I feel a real spiritual kinship with this editorial cartoon by Jeff Parker of Florida Today. I’m sure the Sunshine State has been darkened by some rather scathing political advertising in advance of Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary. Not always sure who the real victims are — the politicians trading barbs or innocent people at home just trying to watch a little TV and relax.
I’m really, really looking forward to this stuff comng to North Carolina. Please note the sarcasm.
I’ve known Beverly Perdue for a long time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we’re on a first-name basis or anything. In her world I’m likely one of a legion of similarly appearing newspaper people. We’re usually dressed in casual clothes, and are even more rumpled, crumpled and wrinkled when events dictate that a coat and tie should be worn.
So asking newspaper people to dress up isn’t always as good an idea as it seems. Sometimes you find out what happens to 30-year-old gabardine after it’s been in a musky trunk for a decade or more.
And our hair styles? Well, most pretty much date to the time we were teenagers. We’re always about a month behind on haircuts, too.
In fact, at events where male journalists are usually found in abundance, my spouse is fond of calling it the “Land of corduroy jackets, blue jeans and tennis shoes.”
So to most politicians we all look alike. I get that and sort of revel in it.
As I said, I met Bev Perdue several years ago and many times since. The first occasion she was a state senator from New Bern whose district included Carteret County, which we covered at the Daily News, where I worked from 1992 to 2007. I had no idea then that she would become the first woman governor in state history. There was really nothing obvious about her that blared, “Beware: Future Governor Ahead!” As politicians go she was friendly enough and usually full of energy. She wasn’t well versed on a ton of issues but she had specific areas of interest and was always on top of those. She was skittish about giving her age (she’s 65, but who’s counting) and didn’t like it when bad photos were taken of her — one we had at the Jacksonville Daily News of her eating an oyster from a shell simply disappeared one day. I never could find out what happened to it. I always suspected that she talked one of our photographers into destroying it. Absolutely no one looks dignified eating a steaming oyster out of a shell.
Later when she became lieutenant governor, it wasn’t unusual for her to stop by the Daily News office every so often to talk about issues related to military bases. Gov. Mike Easley put her in that role when it came time for the Pentagon to look at what military installations to close or realign. She would stop to talk to the editors and a reporter about what might be going on. She didn’t travel with a handler in those days. When she visited us, she did so alone. Once I took her offer to sit beside her while the others faced her across a table so she wouldn’t feel so outnumbered.
It was the gentlemanly thing to do and she appreciated it.
Above all else, in those days she was genuinely enthusiastic about whatever she was talking about — and it showed.
This past week, I was struck by how much had changed during her three years in the governor’s office. Perdue looked tired, exasperated and frustrated when asked by the media about a debate challenge offered by Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Berger over her proposal to add a temporary increase to the state sales tax to pay for education.
Perdue looked like a politician who’s shot and knows it.
Still, a day later, I was surprised to hear that she wasn’t going to seek another term in office — the first governor not to run for re-election since then-Gov. Jim Hunt successfully got legislation through allowing North Carolina’s chief executives to succeed themselves. It was another moment in gubernatorial history for Perdue, but not one she’s likely to celebrate.
I was surprised even though I knew her re-election chances against Pat McCrory, the man she defeated in 2008, were pretty long. It’s been a tough few years for Perdue who inherited a mess from her predecessor Mike Easley and has done little to actually clean things up. She’s simply moved the quagmire around a little.
Some problems, of course, were not of her making. She didn’t create a stagnant economy and the malfeasance of the Easley years — and Jim Black’s tenure in the state House — tainted the capital and Democrats in general.
Other problems are a matter of perspective. The budget crisis was the most visible of her clashes with a General Assembly controlled by Republicans for the first time since the late1800s. Neither side could agree on what should or shouldn’t be cut. She set a standard for vetoes by a North Carolina governor in the last session of the House and Senate with 16. Another historic distinction.
Then there were the things that are just puzzling. While not the focus of the investigation Perdue faced questions about air travel during her 2008 campaign and four people have been indicted related to the flight investigation, including her former campaign finance director. She left the state for a trip to Kentucky to watch horse racing while a severe weather system was advancing then a spokeswoman tried to cover it up after the deadly tornadoes left millions in damages. And problems in the state Highway Patrol partially stemmed to her selection of a longtime friend as commander.
It’s been a turbulent time.
So as the filing period drew closer I began to hear that longtime Democrat fund-raisers were already abandoning ship quicker than the Italian sea captain jumped from the Costa Concordia.
Thursday Perdue produced a rather sad public statement in which she laments the partisanship in government and said she feared her political career might jeopardize funding for education and other matters.
But what I really read in her words is politician devoid of energy and enthusiasm — who’s sick and tired of being sick and tired. And one with little hope of winning in November.
And that’s no way to lead a state.
Editorial cartoons about the State of the Union address by President Obama Tuesday night hit on a variety of themes: Partisan gridlock, a beastly and devouring economy, more government solutions, GOP disinterest and even the president’s singing voice.
Here’s a look.
From my favorite artist at the moment, Cameron Cardow of Ottawa.
Love this one from Nate Beeler of the Washington Examiner, who’s playing off a singing performance a few days ago by Obama at a fund-raising event. But I think then the president was crooning an Al Green song.
This one by Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune leans to the left, but it’s still pretty close to how the SOTU came off.
Rick McKee from the Augusta Chronicle with one that leans more to the right. I think of the Kevin Bacon character from “Animal House” shouting “all is well.”
Bill Day of Cagle Cartoons pretty well sums up the current political climate.
And, as usual, John Darkow of the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri makes a stark point — always in black and white.
There’s no good way to write this so I’ll be very direct. Tom Woody has had a relapse.
As most who read here regularly know, Tom is the husband Times-News columnist and newsroom administrator Frances Woody. Tom has been battling esophageal cancer for the past 18 months or so and in October had surgery at Duke University Hospital to remove the growth that radiation and chemotherapy couldn’t finish.
Since that time, Frances has been on leave — a huge void in our office where she handles so many duties, not to mention a chasm for her hundreds of fans in Alamance County. She’ s our most popular writer by far.
Two weeks ago Frances returned to the Times-News in a limited role. It was a sign that Tom, who has come and gone from Duke Hospital a couple of times since his surgery, was beginning to improve — at least enough that Frances could be out of the house for a couple of hours each day. He still needed regular attention. He’s never been off a feeding tube since the surgery.
But one night last week he had a coughing fit that wouldn’t stop. The family took him back to Duke where some complication was discovered. After spending a few days back in ICU and on a ventilator, he was put into a regular room this week. Frances told me he struggled on Monday and his always optimistic outlook was a little diminished. Frances is back on leave and staying in Durham while Tom, who is like a member of our staff here at the Times-News, is hospitalized.
It’s been a long, tough time for Tom and the family.
Please keep them in your thoughts. Know that they are in ours.
We live in a confusing time for the newspaper business. Too many years ago to count, we broke stories at around midnight when the presses began to roll — or even noon when newspapers like the Times-News were afternoon publications.
Seems like a quaint idea today — afternoon newspapers, freshly produced for the lunch crowd — or for dad to read when he got home from work to pass the time before Huntley-Brinkley or Walter Cronkite came on TV.
We basically had to relearn our livelihood a few years ago when newspapers started posting stories online to their websites. The idea then was it had to go out immediately, it not sooner, to stay ahead or even with our competition from websites operated by TV stations or other newspapers. The news was posted pretty fast, but a story still had to be written. It took time, it sometimes wasn’t up to print quality, but we were told that was OK. “Good enough,” because the phrase of the day.
And so we did.
Today things move even faster. The emergence of Twitter and Facebook as quick-fire news sources is undeniable. Now we post — in fewer than 140 characters via Twitter — whatever we think we know about a news event in the moment it’s happening. Reporters do so from wherever they are by smart phone. Editors do the same. We print what we see and hear with accompanying typos. The details come later when a story is finally posted online.
Sometimes these Twitter or Facebook posts aren’t up to online quality. It’s a world of multiple standards depending on what platform you’re perched upon in the moment. There is the Print Standard, the Web Standard and the Twitter Standard.
The Twitter Standard hopefully can’t get much lower than it did over the weekend when speed overwhelmed common sense and years of journalism training.
As many know, a number of media outlets killed former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno hours before he actually passed away from complications stemming from treatment for lung cancer. It happened because a college student made a rookie mistake. It became a major problem because people paid to know better did something even worse, they acted without thinking and compounded a rookie’s regrettable error.
Poynter, a media teaching and support organization traced the original post about Paterno’s death to Onward State, a student online publication at the university. Poynter traces a fascinating group of Twitter posts Saturday night concerning the original erroneous report of Paterno’s death and the family’s fairly rapid response debunking it. Paterno passed away Sunday morning.
The student editor of Onward State immediately resigned. It was a mistake, and a bad one traced to a bogus email sent to Penn State students. The failure was in checking other sources. When you pronounce someone dead, the rule is to be damn sure. There is nothing new about this rule. It’s almost as old as journalism itself.
But like I said, it was a rookie mistake and one that would’ve been a campus issue were it not for Twitter and some erroneous calls at very high levels of national media. CBS Sports, for example, was among the first to retweet the information without checking or sourcing it. Others followed like mindless dominos tumbling one after another. Among the victims: The Huffington Post, Slate, Howard Kurtz and Poynter itself.
Note, the Associated Press didn’t fall down with the others but was among the first to post information from the Paterno family that the death story was false. The AP should be applauded for sticking to its standards rather than worrying about the rush to be first.
The Paterno gaffe is the most recent and serious of warning shots about the urgency and fallacy of Twitter reporting. Newspapers and other media outlets can’t be too careful.
An example occurred locally the previous weekend.
On Jan. 14 a reader contacted one of our reporters via Twitter with news item. That was a first. Often we mine social media for things we turn into stories. This time, someone Roselee Papandrea follows sent her a direct note asking why police were working the train tracks in the Glen Raven area. Roselee sent a text to Molly McGowan who was our reporter on duty. Molly arrived on the scene so quickly even the police were a little surprised.
From there, though, the social media landscape grew a bit murky, something that illustrates what a minefield it can be. A couple of people on Facebook theorized that the victims in the train incident were Elon students. One of the university’s student news outlets, Phoenix14, tweeted as much. An Elon student who knows me sent a question my way late Saturday night wondering if I could confirm that the people killed by the train were Elon students. I responded that police did not say that and we would not speculate about it. Moments later, Phoenix14 tweeted that their initial report might not be accurate.
Turned out, the victims weren’t Elon students at all.
The lessons for us all are these: In this day and age, accuracy has never been more important.
And don’t believe everything you see on Twitter.
My print column this week is about something that happened on Wednesday that didn’t make the newspaper — until now. Thanks again to my anonymous friend. I’m in awe.
———–
On Wednesday another green envelope found its way to my desk. Inside, was this note.
Dear Mr. Taylor,
My apologies for imposing on you again, but having read about William Rumley and David Hodges in your paper recently, I felt I should try to do something to help them. I hope this method will be less inconvenient for you, and again, I thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely,
A Friend
Inside the note were two cashier’s checks. One was made out to William Rumley, the other to David Hodges. The amount of each one was $1,000.
Based on past experience, I should’ve seen it coming. After all, a green envelope arrived on my desk from a mysterious benefactor in October. At that time the author, identified as “A Friend,” wanted to help two people whose plights we had written stories about in the Times-News. The only difference this time was the method. This marvelous spreader of goodwill and aid in the community sent along checks for me to handle instead of cash.
While there was nothing inconvenient about how my “Friend” handled this before, I must admit to being much more comfortable dealing with checks as opposed to cash.
And the truth is I didn’t see it coming. Not by a long shot. I had no idea that my giving, anonymous “Friend” would do it again — and so quickly. The green envelope didn’t register at first — not until I saw the contents.
But from now on I’ll never look at a green envelope the same way again.
SO, HOW do you go about telling someone you have a $1,000 check in hand for them and all it needs to be is picked up? It’s not as easy as it sounds. But it certainly doesn’t stink, either. All things considered, it’s pretty great to be in that position.
As it turned out, I didn’t speak to David Hodges, who was still battling brain tumors and other problems at Duke University Medical Center at the time the check arrived. Actually, he was known as David “The Jedi” Hodges. He was a student at Eastern Alamance High School who earned his nickname because he used
a green lacrosse stick that resembles a light saber from the “Star Wars” movies. Sports writer Conor O’Neill wrote about Hodges, his illness, and how the Mebane community has rallied to raise funds to help cover the huge medical costs for his treatment. A notice about one of the fund-raisers was also published on our
Teens & Twenties page, too.
Lifestyles editor Charity Apple contacted Mike Brumble, the Eastern Alamance teacher who has helped coordinate the fund-raising efforts. He, in turn, called me. He stopped by Wednesday afternoon to pick up the check and take it to a bank account set aside for Hodges and his guardians. He wanted to thank our staff and
all of those who have helped “The Jedi” and his family. It’s a rather large group of special people.
Like me, though, he was taken aback by the anonymous donor. He wrote me a message in an email later that day.
“I and his legal guardians Lisa and Ben Marinis would like to express our appreciation to our anonymous donor for the benefit of David. I believe there are angels that walk among us in our daily lives and even though I have not met them officially, we have been touched by an authentic angel,” he wrote. “It is not every day that someone shows unselfishness much less true demonstration of altruism by an individual. This act of kindness has rendered me speechless and I shared tears of joy with the news. God bless them for their contribution.”
Sadly, David Hodges passed away just before 9 p.m. Friday night. Rest in peace, “Jedi.”
I WASN’T sure at first how to find William “Sterling” Rumley, the 88-year-old man who lost all his possessions in a fire at his Saxapahaw mobile home on Monday. Fire officials told us almost nothing was salvaged in the blaze, which was caused by a spark from a woodstove that ignited some nearby
combustible material. Included in the loss was $3,000 in cash he had stashed in a recliner.
Reporter Roselee Papandrea called the Red Cross. They directed us to Rumley’s daughter-in-law Corri Rumley, with whom Rumley is staying until he gets back on his feet. Corri was stunned to hear about the donation. She agreed to come by the Times-News and pick up the check after her work day at nearby Nall Printing
on Thursday.
“This is a blessing,” she said as I handed her the green envelope. “This will go a long way, a long way, toward giving him peace of mind.”
She told me that Rumley, who goes by Sterling, was injured in the fire while trying to retrieve a prized shotgun. Now he wonders why he didn’t try to get his hidden cash at the same time.
“It’s awful hard to lose everything at his age. It would be traumatic for us,” she said.
About the only other thing salvaged from the fire other than his rifle was a cowboy hat he’s worn for the last 15 to 20 years. “He’s worried himself to death about that hat,” she said with a laugh.
When she told her father-in-law that someone had anonymously given him $1,000 he figured it had to be a person he knows. I told Corri that I couldn’t truly say one way or another. That’s one benefit to not having any idea who the benefactor really is.
“I want to thank this person,” she said, then paused. “I’ll write something for the Open Forum so I can do it properly.”
I hope she can find the words. My anonymous “Friend” continues to leave me breathless.
The rather sorry tale of the Italian cruise ship captain who navigated his vessel into perilous waters so he could view people waving on the Toscano shore then abandoned ship once it ran aground while passengers were still trapped on board, has drawn huge interest. Stands to reason. 13 million people “cruised” last year around the world. We took a cruise last year with friends, so I’m personally consumed by this story.
Then there’s the whole maritime history of captains going down with the ship — or at least waiting until everyone else is off before jumping into a lifeboat. The courage of the Italian captain is certainly in question.
So the story has some legs. Leave it to the New York Post headline writers to sum this thing up and run with it.
Jung Bin Park, left, and Nayoon Kim in front of the Times-News building.
When Ashleigh Layton called me a couple of weeks ago she probably thought she might be asking for the moon or something.
Turned out her request wasn’t that difficult at all. The moon, it seems, is easier to get to these days — unless you’re NASA.
Anyway, Layton is one of the hosts for a group of students from Gwacheon City, South Korea staying in this area for about two weeks and in the United States for three. For those who don’t recall, Gwacheon City and Burlington are sister cities through the Sister Cities International program. Leaders from Gwacheon City, a bustling and high-tech area outside Seoul, came to Burlington last summer to finalize the agreement. Sending over these high school students is quite an honor for this area.
Layton, who lives in Whitsett, called me just after the turn of January and only a day or two after a few of the students arrived at her house. Would it be possible, she asked, for one of the teens interested in journalism to drop by the Times-News office and take a tour, maybe meet some staff members?
“What day,” I responded immediately.
She was a little taken aback. “I didn’t know it would be this easy,” she said. “Can I get back to you?”
Hey, we’re not hard to get along with — and one student is pretty easy to accommodate. Bring a crowd and you need to contact Michele Terry. She usually handles our larger tours.
As it turned out, Wednesday would be the day and Layton brought over two students instead of one. No problem.
So that’s how I met 16-year-old Jung Bin Park and 15-year-old Nayoon Kim in the Times-News lobby. Jung Bin is the aspiring journalist. Nayoon wants to be a teacher who specializes in foreign languages. Both speak English very well so communication wasn’t a huge stumbling block. A few years ago I addressed a group of newspaper publishers from South Korea who visited Elon University. They spoke little English and an interpreter had to translate my Southern patter and colloquialisms. Needless to say, my attempts at humor didn’t travel far. Not that they would go over any better with an American audience.
That wasn’t a problem with our guests on Wednesday. They smiled a great deal. They pointed to things, whispered and chuckled. They laughed politely when our staff members made jokes about talking Jung Bin out of a life in the newspaper racket. They were shy around adults.
They were pretty much like American teenagers, right down to the braces on Jung Bin’s teeth.
I arranged with Layton to bring the girls to our office just before 4 p.m. so they could sit in our daily budget meeting, whjch determines what stories will be placed in the Times-News the next day. Afterward, I gave them a quick tour of the building and introduced them to Roger Creasy, our interactive director, Darryl Ayers, our production manager, and Paul Mauney, our publisher.
Jung Bin told me that newspapers are still very popular in South Korea and she reads the daily in her community. She described a country flush with newspaper readers — although Nayoon admitted she wasn’t one of them. Online access at home isn’t common in South Korea. People there use Internet cafes. Newspapers delivered to residences are far more convenient.
We sat and talked for a minute or two before our budget meeting — largely so I could make sure I knew and could spell their names before formal introductions to the rest of our newsroom staff — before I rang the bell for our afternoon sit down.
Our section editors: Brent Lancaster, Jay Ashley, Darren Sweeney, Bob Sutton, Brian Rose and Sam Roberts covered the local and wire events available for publication. As usual, we discussed the relative merits of the stories, how we wanted things presented and what were the highest priority items.
Later Jung Bin told me she was impressed with our meeting. She had no idea that we had such open discussion about what would go in the newspaper. “It was fun,” she said.
The tour of the building included quick stops in all departments, a look at the press (not operating at that time) and mailroom. Again, as usual, the press and the massive rolls of newsprint used to produce the newspaper were the most impressive sights — not including Jay’s office.
Along the way Jung Bin and Nayoon both agreed that they were somewhat shy. I told them newspaper reporters are largely made up of people who were shy as teens. Future newspaper reporters were teens who sat quietly where they learned to observe and listen. “But you do have to eventually get comfortable with talking to people and asking questions,” I told them. Jung Bin said asking questions isn’t something a lot of people do in her country.
“People here aren’t afraid to ask questions about anything,” I told her. “They’re not always good questions, but they are questions.”
After the tour I turned to Jung Bin and told her to fire away with any questions she might have for me. She had a few. All of them were excellent — mainly about steps I took to get where I am today, the importance of journalism school and things she would need to do to be a journalist.
I told her that journalism school is important, but not mandatory to being in the business. A well-rounded education in history, political science, grammar and literature could also be a great foundation for a life in newspapers. I advised her to read all that she could — books, magazines and newspapers. I told her not to be afraid to try new things and to make sure she learned how to shoot and edit video for a future in online journalism.
But reading is the biggest thing. I interview a lot of potential reporting candidates today who admit they don’t read very much.
“Especially newspapers,” I said. “It has a style all its own and one you need to understand. It’s not creative writing or even scholastic writing. It’s very different.”
And while journalism school can play a key role, nothing is better than actual experience. The best newspaper people I know didn’t start out polished. They became that way over time, by learning how the machinations of government, law enforcement, courts and other systems work. Theyy developed good interviewing skills, found out how to retrieve public documents and discovered how to mesh it all together into something others can read and understand quickly.
That comes by doing those things on a regular basis.
She asked if I was glad I had chosen this profession.
“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” I said. ”It’s an ongoing educational process — you truly do learn something new every day. Newspaper people know a little bit about a lot of things because they write about so many subjects. You’re in the know about a lot of things.”
And, I thought to myself, it is fun most days.
We said our goodbyes and I took a photo before left. I hoped they learned something on their trip.
I know I did.
The story that broke last week about a Marine Corps battalion from Camp Lejeune possibly involved in urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan is a complicated matter. On the one hand it is obviously morally bankrupt for our troops to be engaged in such behavior. And it’s wrong on many other levels. As Americans we like to think we hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to morality, ethics and code of conduct. To the point, however, it’s a violation of how many nations agree warfare should be waged and is an example of how the military doesn’t want its dead treated by our enemies should the roles be reversed.
On the other hand it’s war and many of our enemies wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to one of ours. It’s also a reminder that judgment becomes foggy in combat. People do things on the spur of the moment they would never consider ordinarily. That’s what makes the entire issue a mess in the eyes of Americans. That’s especially true for me. I lived in a Marine Corps community for 15 years. This is a story with multiple layers.
Richard S. Hicks in his Marine Corps Gazette blog wrote about this much more eloquently than I ever could or did.
I tried to shape our editorial about the incident in that context in Sunday’s Times-News. The matter should be investigated and dealt with — not only because it’s the right and legal thing to do but to restore some integrity for our nation in the international community. Too many of these incidents seem to be occurring with alarming regularity during this long, long war on terror.
Which isn’t to say it hasn’t happened before with the same regularity. On that score, I can’t help but think about how foolish our own troops are to be photographing or videotaping themselves conducting such nefarious business. It seems the military needs a basic class for its troops in what not to do in a combat zone. One primary rule should be No Video or Photos Allowed.
The evidence will always turn up somewhere. That’s how things work today. It’s almost impossible to keep a secret, especially when the evidence is on display via YouTube for all to see.
Here’s how cartoonists around the world are viewing the “peeing” incident.
From Daryl Cagle
From Randall Eros of Cagle Cartoons.
From China by Luojie
By Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant
I scouted around this morning for a great quote by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The slain civil rights leader said so many memorable things over the course of his extraordinary life that it’s difficult to fix upon only one.
But one jumped right in my boat this particular morning, mainly because it reminded me of where I am with my own life at the moment. Here it is.
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
I’m good with that. In fact, I’m more than good with it.
Later in the morning I decided to walk up the street from the Times-News office and witness the start of the annual Martin Luther King Day march from Occasions on Front Street to the Mayco Bigelow Recreation Center on Sharpe Road and shoot a few pictures. This morning was warmer than most for the walk — but still pretty chilly at nearly 40 degrees. Warm coats, hats and coffee were in abundance.
There was a mixture of young and old there; men and women. A child or two carried posters. As the group walked down Front Street a woman began to sing “We Shall overcome” and others joined in. It was a moving moment.
The walkers were all African American. I had hoped that wouldn’t be the case. The exceptions were Times-News reporters and photographers. Had I dressed a little more warmly I would’ve joined in.
Next year, I will.
Coats, hats and coffee were the order of the day.
Police and organizers talk about the route beforehand.
Times-News photographer Sam Roberts gets the scoop on the route in the Occasions parking lot on Front Street in downtown Burlington.
The best reason for kids to be out of school today: So they can join in the MLK Day activities.
