Howard Monroe And The Morning Show

How predictable are we in the media? So predictable that there's a new game designed around all of the traditional Christmas season stories you can expect to see on the tube.

Play "News Bingo".

Some great stuff from Stephen King in the current issue of Time.

Someone in the Bush family should actually be waterboarded so they could report on it to George. I   said, I didn't think he would do it, but I suggested Jenna be waterboarded and then she could talk about whether or not she thought it was torture.

Or this perspective on media coverage of trivial matters

"You guys are just covering — what do they call it — the scream of the peacock, and you're missing the whole fox hunt." Like waterboarding [or] where all the money went that we poured into Iraq. It just seems to disappear. And yet you get this coverage of who's gonna get custody of Britney's kids? Whether or not Lindsay drank at her twenty-first birthday party, and all this other (stuff).

A little time with "Da Mayor" of Charleston, Danny Jones, on The Morning Show this morning. He's an old friend from his days as a talk host and I like his "straight shooting" style.

On presidential politics, he says he has NOT endorsed or supported any candidate, but Da Mayor thinks Mitt Romney is likely to be the nominee and he thinks Romney would do well as President. He met Fred Thompson many years ago.....see the picture above and read about that on Gary Abernathy's political blog today. (Abernathy is a GOP strategist and runs the Thompson campaign in WV... I always read his blog and enjoy him as an occssional guest even though we don't agree on much of anything). It's a youthful version of Mayor Jones we see in that pic  :)

And on the issue of metro government, a huge issue in the Wheeling/Ohio County area, Jones says he's all for it. He would wilingly give up his Mayor's chair in exchange for Metro Government.

Do you ask a personal question of a politico if it makes you uncomfortable? or makes the interviewee uncomfortable?

Hoppy Kercheval talks to Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri, on Statewide Talkline today. I asked Hopp if he was going to ask about the claims she is a "trophy wife" (i.e. good looking younger woman married to a powerful/wealthy older man). Hoppy says it's not an appropriate question.

I disagree. When a campaign provides us with a "surrogate" to interview--a family member, business partner, etc--we shouldn't act as if we were interviewing the candidate him/herself. The wife is--the wife--and it's entirely appropriate to ask questions that are clearly in the public arena about being the wife.

Worthwhile tips on cyber safety came in today as we talked about "Cyber Monday" (courtesy of Webroot software)

5 Ways To Increase Safety While Shopping Online

1. Shop from Reliable Retailers. It's wise to do business with companies you already know and trust. If the retailer is unfamiliar, look up information on the company with the Better Business Bureau or the Office of the State Attorney General in the state where the seller is located.
   
   
2. Use a Credit Card, Not a Debit Card Online. Credit cards limit your liability for unauthorized charges to $50. You're not assured this protection with a debit card.
   
   
3. Ask about Single Use Credit Cards. Some credit card companies use a new technology that allows them to issue a single use credit card number for online purchases. With this number, you avoid having to use your real credit card number online, so security isn't jeopardized.
   
   
4. Avoid Buying On Public Computers. A hacker or thief can easily put a keylogger on a public computer that allows him or her to know everything you've typed — including your credit card numbers and passwords. Stay away from public access computers when shopping!
   
   
5. Don't Save Your Credit Card Numbers Online. Many reputable sites give you the option to save credit card numbers online to make future purchases easy. However, if the company's database is ever successfully hacked, your information could be exposed. It's safer to re-enter your numbers with each transaction.

   Want more information? Read the Webroot Software A Handbook to Safe Holiday Shopping

"Black Friday" is over. And "Cyber Monday" is coming. It's the day focused on the huge amount of Christmas business done on-line. Millions of Americans do their holiday shopping on a keyboard instead of a sidewalk these days. And in some cases that's a problem for local businesses.

I'm a big fan of small, locally owned, independent businesses. Heck, I own one myself!

But I'm also a realist. The internet is a fact of life (you're reading this on the internet aren't you?). It's nice to remember Dorothy Madden who ran the book department at Stone and Thomas. She had a smile, a story, and recommendation for you when you visited. But in many ways those days are gone now. Frankly, it's easier and cheaper for me to go to Amazon. And I get dozens of recommendatsion, not just one.

I'm not being selfish. I'm being a realist

The local paper editorialies we should not spend as much on line and instead patronize the locals.

I won't disagree, but we also need to encourage the local businesses to grow with the times. Web based stores are easy to start--many do it right from their home. If a local business wants to comepete in the internet age, they shouldn/t expect us to forego the ease of the 'net to go their bricks-and-mortar. They should open their doors to the world via the internet.

My friends at City Hall aren't happy with me......

The City of Wheeling want to turn a stretch of people's homes in Elm Grove into a commercial strip because it--the City--was given one of those parcels of land for free. The area in question is on Junior Avenue directly across from Bridge Street Junior High and also going down Lava Avenue (off Junior) leading to the Mason Rehab Center, the new Skatepark, and the Chambers ballfields. The City's new property is at the corner of Lava and Junior.

The City thinks it's new piece of land might be a good spot for a shop to service the Skatepark. And it can't simply rezone a single parcel, so it wants to rezone the entire area. The area is bounded by Wheeling Creek, Bridge Street Middle School, an entire residential neighborhood and the new ballfields.

The proposed rezoned area includes a long-time bar (The Knotty Pines) that is considered a non-conforming use (meaning it was a bar before the area was zoned residential and was grandfatherd in), a parking lot next to the bar, and a stretch of land on the creekbank used by a contractor. Then there are a dozen homes. Places where people live. Any uninvolved observer walking through the area would without a doubt say "this is a residential neighborhood". But the City wants it all rezoned to commercial so they can use their new free land.

If a "citizen" made such an outlandish request, we would have said simply "no". It is not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. But this is City government and they want what they want.

The Bridge Street Plaza is across Junior Avenue with plenty of open spots. An entrepeneur who wants to open a new shop in the area could consider locating there. But the City doesn't own that, you see.

Dozens of kids walk to the new skatepark every day. Children come and go to Bridge Street School every day. Parents vanpool their kids down that way to the ballfields. People LIVE in the homes there. It is not the place you want to see a hair salon, grocery store, or bowling alley.

But the City got this nice, free land.

The City Planning Commission has forwarded this zone change request on to its Zoning Committee with no discussion at all.

I am a member of the Planning Commission....and had hoped to raise some questions at the public hearing....but immediately after the hearing a motion to refer was made, seconded, and voted on with no opportunity for discussion. I also sit on the Zoning Committee so I will have a chance to pursue this further on December 3rd.

I hope a lot of folks pay attention and attend.

City council has final say. The Planning Commission is only an advisory body in this case. And the City overturned the PC recommendation against a bar/restaurant in the area a couple of years ago, so I would expect they will do so again. Rezone regardless of the Planning Commission's recommendation.

But it would nice if the body charged with protecting the integrity of land use in the City took a stand and protected the residents.

Even if the City eventually tosses them overboard so they can use their new free land.

Liberals are Christians, too

As a committed Christian and a leftie as well, it has always bothered me that the radical right has coopted religion for it own. When we broadcast from the liberal Take Back America conference this spring, one of my major themes with many of the liberal Democratic candidates and leaders was why the left is so frightened of speaking out on its religion. I think there has been a gradual change in that attitude this year by some on the left. This USA Today opinion piece is worth a read as it looks at a growing movement of Evangelicals who eschew the red meat, muscular, Old Testament approach and focus more on the social justice and service aspects of Christ's work and message.

Unbelievable!

"What did they do?"

That's the question everyone is asking after a drive through the re-opened East-bound Wheeling tunnel. The pavement looks clean. That's about the only visible sign of work I could see. Some tiles are off the wall--as they were before the work started. But with more than 10 months of work and millions in overruns....you'd think you could see something  done.

But tonight you could see something. You could see a huge hole. Unbelievably, less than 2 days after the re-opening, a manhole cover split in half and left a 3-foot hole, closing part of the just opened tube.

Unbelievable!

This project continues to be a joke.

But I have stopped laughing.

Whose parade is it?

The annual Wheeling "Fantasy in Lights" Christmas parade seemed to go off without a hitch. A chill in the air was perfect for the many thousand who lined the City streets to watch their kids dance and play as Santa made his official entry to town. Frank Carolla and Perkins Restaurat and Bakery signed up this year as the parade sponsor (a 3 year deal) and to the general public all was smooth sailing.

But there was a behind the scenes battle waged up to and thru parade time involving TV coverage of the event. WTOV-TV9 was the official parade station. For the last 2 years Channel 9 has been the winning bidder when the Chamber of Commerce offered the "rights" to broadcast the parade. WTRF-TV 7 made a bid both years and lost. But they broadcast the parade anyway, taking the position that it's a public event on public streets and they have every right to televise it.

Bands were told not to stop in front of the WTRF cameras. Parade line-ups were gaurded as top secret with nearly as much fervor as the plans for D-Day, with an eye to handicapping the broadcast of the "unofficial" station. There is a lot of resentment running among the Chamber leadership (including some prominent business and civic leaders) that Channel 7 "stole" their Parade. At one point I heard reports that there was talk of hiring off-duty deputies to be on hand in case some kind of "trouble" broke out over this--although I don't know if they actually were hired.

I understand that this year the Chamber tried to reach a compromise....essentially offering both stations the right to broadcast (for a fee). Channel 7 declined.

For the Chamber this is not just a community event but a fund raising event. Sponsors pay a fee to be named. The TV pays to broadcast. And organizations pay to be in it.

The TV stations, too, make a little money off sponsorships to parade coverage, but they also get the "warm fuzzies" that come from being part of such a popular community event. I suspect WTRF continues to feel the sting of criticism from several years ago when they experimented with being more of a "statewide" broadcast--even anchoring the entire weekend news out of Charleston. Most of those changes have long been abandoned but I think TV7 is still working hard to show they're Wheeling's local station, thus wanting to hold on to events like the Parade.

Chamber officials tell me they'e done everything they know to do....short of not charging a rights fee at all. They say TV7 just doesn't want to be a good corporate citizen.

I see both sides. Many years ago, I took a position similar to Channel 7 when a community event on the streets of Wheeling tried to charge a rights fee. I argued they couldn't stop me from standing on the street with a microphone and telling the people what I see. The organization changed their policy.

I also appreciate the work of the Chamber. The parade is a major holidaye event and is tremendously well planned and executed. It is truly a professional production.

But I sincerely wish everyone would get together and work this out. It's the CHRISTMAS parade for Heaven's Sake! CHRISTMAS! The season of Peace on Earth and Good Will to All. It's not right to be asking young kids to "move along" when TV crews are asking them to stop and play. Wheeling is just a small town, this ain't the Big Apple and the Macy's parade.

Before next year, let's hang some mistletoe and get everyone under it to kiss and make up.