There are 262 posts filed in Media (this is page 25 of 27).
The story of the SBI’s treatment of Floyd Brown, convicted by a dubious murder confession, should make everyone shudder.
Some of the shine has come off former golden boy Attorney General Roy Cooper. It’s a shame, since I once thought Cooper could do no wrong.
Here’s Floyd telling his story, brought to you by Travis Long, Shawn Rocco, and Mandy Locke of the News and Observer.
Agents’ Secrets: A confession doesn’t add up from Travis Long on Vimeo.
Back in the 1990s this show, “Metal Method with Sledge,” was the rage on Raleigh’s public access channel. Fortunately it lives on thanks to YouTube. Rock on!
N.C. Wanted
Thursday, I was interviewed by the WRAL show, N.C. Wanted. I’d gotten the referral from the Raleigh Police Department when N.C. Wanted called them seeking to speak with people involved with community watches. I told the producer that I’d be at a morning meeting with neighborhood stakeholders and they were welcome to tag along. They thought it was a great idea.
I arrived at the meeting and met the N.C. Wanted crew: Bill, Bridget, and Jay. They miked me and our Community Officer, James Kryskowiak, and filmed most of the meeting. Then I excused myself and went with them to areas around the East CAC to talk about the successes we’ve had in cleaning up the crime problems. I took them to the area where I witnessed a suspect leaving a breaking and entering, showed them the local shopping center that is far safer than it was just a year ago, and talked about the troubled apartment complex that has really cleaned up its act. Bill apparently is a retired police officer and could attest that the neighborhood was markedly different when he was on duty.
Unlike the other interviews that I’ve done that covered breaking news, this interview isn’t time-sensitive. Thus, there’s no telling when it will actually air. I hope I don’t seem like too much of an idiot when it airs!
Bob Herbert of the New York Times sums up the Shirley Sherrod episode. The Obama Administration is far too focused on perception and playing it safe. Where’s the bold leadership, Mr. Obama?
Why didn’t President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden or Rahm call me Rahmbo Emanuel, or somebody somewhere in the upper echelon say, “Hey, what the heck are you doing? You can’t fire a person without hearing her side of the story. This is not the Kremlin. Are you nuts?”
via Op-Ed Columnist – Shirley Sherrod, Thrown to the Wolves – NYTimes.com.
A Pan Am Boeing 747
There has been speculation in the British press that last year’s release of the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 (the “Lockerbie Bombing”), Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was done so to allow BP to sign an oil contract worth billions with Libya. The UK prime minister, David Cameron, got grilled today at the White House by the press (or should I say the British press. What passes for the American press was too busy mindlessly covering the two leaders’ favorite beer. I wish I was joking.)
The N&O ran my letter to the editor today.
I don’t understand why some people (including certain reporters) don’t like Meeker. While there are lots of things I wish he would do differently, I think Meeker is an honest, hardworking mayor who cares about the city. Unlike many politicians, he doesn’t appear to be in it for ego or to treat it as a stepping stone to higher office. I think some people forget what a thankless job being mayor is; that it’s essentially an unpaid job. We’re lucky that people still choose to do it.
That being said, I see nothing wrong with disagreeing with a politician’s choices or decisions. In fast, that’s healthy. But I do not agree with hating someone personally for the decisions they make.
There are a lot of misguided political leaders out there and many have raised my hackles. Even so, I like knowing I could sit down with them and calmly discuss our differences without it becoming personal.
Seen Tom Fetzer lately?
If all you’ve seen are the photographs in the News and Observer, you haven’t. The paper has been running the same photo of Fetzer for years.
The photo in question is this one, taken by staff photographer Jim Bounds. It shows Fetzer as he looked perhaps ten years ago:
Tom Fetzer, N&O
Look, it appeared in a story just today.
Compare that to how Fetzer appears today, posted by WRAL:
Continue reading
The appearance of Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker at our Monday evening East CAC meeting has generated news, with Meeker calling for the school board’s reassignment policy to be scrutinized by legal experts. I could tell when he took that question that he was fired up about the issue. He should be: over 40% of student families are Raleigh residents.
I dashed off this letter to the editor this morning:
Thank goodness Mayor Meeker is fighting this RECKLESS WASTE of TAXPAYER DOLLARS by our irresponsible school board majority on their pet project social experiment. There are serious and lasting repercussions to the board’s ill-conceived changes, not the least of which is to your wallet and mine!
As mayor of over 40% of the students in the Wake County School System, Meeker is rightfully concerned about the abject destruction taking place at the hands of the current school board.
I applaud Meeker’s efforts!!
Hopefully the board will consider the magnitude of their reckless changes. But I doubt it.
Update 29 June: The N&O ran my letter today.
The N&O covered the municipal broadband fight today. While it does quote opponents of the moratorium like Rep. Bill Faison, it doesn’t challenge the statements of Sen. “Fiber will be obsolete” Hoyle, who obviously has little or no idea what he’s talking about. Hoyle has been comparing the debt of municipal broadband projects (cost: $28 million) to the debt used to build the Shearon Harris nuclear reactor (cost: $4 billion), a laughable comparison on its face. The numbers simply don’t compare.
The article also failed to mention that the state’s Local Government Commission has vetted all of these projects and declared that them to be on sound financial footing. And that until now Wilson hadn’t raised its pole attachment fee in over 30 years.
In spite of these flaws, the comments to the story’s web edition are running overwhelmingly in favor of municipal broadband projects. Clearly there is reason for caution before blocking them with a moratorium.
I saw a story in Sunday’s News and Observer about the state potentially adding tolls to I-95. The story was illustrated by a photograph taken by Chris Seward of trucks driving under an I-95 bridge. It included this caption:
At exit 75 on I-95 southbound in Harnett County, tractor-trailers have a tight squeeze at this bridge, one of the interstate’s dangerously low overpasses. If a truck hits one, it can close the highway for hours.
First off, let me say I’m sure Seward is an honest, ethical, upstanding photojournalist and I am not questioning his motives here at all. I don’t think he was trying to mislead anyone with this shot. That said, this photograph gives the viewer the impression that the truck in the center of the frame just barely made it under this bridge. This is obviously not the case as any truck approaching a bridge that low would have to slow down to a crawl. By studying the shadows you can see that the bridge is in fact behind the truck in question and therefore is quite a bit taller than it appears in this picture.
This is the due to the way a telephoto lens distorts the depth of field, making it appear shallower. Again, I don’t think it was intentional but the photograph makes the bridge look a lot lower than it actually is.
(By the way, I support putting tolls on I-95. That highway needs all the help it can get.)
