Jamey Tucker

Beside the Point

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Archives for May 2008

Reprimand and/or Fire The Lot of them

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Kudos to Tom Powell for his investigation into a rape-dance at a Memphis area high school. You can see his story here:

We can’t really be all that surprised that teenagers would do something like this, even in a school program. We don’t have the right to express outrage. We, as a society, have allowed this type of garbage to reach our teenagers and even younger children through music, tv and the movies…oh, and the internet.

But we must be outraged that this happened in full view of the principal and teachers at Mitchell High School. Oh, the principal, John Ware has apologized. But he and other administrators did their best to cover this up and keep the media from speaking with parents. And if you watch Dan Ward, the interim superintendent failed to take responsibility or expect responsibility from those teachers and the principal. “I’m not sure anyone was there to see this”.

Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Dan Ward should have taken action long before agreeing to appear on The O’Reilly Factor. I wouldn’t have gone on national tv if I hadn’t fired the principal who allowed this and either reprimanded or fired every teacher who was in the auditorium.

Pathetic.

And the tests show…I’m happy to be out of Memphis

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It’s sweeps season for people working in and watching tv.

TV stations will do anything to get you to watch. Used to be, that meant producing stories people would watch and talk about around the water cooler the next day. Now, it seems giving stuff away is the s.o.p.

Stations give away cars, tanks of gas, Kroger cards, concert tickets, paternity tests.

Yup, where else but Memphis does a television station promote “Paternity Case Number of the Day”?

here’s the pitch on the WPTY website:

“Watch Maury weekdays at 4pm for the “Paternity Case Number of the Day”, which will be displayed during one of the commercial breaks. Then watch Eyewitness News Everywhere at 5pm that same day, immediately following Maury, for the cue to call. Be the designated caller with the correct “Paternity Case Number of the Day” and win! It’s that Easy!!!”

Hey…I’m not necessarily criticizing WPTY. Getting the best ratings money can buy is the same whether it’s a DNA test or a hybrid-car or a Wal-Mart gift card. But what does this say about the people and the city of Memphis that paternity tests are as much in demand as full tanks of gas?

Is it just me?

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or has American Idol finally jumped the shark?

With four finalists remaining there’s not one I would ever consider seeing in concert or buying their cd.

Paula has become the only entertaining part of the show and even that is in the same way that a car wreck on the side of the road can be entertaining.

Jason, Syesha, David and David are about as fun to watch as an episode of “Blossom”. Oh, we still watched Tuesday night but during the second half-hour I looked around and saw that none of us were really watching.

My 8 year old daughter left the room to practice her piano. My wife left the room to take a phone call. My 12 year old son was watching YouTube videos of severe weather coverage (he’s going to be a news director some day). I stopped watching to check e-mail and read my news feeds.

But I did hear enough tonight to know that Jason was horrible. Maybe the worst two performances of the entire season. I hope he goes through to the next round.

Syesha, or however you spell her name, seems to get better. Her tears and the fact that Randy didn’t like her second performance, may have helped keep her around another week.

David the rock guy was okay but I don’t think he’s a good singer. His voice sounds pretty much the same week after week…like he’s nasaling his way through the lyrics. He’s the best that’s left though.

The pre-pubescent David may have the best voice, but I can’t stand him. He may end up winning this thing but he’ll never be a star, at least not for long.

We won’t watch Wednesday’s result show at all. Oh, we’ll probably tune in for the last 3 minutes but there’s no way I’m going to waste an hour waiting on the announcement.

And as long as I’m visiting A.I., there’s also this: I’m sick of local FOX affiliates doing stories about the show during the newscasts. Who hasn’t seen a tease like this:

“the final 4 (5, 6, 8, 12 whatever’s left) contestants on American Idol are gearing up for tomorrow’s big show. What do they do to get ready?”

Fonzie’s boat is warming up…he’s strapped on the water skis and the crowd is gathering. time to jump the shark.