Uncle Walter

Having a rare occasion to mark -- the admitted end of an era, marked by the passing of a generational giant -- calls for more than just a couple speeches. Remembering Walter Cronkite was an opportunity to think about the state of journalism and state of the media (not necessarily the same thing, one should note) and ask "what would Walter do?"

There's been plenty written, said and viewed on what Cronkite meant to television and journalism. There was one observation made Wednesday during an event held in Avery Fisher Hall at New York's Lincoln Center, that while Murrow ushered in the era of broadcast journalism it was primarily through the use of radio. Cronkite, it is said, was the real father of television journalism.

There are the Huntley-Brinkley folks at NBC who might respectfully disagree, but there is near-unanimity that Cronkite was, is, and will always be the first true "anchorman." He may very well be the last to wield such influence, given the fracturing media landscape which is remaking business models for broadcast and print journalism.

It must have been tough for President Obama to speak to the legacy of Walter, admitting from the start that unlike virtually every other speaker he didn't know Cronkite. So the President challenged the media, invoking the legacy of Walter.

Listening to the speeches, I was struck not so much by the expected platitudes on Cronkite's meaning to the business but more by what Cronkite meant to those who knew him. Former President Bill Clinton noted how Walter and Betsy Cronkite invited he and Hillary to sail in the waters off Martha's Vineyard at a particularly bad time -- when it didn't hurt to have a wayward husband photographed with America's most trusted man. It was a real moment that didn't dwell on interviews with the powerful. It was a moment of genuine humanity, recalled by one man highlighting the decency of another. "He was a good man," Clinton said in the raspy Arkansas drawl not lost to years of the world stage. Not journalism. Not media. A good man.

Nick Clooney is perhaps best known by a new generation as George's father. For those in Cincinnati's Tri-State area he's remembered as the long-time news anchor at Channel 12, certainly no stranger to the news business.


Clooney recalled the times when the local anchor and icon anchor shared dinner, telling news war stories. A night of equals, reporters to the core sharing stories. Clooney noted wife Nina, tossed aside such puffery, remarking his stories of the Newport Fire strike didn't compare well to interviewing Anwar Sadat. The most powerful moment was when Clooney spoke of their final dinner together, a time when a weakened Cronkite wasn't noticed by the restaurant crowd until he left -- and wasn't aware his fellow diners were silently standing in tribute. "Because you always stand when a gentleman leaves the room," Clooney said softly. An auditorium packed with some of the world's most jaded gasped at once. True emotion, not the "reality" that passes for today's television.

"60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney had the packed house laughing so hard most of us missed the next punch line, all because he was on the video screen even with his first-row seat. A friend for 65 years, it would have surprised me if Rooney could have walked up those stairs; not because of age and gait, but because he still shows the pain of losing his life-long friend, a relationship forged in wartime London through the highs and lows of creating a new journalism medium.

NBC's Tom Brokaw, CBS's Bob Schieffer, ex-CBS boss, now head of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, current CBS corporate chief Les Moonves, incumbent CBS News chief Sean McManus -- all strode to the podium to remember not just legacy but a human man who liked a drink, loved a laugh and was forever curious. It was almost a picture of a more innocent time, despite thinking back on Cronkite's tenure spanning a World War, Korea, Vietnam, genocide, the rise of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain, the Civil Rights movement and murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the rise of the Kennedy dynasty and death of it's President and brother, the political destruction of Nixon, all seismic shifts in American political life.

There was also Buzz Aldrin, America's second man to set foot on the moon, paying personal homage to the anchorman who set the standard for supporting extending mankind's reach beyond the clouds. Members of the Navy veterans protecting and serving the U.S.S Intrepid, docked in Manhattan, a favorite viewing spot for the sailing-lover Cronkite, recalled him with their highest honor: shipmate.

If Murrow is considered the patron saint of broadcast journalism, "Uncle Walter" the father of TV journalism.

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All of this leads us to journalism today, a far different world than the one forged by the Cronkites, Huntleys and Brinkleys. It isn't just the white boys club anymore, although it is worth noting white men still run America's news businesses. TV is still the big dog, but gone are the 40 percent profit margins that once allowed producers in New York to send limo drivers out to pick up pizza.

It is still a cash cow, but as consultant Terry Heaton recently pointed out, business looks for growth and not just cash flow. Watching profit margins shrink by half means the business isn't as as much fun anymore; high-flying executives and anchors used to private jets with comfortable leather seats now fly coach with the rest of us. And kiss those languid lunches at the Four Seasons goodbye.

It will take a tougher breed than those used to the comforts, Heaton points out. There are jobs in journalism for those with passion and the skills to create using new tools and approaches, but those fighting the march of change will find only frustration. It will take those who want to follow the story, not the perks; the battle will be won by those who show the desire to build something new instead of mourn a passing of the old.

The new tools Cronkite saw over his career are things we take for granted now, but it bears noting when he was reporting for United Press it was a monumental task to find an international phone line, or a telegraph operator willing to send news back home during wartime. Now, even satellite phones are only as useful as their ability to shove huge packets of information upline.

Not text...live, streaming video. "You Are There" was a show holding the promise of what electronic journalism and storytelling could become. Today it resides on our phones, more mini-communications centers than just a telephone. It isn't just the journalists using these tools; the soldiers have the same tools. Mail call is still important, but more so than precious web time where we can see and talk to each other from the front?

On Wednesday, the royalty of network media shared the space at Lincoln Center to note the end of Walter's era, this American Century of television media. It was telling to watch so many reporters checking Blackberry and iPhone screens during a quick lull (myself included) or even follow the string of Tweets and text updates from inside the hall. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News -- all had an easy decision showing the current and former President speak, but the real coverage was found online as CBS fed the program worldwide, real time.

No waiting for teletypes to clear the farm reporting back home so the news package could move; no waiting for Western Union to open, or an international operator to find an open line as Cronkite learned to deal with. This story, his story, had no reason to wait. The world moves faster now. Mr. Clinton on Mr. Cronkite lives forever on YouTube. The reporting didn't need to wait for the evening news, the top of the hour radio report or tomorrow's newspaper; it was happening right there, on the spot, thanks to the soapbox software of Twitter and other social networking.

All of these new tools strike fear in the hearts of many unwilling to embrace those changes over which they hold no sway. Listening to those who came to praise Walter Cronkite, I couldn't help but think the true strength of his leadership at the helm of what was Murrow's ship was ultimately found because he recognized the tools for what they are: means to the end. Would Walter have argued against then-newfangled technology needing a satellite truck to send live images back from Vietnam over shooting film and hoping it made the last flight out.

If he were reporting today, I'd like to think Walter Cronkite would be using Twitter, Facebook, Ning, Livestream, CoverItLive, all of those tools and more to practice his craft. Maybe he wouldn't have the "most trusted man in America" tag, but he'd have the storytelling.

Whether we tell the stories of our communities -- at home or half a world away -- using a keyboard or a notepad, an uplink or a manual typewriter, the single most important element is still the storytelling. The legacy of Cronkite -- and Brinkley, and Huntley, and Chancellor, and Bradley, and Reasoner, and Reynolds, and Walters, and Jennings, and Brokaw, and yes, Rather too -- stands in their ability to transcend what it took to put the story together and instead focus on doing their best to be sure the audience at home understood.

Great legacy to carry forward.

Cronkite & Today's Leaders

I'm likely not going to make many friends with this post, but what the hell.

Someone ought to point out that President Obama's platitude delivered over the weekend after the death of Walter Cronkite, that for generations Cronkite "was the news", was a nice catch phrase and easy to roll off the tongue. After all, it's the kind of thing people want to hear to make us feel better about ourselves and salve the loss we may be feeling.

I think it's the kind of political babble Cronkite may have found distasteful.

Article after article, post after post from my colleagues and far deeper thinkers than myself, comes the message over and over and over again that Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted" because of his energy, wit and desire to make sure what he was reporting was the truth he could stand behind. Not a case of Walter being the news, as some news anchors have become in our day, but Walter reporting the news. Because "the way it is" continues to mean what is says in simplest terms; not the way I see it, but the way it is. Not an anchor's view, but a reporter's delivery of the story.

Cronkite had credibility because he approached the job of television anchor with a reporter's sensibility. There was no consultant peering over his shoulder, advising him on how to part his hair or look thoughtfully over his glasses. That kind of stuff he figured out on his own because it was just him. The important part of the job was telling the story.

Not to say the show business aspect of broadcasting didn't matter; it just didn't matter as much as the content of what he wanted us to know about. As much a managing editor and reporter as an anchor, Cronkite's legacy many of us hold in reverence today was in telling the story. Not being the story.

I was struck by this thought while watching CBS-TV's excellent (for the most part) special on Cronkite that aired Sunday. But I wondered: where was the reaction and thoughts of the last living U.S. President in office during the Cronkite era? Instead of Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush, both from the same generation who served as President or Vice-President in the years prior to Cronkite's retirement, we are treated to Bill Clinton, who took office a decade after Cronkite had stepped down from the anchor desk.

Apparently instead of telling the story with the contemporaries in history it was better television to "relate" to a younger audience who likely had no idea who Cronkite was. But hey, wasn't it cool to see Clinton and Mickey Hart!

Part of me wants to think this is because it was easier to get a video clip from the White House or Bill Clinton to do a short-notice sit-down for a quick special, or even pull out the Grateful Dead and Jimmy Buffett clips to showcase how cool Walter could be. It added to the entertainment side, the glitz and show-biz of television. Make the story something we can emotionally relate to. One could almost hear the consultants sighing with pleasure.

For me, the real power -- the real emotion -- wasn't in the words of today's political leaders. It was in the power of seeing Cronkite's work as history. My wife wanted to know why I couldn't talk after watching Cronkite in Vietnam, or his coverage of the Kennedy and King assassinations, or the reporting on the Civil Rights movement. It's because 55 years after those Chicago conventions, 46 years after those shots rang out in Dallas, and 41 years after he came home from Vietnam the weight of those times is sometimes too heavy to lift without emotion.

It wasn't Walter being the news; it was Walter telling our history.

We've become so deadened to what's real; the reality television-style politics played out in today's media. Is the race for the White House really that much different than "Survivor"...maybe Jeff Probst should moderate the next debate in 2012, with the losers kicked off by a show of hands? It made me sad to think our version of reality is now the reality TV of the cable news talk shows, and empty words designed to stir emotion -- but not too much emotion, mind you -- from our political leaders interested more in manipulation and posturing than leading. Perception becomes progress, because we feel so good about it.

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There has been lots of talk about how nobody will ever be another Cronkite, much in the way we would never see another David Brinkley, nor even another Peter Jennings. I'm not sure I buy into that argument. The conventional wisdom is the business has changed, but I think the real truth is we don't want to seriously examine our own credibility in telling the story in a way our viewers, listeners and readers still hope for.

Cronkite, Murrow and their peers came up from the reporting ranks to secure their place in journalism. Somewhere along the way the model broke, as network and local broadcast executives looked to short-cut the process and find someone with the gravity of Cronkite or Huntley without the costly grooming to earn those stripes. It became easier to find someone who would act authoritative without being authoritative; never mind they couldn't Q&A their way out of a paper bag with a newsmaker.

As an industry, we somehow need to get back to the idea that reporting big stories, surviving campaigns of war and politics and walking in the shoes of the people we are reporting on matters.

I still remember the sheer force of will of Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, Robin Roberts, Sheppard Smith and Ohio's own Martin Savidge and others showed during Hurricane Katrina coverage. They felt it was their job, their mission, their duty to make us see what was happening.

In typical American fashion, it is something we've forgotten because it was more than 90 seconds ago, but it doesn't have to be that way.

We know the way it was. We know the way it can be again.

Miss The Super Commercials?

NOT! Regardless of what you think of the quality of pigskin played on field, some of the truly mind-boggling stuff actually came out of the commercials -- again. Now you can watch to your heart's content -- just the spots.



Great little tool from Hulu -- and another great sign of just how quickly things change in today's media landscape. You don't need to worry about the Digital Transition because just about everything you rally want to see is already digital to begin with.

Back to Common Sense

I'm not saying it was right when it went on the air, but I do think a half-million dollar fine for Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction was one of the more foolish things to come out of Uncle Sam and now a federal court agrees.

The real issue, of course, is just what we have a right to expect to see (and not see) on the tube while relaxing at home with the kids. Not everyone wants it to be the "boob tube" or worse, and that little thing called "community standards" is taken pretty seriously. Personally, I find it ironic broadcast television won't replay nor will most newspapers reprint the full breast version of this picture, including myself, although the BBC and British newspapers are already having a field day with it. (photo from the Daily Mail)

Unfortunately, real life doesn't always honor community standards. That other little thing called "free speech" shows up when Bono drops an f-bomb during an awards show, or when a piece of costume gives away, or even more recently when David Carradine (yeah, Kung Fu) let loose with the f on a Chicago television station's live morning show.

When it gets to the point where you can't even interview the Grasshopper without a delay we've got serious thinking to do, and the problem is the Federal Communications Commission and most of our elected officials in DC were pushed into a corner where it was easier to react than think.

Following the wardrobe malfunction on the Super Bowl, every politician worth his/her salt wanted to wrap themselves in the comforting blanket of protecting families from their own TV and radio sets. Public-interest groups now able to generate thousands of complaint letters with prepared email campaigns made the most of this golden opportunity, and vote-hungry political figures found it was easy to launch a tirade on the erosion of American values and slap EVERY expression of four-letter word speech (even a visual boob) with a fine heavy enough to sink a battleship. This'll teach 'em.

Problem: the FCC also had a rich tradition of recognizing the "fleeting expletive" wasn't a purposeful expletive. There are even times when the expletive carries with it meaning intended to illustrate ("Saving Private Ryan", for example, led ABC stations such as Channel 5 in Cleveland to not air this important movie because combat is all about F.) Throw the baby out with the bathwater.

But the Third Circuit Court of Appeals (the federal appeals bench in Philadelphia) has tossed out the heavy fine against CBS instead.

It is more than a win for the network; it recognizes that life isn't always sanitized, that sometimes bad things happen because life isn't scripted and expecting our view of life to come only through a 14-second delay is pretty foolish. It isn't a license to let loose but it is a swing back in the pendulum to help set a baseline on what true community values are, and that includes common sense and speech.

Losing Akron's Identity

As the annual convention of broadcasters and journalists wrap up in Las Vegas a disturbing note from home -- Akron is losing another part of it's identity.

Now I admit this isn't of a scale such as Goodyear leaving, the University of Akron closing halls of learning, or even the Aeros setting up shop elsewhere -- those actions would impact thousands in their paychecks and leave vacant publicly-owned buildings.

Losing a TV newscast, in the greater scheme of things, doesn't mean the community watches property values plummet or neighbors thrown out of work.

But it does reflect the disturbing future of fewer news outlets bringing new voices to one of Ohio's biggest metropolitan areas. Akron and Canton now depend on a handful of newspapers and radio stations for coverage on the home front, sharing precious television time with every other suburb of Cleveland. This isn't the kind of thing the "Cleveland +" campaign folks and regionalism supporters like to talk about; showcasing northeast Ohio as one giant metro area, united. Instead we become one giant metro area, still made up of dozens of cities and towns and townships, each with their own unique identity but each somehow marginalized.

I count Eric Mansfield as a friend; the others at WKYC-TV's Akron-Canton news operation are trusted and valued colleagues, and all shared a vision of giving voice to the communities they know are more than just secondary zip codes under the umbrella of the 44's along the lakefront. Akron, Canton, Kent and other communities all have unique identities and traditions and losing that outlet takes away the opportunity for many voices to reflect that richer diversity. We wind up the poorer for it.

Not to bash the PD, Rep or the Beacon Journal or our operations here at AkronNewsNow.com and our group of radio stations, but the role the media plays in helping to hold the powerful accountable is lessened as we now compete for seconds of coverage on the most dominant form of mass communications. The media choices in this day and age are stunning, offering wider variety than ever before but opportunities to help set the table for debate by putting issues and leaders in context is important, and now one more opportunity is lost because the struggle was just too difficult and our communities not supportive enough.

Year End Chores

As part of our end-of-the year stuff in the Esposito home Nature Girl was insisting I get in our semi-annual property tax payment in so it clears before January 1...nice to know tax planning is in her nature.

So off I go to navigate downtown's Ohio Building to personally deliver the check because Nature Girl is not only thorough but also paranoid that we have a stamped copy for the files, and hence started my adventure.

My experience in the Ohio Building has been largely limited to walking in from the parking deck just east of the Building to the fourth floor atrium, then navigating up to County Council chambers. For the most part any other interaction I ever have with the county is handled with a check in the mail, but now I have a newfound appreciation for those who make the trek for business because there sure as hell is little pleasure in it.

From the fourth floor entrance off the deck you need to walk around and find the stairs; it isn't easily marked but thank God Fiscal Officer John Donofrio's staff has plenty of signs posted for idiots such as myself who need to find the third floor. After walking into dead-ends around the lighted atrium with the third floor taunting me from the open space below I finally find the stairs and make my way down...only to find more confusion.

Taxes and property is a big deal with lots of records so I'm forced to navigate to other offices away from the atrium; again, thanks to the proliferation of many signs although the people I literally bumped into were in the same boat. We find the offices, need copies of the bills that won't be mailed until next month, but otherwise the fine folks behind the glass are helpful and courteous.

After all this walking I need to...well, rest. So I notice in this public building on the floor where the people's business is done paying taxes there are doors to the men's room and a women's room at one of the dead-ends in the atrium. Of course, they have security keypads so they aren't open to the public.

Hasn't anyone in government figured out yet if it weren't so hard to find a place to pee in a public building we might not be p-o'd at government as much as we are?

Finally frustrated I opt to hop down a couple flights -- following signs again to tell me where the stairs are because the stairs aren't conveniently located where the giant atrium draws everyone's attention. Finally downstairs I see there is actually a convenient behind-the-glass window on the first floor South Main entrance lobby but it isn't for taking payments to the county -- that might be too easy. Instead it is for the CSEA (Child Support Enforcement Administration) leading me to conclude deadbeat parents needing to drop off a check have an easier time than the people of Summit County who own property and want to pay their taxes on it.

Suggestion to County Executive Russ Pry: the next time Summit County constructs a building for public purposes make every restroom open to the public (after all, they're paying for it) and by all means make the architects have to drop off tax payments in person so they get a full appreciation on how important it is to make doing business with the government as convenient as buying a burger -- not asking for Swenson's curbside service but it's a start.

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Ironman viewing note for tonight: as posted earlier the NewsNight Akron crew already taped our Newsmaker of the Year special but it won't air until a week from today (9:00 p.m. on January 4, 2008) because of scheduling conflicts from the panelists. Tonight Eric Mansfield does his own NNA Year in Review show; pray he doesn't run out of breath. He's also anchoring Channel 3's 6:00, 7:00 and 11:00 newscasts in addition to the Akron-Canton News at 6:30 and 10:00 in addition to the PBS 45/49 9:00 p.m. broadcast.

Ready To Play Editor?

Folks responsible for Akron-area print layout and newscast stacking had a choice to make on Monday: what plays first, the death of a five-year old Akron boy in a Sunday Albrecht Avenue house fire or the death of a Chagrin Falls co-ed in a Sunday North Carolina beach house blaze that killed her and six fellow college students.

These are the editorial decisions loaded with scrutiny; a young boy or a young woman, both deaths are tragic. One involved what firefighters believe is a pan of hot oil left over from frying chicken wings racing through an Akron home without smoke detectors; the other sparked on a deck and quickly racing through the beach house where college kids were relaxing away the weekend. Both avoidable with care, our hearts tell us, both horrible accidents ending young lives full of promise.

But what’s your lead? You’re in the news business so one story has to run first. Do you make your decision based on location? If so, Akron tops North Carolina. Is your primary consideration the date of the tragedy? You’ll be splitting some hairs on this. The Akron fatal fire came in the wee hours of Sunday morning while the North Carolina blaze broke out late Sunday night. Is the story best told by pictures, and does the more spectacular scene of huge flames caught by citizen journalist aired on CNN trump the next-day photos of burned-out home shot by your weekend crew in Summit County?

One is now yesterday’s report; the other now dominates the national headlines.

The question not many want to ask, much less answer: do you base your decision on the makeup of the victim? My question doesn’t have a right answer, especially so close to the pain two families and friends are feeling right now, but it is worth asking.

The media has struggled with charges there is a caste system in place when telling stories of tragedy. The best example is the story of missing Mountain Brook, Alabama teen Natalie Holloway during a class trip in Aruba. Many, including myself, were critical of the tenor of the continuing coverage so prominently displaying the picture of blond innocence as a poster for the story while so many other children – not so blond, not so white, not from such an affluent area, weren’t worthy of the nightly talk show spotlights.

This case makes me wonder about the decision making process, too. Two families ripped by tragedy, one white and the other not-so-white. One complete with attractive photographs, the other without the graphics. One from a middle-upper class background (hey, it’s Chagrin Falls) and the other from Ellet (I’d wager most Cleveland TV producers would be hard-pressed to point out what side of Akron Ellet is on…).

Does race matter? Does economic and social class matter? Is it inappropriate to even bring the issue up for thought and discussion in our newsrooms?

My friend John Butte thinks these are just the issues we should be talking about in our newsrooms. He’s the GM of WEWS but comes to the top job from the news director route. John’s behind a committee of Cleveland and Akron news organizations (we’re the only Akron group represented at this point; the PD, all Cleveland TV and most of the Cleveland radio groups are also on the panel) looking at issues of inclusion, and whether we do a good enough job of reporting on and portraying our communities.

Diversity does matter, including when it is more than black and white issues that come to mind when we use words such as “diversity” and “inclusion”. At the very least we should be challenging ourselves in our newsrooms to give more thought to our editorial decisions other than “what’s our lead”. We should be asking “why”, too.

Why I Can't Watch The Tribe

I love the Indians. Have since we moved to Ohio in the 60s. Cut my Ohio broadcast teeth working Indians games for the former WWWE in the 90s. Loved the old stadium, too. Was there for the opening of Jacobs Field, both the '95 and '97 World Series runs, even last year's low times.

But I just can't watch the Indians on TV for this run.

It's because I'm convinced it's a jinx.

My cousin Gene (the Yankees fan) admits he does the same thing; tune in, see our teams with big leads, then stare in horror as it all fades away. It happened in the NY series for that one game for me; last Friday I watched against the Red Sox when they creamed us. Tuesday I tuned in late to see three Boston homers back to back to back before I turned it off, afraid another second watching meant the end.

At this point I can hear my buddy Bob Salsberg of the AP in Boston screaming at me to turn the damn game on; he's probably calling the switchboard at Fox 8 in Cleveland to figure out how to beam those pictures directly into my jinxing eyeballs so his Sox can come closer to going back home to play more baseball instead of heading south to play golf. Sorry, Bob, it just ain't gonna happen. My mind's made up: my eyes will be shut tight to any images of Chief Wahoo sending your boys packing.

The jinx doesn't work on radio; I listen, then win (most of the time this season); the jinx doesn't work in person: they win them, too. Going online to check it out? They win. But turn on the tube and the tables turn.

In the full interests of my fellow fans, I will NOT watch ANY of the game tonight. I've already got the DVR ready with reruns of Law and Order, Shark, even Two and a Half Men. I might even watch the rerun of Desperate Housewives despite Diane's wishes to keep it fresh until she comes back from an out-of-town business trip. Even she watches the games, then tells me about it the next day. She's watched her beloved Tigers and even Twins move on to win World Championships so her fandom has proven to be non-fatal. As for me: the pain of true support for my team.

Not watching. But still waiting.

Week's End Thoughts & Tribe Stuff

This has been a rough week for the news business, leading off with the horror of the Success Academy shootings in Cleveland Wednesday. It sparked the usual gab-fest shows opinions on whether gun control would have stopped this; are our schools safe?; why weren't warning signs heeded; what led this troubled 14-year old to attack others and then take his own life.

I'm not sure there are any answers to these questions.

From a media coverage perspective we heard about this right after the first shots, thanks in large measure to WKYC's proximity right across the street from Success Academy. Frank Macek has very informative posts in his Director's Cut blog from Channel 3 on their coverage. The other Cleveland stations -- WEWS, WJW and WOIO -- also had strong coverage of this breaking news, coming at the same time a major train derailment forced a thousand people from their homes near Painesville.


One of the common threads of coverage has been the use of the 9-1-1 calls from parents relaying to police information they were getting from their children and others inside Success Academy. There is a bill in the Ohio General Assembly that seeks to restrict broadcast or web airing of 9-1-1 audio, on the grounds it discourages calls by people afraid of retribution after being tagged "snitches". One thing I took away from the use of the 9-1-1 calls and the job Cleveland dispatchers did in handling the distraught parents was the system worked, and the folks on the other side of the phone stepped up to remain calm and still try and get information to pass along which might be helpful to S.W.A.T and other emergency responders on the scene.

I've got to think some of the lessons from Columbine are still fresh, including the razor's edge situations posed for police who often don't know if someone running from the scene is victim or perp. Having the information relayed by eyewitnesses inside may not always be the most reliable (eyewitness testimony is notoriously all over the board) but it does help those on the front line try and paint a more complete picture of what happens behind the closed doors and windows of a hostage situation. Knowing the 9-1-1 system works on this level should be seen as a positive, and not an objection. Our tax dollars pay for it and most importantly it is public record -- and public understanding and support of 9-1-1 is critical to helping the system work.

On a couple of totally goofy notes:

The Indians begin their best-of-seven series with the Boston Red Sox Friday night at fabled Fenway Park. My good pal Bob Salsberg of the Associated Press in Boston enjoyed watching the Tribe dump the Yankees; of course it's not because he's a big Indians fan but more to the point it was us beating New York, and for folks in Red Sox Nation that pretty much makes the Indians fans -- until this weekend.

Some funny photos are coming out of the NY series; for example, this up-close version of Insectus Tribefanus. We owe a tremendous debt to this little fellow, captured by AkronNewsNow web designer Andrew Seese, for the Game Two 11-inning win over the Bronx Bombers. If only we could be assured warmer October nights for when the BoSox visit but alas, the forecast will be a fairly chilly Monday and Tuesday at Carnegie and Ontario so it's unlikely we'll see our little buddies lend a hand against Manny and company.


My cousin Gene forwarded this gem. It had to be one of the most painful things he's ever attached, ever.

He's a big Yankees fan and was, I'm sure, planning to find some creative way of rubbing a New York series win in my face. Without a single comment from me he forwarded this photo that kind of says it all. Please feel free to forward to your friends and family who wear pinstripes.


Finally Mark Biviano earns my thanks and gratitude for forwarding this image that bears the ultimate lesson of how money can't buy happiness.

The greatest quote coming out of the ALDS series comes from Mark Shapiro, who noted how much he enjoyed the loudest applause he savors most was the devastating silence from Yankee Stadium Tuesday evening. I'm only sorry it didn't come on the last game ever at the House that Ruth Built (that's next year) but it was great fun seeing all those empty seats as the overconfident New York fans slunk back into their subway holes to escape reality underground.

When Do We Stop Remembering?

It seems the biggest question coming out of this morning's coverage of 9/11 ceremonies in New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania wasn't the status of the war on terror, or even just where Osama bin Laden is hiding out: it was why we still do it.

"It" being the ringing of the bells; the moments of silence; the reading of the names. New York's been abuzz for the past week over WABC 7's call to skip the hours-long name reading and become the only local TV station to air regular programming (Regis and Kelly, no less) instead of marching in lock-step with every other local television station broadcasting the name reading.

WABC reversed course quickly after station officials got an earful -- an email box-full -- of comments from families of those killed in the World Trade Center attack and other citizens who feel blowing off the defining moment of American History so far this 21st century was improper.

Have we as a society become ADD America, suffering so much from Attention Deficit Disorder that we have to have something new on the plate at all times? Reflection isn't a bad thing, whether it is the fifth anniversary, the tenth or as in this year the sixth year since the worst single attack on U.S. soil ever.

It bears noting that the generation so preoccupied with itself that Easy Rider Dennis Hopper is now a pitchman for retirement financial services, the same folks who still wrap themselves up in tie-dye to commemorate the Summer of Love, the aging baby boomers who still argue whether Yoko really broke up the boys, can so easily think it is time to move on from an event that still scars Manhattan with a giant, gaping hole.

Thousands of American men and women -- and tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians --continue to pay a price as public policy pushes the War on Terror, regardless of liberal/conservative or Democrat/Republican. That price is with their blood, their "normalcy", their sacrifice in wars fought far enough from home that we watch them now on the same screens that just hours earlier displayed soap operas and laugh-a-minute gabfests designed to take our attention away from real life.

You don't have to hate bin Laden to remember the event that put us on the path we now tread. You don't have to hate war to remember those lost in the opening salvo. What's left is what's right: some things don't deserve that loss of attention. Remember September 11, 2001 with some time on television and radio on one day out of 365?

Hell, yes.

Update: read WKYC's Directors Cut with Frank Macek for his perspective on that day; it is a great window into what television stations and newsrooms were dealing with that sunny day.

Thank God For No Big Ten TV

WAKR's Ray Horner and I had a great time at the OSU-Akron game Saturday and it was at least two periods of fun watching the Zips faithful (it seemed like just a handful among the 102,000 seat Ohio Stadium) living large with a 2-0 lead for much of the first half.

On the way down we caught some of the pregame on WTVN-AM, Clear Channel's "Big One" version in Columbus; typical fare, with lots of homer humor sticking it to those of us rubes up in Akron and the message that we should just be glad they were letting us set foot on campus.

OK, nice thoughts; that clanging sound in the first half wasn't the Ohio State Chimes, it was the sound of 101,000 gasps (I'm being charitable here in finding another bodily function) as the Zips zapped the Bucs with an early safety and then held the OSU offense to just a field goal by the time the Best Damn Band in the Land took the field. Akron went on to eke out just 69 total yards offense on their own and lost 20-2 but it wasn't the blowout the OSU faithful figured on and it was nice to see Akron get a little respect (even though the grumbling wasn't how good the Zips defense was but aimed more at how OSU couldn't get started.)

Great time to watch in person; fun to listen to on the radio but worth extra money to watch?

Big Ten TV network is in a fight with local cable, including Akron-Canton-Cleveland's Time Warner Cable. The big issue isn't whether you'll be forced to pay for it; there's really no doubt at all the extra $1.10 a month Big Ten TV wants per subscriber will be passed along to cable viewers. That's a gimme; the fight is over where local cable puts the channel.

TWC and other operators say the non-digital tier (those channels 2-99) are not only prime real estate but also off-limits thanks to must-carry channels, including local access. Big Ten says bull and doesn't want to be clustered in the digital tier where the number of subscribers may be lower, depending on whether cable watchers shell out extra already for channels 100 and up.

Based on Saturday's game I'm betting most of us can live without Big Ten TV's greedy grab to pressure us into doing their dirty work and shaming the local cable companies (no strangers to greedy grabs themselves) to bring these games to the tube. Just so long as OSU and Michigan are still on TV those games won't play when our wallets are choosing the channel.

Preparing For Golf Complaints

Tee times pushed to threesomes starting at 8:00 Sunday morning ahead of expected storms means the golf you may not see in person will be on tape-delay on television...and here's why we don't delay the reports on the radio.

Complaints from listeners and surfers that we "ruin" the experience have been commonplace for radio and websites ever since the Olympics took center stage in huge multi-billion dollar deals with the TV networks sending home those signals from halfway across the world, and it makes sense: who wants to take time off from work to watch the Olympics at 9:00 in the morning when they're live? It's a sign of how small our world becomes when satellites and broadband mean time zones are irrelevant.

So should radio and the web hold off on reporting results to allow television viewers to savor the experience without spoiling the ending?

We've made the editorial decision that the strength of our medium -- radio and the web -- is the ability to cover the story now, as it happens and we'll see that play out again tomorrow with the Bridgestone Invitational. Our hourly reports on the radio will include the leaderboard results, with the winner likely not only finishing at 18 but in all likelihood wheels-up, jetting off from CAK hours before you even turn on the tube to watch CBS-TV's coverage. It is what we do, ever since Edward R. Murrow and company elevated broadcast news to the level where we can see and hear it now. The web takes that coverage anywhere there is an Internet connection.

We apologize for the inconvenience but respectfully note life isn't on digital delay; if the world's top golfers are in by 3:00, we'll report they're in. The TV coverage won't pretend to be live and there are good reasons for CBS to delay the coverage, just as our reasons for not delaying the coverage hold fast.

The media landscape is changing, nothing more so than the reality of deadlines existing in real time. Newspapers have set deadlines allowing them to build coverage over a period of hours, even days; broadcasters operated with top-of-the hour radio newscasts and news at 6:00 and 11:00. Those rules are now in the past just as surely as your acceptance of cellphones putting you in touch with anyone, anytime, anywhere.

AUDIO Virgil Dominic's Still A Wise Guy

Now before you go all Soprano on me (remember I'm Italian, too -- don't go there!) the Wise and Guy aren't one word. The legendary broadcaster and journalist still has the pipes and the delivery to tell a good story...

I have to admit to always being a bit "star struck" when watching or listening to Virgil Dominic; after all, he continues to be the gold standard for electronic journalists in northeast Ohio despite being out of the business for longer than we'd care to admit.

Today Virgil was presenting a different side of the business, and it wasn't the type of thing they teach in the J-schools around the country.

Virgil Dominic on toughest stories, what we shouldn't report and telling the story of faith

Virgil set those standards not only as a reporter for NBC, WKYC-TV and WJW-TV but also in management roles as News Director, assistant GM and later President and General Manager at WJW, even overseeing the switch from CBS to Fox at Channel 8. His era goes back to the "City Camera" days and his legacy is still seen everyday, from Marty Savidge and Kelly O'Donnell on NBC to Denise Dufala on 19 Action News.

But he wasn't talking about the news business (although we'll get to that in a moment); Virgil was talking about his personal faith, and how those early roots in his Oklahoma Catholic school upbringing laid the groundwork. He still remembers the nuns and priest who helped him on those first steps of his journey, and how the lessons learned became the lessons used.

Here's a guy in five -- that's FIVE -- broadcast or journalism halls of fame; he's forgotten more about public service than most of us strive to accomplish in this new age of Web 2.0, texting and "social networking".

While much of his address was very personal in nature to the First Friday Club, an organization of Catholic business and community leaders here in Akron, his observations on the role of values in the news business are still thought-provoking to a greater audience. The message that values and, yes faith, play a role in what we do should resonate through newsrooms and even classrooms.

On Water And Air

This has been a hard week for travel; the horrible tragedy of the I-35W bridge collapse between Minneapolis and St. Paul and the Phoenix and Dallas news chopper crashes.

The folks at RTNDA (the Radio Television News Directors Association) have been in pretty heavy discussion since the crashes of two TV news helicopters in Phoenix last week that killed four, followed by this week's downing of a news chopper in Texas that injured three. Is it really in the public interest to put life and limb in jeopardy for photos and video of the latest police chase?

Then those amazing, troubling, awful images from the Twin Cities as concrete and steel crashed into the Mississippi River, burying cars and trucks in the mud and water below. As of this writing the death toll was seven, with dozens still among the missing. I pray those families waiting for word from still-unheard from loved ones get the call that it's OK, and not the call they dread.

But for the purposes of this blog, I'd like to address those critics of the helicopter coverage and just what's "worthwhile" news coverage. As I write this, virtually every cable news network has continued live coverage; we've even included live video streams as well as extensive video reports here on AkronNewsNow. That coverage brings home what all of us think as we cross Akron's High Level and Y Bridges; could it happen here? Without those stark photos our friends in the newspaper world have on their front pages this morning (well, most of the newspapers) or the video you see online and on television, the scope and breadth of the tragedy may not be so evident.

As a news consumer, I want as much information as possible; as a newscaster and editor, it is our job to present the most timely and accurate story as we can. Those images captured by the brave men and women circling overhead the Mississippi capture the story in a way words simply cannot describe with any justice. Indeed, many of those images may very well help investigators determine just why the arches on a 40-year old bridge collapsed during rush hour on a warm Minnesota summer afternoon.

This is the legacy of those lost in Phoenix; this is why those injured in Dallas went where most of us wouldn't go. Seeing the story from the air is a necesssary part of telling the story in this day and age when we have the resources to report the news as never before.

NFL Coverage You Can't See and Hear

In a bit of inside baseball but covering football, there's a battle going on away from the gridiron that will impact the type of coverage you'll see on websites all across the country, including AkronNewsNow. The NFL and the franchise teams, including the Cleveland Browns, have imposed rules on coverage that severely restrict just how much reporting we'll be able to do on your favorite team.

The problem isn't with radio, TV, newspaper or web-only reporting sources; the NFL has decreed that in order to spur traffic to their own websites (league and team) we aren't permitted to play audio or video clips longer than 45 seconds, total, and that only covers a 24-hour period. This effectively means any interviews we do on training camp grounds or even game-day coverage from the stadiums during the exhibition and regular seasons must, by NFL ruling, be removed from our websites the next day.

No more going to AkronNewsNow, WKYC, WEWS, WJW, WOIO, the Beacon Journal, Plain Dealer, or Canton Repository websites to not only read Romeo's wisdom but also to hear and see your favorite player. In fact, web sites such as AkronNewsNow have been informed by the Browns that we aren't even permitted to take photographs during games to augment our coverage on the web.

We think this is ridiculous, echoing comments from just about every other major news organization including the Radio Television News Directors Association, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and scores of other media outlets. The Houston Chronicle's football beat reporter for their website even produced a video highlighting just how foolish the 45 second rule is.

WATCH the Chronicle's team try to make sense of the NFL guidelines

We agree with these and other media outlets that these restrictions are unparalleled in the coverage of news and sports, and in fact is a direct affront to the rights of our respective readers, listeners, viewers and web visitors to learn more about the teams that play in palaces funded, in large measure, because of the largess of local government and local taxpayers.

It's why you won't see web video or hear web audio reports, even from the locker room, unless media organizations break the rule and risk losing the credentials needed to cover the games. It's why you won't be able to revisit coverage with web video or web audio to watch or listen again to a coach or player more than a day after the game. You won't, that is, unless you go to the league or team sites. Is that the coverage you'll fully trust as independent?

This is a disturbing trend in sports; the NFL has been the most aggressive in pursuing these policies but don't be surprised to see the other leagues pay very close attention as the digital age pushes them to weigh commercial considerations above the interests of the fans.

A cynic would note this is only the logical extension for professional leagues where sports is a sidebar to marketing. I wish I weren't such a cynic.

Looking For News From Home

The Time Warner empire now fully extends from the suburbs of Canton, past the Pro Football Hall of Fame, through Akron and the Inventors Hall of Fame, to the lakefront and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Why can't northeast Ohio's dominant cable TV system work it out so Summit County residents can watch the local news?

It's not as though we don't have plenty of choices; Fox 8, NewsChannel 5, Channel 3, 19 Action News, CBS, NBC, ABC, both PBS stations, enough cable news to choke a horse, even the TV Guide Channel -- but still no Akron/Canton News.

How long does it take to flip a switch?

Up here, way to the north of Akron (almost as far north as you can go and still be in the county) in Sagamore Hills Township, we have cable channel 23 for Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills Townships (usually text messages and ads with radio playing in the background) and occasionally government meetings. Every once in a while we're graced with a local high school game or drama production. Macedonia, Twinsburg and Aurora all have their own channels, too, a virtual cornucopia of the workings of local government.

But no space to put their own partnership product online?

I know such things are very complicated, but given the advanced state of Time Warner's digital infrastructure and the ability to provide video on demand (VOD) services it is hard to figure out why the Time Warner Akron/Canton News isn't available to all Time Warner customers, at the very least in Summit County.