Archives for February 2005

Trey complained of a sore throat Saturday morning, Cameron took him to the doctor and they sent him home saying it was a virus and there wasn’t anything they could give him. A few hours later, we realized it was the flu.

He’s been running a fever and coughing for the past two days and we can’t get the doctor to prescribe Tamiflu, so he’s just riding it out.

I hate to see my kids sick. It makes me wonder how those parents with kids at St. Jude manage to deal with what they’re dealing with. My child has the flu and I know in a few days he’ll be back to normal, they don’t.

A couple friend of ours has a young son at St. Jude. They’re in our Sunday School class and their faith and attitude has been unbelievable. I can’t imagine how it must feel to see your child that sick and not knowing how or if they’ll recover.

Say a prayer tonight for those kids and their parents at St. Jude.

Love the Oscars, but I’m a bit ashamed that I’ve only seen 3 of the movies with any nominations tonight. Not just for “Best Picture” but for any awards. The ones I’ve seen? “The Incredibles” and “Shrek 2”. I would have only seen those two but I watched “Super Size Me” last night.

I liked that movie. If you see it on DVD don’t miss the extra bonus footage of the “burning fries”. After we all watched it last night, Delaney, my 5 year old said she didn’t want to eat at McDonalds anymore. Now THAT’S a powerful movie!

I couldn’t help thinking about the film making aspect of the movie such as how they shot in a McDonalds restaurant without permission and without getting sued?

With 3 kids, Cameron and I don’t get to movies anymore. We see them at home on the big-screen and with surround sound, but not at the theatre. I think the last movie we saw without kids at a theatre was “The Blair Witch Project”. No fooling, that’s just sad.

Chris Rock is doing a good job, his ad libs are great, like when the guy who got an Oscar didn’t get to thank anyone because his friend hogged the spotlight for too long. As the music faded up and the director killed his microphone, Rock said “Awww Man! You gave him the Oscar on stage! Man, next year they’re going to give some Oscars in the parking lot. Just drive through….here’s your McFlurry and your Oscar”. Good stuff.

Billy Crystal is still my favorite Oscar host, but I think Rock is better than Whoopie and Letterman.

Who needs a tater tot when you can be part of the news yourself?

I’m not going to comment on any of the latest stunts at one of the stations in Memphis, but doesn’t anyone think it’s at least a little interesting that this type of thing only happens in February, May or November?

Anytime you can get a headline on the front page of the morning paper, you’re making people watch. That affects the bottom line, which is all that is important.

A few years ago another reporter was caught by airport police after going through an “Authorized Only” door. That also happened during sweeps.
It’s like you hear the kids say to their parents “Hey, watch this!” Gotta make people watch.

I haven’t seen the video (don’t watch them anymore) so I can’t offer an opinion on any of the latest twists (of course no one is asking for my opinion either).

For me, I finished up one project, shot on another and will be shooting on another this weekend. Busy, and that’s good.

I picked up a few DVDs today to hopefully watch this weekend. “SuperSize Me”, “Touch of Evil”, “A Mighty Wind” and “Next Stop Wonderland”. A doc, a classic, a spoof and a romantic comedy, how’s that for variety?

So they’ve seated a jury in the Michael Jackson trial. 4 men, 8 women, no children (sorry about that Mike). But the question is, how did the defense team not get one African Americans on the jury? Not one!

Would that have helped Michael? I thought it would and so apparently did some members of the media that asked the same question.

What’s really surprising to me though is how some potential jurors blew their chances of being chosen. Take this woman who, during questioning said she doubted Jackson would ever get a fair trial. “How can he get a fair trial anywhere when even the ex-sheriff of Santa Barbara gets on TV and tells the world he is a child molester?” The woman, who is a former corrections officer then said “A jury of your peers? How is this man going to get it here?”

Tip: If you want to be chosen as a juror, don’t tick off the judge or the attorneys. Don’t you know that woman’s husband put his head in his hands and started weeping.

You want to be on this jury. I’d want to be on this jury. Every member of the jury to decide the Michael Jackson case will get book deals out of the kazoo. They don’t have to be good writers. They don’t have to even pay that much attention during the trial. They don’t even have to speak English. One week after the verdict we’ll see these headlines: “Michael Jackson Jury Member signs 100 Gazillion Dollar Book Deal”.

That’s the way of the world these days. Publishers understand bottom lines and nothing affects the bottom line like a book written by a jury member of a high profile case. Remember O.J.? Jurors made a wheel barrel full of cash for their “behind the scenes” reflections.

And what’s the deal with how these jurors were selected? Granted it was going to be impossible to find 12 jurors who knew nothing about the case, who didn’t know perhaps the biggest celebrity since Elvis, but they put a woman on the jury who’s sister was raped as a child! Another has a grandson who is a registered sex offender.

No blacks were chosen for the jury and I understand it’s because there were only a few blacks in the pool of prospective jurors. Apparently there aren’t many African Americans who live in Santa Barbara County, it’s 70% white and only 2.3% black, but if Michael Jackson is convicted of this crime the defense team will have no defense for the certain outcry from African Americans about why blacks had no representation on the jury.

Thanks to the folks at WBNS in Columbus, Ohio who are informing their viewers about what may become a serious problem in high schools. A 15 year old boy has been arrested and charged with shoving a potato into another boy’s face.

An investigative reporter no doubt uncovered the truth behind this story. Seems the 15 year old asked the other for his baked potato during lunch. When the victim refused, he had the spud pushed into his face.

Wow. This kind of thing should not be tolerated in our schools. Let’s call the cops and have the boy charged with felonious assault and have him suspended from Edison Junior High.

Good thing I went to school when I did or I’d be on death row! Wouldn’t you love for this to happen in Memphis? That way one of the local stations could be on our side with tips on how parents can protect their children from attacks with a tater. Another station could have a reporter standing in front of a dark and empty school with a potato in hand, depicting what this horrible event must have looked like to the victim. “Imagine someone shoving this potato in your face! For one young boy, he didn’t have to imagine it…it happened.”

But no. In Memphis the big stories happened before the sweeps period began. The “mayor is my baby daddy” story happened just before sweeps and then, nothing. The budget cuts are a big story, but it’s now reached the ‘dead horse’ point but is still being beaten. There hasn’t been any bad weather to scare us into watching and so far, I haven’t seen a special report or series that have been that special.

Stations want and need big stories during ratings now more than ever. Years ago (in another market) I had a general manager tell me “don’t you wish a tornado would hit somewhere in our market on the first day of the book?” The news just isn’t interesting enough for people to make an appointment to tune in night after night. With the internet being such a popular way to get our headlines now, stations need “breaking news” and “severe weather” now more than ever.

But I’ll bet they’d settle for a boy armed with a potato.

The kids were out of school today, and I didn’t know what that would mean for me getting some work done.

I had to be in Memphis at 11 this morning to speak to a pastor’s luncheon at Bellevue Baptist Church. I dropped Cameron and the kids off at the mall and picked them up again a few hours later.

The luncheon was good, I saw several pastors I’ve been e-mailing the past few months. They seemed interested in using video in their worship services and asked some good questions about how to begin.

It’s interesting how much attitudes have changed regarding video in churches in just the past 8 months. When I started the ACTS Network the reception was a little cool from some traditional churches, but now they seem to understand it can be a great communication tool, even in the worship service.

Trey, Delaney and I hit the golf course late in the afternoon to hit some balls on the driving range. It was closed because its so wet, so we played around on the putting green for awhile. I haven’t really played golf since we moved to Memphis 7 years ago. Before Trey was born, I played at least 3 times a week. When I worked early mornings and got off at noon, I’d play after work. When I moved to anchoring the 10pm newscast, I’d play early in the morning. I never got really good at the game, but I loved it. I hope to get back out there a bit more and find my swing again.

I have two important meetings tomorrow, one with area Chambers of Commerce about a relocation video project and another one with a church wanting a dvd they can hand out to visitors. I need to get at least one of these jobs, the project for the other church is due at the end of the week and that’ll wrap up all of my current projects except for ACTS.

I love NASCAR and I particularly love the start of the season and the Daytona 500. I normally like FOX’s coverage of the sport, but not today.

FOX did a horrible job of keeping viewers informed. In a dramatic and exciting race, the boys in the booth blew it. Early in the race when Jeff Gordon appeared to pass Tony Stewart just before a yellow caution, NASCAR gave Gordon the lead, then took it away when their tape showed the pass had not been complete when the yellow flag dropped. FOX’s Mike Joy, Darryl Waltrip or Larry McReynolds didn’t mention it or even seem to have noticed it happened.

With 5 laps left, Gordon passed Dale Jr. but the FOX boys were talking about a pass for 5th or 6th place, only later did they say “Gordon has made a pass”.

In one of the most exciting finishes in Daytona 500 history and I wonder if Joy, DW and McReynolds even saw it. It’d be like the play-by-play guys in the booth of a dramatic 7th game of the World Series with 2 out, bottom of the ninth and the guys talk about what brand of bubble gum the backup shortstop is chewing.

Come on guys! I felt like they were cheering for Dale Jr. or any of the DEI cars to win the race and when they didn’t, they lost interest. I’ll be glad when NBC’s coverage cranks up mid-summer.

By the way, full squads are reporting this week in Florida and Arizona for major league baseball’s spring training. This is my favorite time of year. I especially love the last week of April. You’ve got the NCAA Final Four one weekend, the start of baseball the next week and the Master’s golf tournament the following weekend. For a sports junkie like me, that’s the best of the 52 weeks.

There’s a rumor going around Washington that VP Dick Cheney will resign from office sometime next year because of health problems. As you know, Cheney has a history of heart ailments and some members of congress have heard that DC will step down. It’s no secret there is no chance that Cheney is interested in running for President in 2008. If he does step down, President Bush will be able to appoint someone as his VP (the same as President Ford did when Spiro Agnew resigned).

Who will Bush appoint? The rumors inside the Beltway say Condoleeza Rice. It’s no secret that Condi has a special place in George W’s heart. She’s risen from National Security Advisor to Secretary of State, and people in the know believe she’ll be appointed VP.

So what does that mean for 2008? Could it be that both parties will have women on the ticket for the November election? Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice? Wow.