“…this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don’t just favor different policies than I do – they favor a whole different kind of America. We don’t just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on. This was not an election. This was station identification.”
The full article is worth a read. [Thanks to John for the link]
NYU economics professor Nicholas Economides describes the Internet (35 years old in September) in terms of the industries it’s displacing. The U. S. Postal Service is becoming obsolete. In the last five years, more than one out of every 10 radio listeners between the ages of 25 and 34 have stopped listening (Clear Channel, Citadel and Cumulus Media have seen share prices drop 23%, 40% and 26% respectively in the last year). Newspapers have watched revenue from help-wanted ads plummet by more than $3.7 billion in the last five years. And telephone service is almost certain to see some big heavy changes.
Our polls don’t open until 6:00 a.m. but I was there at 5:00 a.m. No other voters. No poll workers. Just me. By the time they opened the door to let us in, there was probably 150 people lined up.
By the time I cast my ballot at 6:02 a.m., there were easily 200 people in line (photo above).
Never again will I say it doesn’t matter who wins.
Okay, here’s the plan for tomorrow. I plan to be at the polls no later than 5:30 a.m. Polls open at 6:00 and I expect there to be a line when I get there. Not sure how much work I’ll get done during the day because the temptation to follow The Story will be strong. Our four state news networks will be reporting throughout the evening and I’ll be helping get as much of that online as possible. I’ll be pleased and surprised if it doesn’t turn into an all-nighter. Might be a bit before I get back here.
Musicologist, Barbeque God and Good Friend Terry McVey has been recognized by the Missouri Bar for “outstanding legal service.” Terry was presented with a Pro Bono Publico Award (no connection to Irish rock singer) for outstanding pro bono service to indigent or low-income persons in need of legal assistance. These awards are presented to three persons a year–one each from St. Louis and Kansas City and outstate Missouri. This is the first time the award has been given to an attorney in the Bootheel.
When I first started working at the radio station (1972), we were required to take transmitter readings every 15 minutes. Keeping the transmitter on was the number one –and obvious– priority. And I guess that’s still true for radio stations today. No transmitter…no radio. But not for TV.
On Monday we noticed we were not receiving the local ABC affiliate. Just static. We watch very little network TV these days but still try to catch Peter Jennings and we’re hanging in for the final season of NYPD Blue. So I called the TV station and asked the lady who answered the phone what was going on.
“One of our transmitter tubes went out over the weekend but you can get us on the cable,” she explained.
“I don’t have cable,” I infomed her.
“So, how do you watch us?”
“I have an antenna.”
“Oh. Well, we should have the transmitter working again by the end of the week.”
This struck me as something of a revelation. The TV station wasn’t concerned that their trasmitter was down. The “signal” (content) was getting out via cable. I wanted to ask her about the rural viewers that don’t have cable but there aren’t enough of us to pose a problem.
I started wondering what does the local TV station add to the content mix? Their local newscast. Local weather. Bunch of local commercials. It just feels like those local affiliates are becoming less important every day.
All of this reminded me of ABC Now, the network’s effort to deliver content by non-traditional means. How much would I pay to be able to download World News Tonight directly from the network? Or NYPD Blue? I’m already doing this with XM and it works just fine, thank you.
In conclusion, I guess I’m no more concerned about the TV station transmitter being dark than they are.
“OBL today is probably a very satisfied, very optimistic man, and if he can skew the last-minute dynamic of the election in Bush’s favor, he’ll have cause to be all the more satisfied.
And that’s the danger, that some crucial percentage of our dimmer, more reactive voters will flash back to 9-11 and the Bush of the bullhorn, the Bush buffeted with the heartbroken grit of Ground Zero, and vote for that — childishly imagining that such a vote runs counter to the wishes and the needs of OBL, the bearded stickman, the cave-dwelling spider, our new Old Man of the Mountains. Player of the long game.”
“The Littlest Prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Your child will be the hit of the neighborhood costume parade in this recreation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal’s most indelible image. As an added bonus this easy-to-make costume will remind everyone on your child’s trick-or-treat route of our national shame! Simply roll a cone from a sheet of 24″x38″ black cardstock, making sure to cut out a hole for the face. Drape with two yards of black felt, and add leftover wires from your last lamp-rewiring project. Voila! So easy, so quick, and so terrifying!” [TheStranger.com via Boing Boing]
What do George Bush and Dick Cheney dream about when they’re deep in REM sleep? James Wolcott wonders:
“Suppose there had been no Iraqi insurgency, no al-Sadr popping out from behind the curtain or Saddam loyalists prepped for guerrilla war, no car bombings or beheadings or roadside explosives. Or an insurgency so feeble and scattered it was swiftly squashed and swept up. Just imagine how different things would have been over the last year, how different they would be now.”