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- It's Not Personal; It's Personal
- Paving Wetlands for the Wealthy
- The Keyboard Assassin
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- Dean Making Political Mistake
- Where's Rev. Wright When You Need Him?
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Reeling in That Marlin
Nothing like a little Chris Matthews to jump start your Friday morning. In this clip, the MSNBC staple plays a little hardball with Kevin James, a conservative talk show host from Los Angeles. (And not the costar of Hitch.) It took a clearly irritable Matthews about four minutes to embarrass and humiliate James, who was rabidly echoing Bush's comparison of Barack Obama to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain without really knowing what Chamberlain did to enable Hitler's rise to power. When Matthews discovered that James' grasp of history was even shakier than Bush's, he moved in for the kill, angrily devouring the talk show host as he revealed his ignorance. It's absolutely captivating television.
And, yes, there's nothing local about this clip, but if it would make you feel better, imagine Phil Valentine sitting in James' place. He wouldn't have fared any better. Steve Gill, on the other hand, would have held his own. We'll give him that much.
Add or View Comments | 5 commentsIt's Not Personal; It's Personal
This week we wrote about how Gov. Phil Bredesen's office wouldn't turn over so-called “personal” emails to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) after they posed a series of irritating questions about the ongoing restoration of the Executive Residence. The libertarian think tank understandably frets that Bredesen's flacks are labeling controversial emails as “personal” so that they won't ever become fodder for the governor's detractors.
What makes Bredesen's position all the more bizarre—in addition to the fact that it flies in the face of the state's open records' law—is that his office has no problem turning over emails that certainly seem personal. That just fuels suspicion that the governor's people are just slapping the “personal” tag on whatever it is they want to hide and not on correspondence that was meant to be private.
TCPR had asked for a screen shot of the inbox of Judy Folk, who works for first lady Andrea Conte, also known as the "FL," who has spearheaded work on the Bredesen Bunker and has clearly been annoyed by its detractors. Anyhow, after the jump we have a partial list of of emails from Folk's computer that the governor's office had no problem sharing with the think tank. These are just the subject lines:
Update: Our new friends at the Tennessee Republican Party have issued a statement about Bredesen's issues with electronic correspondence.
Continue reading "It's Not Personal; It's Personal"... Add or View Comments | 3 comments
The Keyboard Assassin
That handsome (kinda) man is our own Jeff Woods on a rare day when he didn't look like a street urchin. Anyway, his journalistic efforts during last year's mayoral race have made him a finalist for our industry's Public Service Award category. Some call his coverage of the candidates, particularly of former Congressman Bob Clement, journalistic malpractice. We call it kicking tail. There continues to be widespread misunderstanding, apparently, about the role of altweeklies, which is to offer reporting with point of view, not to serve as a platform for stenographic mealy-mouthery the likes of which readers can get at The City Paper and The Tennessean.
In fact, I named the package of pieces "Mayor Bubba Smackdown," and we argued to the judges that the Nashville Scene provided a public service to Nashvillians by reporting and editorializing over several months' time that Bob Clement was far from the best choice to run this $1.8 billion major American city. An independent panel of judges apparently agrees, though the best we can hope for is probably third place as these types of journalism awards typically go to papers discovering that corporations are poisoning poor people, not to grumpy, unshaven wretches singularly obsessed with picking on political hacks desperately in search of power.
We never thought that Jeff Woods—whose triangle of existence includes our office Monday through Thursday, a seedy downtown bar and the Smoky Mountains—would be recognized for providing a public service. He's probably cringing at the notion that someone thinks he's done something good in the world.
Add or View Comments | 3 commentsWhere's Rev. Wright When You Need Him?
I just finished reading The Tennessean's series on Metro schools, which I found refreshingly pessimistic. But in part two of the series, which reported on the supposed superiority of Williamson County schools, I couldn't find any discussion of the racial and ethnic profiles of both districts. It would be lovely if those weren't factors in a school district's performance but because of a host of thorny issues—segregated housing patterns, the challenges in educating immigrant children—we can't just ignore them because they make us uncomfortable.
Perhaps the most irritating part of the story was when a Williamson County biz pig claimed that civic leadership is responsible for the district's academic profile, even though the county largely gets to educate the children of middle and upper class parents. Even Pedro could have handled that task.
Add or View Comments | 1 commentsMy Boss Is in the News Again
But this time it's a David Carr piece in the Times recounting how Village Voice Media's Mike Lacey and partner Jim Larkin are taking on the crooked Phoenix sheriff who had them arrested for, as Carr puts it, "committing journalism."
Reporters around the world work under state-imposed limits on information, and there are even places where police show up in the dead of night and spirit them away to jail for having the temerity to commit journalism. It is a grim tableau repeated too often all over the world: it happens in Iran, it happens in China, it happens in Zimbabwe. And last fall, it happened in Phoenix.
The staggering drama—go read the whole piece—makes me wish just a little that Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall was a mercenary backwater jackass, which he is not. Course, there's always Terry Ashe.
Add or View Comments | 0 commentsTim Chavez is Back With a Blog
Former Tennessean columnist and anti-abortion crusader Tim Chavez has started a blog called Political Salsa. Last September, we reported that the Gannett-owned daily unceremoniously canned Chavez after he took an extended medical leave to beat leukemia. His column has been replaced by the writings of radio bloviator Phil “Shooter” Valentine. Chavez’s blog appears to have launched on Sunday, so there are only a few posts up right now. Topics so far include media criticism and wild political speculation.
We’ll be watching…
Jon Stewart Talks With the Scene
Jack Silverman, the Scene's senior (and self-described) "Red Sea pedestrian," has a hysterical must-read Q&A this week with our favorite comedy anchorman, Jon Stewart, who performs at the Ryman Friday night.
Asked how he feels the Jewish takeover of the media is going, here's what Stewart has to say:
Not as well as it could have been. I thought we gave the pope a little too much coverage. I was a little surprised by that, especially that close to Passover. I thought there'd be a lot more, “Here's a great matzoh brei recipe.” But we do what we can.
Go read the whole thing. You won't be sorry.
Add or View Comments | 1 commentsEditor’s Note
That sketch of me to the right and down the page a bit is pretty unflattering. Unfortunately, it looks just like me. Still, the problem has to be solved one way or another, and while this may seem drastic, here’s the fix: I’m retiring from the Scene.
I may be a lame duck (though not actually because of the caricature), but I’m leaving to try something completely new, to take an endlessly exciting, and unexpected, opportunity. In short, I’m attempting something pretty rare in journalism these days: a chance to make an exit while I’m still having an enormous amount of fun. I’m proud of the staff I work with—the most talented in the city—and the newspaper we produce every week. It might be a bit anticlimactic, but this is not a protest resignation, a corporate cost-cutting measure or a veiled firing.
My next gig is as editorial director of Magellan Media, an umbrella company of book imprints and (non-newspaper) publishing enterprises headed by Nashville businessman Bill King, someone I respect a great deal. I’ll be working on new projects, developing business, assessing ideas and other slightly vague and terrifying pursuits that will probably tempt me (let’s hope unfuckingsuccessfully) to use the word “synergy” and will doubtless cause me to awaken at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat. But that’s just it: My best work comes in the face of blind terror. Plus, after 12 years at one place—as political writer, news editor, associate editor, then editor—it’s time for this root-bound journalist to repot herself.
When I became editor in 2004, I informally imposed a five-year expiration date on the job, figuring that’s how long it would take to do the things I wanted to accomplish and still do them tirelessly, without becoming complacent. I’m crossing the finish line a year and change early. (And a good thing, too, or there might be even more metaphors in this column.)
I can’t offer much at this point about our succession plan here at the Scene, except to say that I’m leaving the thrift store couch I bought for $60 circa 2000. The stories it could tell were it not an inanimate object….
Assuming the editorial power structure here wants my copy, I will continue to contribute to the Scene from time to time. And because I’ll be sticking around until the end of June, my staff will have to suffer seven more weeks of unsolicited grammar lectures, Luther Vandross iTunes and really dated pop culture references. Na, na, na, na…na, na, na, na…hey hey hey…goodbye.
Oh, and I'll probably post a nostalgic note here on June 30, if for no other reason than we'll need content to feed the beast.
Add or View Comments | 24 commentsI Just Received a Deeply Personal Note From Harold Jr.
And here it is. It's really touching:
Dear Friend,
I have officially moved to NBC after a year and productive stint with FOX News. Starting today, you will begin receiving notices about my appearances on NBC and MSNBC news and political shows. With election and economic news increasing, the appearances will be frequent.
This evening starting at 6:00 pm EST, 5:00 pm CST I will join the MSNBC news "Decision 08" team to provide analysis of the election results from Indiana and North Carolina. The coverage will last through the evening.
-- Harold
*Check your local listings for MSNBC Channel
All About Eve
What can we say? It's another slow day on our blog as we try to get the dead tree version of Pith out the door. Fortunately for the local blogosphere (I still hate that word), Nashville Is Talking has a rather, um, revealing exposé about one of the backers of the silly Bible Theme Park in Murfreesboro. NIT's Christian Grantham merely performed a Google search on Amnon Bar-Tur, who is one of the project's sponsors, and discovered that he was “once more known for his photographs of cover girls and 'Pets of the Month' for Penthouse Magazine.”
I hear his pictures of Eve were very tasteful.
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