Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Jennifer Howe is now the FORMER weekend anchor for Tampa Bay’s 10, and their new chief meteorologist is already dressing for Florida weather.

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Wayne Garcia says that beginning Monday, the Tampa Tribune print product will include only two sections, News / sports / whatever and classifieds / comics.

In the same blog post, we hear that at least four more editorial employees have been let go, and an update on the reorganization.

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CL Senior Editor John Sugg weighs in on the CL bankruptcy news.

Kevin Beckner is challenging Brian Blair in the election for District 6 of the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners.

As you know, local leaders are responsible for a myriad of issues that directly affect your life.  Because of this, we really want to count on the daily newspapers to tell us about the candidates, their stances on the issues, and their abilities to lead.

But the only thing that the St. Pete Times and reporter Janet Zink want you to know about is Kevin Beckner’s sexual orientation.

In the story,

• Kevin Beckner told St. Pete Times reporter Janet Zink that he doesn’t want to be known as the “gay candidate.”
• Brian Blair told Janet Zink that he doesn’t plan to bring up sexual orientation in his campaign.
• Republican political consultant April Schiff says sexual orientation is “not a campaign issue. It is a personal issue. Personal issues have no place in campaigns.”
• Beckner campaign manager Mitch Kates says that besides questions from media, the issue just doesn’t come up:  “We don’t talk about it. It doesn’t come up in house parties. It doesn’t come up in forums. People are focused on pocketbook issues,” he said. “The only people who are talking about (it) are the media.”

Still, Janet Zink wrote a 850 word article that tells us that Beckner is gay, and that it matters.

You want to know why we get 10% voter turnout?  You want to know why citizens are disconnected from their leaders?  You want to know why newspapers are losing readers, credibility, and influence?

Because of CRAP like this in my newspaper.

Seriously - this article by Janet Zink adds NOTHING to the world - it wasted newsprint, wasted ink, wasted payroll for the writer and editors, wasted the time of all Times readers who read the article, and now all this freaking blog space.

Plus this sort of bile is turning me into ANGRYBLOGGER - and I hate that.

Bonus links:

• Here’s why Mariella Smith supports Kevin Beckner (orientation is not mentioned).
• Joe O’Neill says a victory for Beckner would be historic, but somehow manages to give us better insight to Beckner’s views, ideas, and leadership.

Eric Deggans has found that Creative Loafing has filed for bankruptcy.  According to the original story in CL’s Washington City Paper, CEO Ben Eason is just thrilled with the development:

“The term ‘bankruptcy’ conjures up all kinds of images and demons but it is essentially a legal proceeding designed to give an over-leveraged company the time, process and a safe harbor for which to reorganize its finances. Chapter 11 was the natural place for the Company to go to accomplish an orderly reorganization of our finances.”

“the step would allow the six papers in the Creative Loafing portfolio to establish a greater online presence”

“This is all about a fresh start,” stated Eason, who hastened to add that the filing entails no liquidation, no layoffs, and “no terrible, terrible things.”

No - nothing terrible at all - I mean, if the word “bankruptcy” is basically just another word for “peachy.”

Deggans asked if the deal to purchase the Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader pushed the company into this corner.  Oh, no, of course not, says Eason.

“… the Reader and Washington City Paper and Creative Loafing are all far better off today [than before the acquisition]“

But the Publisher of the Chicago Reader just resigned 2 weeks ago, and a couple comments on that article suggest that CL didn’t know exactly what they were getting.  (Remember that many online comments are full of sh.. conjecture and gossip, but can provide some additional perception.)

We’re waiting to hear more from CEO Ben Eason, and media follower Wayne Garcia.

Update 315pm:  Wayne Garcia confirms the news, but has no additional comment.

tbt* claims there is a terrible trend going on in local schools (you’ll have to flip to page T5, and you’ll have to do it today):

YET ANOTHER CHALLENGE FOR POOR SCHOOLS: THEY GET LION’S SHARE OF MISCREANT TEACHERS

The gist of the article is that schools with a high rate of low-income students get more bad teachers than those schools with fewer kids in poverty.  The problem is that this may or may not be true - we simply don’t know.  And they do throw a single sentence in there to cover their ass:

But Pinellas and Hillsborough teachers punished by the state for serious misconduct appear more likely to have been working in high-poverty schools, a St. Pete Times review shows.

Note the word “appear.”

However, they also encourage readers to find out more:  ”For the full story, go to education.tampabay.com.”

In the St. Pete Times online article, the headline is a bit more accurate:

Review suggests more teacher misconduct at poorer schools in Pinellas and Hillsborough

In this longer piece, they specifically admit that their review of school records is not conclusive:

The Times review has shortcomings. The volume of local teachers in the database is small, making it unreasonable to draw strong conclusions.

And although they gloss over the fact, the real paper reports that at least one school with higher income kids also has as many problem teachers as some of the poor schools.

After Dixie Hollins and Riviera, the schools that have had the most state-sanctioned teachers in Pinellas were Pinellas Park High, Northeast High and Tarpon Springs High. Pinellas Park and Northeast have also been among the district’s poorest schools.

Ignored in that second sentence (and through the rest of the bit), Tarpon Springs High is not full of low-income students.

So, should this article have been written?  Does it tell us anything?

Of course this is an important article and story.  Stuff like this is the first step to looking into an issue, and we should absolutely try to find out if poor schools somehow getting screwed.

But for tbt* to scream with an all-caps headline that it is already a foregone conclusion is misleading and irresponsible.

When journalists start working on their multi-media stuff, sometimes they expose the work to an adoring public before it is actually published.

Case in point - rhythmnation2004, a contributor at SkyScraper City, found this very interesting collage of the History of the Floridan building created by TBO online producer Kathy Moore.  Kathy had previously done the fancy looking Mission: Orange multimedia report earlier this year, too.

For those of you who have not kept up with it, a developer is refurbishing the old building and plans to re-open the place as a fancy hotel.

I would guess that a printed article in the newspaper about the history of the Floridan will be coming soon - perhaps this Sunday.  But for those of you who dig the history stuff (and like sneak peeks) check out the multimedia report on Kathy’s VUVOX website:  The cool collage of the history of the Floridan building.

By the way, for those of you who have video and image and want to create such a thing, VUVOX looks like a pretty cool tool.

ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan got an exclusive interview from Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli, who confirmed a diagnosis of Mitochondrial Myopathy. 

Mitochondrial Myopathy is a muscular disease, and the form that Rocco is dealing with makes physical exertion very exhausting.  His muscles need a longer time to recover than most of us. There is no known remedy for the disease, but the Muscular Dystrophy Association is looking for a cure.

Brendan McLaughlin is surprised that neither of the daily papers picked up the story. Perhaps the news is hidden behind that big Magic Number.

BlogOrlando 2008 aka BlogOrlando 3 is this Saturday in Winter Park.  Along with Chuck Welch of Lakeland Local, I’ll be a session leader for “hyperlocal.”

While in Winter Park, I plan on lunching at Bakely’s on Saturday, and if you don’t already have plans, I’d love to meet all of the Bay area bloggers that are going (walking map to Bakely’s).

There are several folks going to BlogOrlando from the Tampa Bay area, and more than one has contacted me for a ride.  Unfortunately, I plan to make a small getaway out of it, and am spending Saturday night with my family over there.

I’d be happy to give a ride from Brandon at 715am Satuday morning, but will not be able to bring you back.

Do you need a ride?  Leave a comment with contact info.

Can you offer a ride?  Please leave a comment with contact info.

Tampa on TV:

Warren Sapp is on Dancing With The Stars starting tonight.  So much for the former QB Killa.

Matt Lauer and the Today Show is live from UT in the morning.