The best and worst thing about blogs is the “comments” section. This blog has had 3967 comments (not including a couple dozen I’ve deleted), and I’ve read every word of each of them. Blog commentary can be illuminating. Because the comment-makers can stay anonymous, they can also be horrifying, ugly, personal and hateful. The [...]
Archive for the ‘AJC’ Category
8 Jul
Seeing red
The long-awaited report into test cheating at the Atlanta Public Schools system was, journalistically, the paperwork equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. Everywhere you turned, there was a head-spinning story. Wednesday morning, Ellen Crooke recognized this prior to the start of the morning editorial meeting.. This commenced a most unusual half-week for reporters at WXIA, [...]
16 May
Amateur hour
Most politicians, and their staffs, have sense enough to avoid the hamhanded treatment Gov. Nathan Deal gave WAGA Friday. It inevitably hurts the politician, not the news organization. It happened to Deal Friday. Deal’s communications director Brian Robinson ordered state troopers to banish WAGA from a high-profile news conference. A day earlier,WAGA’s Dale Russell reported [...]
14 Feb
Photo withheld
This post has been updated and corrected to reflect the fact that WSB-TV also blurred the photo of Antonio Cardenas-Rico. I covered the stabbing deaths of two children Thursday, and immediately faced one of those journalistic conundrums. Perplexing as that was, it was compounded by the fact that my competitors handled it completely differently than [...]
22 Nov
Tone deaf
To the amazement of my friends and the annoyance of my wife, I’ve once again renewed my subscription to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In the last year it has re-emerged as a must-read. Its coverage of government and politics has been vigorous and top notch. The AJC has been enterprising and investigative. Because of [...]
14 Jun
Fined by OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined WSB $5000 for safety violations surrounding its live truck accident in November. The accident took place when a WSB crew exited the parking lot of the Fulton County jail with its microwave mast raised. The mast came into contact with some 115,000 volt transmission lines above Rice [...]
29 Dec
10 Atlanta media moments, 2009
In no particular order… 10. WGCL’s drumbeat of “tough questions” over the Atlanta Water Department’s bizarro billing, and WGCL’s rise as an enterprising / investigative news organization. 9. The AJC’s contraction, redesign and announced relocation to Dunwoody. 8. Layoffs and pay cuts at WAGA and WXIA; furloughs at Gannett; and the combining of photog and [...]
11 Oct
Bench player
It started with a tip in my inbox. The writer was a longtime denizen of the Gwinnett County Courthouse. The tip directed me to check the status of Jim Oxendine, Senior Superior Court Judge. The tip said that I would find that he’d been told by the other judges to take a hike because he’d [...]
10 Oct
Clarification / Zombiefication
Oops. While covering the Jimmy Carter museum event September 30, I somehow overlooked the on-scene presence of veteran TV photog Everett Bevelle. Bevelle is (pretty sure) the only remaining newsman at WGCL who dates back to its founding newscast, back in the WGNX / “News at 10″ days of the early 90s. This means that [...]
15 Jul
OK, it’s a state — but really, what’s the deal with Hawaii?
If this is true, then Lord help the AJC. Plenty of good staffers took bailouts. A few good staffers stayed on. And then, if you believe Gawker, you have the reporter who stayed on, but can’t grasp why a guy born in the state of Hawaii might be eligible to be president. Even worse, you [...]
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