friday July, 29).  Yes, I know we’ll look like those stupid schleps on that New York morning show—only without the fat weather guy and the corny jokes.  (I wonder if there will be any live blogging?)

Whatever your political affiliation, please try to stop by some time between 7 and 9 am and show your support for all they’ve done, and your encouragement for a reincarnation of a new and improved Roundtable.

Speaking of which . . . Click the link below to see another letter from Bill Fletcher about plans for a possible sequel.  I urge you to sign up at the link Fletch provides.

UPDATE:  We stopped by to say goodbye to the Roundtable.  We spoke with Darcy, one of the behind-the-scenes folks who makes the Public Forum run.  If you were at Brickfest a few months ago, she was the one who made that event possible.  She has no idea what happens after today.  She only knows that she intends to stay with Teddy and Karlen for their next act.

I had thought we might crowd around the window and watch the show from the outside, but it didn’t feel right.  What those folks do on those national morning shows in NYC always seemed so cheesy and imbecilic to me.  "Cheesy" and "imbecilic" are not words I would use to describe Tedy Bart’s Roundtable.  So we just waved and walked on.

I’m listening to the last hour of the show now and I’m glad that Karlen just mentioned Darcy and some of the others who listeners don’t ever get to hear about.

One final note.  While we were in the Public Forum’s outer office, I caught a glimpse of the show on tv.  I’ve never seen the show before.  I wonder if those who see it have a different impression of the show from those of us who hear it.  Is the Roundtable like the Kennedy-Nixon debate that was said to be so different depending on whether you saw it or heard it?

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sticky bumpers

A child conceived on election day last November would be born this week.  Nine months.  So why do so many people still display their 2004 election bumper stickers on their cars? 

I was a big Bush supporter during the runup to the election.  I had one of those oval “W” stickers on both of my cars then.  (I said “one.”  I have this thing about bumper stickers:  having more than one is like having more than one cat—it’s probably an indication of a problem.)  Within a week after the election I took my bumper stickers down.  I figured-we won; why gloat?  It’s not like President Bush is ever going to be running for President again, so why keep it on my car?  As for the Kerry stickers I see on cars, I ask you: do you really want him to be the Democratic nominee again? 

The record for sticker longevity has to be the red outline of the state of Tennessee with the word “Ned” on it that I saw on a car in Green Hills two weeks ago.  A child conceived on that election day would now be in high school.

On a related note, the Pinch Hitter over on South End Grouds remarks about the “God is not a Republican” bumper stickers he sees on cars.  Let me add that while it would be presumptuous of me to claim that God is a member of my party, it would be equally presumptuous for someone to claim that he’s not.  I have this feeling that God is a registered independent–but that would be presumptuous of me.

Update: math correction

four thousand nickels

The Commercial Appeal reports today that Representative Lois DeBerry admits to taking $200 in cash from an E-cycle executive while she and Kathryn Bowers were on a gambling trip to Tunica.

Two-hundred dollars isn’t a lot of money.  However, the thing that piqued my interest was this:

As DeBerry recalls it, she stood before a nickel slot machine at the Grand when the agent handed her $200 cash.

"I was already at the machine. He came back there and said, ‘Look, I want y’all to have a good time for your birthday. And here’s a birthday gift to play with.’ ”

DeBerry said she dropped all $200 into the slots and won nothing.

Is DeBerry saying that dropped 4,000 nickels into the slot machine?  Get a life.

One other funny item was the “devil made me do it defense” where she blamed Senator Kathryn Bowers for her ethical lapse. 

[Deberry] told The Commercial Appeal she believes that her long friendship with Bowers, now a state senator, put her in a difficult situation that otherwise would never have happened.

Looks like DeBerry has decided to cast Bowers overboard.

(ht: Ben Cunningham)

why don’t you ask for help?

I sent a donation in to the Roundtable yesterday.  It wasn’t much, but Teddy, being the gentleman he is, quickly sent a note of thanks back to me.  Below is what I emailed to him in response. 

I know that it sounds like I’m scolding Teddy.  I don’t mean it that way . . . well, okay . . . I do mean to scold him a little bit.

When I was a troop commander, I had a sergeant who had received his promotion several months before, but was still receiving corporal’s pay.  (For those of you not familiar with army ranks, that’s a lower rank and lower pay.)  He was the kind of leader who turned over every stone to help his soldiers with administrative difficulties, but he wouldn’t ask for help with his own problems.  When I finally learned of it, It took me only about two hours over at the Finance office to get it fixed and to get him a check for his months of back pay. 

He was sheepishly grateful.  I, too, was of mixed emotions.  I was happy that, in a culture of “give me what I think I’m owed now,” he was too proud to ask for help, but on the other hand, it was a really easy thing to fix if he had just said there was a problem.

To make a long story short (too late), Teddy, why didn’t you tell us there was a problem?

Below is my repsonse to Teddy Bart:

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jerry springer falls behind

Teddy Bart isn’t the only radio personality to get bad news this week.  It seems that Jerry Springer is losing audience share at his home station, WCKY in Cincinnati. (Just because I know that someone is going to ask–No, there really isn’t a WKRP, but there is a WKRC.)  The spring ratings book showed that the Air America affiliate fell from 14 to number 22 in the market.  The former Cincinnati mayor once convicted of bouncing a check to a prostitute (any story about Springer has to allude to that thirty year old incident) syndicates his show from WCKY where it is a mainstay on the liberal radio network.

My heart bleeds for Springer.  Although I do have to agree with one comment made by his station manager, “The majority of people don’t care about politics, as sad as that may be." 

Teddy and Jerry both seem to be suffering from a terminal case of political apathy, but at least Teddy doesn’t have a sleaze factor to overcome.

roundtable rolls on?

This is likely the only time I’ll grab my checkbook to support a Bill Fletcher campaign.  Below is a letter I received from Fletch asking for donations to keep the Public Forum active in some fashion.  This is a worthwhile cause for all the reasons I’ve mentioned before. 

Whether you find your politics more in line with mine or Fletcher’s, please consider a donation.

(ht: Truman)

UPDATE:  The City Paper has a short story on some of the future possibilities of the Public Forum.

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mercenary voters

Win a million dollars simply by voting.  That’s the proposal of former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Mark Osterloh. 

Are we in such democratic dire straits that we need a lotto to bring people to the polls?  Do we want our decisions to be made by those who come only for the chance to win?

Osterloh, who tried to get this voter referendum on the ballot before, expects to succeed this time since he’s raised $118,000 for the effort. 

Fittingly, he’s had to hire signature gatherers.  Seems like Arizonans aren’t Volunteers!

I wonder if a chance at a million dollars is a bigger draw than free cheese for votes?

(ht: Ben Cunningham)