The Eleventy Billionth Blog

Etiquette, and the Fine Art of Being a Wuss

I am a wuss. I'll admit it. I'm also sure that there's some polite, mannerly way to figure out some of the things that Emily Post hasn't addressed yet, like how to stealthily hide the panties in your cart at Target when you run into your boss, what to do when a burgeoning friendship suddenly turns to complete radio silence, how to get ground-in stains from the elbows of your white jacket, and the best way to tell your roommate to quit purloining your TP just because you buy the good stuff, and not the dollar store six pack. But I'm a wuss in so many ways. I can grill a police chief, get blamed for a mayor's heart attack, send an entrepreneur into hiding, but I can't brazen out panties sitting out in plain sight in front of my boss, explain the stains and their location to the dry cleaner, or ask someone if I've done something to offend. Especially that last one - it sounds so needy. If they're just busy, well, you've just guilted them. If they're avoiding you, well, now they have to tell you or lie. At any rate, it's a train with a likely destination of awkwardness. But then again, if you don't say anything, what if they think you're avoiding them? And my anathema on awkwardness and inconveniencing people is legendary. My family dines out on stories about it. I remember my mom - who was single for many years before marrying my stepdad - once finally had a date. The afternoon of the date, I had my first car wreck. Everything seemed fine at first, but as the evening wore on, my guts just started hurting. Ribcage down, I felt like I had been sucker-punched repeatedly. But I wouldn't say anything. My mom and her date sat on the front porch talking until around midnight - about sharpening scissors and assorted other gawdawfulboring things - and I laid on the couch, waiting for her to finish talking to this guy that - if he had become my stepfather - I would have hated and probably pranked to death. "Oh yes, you can sharpen even the dullest blades if you have a good stone," he said, and I swear it wasn't dirty talk. My mom murmured something affirmative and slightly inquisitive. "On our next date, you should just bring out all your scissors, and I'll bring my stone and sharpen them for you," he said, as I envisioned Visine-ing his sweet tea. "You shouldn't be spending money on new scissors. Sharp scissors are very important. You need sharp scissors for sewing, for cutting hair, for clipping coupons..." "For the love of God," I thought. "I'm going to die of internal injuries, and the last thing I hear will be..." "... scissors are easier than knives, I think. It's the serrated edges on the knives, it's harder. I can sharpen the heck out of a pair of scissors, let me tell you howdy." I open one eye ... and realize I'm not dead, but my mom has managed to get him in his car. She comes back in, and sees me on the couch. After telling her my innards are about to become outtards, she asks me why I didn't tell her I was in pain before. "It was your first date in a long time," I said. "I didn't want to interrupt." "Honey, the man was talking about scissors," she said. "I've been wishing for an interruption for an hour." Three hours and an ER visit later, she had a hilarious story to tell the girls at work that day, while I got to stay home from school in the lovely cocoon of pain medication for my bruised ribs and spleen. So yeah, I'm a wuss. My severe drama allergy precludes me from causing a scene if it's not going under my byline - and then I want the exclusive. So that's enough navel-gazing for tonight. I have to go buy toilet paper now.

How Nerdy Am I?

Nerdy enough to spend the last 20 minutes poring over the 400 and something changes in the 2008 AP Stylebook, since I decided to subscribe online. That is how nerdy.

I'm Not Really ...

... the bloodthirsty sort, but I must say, when I read this, the only thing that went through my head was, "Good."

Continuing the Conversation Here, So I Don't Hog Space

On Frontburner today, D Magazine publisher Wick Allison posted this item about the possible death of newspapers. A lot was said, and one commenter insisted that there was there was a liberal bias in all media, effectively tarring us all with the same brush. It's not a complaint unfamiliar to those of us who have been journalists for any length of time. As I shot back today, for every five letters a publication gets complaining that there is a liberal bias, it gets five more insisting the paper favors conservatives. It's not a pat answer, either. I used to keep a clipping book of stories about Democrats and stories about Republicans for one paper I edited - on purpose. Inevitably, I'd get someone that would come in and insist I favored one over the other, and I'd pull the book out, and have them count. Hard to argue with such concrete evidence. I'm never surprised that those who've never stepped foot inside a newsroom would believe that a journalist could not keep his or her personal politics out of a story. But what surprised me was what a fellow journalist said there:

While very few would cop to it, it’s a ’60s-throwback, baby-boomer world-view that you could sum up like this: Government action good; greedy businesspeople bad; guns bad; abortion not good, but not really that bad; religious people scary, and on and on. I mean, look at all the polls showing 80% or 90% of newspeople are Democrats. This mentality affects the stories that are chosen and the way they’re written, and it’s part of the reason readers are leaving.

According to Fair and Accurateness in Reporting, most journalists are actually more centerist in their politics, and even lean more conservatively on some things than the general public. Yes, those numbers are from 1998, but I doubt the numbers have changed that drastically in 10 years. Yes, there is a more recent Pew study that says journalists identify themselves as liberals, but I'm with Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, who wrote as NPR Ombudsman that he hoped Pew would try the study again - for the reasons he mentioned, and with perhaps a bigger pool of participants. Yes, it is true that a 1996 American Society of Newspaper Editors survey said more journalists say they're Democrats than Republicans. What I found most interesting was that a separate section of that same survey said editorial writers (who are usually the subject of the most vitriol and accusations of liberal bias) statistically, are more likely to be independent or conservative than elsewhere in the newsroom. "The writers of opinion are more diverse and balanced in their ideologies than the newsroom staff, " the survey said. If a journalist personally identifies himself or herself as liberally-leaning, does it mean that he or she cannot write a fair and balanced story? If so, does it meant that only astronauts should write about space, that only someone who has never held a baby should write about cases such as, say Dena Schlosser? There are all kinds of things that can taint - if allowed - our reporting. It's our training and ethics that prevents such a thing from happening. Most journalists I know - and I have had the pleasure of even meeting several at this city's paper of record as well - are deeply invested in presenting the fairest account of the day possible. Even the op-ed page is a delicate balance of what I like to think of as averages of opinions. They are completely aware that veering too far to the left or the right will cost them not only readers but credibility. Many have various stances on this. I know some that even refuse to vote at all - I even knew an ethics prof at the University of Arkansas J-school who actively advocated that very thing. My first editor felt you could, but who you voted for shouldn't be discussed in the newsroom. Yard signs, buttons and bumper stickers, of course, were verboten, as was fraternizing with campaign workers. Me? I always thought that as long as neither side could really figure out where I was leaning, then my job was done - even if it meant driving to a Republican fish fry at one end of Fannin County, staying as long as humanly possible and then burning rubber on 30 miles of bad road to get to a Democratic barbecue at the other end of the county on time. And I do agree with some of the commenters - every paper of size does need an ombudsman. I, for one, love how Clark Hoyt keeps the Grey Lady honest on a regular basis. So do I think that the "liberal" media caused the demise of newspapers? No. Because if that were the case, television would be turned off, too, or Fox would be experiencing record ratings. What is making newspapers an endangered species, then? Two words: Poor planning. Five more: Newspapers thought they were invincible. As I said today in the conversation on Frontburner, newspapers were not as a whole quick to anticipate and hop on to the possibilities involving the Internet. Marketing strategies that should’ve been in place years ago to attract and assure advertisers that they could get a return on investment on the Web and the print product just didn’t happen. Bottom line, we didn’t get consumers and advertisers to become early adopters of a fully-integrated online/print advertising strategy because we weren’t early adopters. I know this thing is hellaciously long, but I drove home tonight still thinking about what was said today. There are so many hard-working reporters - the rank and file - out there who get up every morning thinking of how they're going to inform, and go home at night hoping they did just that. That is their sole agenda - with no skew involved. If you're a journalist who can't keep your politics out of your reporting, that's fine and well. But do the rest of us a favor - don't throw us under the bus when you cop to it.

Labels: conservatives, D Magazine, liberals, newspapers, politics

Is it just me...

Or are these ham radio guys awfully close to each other to need electronic aids to talk to each other?

In a word..

No.

Dear Dave Levinthal:

Why in the name of heaven is there no video of this? You do realize that this is prime, gooey, wonderful Youtubableness in a beautiful little tote bag waiting to happen, right? Will it be on the city cable channel? Please say yes. Judging from this one picture alone - and your wonderful description, we all want to see this:

Mitchell Rasansky going mouth-to-mouth with a plastic dummy. Dwaine Caraway shaking his butt to and fro to the cheesy elevator music on an instructional video now playing. Mayor Tom Leppert bouncing up and down as he simulates chest compressions.

Yours truly, Bethany

Relax, Farmers Branch ...

the economy may do it for you.

Labels: economy, Farmers Branch, illegal immigrants, recession

I Wanna Be Your Boo...

In a long night of political coverage, this made me giggle.

Labels: Anderson Cooper, CNN, Donna Brazille, politics

Wow...

Like him or not, you have to say that Barack Obama himself has conducted himself with quite a bit of class during what was a very dirty fight. And I think tonight, as I watch him speak just after learning for sure that he has the delegates to clench the Democratic nomination, I am struck most by his praise for Hillary Clinton.

"Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight." "And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton. "

Yes, part of it is likely an olive branch in case a deal is indeed struck for the so-called "dream ticket" of Obama and Clinton. It's also probably the beginning of the courtship of Clinton's voters, in case that ticket doesn't happen. But just, wow.

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, politics