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Do you think Obama is a media darling? You might think again.

Here is an interesting story. A Pew Research Center report show’s President Barack Obama has been the victim of “unrelenting negative” news coverage lately. If you hate Obama and you hate the media then don’t even bother reading the rest of this post because nothing will probably change your mind. But if you have an open mind then be my guest.

Pew usually gets high marks from journalists on their studies of the media and the American people. That is because the research uses quantitative measures for studying data rather than the use of opinion polls that are biased either for or against an issue or a person.

Nonetheless, the report proves what I have thought for quite some time. I think much of the bad press is generated by a very savvy Republican propaganda machine. Now you may think that is a paranoid statement, and a conspiratorial viewpoint. But I don’t think so. It’s probably not being perpetrated at some big center, perhaps short of Fox News. Nevertheless, a lot of money is being poured into bashing the president and anyone who might remotely support his points of views.

One such contributor to this propaganda is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I don’t know how much they spend to verbally smite Obama and liberals but you can bet it is quite a bit. Although tort-reform is not entirely a conservative-liberal issue it is big on the conservative radar screen and the U.S. Chamber. The latter group operates three newspapers across the country, including one here in Southeast Texas, that are devoted to saturation bombing of stories plucked from the state, local and federal courts in order to portray the country under attack by plaintiff’s lawyers.

What the Southeast Texas Record does is okay with me because they basically make a little story out of some of the court records found in East Texas. Practically no newspaper I know of in this or any other area in the U.S. has the space to run summaries of the number of lawsuits filed. It is the USCC’s point. I understand what they are doing and the Record’s opinion pages. I also don’t think the stories — stories and not columns or editorials — show a particular bias because most time they just quote from the petitions.

I just feel that the Chamber wants to gut our constitutional rights such as those from the Seventh Amendment. And the Chamber cleverly uses its newspapers in places where they feel lawsuits and jury awards to plaintiffs are excessive to make it appear as we are being attacked by crazed plaintiffs and their lawyers. Some folks are easily swayed. That’s all I am saying.

I know that both liberal and conservative politicians say they are constantly maligned by the press. The Pew study shows how Obama really is portrayed in the media these days. And THAT really is all I am saying.

 

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Perry and the N-head controversy: At least a chance to learn geography

The controversy over the seemingly offensive name of a ranch leased by Gov. Rick “Goodhair” Perry’s family has brought at least a little interest in U.S. Geography.

A media search for “Niggerhead,” while unsuccessful so far, has not lacked in intensity. Huffington Post reports news folks scoured the area near Paint Creek, Texas — where Perry grew up — all wanting to score the first “interview with a rock.” The boulder-sized object was painted with the words which was an object of offense to a fellow Republican seeking the GOP nomination for president. That candidate is Herman Cain, an African-American businessman best known for founding Godfather’s Pizza. The stone is is now likely hidden on the ranch, perhaps rolled away by angels. Why not? Perry seems in need of all his base he can gather right now.

The Perry side says the rock was there when they leased the ranch in the early 80s. I take their word for it. A lot of folks in different parts of Texas weren’t very sensitive about a lot of things back then. That is about the most I can say, even though I think Rick Perry is perhaps the worst thing to happen to Texas since Gee Dubya Bush became president.

But at least the awareness of geography from all of this unattractive hoopla is one bright spot. When I speak of an interest in geography, I mean media such as “The Daily Show” pointing out a number of places and land features in the U.S. with names now seen as culturally incorrect. One mentioned on the Jon Stewart fake news show was near where I live in Southeast Texas.

As I have related here before a road was named in our own, rural Jefferson County, for the Japanese rice farmers who settled that particular area. It was once called “Jap Road” but eventually Japanese-American citizens found that name offensive and eventually applied enough pressure that the county’s commissioners changed the name.

Still, plenty other spots exist in Texas and elsewhere with names which might otherwise smack of racial or cultural insensitivity. One place comes to mind when I think of such places — the tiny community of Nigton, in Trinity County — even though it was settled and named by former slaves.

Nigton is the proverbial crossroads town at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 2262 and 2501. Nigton was about 20 miles from where I once ran a small-town newspaper in the early 90s. I went through Nigton a few times although I can’t remember why. I wasn’t surprised as maybe I should have been, I suppose, that the community was populated by African-Americans.

Former slave and civic leader Jeff Carter suggested the name for the town after it was settled in 1873, this according to the Handbook of Texas Online. At its peak, Nigton boasted a sawmill, churches and a school along with a population of about 500. Fewer than 90 people lived there in 2000.

The name Nigton and how it suggests cultural relativity leaves me about as confused as does the moniker for the Perry hunting lease. Still, past surveys have found high numbers of young Americans geographically illiterate so I suppose us at least talking about places in our country is something positive. Maybe someone can relate to that.

 

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Measuring campaign giveaways of elections past

The Barack Obama presidential campaign has probably one of the most clever pieces of merchandise I’ve seen in recent races for the Oval Office. That would be the “Made in the U.S.A.” coffee mug which features the president’s picture above “Made in the U.S.A. on one side and a copy of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate on the other. Says the Web introduction for the listing:

 “There’s really no way to make the birth certificate conspiracy completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it — and make sure as many people as possible are in on the joke. Get your Made In The USA mug today.”

At $20 a pop, the joke is certainly on the GOP whose mantra is “Obama is socialist.” Not at those prices. It might be considered a campaign contribution were I to buy one and I am unsure whether my part-time job allows it. It’s good excuse to not pay $20 for a coffee cup, anyway. My birthday is coming up on Oct. 28. Hint. Hint.

What kind of saddens me are my heart strings — cheap as they might be — being tugged from the previous century. I was born in the middle 20th century during a time which, no matter how fast man could fly or broadcast a radio show on TV or annihilate a city with a nuclear bomb, was still as steeped into the past than as in the future or even the present.

Local pols, where I was raised, in East Texas would give away nail files to the ladies and maybe a snort of whiskey for the men if no one was looking. After all, we didn’t have legal booze in our Bible-Belt town until alcoholic beverages were partially voted in when I was 18. My Dad was a very funny man whose profession, and or art, was painting signs. He made up a sign for the wall in my room that read: “Vote dry — For your bootlegger’s sake” when that “wet/dry” election campaign finally brought legal liquor, beer and wine to town.

Actually, I never knew any politicians who offered a drink in exchange for a vote but stranger things have happened.

Such were the times which brought simpler campaign trinkets and were given away to potential voters and were not sold to raise campaign funds. A county commissioner or county clerk might give away buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs, hand-propelled fans, pencils, fountain pens or just about anything which might or might not have been useful but visible.

I still have somewhere another very clever piece of campaign paraphernalia given to me by a very pleasant and interesting man about whom I wrote a story on his very long-shot candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination and the just as long-shot simultaneous candidacy for Congress. Fred Hudson Jr. was a Harvard-educated attorney who also happened to own a True Value Hardware store in Center, Texas. He was on the Texas ballot only, running both for the presidential nomination against Bill Clinton and for Congress against the legendary Charlie Wilson of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame. Personally, I knew Mr. Hudson had a snowball’s chance in both candidacies but he had some interesting ideas and it kind of made me glad to know someone who wanted wanted their voices heard could run for president or congress. That is even if they only owned a hardware store and a small-town law firm.

Back to the campaign goodies, Mr. Hudson gave me a yardstick which advertised both his True Value store and his run for the White House. I value that stick as if it was given to me by Honest Abe or FDR.

Yes, I know that, technically, it might violate some journalists sense of “ethics” to accept such a gift as a reporter. But as I told a congressman who bought me a glass of tea in the cafeteria in the U.S. Capitol’s basement, if I could be bought for a glass of tea, I’m not worth very much myself. The same goes for taking a cheap yardstick with the True Value/presidential ad given by a really nice, older fellow.

Sometimes the best things in life are free, as well as inexpensive and useful.

 

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For perfect irony, shouldn’t Michaele Salahi have run off with Mott the Hoople?

Here it is late Friday afternoon and I am falling down on the job. What job, you may ask? Good question. I don’t really get paid, or paid next to less than nothing, at least, for writing this. I am not really falling down either. Not yet. I might be later. I made another quick trip to and from Houston. This 160-180-mile roundtrip didn’t take me as long as the last one on Wednesday. And all I got was a stinkin’ ID card. But who cares, right?

Actually I have been trying to pitch a story or find a place to pitch a story since getting home from work. My long-time, big-city customer has become uber-local and it is much more difficult to sell that paper a story as a stringer as it used to be. I don’t take it personally though. The publication has long been a good customer and whenever they do need something, so far away from their readership base, in my area, they know they can count on me.

I hope folks have a great weekend and stay safe and don’t do anything stupid. I mean, I’m not saying anyone who reads this would do anything stupid, except, perhaps me.

Don’t run off with any rock stars either. Hey Tareq Salahi, seems like yo’ woman was “All the way to Memphis.“

 

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CNN/Tea Party debate: Crawfish anyone?

As a resident of the bayou country of Cajun Texas I will confess that I have only seen crawfish swim backwards on TV. But I do know enough of the term “crawfishing” to know it means someone is backtracking on a previous statement.

Today I searched high and low to find someone saying Gov. Goodhair  Perry, good boy he is from the rolling plains of northwest Texas, did a little crawfishing of his own during last evening’s televised debate.

Perry was beaten up like a Sunday morning egg during the debate by some of his fellow Republicans who are seeking the GOP nomination next year. CNN cozying up, I guess, to the Tea Party co-sponsored last night’s debate with the TP in Tampa, Fla.

It is just plain flabbergasting that 10 more of these Republican gabfests will take place until March 5, 2012. I watched about half of the one last week and about a quarter of the one last night. I figure at that rate I surely will not watch any of the debate after the next one. The Sept. 14 debate will be televised on NBC. Well, I wouldn’t watch the debate on Sept. 22 anyway because it’s on Fox News Channel I have to organize my sock drawer that evening.

The aforementioned crawfishing by Ol’ Goodhair came about as he tried to explain to the TP and TV audience how he thought Social Security was a Ponzi scheme before he thought it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme. Are something like that. I’m still not sure what he was saying. At any rate, Perry seemed to backtrack when asked if he still thought the social income program was still a fraud after all the bashing he has taken for his reiterating that idea, plus the fact that he had a chance to redeem himself in Florida among the scores of retirees watching.

Perry said it was a “slam dunk” that Social Security was a “ …  program that’s been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we’re not going to take that away.” He never answered the question directly, of course, whether he still believed the program to be a Ponzi scheme. Had Perry come clean, he would have been thrown out of the Sleazy Politicians Guild. However, Perry badmouthed Social Security enough delivering his somewhat shaky answers and made it clear if he had a coyote named Social Security he would certainly shoot it.

Goodhair also got himself in a jam over an executive order he signed awhile back ordering young Texas school girls to be vaccinated for HPV, the virus known for causing cervical cancer. Now I personally come down on Goodhair’s side on this one, since it can effectively prevent this disease. I don’t like Perry’s dealings with lobbyists from the firm that makes the vaccine, including one of his former top aides.  I also dislike the fact that Perry said he only received $5,000 from the company and appeared indignant that he could be “bought for $5,000” when he receives millions in contributions. Last but not least, it is more than irksome to find out today that he actually got more like $30,000 from this company. But hey, $5,000 here, $30,000 there, after a while  you’re talking serious money.

It is all so tiresome that it makes me wish the General Election season was already here. At least I might, I say might because if Barry O’Bama doesn’t start getting some things done I might not, have someone to cheer for when that time comes around in about a year.

In the meantime I guess I’ll just have to sit back and eat a salad instead of the crawfish boudain I bought because anything crawfish is liable to make me think of Goodhair and that wouldn’t be too great on the digestive system.