Media
Monday, May 21, 2012
Presidential Politics / Media Has Obama Really Closed the Gap With Romney in Tennessee?
Posted by Steven Hale on Mon, May 21, 2012 at 1:11 PM
The answer, evidently, is "No." But hey, we made you look!
If you picked up the fish-wrapper or spent any time on the Internet Sunday, you heard the shocking news. In bold, above-the-fold letters, The Tennessean announced the results of a new Vanderbilt poll declaring that the outcome of Tennessee's vote in the forthcoming presidential election is far less than foregone.
"President Barack Obama has pulled into a virtual tie with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in traditionally conservative Tennessee," wrote Michael Cass, to lead the story.
To many readers and political observers who are not the Democratic Party, that sounded dubious. And as it turns out, it is.
That's because, while that is what the poll says, it's not what the poll says. Curiously enough, Cass reports precisely that, just a few grafs down. The poll of 1,002 Tennesseans 18 and older found that 42 percent of respondents would vote for Romney, while 41 percent would vote for Obama if the election were held right now.
However, among registered voters — that is, people who actually could vote if the election were held right now — Romney leads Obama 47-40.
"It's not that close a race," Vanderbilt political science professor John Geer told Cass, who noted that Geer actually predicts an easy Tennessee victory for Romney in November, once currently undecided conservatives get behind the GOP candidate.
Geer told Pith all that too and said Romney will likely win the state with around 56 percent of the vote. He also called the blaring pronouncement from 1100 Broadway "misleading."
"I tried to get the Tennessean not to lead with the overall numbers because they were misleading," he said. "The poll tells you pretty clearly that Romney's gonna win. You can take this one slice — and the Democrats certainly like the slice and I don't blame them for liking it — but come November, unless there is some landslide of epic proportions unfolding, Romney is going to carry Tennessee comfortably."
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Media / Around Town Tennessean Pens Story on Development of Rolling Mill Hill
Posted by Steve Haruch on Wed, May 9, 2012 at 4:13 PM
Tennessean business reporter Bobby Allyn wrote an interesting piece about the redevelopment of Rolling Mill Hill, the sprawling 34-acre tract overlooking the Cumberland River on the southern edge of downtown, soon to be home to The Entrepreneur Center, email marketing company Emma, the Ryman lofts and a host of other businesses. A snip:
City planners say Rolling Mill Hill’s renaissance is changing the way in which residents perceive the once-neglected area, just a short walk from the city’s publicly financed $585 million convention center that is to open next year.“Downtown has been unfolding for over 40 years,” said Phil Ryan, who leads the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. “It’s now becoming a larger urban place.”
City planners say Rolling Mill Hill’s redevelopment will be similar to that of the Gulch, a neighborhood in what was once a derelict industrial area. Now it is a trendy enclave of gleaming condo towers and boutique shops on the western periphery of downtown. “We’re trying to bring together a creative community,” Mr. Ryan said, and added, “It will be entrepreneurs interacting with architects and a place where people from all over Tennessee will come for meetings.”
Karl Dean, Nashville’s current mayor, agreed, saying the project “is good for our city, and the exchange of energy and ideas will help move Nashville forward.”
Somewhat counterintuitively, the story, which delves into the decade-and-a-half history of development efforts, ran in The New York Times, rather than, I dunno, our paper of record.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Media American Advised bin Laden on Media, OBL Thoughts on the Scene Still Unknown
Posted by Steven Hale on Thu, May 3, 2012 at 11:56 AM
With the legislature gone for the year and a slow news day on our hands, we've been thumbing through more than 175 pages of al Qaeda documents seized in the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden a year ago Monday night.
It's not exactly light reading. In page after page, bin Laden and others discuss their strategy for global domination, including bin Laden's frustration at the behavior of affiliate groups, whose actions had resulted in the deaths of Muslims and damaged public perception of al Qaeda in the region. (A terrorist mastermind fretting over PR? Who knew?)
In the same letter — here is an English translation in PDF form — bin Laden also calls for the assassination of President Barack Obama and then Gen. David Petraeus, but asks that a "totally unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden be spared.
"They are not to target visits by US Vice President Biden, Secretary of Defense Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Chairman) Mullen, or the Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Holbrook," he writes. "The groups will remain on the lookout for Obama or Petraeus. The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis."
The letter getting the most attention from national outlets, though, is one written to bin Laden by American al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn, which includes some analysis of cable and network news outlets in the states. Gadahn informs bin Laden — and the forthcoming parenthetical is his — that CNN "seems to be in cooperation with the government more than others (except Fox News of course)" and that MSNBC was "good and neutral" before it fired "famous journalists" Keith Olbermann and Octavia Nasser.
After the jump, an excerpt of Gadahn's media brief to bin Laden. If this sounds like your kind of afternoon reading,this CNN article contains links to more English translations of the letters.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Media Liberal Media Calls Foul on Liberaler Media Regarding The Atlantic's 'Most (and Least) Peaceful Places in America'
Posted by Jack Silverman on Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 2:28 PM
But this story on The Atlantic's Cities blog — "The Most (and Least) Peaceful Places in America" — has got my dander up:
The United States is significantly less violent and more peaceful than it used to be, according to the United States Peace Index 2012 from the Institute for Economics and Peace. The State Peace Index is based on five factors: the homicide rate, violent crime rate, incarceration rate, police presence, and availability of small arms.
Why is the availability of small arms considered a criteria for determining peacefulness? Now before you think I'm just trying to win the approval of right-leaning Pith commenters like Gast and Mark Rogers, let me say that I do think there is a correlation between small-arms availability and violence. But whatever that correlation may be, it would already be represented in the homicide and violent crime rates, right? Merely possessing a small arm doesn't make one violent. (Oh crap, did I really just say that?) But that's exactly what this poll seems to suggest.
One commenter sums it up succinctly:
Monday, April 23, 2012
Media Eugene Robinson, COLUMNIST, Appearing Thursday in Nashville
Posted by Jim Ridley on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Eugene Robinson, the legendary Washington Post columnist and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner, will be in town Thursday to deliver the 12:15 keynote address at the Tennessee Board of Regents Diversity Conference, held at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 10 Century Blvd. Evidently the conference is striving for political diversity as well, as the TBR's original media advisory points out:
"Communist?" We blame AutoCorrect. An immediate correction, replete with profuse apologies, was issued shortly afterward. There but for the grace of God goes Pith.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Politics / Media Haslam Reviews: Metro Pulse Says Yea, Memphis Flyer Says Nay
Posted by Steven Hale on Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Yesterday in Knoxville's Metro Pulse, Frank Cagle praised Haslam for extensive "reforms" regarding how state government operates, and deems his résumé after two years to be "impressive." (Note: "Reform" is not a neutral word. Presumably, Cagle uses it here because he means to say the changes to the state's civil service rules, boards and commissions and judicial oversight are positive things. As our former colleague and current Gambit reporter Charles Maldonado is fond of pointing out, you will often notice reporters and media outlets using this word as if it were a synonym for "change." It's not.)
In the Memphis Flyer, on the other hand, Joe Boone, is less impressed. He takes Haslam to task for his brief foray into media criticism and for essentially giving the inmates free run of the asylum in an open letter of sorts.
Excerpts from both, after the jump.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Legislature / Media David Fowler Decries Lack of Substantive Coverage ... Yes, That David Fowler
Posted by Steven Hale on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 10:30 AM
In a blog posted Friday. Family Action Council of Tennessee president David Fowler claims voters don't know about the "battle brewing in the legislature" over judicial election. He even says the group's website "may be the only place you'll hear about it."
An excerpt:
The issue is whether legislators should put on the ballot for your approval an amendment to the state constitution that would forever eliminate the opportunity for you to have any meaningful input on who sits on our state Supreme Court.Doesn’t interest you? Well, consider that a majority of just five people in this state get to tell you what your constitutional rights are or aren’t, based on how they “interpret” the state constitution. Consider the fact that three people can interpret (and have interpreted) a statute in ways never contemplated by the legislators who passed it.
Those who sit on the Supreme Court essentially decide the rules for how politics and government work in our state. Therefore, how those judges get on the court is very important.
That being said, I understand the legislator’s statement. But I believe the reason it doesn’t seem to matter to voters is because they don’t know about it. Bet you’ve read or seen several stories about the alleged “monkey bill” that the legislature overwhelmingly passed and the Governor refused to sign. It’s been on radio and television, literally across the nation! Bet you’ve also heard about the “saggy pants” bill. Not one story, though, about the state Supreme Court battle brewing in the legislature.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Media Ghost of Tennessean Laments, 'I Used to Be Cooler'
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:42 PM
The atrophied, withered husk of the once-great news-gathering organization known as The Tennessean suffered another journalistic hemorrhage today with a story and interactive map chronicling Nashville hipsters.
Atop the Local & Business section of today's paper, clear as crystal, the city's paper of record wastes precious ink delineating the preciousness of the city's cultural bourgeoisie, their migration patterns and where they like to dispense their discretionary income — like so many articles of its type that have come before it, and will come again.
We refuse to link to the article in question on general principle — the Gannett beast requires page hits, not revelatory insight, muckraking righteousness or anything else that old, uncool people might think newspapers should really busy themselves with — so here's the synopsis instead: Travel and Leisure magazine ranked Nashville 19 out of the nation's top 20 supposed hipster meccas, including Portland, Austin and ... well, who gives a shit, right? It's filler, and yet one more hipster-focused article in a slew of approximately 1,030 articles published in the last year that contained the word "hipster," according to Nexis.
The Tennessean even spent time creating a custom Google map so you can track the businesses that hipsters frequent. Because that's what you want, right? At a time when industry veterans are getting bought out and sold down the river, Gannett sees fit to pay the left-behinds to dick around on Google maps. Oh, where and how do I invest my money?
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Media 'Tennessee Could Become a Laughingstock': To the Point Tackles 'Academic Freedom Versus Science'
Posted by Steve Haruch on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 5:00 AM
Hey everybody, Tennessee in the news! Must be our beautiful landscape, our thriving arts, our — nope, it's our dumbass state legislature again. Yesterday, nationally syndicated public radio program To the Point (which airs on WPLN 90.3-FM at 8 p.m. weeknights) took up the "Monkey Bill" that our feckless governor can't bring himself to sign or veto.
Guests include noted porn recognition instructor and conservative activist David Fowler and Vanderbilt professor Larisa DeSantis, who led a petition effort urging the governor to veto the bill in question.
Just try to un-cringe after you hear Pepperdine University professor Edward Larson say, "The people of Tennessee don't believe in evolution."
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Politics / Media Video: Todd Addresses Cancer Diagnosis, Deems Legal Questions "Inappropriate"
Posted by Steven Hale on Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Rep. Curry Todd discussing his cancer diagnosis with reporters on Tuesday, courtesy of TNReport
Yesterday in the House Commerce Committee, embattled Rep. Curry Todd made an impromptu announcement, telling colleagues that he was diagnosed four years ago with a rare form of incurable cancer. The revelation came during the committee's discussion of a bill that would require insurance companies to pay for oral chemotherapy pills as a part of their cancer treatment coverage.
Later, Todd held a press conference to formally address the news and state his intention to seek re-election despite his illness. As you can see, he took offense to a question about his pending legal case. Todd, who sponsored the controversial "Guns-in-Bars" legislation last year, was arrested last October and charged with DUI and possession of a handgun while under the influence.
