Ten reasons I don't miss the newsroom, and one big one why I do

Ten reasons why I don’t miss working in newspapers anymore:

1. No more cell phone or pager going off when I’m on vacation with my family with a question about my story.

2. No more idiot readers calling me to tell me how much better they know my job than I do.

3. No more idiot editors calling me to tell me how much better they know my beat than I do.

4. No more 8 hours pay for 12 hours of work.

5. No more endless memos about how the most important thing in the editor’s day was that my desk should be clean.

6. No more airhead bosses telling me how we all need to “write with authority.”

7. No more reading my stories in print with stupid errors edited INTO them.

8. No more being awake half the night wondering what stupid assignment awaits me in the morning.

9. No more putting together a great investigative piece only to have a big city lawyer and spineless editor remove the facts the public really needed to know.

10. No more blankety-blank Sunday story meetings. Or any meeting heading by an editor, for that matter.

One reason I do miss working in newspapers:

1. The rush you get from chasing a crooked politician or following up leads to a great story and seeing it in print. We endured all the above for that one high. It was like crack.

I'm finally cured. (Feel free to add your own - remember anonymous here, is really anonymous, but all blog rules apply, so keep it clean. I know it will be hard).

More on Western Michigan layoffs

It's been a very bad day for Boothies on the west side of Michigan. I know those of us who have already been through the end of our careers feel for those who are now facing the abyss.

As always, the rumors started flying on Wednesday (I received several tips beginning Wednesday afternoon) that something bad was in the offing for Friday. The rumors, in this case, were right.

Kalamazoo got the bad news today and layoffs were announced in P&D, editorial and advertising. There was a morning meeting and an afternoon meeting to deliver the bad news, according to sources there.

Individual meetings are planned to deliver the really bad news.

According to one source, severance packages will be offered to those laid off, and new part-time positions (possibly the ones published yesterday ahead of today's announcement - nice, eh?) are being created.

For reporters on the layoff list, a 48-hour notification window with severance packages are expected to arrive at people's mailboxes Monday.

There appears to be an chance for the laid off full-time reporters to apply for the downsized part-time positions. And some management folks will suffer salary decreases.

Presses at the Gazette will be "moth balled" with printing of the Gazette moving to Grand Rapids.

Friday's meetings were a poorly kept secret and I began getting notifications of it on Wednesday.
The news at Grand Rapids is equally bad.

A total of 65 layoffs at the Grand Rapids Press, 15 from the newsroom. Will have to wait and see how that all shakes out.

Ad production is reportedly heading to Erie, Pennsylvania, so a pretty long commute for the Booth faithful on the west side of the State. That fact, along with many others were left out of the cushy, lame news release put out by the company. For a news gathering organization they certainly aren't ashamed enough to cover their own bad news with the same sensational language they would use for some other company.

Or perhaps, the editor didn't risk letting a real business reporter cover the story as it should have been. Shameless.

I'm told the Muskegon Chronicle is down to six reporters, but could use some help if that's a decrease from today, or if it has been that low for awhile.

Once again we'll wait and see how much pain the suits and brains that have brought Booth/Advance to this point suffer. Guessing probably not as much as those they led.

All this became possible when the "Lifetime" job pledge was withdrawn in August. I have a question. How do you withdraw a lifetime pledge, before a lifetime is over? If you can withdraw a lifetime pledge, then it never was one. That would make it a lie.

At least one layoff today at the Flint Journal. (Aren't they hiring?) Inside Out has that story.

Hang in there folks, our hearts are with you.

The other shoe as dropped in Western Michigan

I've been getting tips for days on this, but never got it from a source I knew well enough to post. But some big news today out of Kalamazoo.

The headline of the story is comical in its euphemistic language. If this had been a story about any other local business's layoffs, it would have been dramatically worse.

I have some more information I have obtained this afternoon, but won't have time to post it until after 8 p.m. tonight. Check back.

A couple notable lies from the recent past

How do you tell when a politician is lying? You all know the punchline......





Just in case: "When their lips are moving."

Google: In the French crosshairs

I'm not a big lover of the French, but have to love their spunk in thinking about going after Google. (You may have to click on the link a couple times to bypass a free registration process)

The only thing that makes this improbable, is that the French aren't usually known for their fighting.

I do like that the French court finds that aggregating published content as a copyright violation. (Of course, here I am posting a link to a published article myself).

A Western Michigan news opportunity

Here's a link to some available news jobs in Western Michigan. Make sure to read the comments, some are priceless.

Also rumblings of a major annoucement in two newspapers on the West side of the state - Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

Ah yes, the weather panic is back

Oh how I love the annual weather panic. A now retired veteran photographer at the Oakland Press and I used to mock the total obsession with weather by the media.

It's been relatively quiet here in Michigan this winter, but "a huge weather event" is on its way. The prediction is for 2-4 inches of snow over the next two days. Wow, how will we survive. If I still had a dog I might euthanize it so it wouldn't have to endure the misery of a "4-inch" snow.

Good grief, how stupid is all this? I love it when they predict these weather disasters and then nothing happens. At 5 a.m. you have some poor reporter they dragged out of bed at 3 a.m. standing on a street corner with a flake or two of snow falling around their heads and literally a dusting of snow on the ground.

"Well, Fred, (insert first name of your favorite anchor), looks like we've dodge a bullet today." Yeah, what we've dodged is your stupid, inane descriptions of what we should do.

And just in case any of you Michiganders have never heard this advice before:

"Make sure you dress warmly and in layers and make sure your car is stocked with blankets, fresh water, a cell phone, shovel and virtually every item available in your garage just in case you get stranded on the I-75 freeway where you might not get help for 20-30 minutes."

If it weren't so stupid, it would be funnier.

No news, is not always good news

Just in case you keep checking your doorstep for your daily issue of the Detroit Daily Press Bill Shea of Crain's has a little news for you on that.

Found that tidbit along with a number of interesting items over on Inside Out.

C-SPAN formalizes request to air health care hearings

Brian Lamb has sent a letter to House and Senate leaders asking them to allow cameras in to cover the health care negotiations.

Wanna bet the only thing Brian Lamb hears is the sounds of crickets chirping.

So much for transparency. I'd like to be wrong on this, by the way.

Reporters wanted: Flint, Bay City, Saginaw

Just months after slamming the door behind a number of good reporters (and I learned another really good one just left for a private sector job out of journalism - good for her) JournalismJobs.com has a listing for "versatile reporters" at the papers in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City.

My favorite line is: "salary negotiable."

You better bring a really good negotiator if you want to make enough not to have to room with three other people and drive a winter beater car. Also remember that full-time in the new journalism world means 50-hours a week with no overtime. But I'm sure there will be plenty of takers.

On the other hand, they must still have an old roster with the names and numbers of a lot of "versatile reporters" they showed the door. Some of them might want their jobs back.

If you apply for one of those jobs, drop me a line and let me know what those "competitive salary and benefits" are.

But it may be good news for those on board that maybe the bottom has been found and that further reductions and salary and benefit "adjustments" might be over. If that's the case I'm happy for those still there.

A2.com's chief content czar checks in with the numbers at A2politico

OK, the Chief Content Czar at A2.com has checked in at A2politico.com's site with a response to questions raised before Christmas.

Here is the comment left by the Czar:

At AnnArbor.com, we have not done a lot of publicizing of our site traffic so far while it continues to grow. As a new organization, we’ve been waiting to see where our traffic settles in before we begin citing traffic numbers in our promotional material. As other commenters have noted here, sites like Quantcast.com and compete.com are commonly used to get some indication of site traffic, but can grossly undercount that traffic. We use Omniture to measure our site traffic, and have been pleased with the traffic we’ve seen and well as the way traffic grew throughout 2009. In November and December, we typically saw between 170,000 and 200,000 unique visitors a week. For the month of November, we had a little over 630,000 unique visitors, and for December, we had a little more than 650,000 uniques. Given the increases in traffic that we saw in 2009, we are optimistic that we have not peaked and that we will continue to grow our site traffic in 2010. One thing Omniture does not do a great job of is determining what portion of our audience is local, because a local person can be on our site but have an IP address that is not recorded as local. During 2010, we plan to do some market research that measures what share of our audience is local. Anecdotally, we find that our audience is pretty local, but we want to quantify that. In print, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, our Sunday circulation is 47,962 and our Thursday circulation is 39,857.

Comment by Tony Dearing — January 4, 2010 @ 10:00 am

USS Independence - A new breed of ship

My sister-in-law Barbara sent me some pictures of the new LCS2, the USS Independence, which will be commissioned in a couple weeks.

As a former U.S. Navy sailor I am very excited for the potential for this ship. It is designed for close to shore service, which I guess could put it on duty to attack pirates, among other duties.

The ship's website has some nice pictures and photos. The news seems to indicate that the cost of the ship has well overrun its original estimate, but even at $540 million, a relatively inexpensive ship.

Cheers Mike, we miss you

It hardly seems possible, but it is one year to the day that my brother Mike died. I received word of his death in California from my sister-in-law just as I arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport about 7 a.m. to catch my flight.

For a lot of reasons, I have been anxious to put 2009 behind us, but no reason greater than the loss of my brother on New Year's Day 2009.

With the news grim on New Year's Eve, I tried to find a flight out to see him before he died, but the best I could do was an early morning Southwest flight to Oakland. We talked on the phone early on New Year's Eve Day and he was aware that things weren't good and we said our good-byes. He was still insisting I not make the trip out. It was a request I knew I could not honor.

Fortunately, my sister-in-law Barbara had a long time friend with her when the end came. The next couple days were filled with arrangements and putting away Christmas decorations that my brother had put out just a few weeks before.

It was not until three days later that I realized I had missed the New Year's Day bowl game of my beloved Michigan State Spartans. I didn't know if they had won or lost (they lost) and frankly forgot who they played. It's amazing how priorities can change in an instant.

But when I finally did remember the game I had missed, I remembered another game my brother and I had attended. It was a late season game at Spartan Stadium. He arrived on a flight from California in the morning and we drove straight to the stadium. At the time he was dressed in a spring jacket and dress shoes and as I recall the temps were below freezing.

MSU was winning the game going away (MSU vs. Iowa, November 25, 1978, final score 42-7), but despite his pleadings I said we had to stay to the end. A slight fellow, my brother was very cold and was very happy when we got back to my warm apartment.

But I couldn't help but smile when I thought maybe, just maybe, he left me on New Year's just so I would miss that bowl game and he would get the last laugh over a game I made him stay at long after he wanted to leave.

Today, will be tough for a lot of those folks who loved Mike. We were apart far too long until we reconnected a few years ago. It's very hard to believe my little brother is gone, but I'm warmed by the memories I have of him, even the "cold" ones.

If you get a chance today, reach out to a loved one you haven't seen or talked to in awhile. You won't regret it.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! A little disco retro for your pleasure

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

As you can see the food diary is really working....

A2Politico weighs in with some ?? about AnnArbor.com

Wondering about the health of AnnArbor.com? Well, so is A2Politico.com, but the answers are few and far between.

Top 2009 journalism blogs

Someone has compiled their top 91 journalism blogs of 2009. A few that I had not seen before.

Your ESPN/FFE College Bowl game guide

As a service to FFE readers (and myself) I'm posting a link here to the ESPN past, current and future 2009-2010 college football bowl game schedule.

It includes the scores of the many bowl games already played.

Thank goodness for a new battery in the DISH remote.

If you are not into football, go to the AMC channel today. 24-hour Three Stooges marathon.

Washington Post reports on Washington Times downsizing

Not good news for many staff members at the Washington Times on Wednesday.

Even Mr. Spock got in the act back then

Here's a PSA or something done by Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), of Star Trek fame, about the coming Y2K disaster. Now all we have to worry about is the new 2012 "end-of-the-world" theory in two years.

My objection to all these media hypes, and where I agree with Slate.com, is that all the "chicken little" stuff that the media does simply desensitizes people to the time that a real disaster may come.

Y2K: Nike had it right

Y2K: Overkill of all overkills

It seems impossible, but it was ten years ago tonight that the news business lost its collective mind.

(Update: For an opposing view go this blog)

Fueled by months of hype and ridiculous predictions, broadcast and print media tried to outdo each other with angles on the Y2K scare that in today's light seem cartoonish.

The Flint Journal was no exception. I bowed out. I'm not one for hype and I prefer to work the holidays alone. So I was not one of those who volunteered to man the newsroom to watch the end-of-the-world-as-we-knew-it story unfold.

The metro editor was not happy that I was skeptical of all his efforts to find more and more angles to this story. It seemed to me, rightly so as it turned out, that nothing was going to happen. That somehow the worst thing that might occur is that a clock or two might suddenly reset to 1900, but I was not among those who believed the power grid would fail, that the lights would go out in Georgia and everywhere else and that we would be plunged into World War III.

So while my wife and I enjoyed a night dining and dancing at the local American Legion Hall, many of my colleagues were gladly taking triple time pay to cover the end of the world.

One reporter was assigned to stay with a Lapeer County survivalist family in their underground, well-stocked bunker. The couple predicted they would be overrun by unprepared neighbors, but were ready to meet the assault with firearms and sturdy locks.

How silly it must have felt for them to crawl out the next morning with their neighbors snug in bed.

But there were reporters at City Hall, at the police department, and stationed throughout the county waiting for the predicted disaster that never came. What no one ever was willing to answer was the question of where the newspaper would be printed if the disaster the editors so anticipated actually happened.

My wife and I left the smokey Legion Hall early and watched Peter Jennings on ABC welcome in the new year from around the world, each hour on the hour. The reporters were almost disappointed to report that no problems, power outages, or riots had occurred anywhere.

When the clock rolled around to midnight here in the Eastern time zone, the lights stayed on, the computers and clocks still worked and Y2K fizzled like a wet firecracker.

I lifted a non-alcoholic beverage to my wife and toasted my good sense in staying home that night.

The latest reason why I detest both parties

Here is a New Yorks Times article on the back and forth between Republicans and Democrats over the latest terrorist incident on Christmas.

When it's a Republican who is to blame the Democrats howl. When a Democrat does something stupid (similar to what the Republican did) the Republicans howl.

The latest involves the incredibly stupid comment made by Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano during the news shows Sunday that the security "system worked." She and the President have been backtracking ever since, but the damage was done.

It worked only if "the system" is that terrorists will be interupted in flight by brave passengers. If "the system" is supposed to be keeping terrorists off airplanes, then it didn't work quite so well.

The comment drew comparisons to the situation during Katrina when President Bush commended FEMA's Mike Brown only to fire him two weeks later.

One could also make a comparison to President Bush staying on vacation and being criticized by Dems and President Obama spending his holiday on a golf course immediately after issuing a statement on a near homemade disaster in Detroit.

The Times article does a good job of taking apart the hypocrisy of both sides better than I could do, but it simply further explains why both parties are off my list.

As for my opinion, Napolitano deserves Mike Brown's fate, if for no other reason than to show that President Obama will not stand for incompetence in such an urgent area.

Buffalo being Buffalo

We have had incredible luck coming to Buffalo in the winter to visit the folks. But the last two winter trips have resulted in us being here for major snow storms. Well, not major in the Buffalo sense, but in our own sense.

Today we received 12-inches at the Buffalo Villa, but the road crews here are extremely efficient and our very good neighbor took care of the driveway while we were visiting mom at the nursing home.

Here's a couple photos, and yes, that is the Buffalo Villa in the background of one of them. More like a Chalet today.

Curious use of bylines in Bay City Times

Bay City Times Staff produces 2009 Fashion Moments List, except the note at the bottom shows a Washington Post credit. And this one.

LA Times story published under Bay City Times staff byline as well.

This came to me from a reader. It's a curious use of byline credit. Normally, a story taken from a news sydicate would be at the top of the story, not at the end. And putting a Bay City Times staff byline on it implies it was compiled by that paper.

Maybe just a mistake, but curious just the same.

Airplane terror attack, a frustrating lack of security

Going to the airport for Joan and I is always an adventure. Joan has a titanium knee and I have a common name that has me listed on the "terror watch list."

Because of my status we are unable to use the electronic check-in and because of Joan's knee there is always an extensive search at the TSA screening area.

We always plan on an extra hour to get us both through security.

Yet, despite all that a guy with an explosive device strapped to his body somehow gets through foreign security and tries to detonate the explosive on a plane near Detroit. And according to early reports is on the "terror watch list" just like me.

You have to wonder if this may have been an early attempt to try to thwart security measures that were inadvertently published on the Internet just a few weeks ago. That TSA security publication provided a complete road map to our country's security measures.

We are not being well served by the agencies that are paid billions to keep us safe. While our local Congress representatives score Homeland Security funds to buy fire trucks for rural fire departments far from the fight against terrorism, we have security lapses that leave you scratching your head.

Those agencies are going to have to ramp up their security when KSM is brought from Gitmo to stand trial and another 100 terrorists are brought to an Illinois prison.

How confident am I in our current security measures to protect us? Not very much.

Here's what I said on Facebook today:

"I hope the investigators in the Detroit airplane terror incident are careful not to hurt or deprive this Nigerian citizen of his hard earned American civil rights in an effort to find out if further attacks are planned over this busy holiday travel period. Wouldn't want to offend the young man or deprive him of his fr...ee lawyer and right to remain silent. Glad he is getting the best free health care available."

Mary did you know?

No offense Donny Osmond, I love Elin's version better, but I don't have a video so we'll use yours.

Come now hear the angels sing

O Holy Night!

Merry Christmas! It's a simple story

It really is this simple.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was always an exciting time when I was a boy. Like most American children I anxiously waited, sometimes unable to sleep, sometimes up at 4 a.m. on Christmas morning to see what "Santa" had dropped off.

In 1966 and 1967 I spent Christmas at sea in the U.S. Navy, the first time I was not at home. It was a sad and lonely time filled with feelings of emptiness.

Later when I worked for two California police departments, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day often meant going to work, which also had a feeling of emptiness and being away from those you loved.

As a reporter, I often volunteered to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Thanksgiving, too) so younger folks with families could stay home. (OK, the triple-time pay was a magnet as well).

The holiday murders and mayhem have a tendency to take the edge off the holiday however. (One Christmas Eve in Flint I covered a murder-suicide, a homicide and the next day another homicide).

So now that I am semi-retired and able to have these special days off, I truly appreciate them. It will be a quiet Christmas Day, just Joan and I, but we have some special visitors (John, Nicole and the two grandchildren, Addisen and newcomer Griffen) coming this afternoon for Christmas Eve dinner.

We miss our two sons, William and Timothy in California, and daughter, Elin, who is working in Boston. Granddaughter Brittany in California will also be missed. We will see our California children and grandchild in February, but we miss them all at this special time of year.

Our thoughts are also with those we lost this year, my brother, Mike, and Joan's Dad, Red. As much as holidays are a special happy time, they can be sad reminders of those not still with us.

My thoughts also turn to those standing the wall, those in the military, those serving in police deparments and fire departments who will be on watch for the rest of us on this special day. We thank those serving in ambulance companies and in hospitals, as well.

I hope you will stop for a moment and be grateful for their service to us and to our country. I know I already have. It's lonely on Christmas in a far off place and the least we can all do is stop and give them a thought.

For those on watch in patrol cars or in fire houses we also extend our thanks for their sacrifices.

As to the blog, I have a series of special YouTube videos on auto pilot going up tonight, but I encourage you to spend your time with family and friends and not here.

Merry Christmas!

Straight No Chaser returns with new Christmas song

Straight No Chaser is back with the Christmas Can Can:

AnnArbor.com hosts Santa

An inside look at the fancy lobby of AnnArbor.com is part of this Santa letter-writing contest event.

Maybe I'm not understanding the contest, but according to the story and photo slides only five children participated in a Santa letter writing contest?

Either the contest was very limited or AnnArbor.com is not reaching the young folks in the community. According to AnnArbor.com the participation was so limited they couldn't even hold a contest and instead awarded the grand prize to all five entrants.

That was nice of them, but someone in corporate must be wondering where all the people are?

When the Journal would sponsor holiday coloring contests, they were inundated with entries.

But it's not good to go against Santa, so Merry Christmas, AnnArbor.com

AnnArbor.com: The yawn continues

"A loyal reader" asked me to make my monthly visit to AnnArbor.com and give some thoughts on a minor redesign there.

So I stopped by today, top story is about the pay raises and freezes involving the U-M administration.

I guess I think the "Top Stories" lead box looks a little better than what was there, but the site continues to be as exciting as watching cement dry.

Wonder if they will let everyone know how the subscriptions to the new paper are going?

Basically the site remains a big yawn, at least for me.

Only after they are dead, though

Today there were several news stories about a new study that will be done in Boston on the brains of National Football League players.

The reporter added the following: "But only after they are dead."

Thank goodness for that.

New LED traffic lights save energy, not so much lives

The unintended consequence of using LED lights to save energy in traffic lights is having a down side, including the death of one woman.

I've got an idea, they could string some of those coiled heating units people use to melt snow on their roof and melt the ice that way. Might defeat the old energy savings realized by the LEDs though.

My science teacher wife laughs every time she hears people touting the new electric cars or hyrid vehicles. She points out that when you plug the car in to recharge the energy, that electricity has to be made somewhere, often with coal, oil and if you live in Buffalo the more earth friendly water turbines.

Of course, nuclear would be a cleaner solution for producing energy, but no one wants to talk about that any more.

We are one of those energy conserving homes with the new bulbs. I don't like the light they put out and from what I hear, if you break one you then have a mercury emergency to deal with.

Just to let you know, if I break one they'll be no hazmat situation, because I will brave the mercury spill, sweep up the mess and throw it into the garbage. I think the earth, and I, will survive.

Feeling a little sorry for my Dad, but not feeling bad about little snow here

My 80-something Dad has been pushing a lot of snow lately. He's in great shape, so I'm not too worried, but it is a little bit of irony that he is shoveling like a demon at his townhouse near Washington, D.C. and up here in Michigan, I haven't even started my snowblower yet this season. I'm not complaining, though.

Government Motors: When the bureaucrats take over marketing

Oh yeah, this proves that the government taking over GM was a really bad idea. Here's the new dance for the eco-friendly Chevrolet Volt. Makes you want to laugh, not buy.

A whimpering death for 'old school' newspapering

(Update: I just re-read this piece after getting the first comment on it and decided to move it back to the top for the weekend. This was such a great look back and it prompted such a great comment I want folks to not miss this one. All my former Oakland Press and Flint Journal buddies will love this piece. Feel free to chime in with some of your great memories. There are some new posts below).

This is a great look, and good bye, to the newsrooms of old.

One of my favorite paragraphs in the whole story is this about newsroom bosses:


"Perhaps the prince of pranks was Jim Naughton, who in nearly 50 years moved from the Painesville, Ohio, Telegraph through the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer to the presidency of the Poynter Institute. "People who are always under pressure don't need bosses with whips," says Naughton, who once helped sneak a live camel into the Inquirer building. "They need bosses who understand the value of the collaborative spirit in a newsroom." That spirit drew "people who cared very much about what they did and its influence and impact on the life of the community."

Ideology - why I don't buy it

Recently I've been engaged in a respectful online debate over global warming with a couple people I really like and admire. But it has helped me understand why I have never been, and never will be an ideological Republican or Democrat.

Except for my belief in Jesus and living a good and clean life, I'm really not sure about much else.

Ideological leftists and rightists never hold out the possibility that their opponents may have something to say. It is impossible for them to say, "I was wrong," or "that was wrong," or even "I could be wrong."

I was one who was convinced we should invade Iraq because of the presence of weapons of mass destruction. I was not alone, a lot of people on both sides of the divide agreed with that, including our current Secretary of State. But when it was proved they didn't exist, I didn't keep insisting they did. That was wrong. The premise was wrong, the intelligence was wrong and we invaded a country for a bogus reason. I still love our troops and all they do, I refuse to turn on them.

I'll listen to the argument that Iraq will be better off without Saddam, but that doesn't change the facts that the premise of the invasion was wrong. Facts are facts.

Recently, the global-warming-is-caused-by-humans scientists got caught by a bunch of e-mails that show that many of them, upset that their computer models were wrong and that the earth has actually cooled over the last number of years, decided to cover up, cook the books or stifle the opposition. That was wrong. People should say so. Science is not ideology. Revisionist history is not real history.

Not a whimper about the waste of carbon emissions used in flying gas guzzling limos to Copenhagen for use by the dignataries, most of whom fly by private jets to the summit. When all those environmentalists start walking to their next summit, I'll start to listen.

Let's not even start on all the cow manure that Al Gore has spewed over the years on the subject.

Like their friends on the far right, you don't hear the left admit that. They don't acknowledge they have a credibility crisis of their own. They move forward like nothing happened.

Republicans were ushered into office in 1994 based on their promise to bring back fiscal stability and values and then they spent 12 years spending like drunken sailors.

The Democrats promise to bring back civility, bipartisanship and transparency in 2006 and are swept into office only to do the opposite. A Congressional representative who didn't pay his taxes is put in charge of the committee that decides on them, just for one example.

As all of you know, I couldn't support either major Presidential party candidate last election, but President Obama who promised open doors, transparency and the end to pork barrel spending was elected only to allow the first spending bill he signed to be laden with the usual useless Congressional spending.

Now he is apparently poised to do that again with another spending bill weighted down with pork, for both sides, but mostly his.

The lock step nature of politics, ala the Republicans versus Arlen Specter and the Democrats versus Ben Nelson are another reason I detest the two parties. People are elected to represent their districts or states, not the party that carries their political label. There should be no punishment for voting your conscience.

I applaud those representatives, even if I don't agree with them, who go against their party when they believe it is the right thing to do. Not so much when their votes are purchased with millions and billions of my money and yours.

At lot of my friends detest Joe Lieberman, I celebrate him. I don't always agree with him either. An independent thinker is not necessarily a bad thing. I thought it was just desserts when the Democrats worked so hard to get him defeated in the Democratic primary in Rhode Island only to have him come back and thump their guy as an Independent.

My local Republican congressional representative, Candice Miller, is supposedly a good conservative, but yet touts her efforts to bring Homeland Security grants that buys fire engines for places like Otter Lake, which, last time I checked, is not a hot bed for Al Qaeda. It is that kind of stuff that drives me crazy.

Recently there is a hell bent effort to pass any kind of health care. Doesn't matter if anyone reads the bill, knows what's in it or if it really helps anyone. It just matters that something gets passed to save the enormous ego of our young President. From what I understand, and I'll freely admit I haven't read the bill, is that none of the good provisions even take effect for four or more years, although the taxes that support it begin next year.

This country sorely needs health care reform. It certainly needs a way for everyone to have access to health care, but all that is lost in this partisan effort to either pass, or defeat, anything proposed by the other side. In my opinion it is better to do it right, than fast.

And, by the way, what ever happend to the Prez's campaign promise that the health care debate and legislative process would be open, transparent and on C-SPAN. I keep looking on C-SPAN, but it's not there.

Removing a brutal dictator from power, developing alternative energy and conserving our precious earth resources and providing health care for all, are noble intentions.

Good intentions, whether on the left or right, do not make good policy, science or economics. I'm sick of the back and forth, the lack of courage to do the right thing or even the courtesy to admit when your side is wrong, or makes a mistake.

That's all I'm going to have to say on politics for awhile. Frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm sure you all can agree that is a good thing.

Flattery will get you no where (or is it nowhere?)

The latest comment rejected by me (one of less than 10 in two years):

"Cool blog. But I'd rather read more about....(and then a link to a website called "Asian Escorts").

Nice try, but this is why I use moderation.

A warning about THE debt

Hopefully someone will start taking this seriously. Thanks to one of my readers for sending me this link to this story. The government cannot spend us into prosperity, but they can very easily spend us into disaster.

Congress just raised the debt limit again. Clearly, this is not sustainable and the quick fix will likekly lead to long range disaster.

The next time someone tells me that a government run health care "will save us money," I'm going to remind them that we got into $13 trillion in debt because we believed Republicans and Democrats about their estimates for Social Security, Medicare, a series of wars, the cost of prescription drug benefits, and on and on.

From all the past promises of "savings" our country ought to owe nothing by now. Instead we're swimming (maybe drowning) in an unsustainable debt. I've said this so many times it is now boring me, but it is immoral to keep adding to a debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.

They are going to really be mad at us someday and I won't blame them.

A funny video from the left

Most folks who visit here know I am very skeptical about the current plans to reform health care. Health care needs reform, but the way it is being done in Washington is, in my humble opinion, a joke. But Moveon.org has a pretty funny video about Joe Liebermann that I couldn't help but chuckle at.

The Booth strategy explained

A loyal FFE reader passed along a link to and Editor and Publisher story about the current strategy of trying to charge more for less. (Hat tip to Jan).

Good news, sort of?

Apparently not losing as much as you have been losing is good news.

Gene Weingarten: Unfit to print

My father sent along by snail mail a very funny journalism column by the Washington Post's Gene Weingarten. Enjoy. It explodes the myth of liberal bias, well, maybe.

Warning: You may have to suffer through a very annoying advertisement, but eventually it disappears.

This one is worth a good chuckle as well.

A Twisted Sister Christmas

A pastor I know posted this on his Facebook. It is a little out there, but it is a version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" that I had never heard before. I've got some tamer and more traditional offerings planned for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Al Gore: An inconvenient spokesman

The inventor of the Internet and the subject of the book "A Love Story" has stepped into a big pile of global warming doo-doo with his latest exaggeration at the Nopenhagen, 'er Copenhagen, Summit.

Even the dire predicting, global warming supporting scientist quoted by Al Gore in a speech yesterday publicly blanched at the Gore prediction that the polar ice cap will completely disappear in five years.

Please note that Mr. Gore's office admitted that the figures of five years to the end of the polar ice cap were from a talk with the scientist "several years" ago. The "several years ago" comment from Gore's office makes the fact he used the figures even more puzzling.

Hopefully, this conference will end in a whimper of frustration and then we can all get on to the real work of cleaning up our environment and developing alternative energy without the chicken little, sky-is-falling nonesense that has become the global warming community.

There's clearly nothing wrong with developing green technology or in conserving the earth's resources, but we don't need to be scared into it with manipulated science or doomsday scenarios.

Propaganda is no more acceptable from the left than it is from the right.

Inside Out: More Advance news

The Inside Out blog has a couple new stories on the top management merry-go-round and some new buy out offers.

Warren Buffett chimes in on newspaper travails

Warren Buffett offers his opinion, which mirrors what many of the peons (me included) were saying ten years ago when the suits were telling us that free or not, we had to give our product away on the Internet.

Didn't make sense then, and makes less sense in hindsight. But what did we know, we were just reporters.

Two former Flint Journal editors, still in the company by the way, dismissed our opinions about giving away the product. Funny, we're gone and they're still there. Go figure.

This year's Red Wing pre-game video

I really like the new pre-game video that is shown at Joe Louis Arena before every Detroit Red Wings game.



Last year's was pretty good too! We always like to be in our seats in time to watch the videos.

George Carlin on the Environment: Adults only warning

I'm not embedding this George Carlin video on the blog because it violates my rules about profanity. However, if you can stand a few f-bombs, George sums up my feelings about the current panic over the environment in just seven minutes.

Carlin was one of the great thinkers of our time and while I disagreed sometimes with what he said, I always found it thought provoking.

So click on the link above, but only if you are prepared for the profanity. Hopefully, someone will play this video during coming global warming summits.

Saturday Night Live: How the mighty have fallen

For the first time in ages I was up late enough to watch Saturday Night Live. We turned it off about half way through. It was horrible. Not just horrible, but embarrassingly horrible.

What has happened to the writers on that show? The only part that was halfway acceptable was the news portion, but the skits were as lame as I could ever imagine.

Maybe it will never regain its level of Belushi, Chase, Farrell, etc., but what I saw last night wouldn't survive most local cable access channels.

Here's a free script idea for SNL: Take any President Obama speech or any Republican or Democrat congressional representative giving a speech or conducting a hearing and simply run the sound track of one of the Peanuts television specials, but only play the noise that adults make when the speak.

"Waaah, waaah, wah, wah, waaaaaaaah, waaaaah." That's what all their hot air is starting to sound like to me.

I tried to listen to President Obama give one of his daily speeches (and he has a clear speech delivery) broadcast everywhere and it suddenly occurred to me that I had completely tuned out the message. The first thing that came to mind was the adults speaking on Peanuts. It was really startling how the rhetoric has become so repetitious that it just puts you to sleep.

Shorten up the speeches Prez, they are too long.

My current Facebook status

I posted my status today on Facebook and apparently some folks like it. Here's what I wrote:

"James is keeping a food diary at the request of his doctor. A small weight gain from my last checkup prompted the doctor to make me keep a record of what and when I eat anything. I know what he's going to be treating me for at my next visit: Writer's Cramp."

Actually, I find that having to write everything down has actually kept me from eating things that were bad for me. Because I find it very difficult to lie, I'm now passing up snacks that I would have eaten so I don't have to write it down.

I think I've invited the "Writer's Cramp" diet. I feel my first book coming on.

Sarah Palin vs. William Shatner

This was pretty funny last night. In case you missed it: (You'll have to sit through a short commercial to get to the clip)

Two men kill three people, I get called a vulture

It's strange when old memories will pop up. This week I happened across a picture of a turkey vulture and it suddenly brought to mind a murder case I covered early in my career at the Oakland Press.

Before Rochester Hills was Rochester Hills it was Avon Township. One evening in July 1984, I monitored police scanner traffic that indicated a homicide had occurred at a home there. As more officers arrived it was apparent that this was pretty awful.

I drove to the scene and while watching the front of the house at one point a detective who I saw go into the house, emerged and vomited over the porch railing. That's when I knew it had to be pretty gory inside the house. It's pretty rare that a seasoned detective becomes nauseous at an accident or murder scene.

Later I learned that two men, high on drugs, booze or both, had been left home to party with a woman, her teenage daughter and a nine-year-old niece. At some point the murder frenzy began and all three females were stabbed to death. The nine-year-old was stabbed 27 times. Overkill in its purest form.

The two men took off after the triple homicide, but the husband, father and uncle of the three victims quickly provided detectives with names of the men he had left at home with his family and they were arrested.

Bill Fischer was a truck driver and Michael Kvam (I never forgot their names and check on their prison status at least once a year to make sure they serve every day of their life sentences) a young man that Fischer befriended. The links on their names will take you to a page with their photos and conviction information.

At their arraignment, a photographer and I staked out the back door of the courthouse so I could shout a question at the two men and the photographer could snap a photo. Members of Fischer and Kvam's family were also looking to see the two men and there was a brief confrontation between we and they.

At one point, a friend or family member of Bill Fischer shouted out to me and the photographer that we were "vultures." The irony of being called "vultures" by the family and friends of two men charged with killing a woman, her daughter and nine-year-old niece was not lost on the photographer or me.

This was the case that convinced a circuit court judge who had been opposed to the death penalty that in at least some cases it should be applied.

Just when you think Congress couldn't do something even dumber than it already has....

This today from a House subcommittee a plan to force college football into an annual championship playoff.

At least one Democrat had the intelligence to say this whole thing was ridiculous. Congress is so full of itself that we can only hope that they will recess for Christmas and not come back.

As I said on Facebook, it's probably time to retire the bald eagle as the national symbol and replace it with a whiny little baby in diapers or a big open hand waiting for "Obama money."

It's truly sad what is happening right now. Someone should ask these representatives to come home and face the out-of-work voters and find out how important a college playoff is to them.

My favorite quote in the story:

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said, "We can walk and chew gum at the same time."

Can we take a poll on how the American people feel about that?

Editor & Publisher to shut down

It may be the ultimate sign of the newspaper times that Editor & Publisher, the publication that tracks and writes about the newspaper business, is itself a reported casualty of the newspaper doomsday.

Thanks to an anonymous poster for providing the link and information for this post.

Reminder: Harold McIntyre's funeral arrangements

The arrangements can be found in an earlier post. Former FJ photographer Jane Hale gave me permission to post a couple photos she took on Harold's last day at the Flint Journal.

It's cold here and I have the pictures to prove it

This is mainly for my friends and family who live in warm weather states. Coming home from a school assignment this afternoon I spotted some ice forming on a small lake near the road. Temperatures dropped like a stone today and right now are about 10-degrees outside. These ice formations on dead trees and dead weeds sometimes end up looking kind of cool. (Click on photos for a larger view)

A little updated news from the Oregonian

In September, the Oregonian, an Advance publication, announced a buyout offer and we know now that 43 people accepted the voluntary buyout.

Word is that another 30 to 40 folks face lay offs to meet the company's staffing goals. That is supposed to happen soon.

This is huge for the northwest region where the Oregonian is a huge news source.

Booth (West) planning big changes Feb. 5?

Folks at Booth properties on the westside of the State are bracing for February 5th, the date of expected "changes."

With the end of the lifetime job pledge, some folks are expecting the worst.

Already this week training to help the copy desk and design functions to be consolidated with the Grand Rapids Press has been going on. Staff at the Kalamazoo Gazette is less than half of the staff there just five years ago.

Named Michigan's "Newspaper of the Year" just this year, the paper's redesign will make it into a clone of the Grand Rapids Press. Most likely to ease its production.

Cookie cutter papers take less time for a small crew to put together, more like plugging items in and out depending on which area.

The Kalamazoo Gazette, which was named the Michigan News Association's Newspaper of the Year a few weeks/months ago, will take on the design of The Grand Rapids Press.

President Obama lovers will need to strap on a sense of humor for this one

A friend sent me this overnight. I believe it is photo shopped.

Dad adds a few more household hazard exposures

We father pointed out in an e-mail to me that I didn't explain all the household hazards that he was raised with.

Here in his own words:

"Finally, I omitted our playing with asbestos as children. It is a mineral that we'd get a hold of somewhere and play with it. The fibers were all loose. Let's see, I was also raised in a house filled with cigarette smokers. There were many times when a pall of smoke lay so think it was difficult to see across a room. Hasn't bothered me yet!"

What he didn't mention was that he is in his 80s. Imagine, lead toys, playing with mercury, general aviation pilot, second hand smoke, asbestos exposure and he's still here.

Newspaper execs: "We're doing better we only lost 20 to 25 percent of our advertising"

This from Reflections of a Newsosaur.

A dangerous toy from my past forgotten

My father wrote in this morning to remind me that he purchased a 22-caliber, single shot rifle for my brother and I to shoot back in the 1950s. This obviously was in response to the toy safety item I wrote yesterday.

OK, it was not really a toy as the headline says, but my father taught us the safe way to use a gun and we had many wonderful hours of enjoyment with it.

The use of that rifle was strictly supervised by my father, but often involved "plinking," which was the shooting of green, plastic "army" men, jeeps and tanks in remote areas of a beach or field.

How I forgot that I don't know, but I do remember we never shot "American" army men, they were usually Germans and the occasional Japanese green, plastic army men. This was still a time in the shadow of World War II so I hope that's understandable, even if politically incorrect.

Green plastic men who were decapitated or left limbless by our "plinking" were given a proper disposal.

My father also remembered that he and his brothers often played with lead toys some that ended up in mouths. Dad has lived to a ripe old age and is reasonably sane, so it does not appear he suffered from any lead poisoning.

"Plinking," I believe is the sound of a 22-caliber bullet when it is fired.

Zhu Zhu pet gets reprieve, safe after all

I was relieved to hear today that the Zhu Zhu pet had gotten a clean bill of health from the government. The Zhu Zhu pet was on its way to a civil lethal injection after a do-gooder group discovered it had trace amounts of a metal that was supposedly going to hurt kids.

(Update: I received a comment to this story that included a website that the poster indicated was a contest for a free Zhu Zhu pet. Before posting that comment - and later rejecting the comment - I went to the website and it seemed a little odd to me so I did not post the comment on the concern that the website might not be safe for computer users. It is only about the fifth time I have had to reject a comment)

But the government (nice to know they have time for this) stepped in and said the Zhu Zhu pet met all government standards and was safe. The do-gooders now admit they used the wrong test.

My wife and I were just talking about how toy safety testing was done when we were kids. Well, actually toy safety testing wasn't done, we just had parents who decided whether we should, or should not have a certain toy.

I begged and pleaded for a b-b gun, but like the famous movie was told I couldn't have it because I could lose an eye. Parents were pretty good back then at deciding what toys were safe and which weren't.

Today, I guess we need the government to decide whether toys are good or bad.

It's a miracle I'm still alive based on what is considered toxic and dangerous today. As a kid my friends and I used to look for old or discarded mercury thermometers to break open so we could play with the mercury.

We used to shine up our dimes with the stuff using our bare hands. We would break up the beads of mercury and then put it all together again. Do that today and they'll clear your neighborhood, call out the fire department and the environmental clean-up company that employs the men in the moon suits and then bill you thousands of dollars for the clean-up.

Not ranting, just noting how things have changed. No one wants children harmed and if we can keep them safe good, but parents, in my opinion, are still the best arbiter of what is dangerous or safe for their children. But I do recognize some parents have slipped through the cracks.

I was kidding with my wife the other day that my father, a frequent visitor here, in today's world might be in big trouble for letting me ride on his lap and steer the car on some back street, without a seat belt.

My brother and I were spanked and although I can't say I liked it at the time, I'm a better man for it today.

Global climate change: Just to put your mind at ease

Are we heating up or cooling down? Here's a 1974 Time Magazine article that tried to scare us.

Here's my favorite paragraph from that story and the reason why I shut out the noise about the current global warming debate:

"Whatever the cause of the cooling trend, its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic. Scientists figure that only a 1% decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth's surface could tip the climatic balance, and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years."

That's what many scientists believed just 35 years ago. Pssst! Here's a little secret from me to you, they don't know what is happening. They are just guessing. I'm all for saving energy and recycling, etc., but don't do the scare stuff, it's silly. Remember Y2K? Another media scare that fizzled.

Besides I enjoy driving my gas guzzling Chevrolet Tahoe. When Al Gore gives up his private jet and energy inefficient home, I'll think about down sizing my travel mode.

Inside Out is back with some fresh Booth info, video

The Inside Out blog is back with some new stuff on editor changes on the Booth management merry-g0-round and a cute video "Copy Editor's lament." Stop over and check it out.

Funeral arrangements posted for Harold McIntyre

From Swanson Funeral Home

Obituaries
Harold McIntyre
(May 29, 1947 - December 4, 2009)

Guest Book Sign Guest Book Send Private Condolences
Send Flowers

Mr. Harold McIntyre-62, passed away Friday, December 4, 2009 at Brians House. Family and Friends will gather in the sanctuary of Second Friendship M.B.C., 6046 Clio Rd., Mt. Morris, on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 10:00 AM with services starting promptly at 11:00 AM, Pastor Rodney Williams, Officiating. Interment Great Lakes National Cemetery. He may be viewed on Sunday, December 13, 2009 at Swanson Funeral Home from 1-6PM.

Cover the Legislature: $15 an hour

A lot that is currently wrong with journalism can be found in this posting from Illinois.

Computer skills helpful (no mention of journalism skills, although it would be helpful if you understood the legislative process). Sheeesh. The comments are delicious too.

Thanks to Omar Sofradzija, a Facebook friend, for the link.

Pete Hamill on writing and newspapers

Syracuse.com has a good interview with Pete Hamill with lots of stuff about newspapers and their demise.

Pete talks about the "old" days in newspaper journalism and offers some opinions about the future. He makes a really good point about the eventual destruction of newspaper libraries and what that will mean to historians.

When I first started at the Journal it had a Class A newspaper library. While many of those files remain, I'm not sure what attention is being paid to its maintenance.

Here's a couple snippets I liked from the fairly long Q&A.

"The Huffingtonpost.com does not pay its writers. Tina Browns’ thedailybeast.com does pay its writers. You have to be paid because this is not a hobby. You have to keep that standard. You can’t ask grandpa to loan you money because you have to go to Afghanistan. I walked the picket line for that to continue. "

"I’m so concerned with morgues and libraries of the newspapers. I know from writing historical novels, one of the great sources is bound volumes (of newspapers). They tell you all the detail that historians don’t. How much was a pair of shoes. What did a guy pay to go to the ballpark in 1934 during the Depression. How many people where there? The detail, you could find in the morgues, the bound volumes that have the advertising. At the very least there ought to be grant money somewhere to scan every page of it."

Still no word on Harold's funeral

You can find a short notice here, so keep watching.

Health Care debate's open process: Not so much

"What I am convinced of is if we actually hope to pass universal health care this time around we have to bring Republicans and Democrats together," said Obama. "We have to have an open and transparent process so that the American people participate in the debate and see exactly what we're doing."

On another occasion during the campaign President Obama mentioned that C-SPAN would be in the room during the health care deliberations so the American public would be party to the "open" process.

Over the weekend, Obama met privately with Democrats only to strong arm health care.

I turned to C-SPAN and guess what, couldn't find the broadcast anywhere. I get that he has given up on Republicans to cooperate, but he could still invite C-SPAN to the meeting as he promised.

Predictably, this thing has turned into a giant "Let's Make A Deal" where hold out senators and congress representatives will demand their little pork to get their vote for a bill that does not provide universal health care coverage.

I am angry (again) at both parties for not seeking a real solution, but rather a stridently partisan one.

And if you believe that the bill proposed by Congress right now will somehow save us money, make sure you put cookies out for the big man in a red suit on Christmas Eve.

There are so many lies flying around (on both sides) about this process that it would be great if someone in the media would actually break it all down. Instead of reporting on the ball game, do a little of your own inside calculations and reporting and get to the truth.

Riiiight, now it's me that will have to leave cookies out for Santa.

For Harold

This is for our departed friend, Harold McIntyre. This is "Il Silencio" trumpet solo that is a vague variation of "Taps" I had never heard before. In honor of Harold's military service I'm posting this here today. It may not be "Taps" but it is just as beautiful.



For some more information on the connection of "Il Silencio" to the more common military "Taps" I found this reference.

'I believe'

My friend Drew, who I have known since high school in La Crescenta, California, is a priest and sent these to me in an e-mail. I'm sure he got them from someone else, but I think all, or at least most of us can find hope, comfort and understanding in all of them.

I Believe

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born. A Death Certificate shows that we died. Pictures show that we lived! Have a seat . .. . Relax . . . And read this slowly.

I Believe... That just because two people argue, doesn't mean they don't love each other.
And just because they don't argue, doesn't mean they do love each other.

I Believe... That we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I Believe.... That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I Believe... That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I Believe.... That you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I Believe... That it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I Believe... That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe.... That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I Believe... That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe.... That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe... That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I Believe... That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I Believe... That my best friend and I can do anything, or nothing, and have the best time.

I Believe... That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I Believe... That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I Believe... That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had, and what you've learned from them.....and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe... That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I Believe... That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe... That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe... That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life Forever.

I Believe... Two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I Believe... That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe... That even when you think you have no more to give, if a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I Believe... That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe... That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

Here's a little more wisdom.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything.

Thank you God for all the wonderful people who help us throughout the journey of life. May Angels guard you and guide you.

Don't tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is!!!

Harold McIntyre, RIP

Harold McIntyre, a former colleague at the Flint Journal, died today. Harold, I believe was in the second group of buy out employees (my group) and retired about the same time that I did.

I understand he had been ill in recent weeks, but don't know the details of how he died. (Sometime this afternoon another former FJ colleague sent me two additional photos of Harold, I thank him).

No one who worked with Harold will forget his kind and gentle nature and his always present smile during those years he worked the desk in the lobby of the Flint Journal.

According to his Facebook page (just now when I went to look up his page his picture flashed on my home page asking me to suggest friends for Harold) he was 64. He was married and had a daughter.

A few years ago he posed with me and several other military veterans for a photo of Flint Journal veterans, he could still get into his uniform (back row, second from the left).

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Swanson Funeral Home in Flint. When the arrangements and obituary are available I will post them here.

Three big huge, tragic and fiery inferno cliches in one day

Just had to vent about hearing several news cliches in one day on broadcasts.

No. 1: There have been several "fiery infernos in this neighborhood tonight." I guess that's in contrast to a non-fiery inferno.

No. 2: "Big, huge." in reference to Christmas sales. Which I guess is different from "small, huge."

No. 3: "A tragic murder." As opposed to the non-tragic ones. Only one worse is the "brutal murder" sticker put on by some reporters. Is there a murder that is not brutal?

And while I'm on the subject, the word tragic is often used incorrectly. Not finding a popular Christmas toy or even losing your home is not really tragic. Some things are horrible and awful, but if you walk away alive, it was probably not tragic. Nothing should be tragic unless someone loses a life.

When I hear more, I'll share again. If you are guilty of using these, in the name of all that is journalism, please stop.

Every newspaper journalist will love this cartoon

I'd love to post the cartoon right here on my blog, but the cartoonist sells them and I don't want to violate the copyright. But apparently the artist doesn't mind people stopping by to look so here is a link to a very apt cartoon.

An inside view of the newly departed Detroit Daily Press

(Update: Just to be clear this column was written by James Briggs and is posted on his blog - link on headline. This was not written by Jim Smith the author of this blog. I agree that it is very well written and completely describes the love and passion we all have/had for the business. If you have direct comments for Mr. Briggs please head over to his blog and make them there.)

The Detroit Daily Press was fool's gold
by James Briggs

I’ll remember my week at the here-today-gone-tomorrow Detroit Daily Press as the week I didn’t see my wife.

Hired to cover the Lions and Red Wings for the Daily Press, I logged (well, that’s probably not the right word, since my hourly count held no relation to payment) about 80 hours, not counting the mandatory pro bono work prior to Nov. 19, and filed 14 articles. I was not scheduled for a day off at the time of the Daily Press’ demise.

Perhaps that should have been a clue that the Daily Press wouldn’t appear on anyone’s best-places-to-work list. But to the extent that I was responsible for the startup newspaper’s success, I reasoned, I’d take a paper route if the paper needed me to (apparently it did).

I received word via Facebook that the Daily Press had ceased publication on Friday, while I was at Ford Field for a high-school football state final. My initial reaction was not horror – that came later – but rather relief. I called my wife and told her I’d get to spend the rest of Thanksgiving weekend with her.

Daily Press photo editor Rodney Curtis expressed similar relief in his blog, saying:

It seems my family is happy to have me back. Even if I’m not adding money to the coffers. Christmas won’t be, how shall we say, overly extravagant this year but the crazy enigmatic smile on my daughter’s face when she heard the paper closed after only five days of publication said it all. There was good and bad in that smile. Mostly good though. She just didn’t want to overly show how gleeful she was that Mr. Grumpy Puss had gone into hibernation and possible extinction.

What went wrong with the Daily Press?
The most commonly cited reasons for the paper’s failure have been advertising (there wasn’t any) and distribution (ditto). Reporter Wendy Clem has written a piece suggesting intimidation from outside influences led to circulation problems.

She might be right. But even if she is, it doesn’t matter.
At the end of the day, the Daily Press arose with neither the technological nor human infrastructures in place to get the job done. The newspaper chewed up its staff like a piece of gum and spit it out when the flavor had subsided. I think the paper turned out well for five days, but we wouldn’t have had the stamina to keep it up.

You could argue these words come from a jilted employee, and you’d be right. Almost immediately after I gave up a job I liked at AnnArbor.com, the broken promises began. “Give your previous employer whatever they need” became “we need to be your priority now.” A promised five-day work week became a joke – the Daily Press couldn’t fill its sports section unless I worked from morning until, well, the next morning.

While I might sound angry at the newspaper, I’m not. I’m angry at myself in the same way you might get angry if you fell for a Nigerian scam. You knew it was too good to be true, but you let greed take over and wash away common sense.

You vividly remember the last possible moment you could have backed out, when all your analytical instincts were screaming at you to walk away, and you want that moment back. But you – I – didn’t listen, and the moment passed. Now, all that’s left is getting over the embarrassment and moving on.

When I first heard about the Detroit Daily Press, I said it had no chance. Yet, when the paper offered me a job, I drowned my logic and dove for the scam. All of us who came on board made up reasons to believe this newspaper somehow would persist when all evidence suggested the battle was hopeless.

That’s how it is when you’re addicted to something. And I’m more convinced than ever that print journalism is a drug for those who love it.

Some of my colleagues remain hooked on the drug, believing the presses will roll again in January. But the Daily Press isn’t coming back. If you can’t sell advertising the week of Thanksgiving, how will you do it in January, the worst month of the year in terms of newspaper revenue?

The Detroit Daily Press was fool’s gold for dozens of people clinging to the hope that newspapers could still succeed in these-here hills, long after the hills had proved barren.

I gave up a job and poured every ounce of energy into dredging up that fantasy, and walked away with a check for $344 and the promise of another soon-to-come check.

On the plus side, I suppose that’s more than anyone ever recouped from a Nigerian scam.

A bedtime fairy tale: Once Upon a Time there was the Detroit Daily Press

It was understandably upsetting to staff members of the Detroit Daily Press that the experiment lasted less than a week.

But a former staffer, Wendy Clem, has written a fairy tale about what was behind the collapse of the venture.

I'm not going to go line-by-line, but I'm sure that any prudent printer would have demanded cash up front (most do for new customers). Printing a newspaper involves a huge investment of paper (not cheap) and labor so you certainly couldn't fault a printer for wanting money up front for printing.

From what I understand the issue with distributing the newspapers at CVS involved the refusal (or ignorance) of the DDP in knowing they would have to put a universal code on each product.

So I read Wendy's tome with an air of understanding that it must have hurt to put all that time in and have it collapse so quickly, but her assertions of a big media "mafia" is absurd. The paper collapsed because it was not well financed and not well planned.

And her other assertion that all employees have been paid is bunk. I know one of them and so far, no check.

A good column on the current state of journalism

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post has some decent thoughts on the current state of journalism and newspapers.

More Tiger nonsense from my Dad

My father's mind is in overdrive (pun intended) over the Tiger Woods accident.

"Thinking of Woods as the professional golfer he is, I wonder when he drove out of his driveway, did he swerve to the left taking out the fire hydrant and hitting the tree? This would be classified as a hook, something he does frequently with drives on the golf course. Maybe he swerved to the right and created a slice?"

"It is apparent to me that Tiger has awesome talent in driving golf balls, driving a car is an entirely another matter!"

Let's hope no one pays White House party crashers a dime

Celebrity in today's America is a fleeting thing. People want it so badly they will pretend their small child hitched a ride on a weather balloon, will make people eat disgusting bugs and most recently bring an uninvited couple to a State Dinner at the White House.

Now comes word that the White House party crashers are shopping around their story to various networks.

A pox on the news company (and you know someone will find a way to pay these idiots) that sacrifices its ethics for a one-time spike in ratings.

There's a lot wrong with this story, especially the appalling lack of security for the President and his guests, but rewarding these two for this hoax would be the topper.

The biggest punishment for this couple would be the agreement by all news outlets that the couple's name is never used in any future stories. Now that would be punishment.