Category Archives: media news

media news

Goodbye, Devin Nunes

REUTERS/Erin Scott

This will be brief, but it’s worth saying anyhow.

Devin Nunes is quitting Congress to run a social media company set up by Donald Trump. To which I say … whoopee!

Nunes is a California Republican who helped lead the telling of The Big Lie, the one about the “rampant widespread voter fraud” that resulted in the “theft” of the 2020 election that chose Joe Biden to become president.

Now he is gone from public life. He is going to run a social media company. His experience in that endeavor? None. Zero. Which makes him a perfect fit for a Trump-founded company.

Goodbye and good fu**ing riddance, Devin Nunes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Cuomo crosses the line

Blood surely is thicker than company loyalty, but CNN anchor Chris Cuomo faces a stern reckoning for helping his brother while working for a major cable television news network.

Cuomo is the brother of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned earlier this year after several women accused him of sexual harassment and assorted acts of sexual assault.

CNN announced that Chris Cuomo would be suspended indefinitely essentially for lying to his employers about the extent of the advice he was giving his brother while he still held the governor’s office.

No can do, said CNN.

According to CNN.com: “When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” the spokesperson continued. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.” However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew,” the spokesperson added. “As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

CNN suspends Chris Cuomo indefinitely – CNN

Journalists have a solemn obligation to keep their distance from developing stories. Cuomo violated that obligation. I get that he loves his brother and that he is loyal to his family.

However, he also is an international media star, known and trusted by viewers to report the news ostensibly without bias or personal involvement in the outcome of an event.

Accordingly, CNN acted prudently in suspending Chris Cuomo, who clearly crossed a line that separates newsmakers from those who report on an issue that has gotten the newsmaker into trouble.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

One huge surprise!

You’ve heard it said that “life is full of surprises,” or at least it ought to contain a surprise or two as we move on through our time on this good Earth.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the retirement journey my wife and I began some years ago has taken a most astounding turn. Where it goes … let me explain.

We were camping in our RV the other day when I received an e-mail from the acting editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News. He said he wanted to discuss something with me. I read the message and told my wife what it said. I thought, “What in the world … ?”

I called him. Rudy Bush, the acting EPE at the Morning News, informed me he had been reading my blog and had seen some of the work I had done for KETR-FM radio at Texas A&:M-Commerce. He then told me he needed help at the DMN, that he was working with a short-handed staff; that his staff is burning out and that he wanted little ol’ me to lend a hand writing editorials for the newspaper.

Now, you have to understand something about yours truly. When I got into journalism in the 1970s, I had aspired to write for a major metro newspaper. I sought many times over the course of my career to achieve that goal. I ended up writing during the bulk of my career for two mid-sized dailies. I had a nice career. I believe I did my job well.

What happened at the RV park in Northeast Texas, though, caught me by complete surprise.

The result is that at the age of nearly 72, I am going to see my dream come true … if only for a limited period of time. I phone him back the next morning to tell him “yes,” that I would like to help him out. It will be, as they called it in the Army, a TDY assignment … temporary duty.

I will continue to cover city council, school district issues and write occasional features for the Farmersville Times; I also will continue to cover water resource development in Fannin County for KETR-FM radio. On top of that I will write editorials for the Dallas Morning News.

And just to be crystal clear, my bride and I will continue to haul our RV around behind our pickup for a little R&R.

I found myself grappling with competing thoughts in my noggin. One thought was, “Why don’t you just toss it all aside, sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your retirement?” The other thought was, “Why would you want to pass up this opportunity, which you strived to find, and accept the challenge that awaits you?”

I decided to heed the latter thought.

So … off we go, racing toward a new challenge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

‘Let’s go, Brandon’ explained

I guess I need to get out more.

This morning I awoke and while catching up on some overnight developments, I found the “Let’s go, Brandon” slogan plastered on several items. I looked up the origin of this phrase I’ve been seeing. I found this on Yahoo news:

Republican Rep. Bill Posey of Florida ended an Oct. 21 House floor speech with a fist pump and cryptically let out the phrase that’s disguised to be upbeat. A day later, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tweeted the phrase. More recently, Southwest Airlines opened an internal investigation when a pilot used it over the loudspeaker.

The phrase originated at an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Brandon Brown, a 28-year-old driver, had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. The crowd behind him was chanting something at first difficult to make out. The reporter suggested they were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer the driver. But it was clear they were saying, “(Expletive) Joe Biden.”

What does ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ mean? Everything you need to know about the Joe Biden insult (yahoo.com)

So now it has become a sort of right-wing rallying cry. Social media have carried it around the world, maybe even into outer space.

Again, as with the term “woke” — which still kinda flies over my noggin — I need to understand some of these trendy sayings that grow legs and traipse their way into contemporary public discourse.

I’m not sure how to use the “Let’s go, Brandon” phrase. Is it an epithet? Do I say it when I want to denigrate a liberal/progressive policy? Do I hurl it at President Biden?

I’ll just stick with what I know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

What is ‘woke’?

I need to brush up on my glossary of contemporary idioms.

For example, I do not know how to use the term “woke” in a sentence … even though I am doing so at this very moment.

I saw a definition that describes the word “woke” thusly: the quality of being alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism.

That’s it? OK, I understand all of that, but today’s discourse contains this word all the time and I am finding it a bit distracting. For instance, when I hear the term or read it my mind freezes for an instant as I try to remember what it really means. “Woke” this or “woke” that. Adjective or noun?

I write this blog for my own pleasure. I recognize fully one shortcoming in my own writing skill, which is that I am not fully fluent in contemporary language. It’s kinda getting away from me, sorta like the new media age has lapped me at least a couple of times.

I’ll just have to be content with relying on my old-fashioned use of English as I plow through these discussions. As for my use of this term “woke” … well, I’ll have to pass. I’ll surely know “wokeness” when I see it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

What about other issues, doc?

1 Comment

Maybe I’m a bit slow on the uptake, or am not paying close enough attention.

Still, I am wondering why the man who represents the congressional district I once called home spends so much of his Twitter energy blasting the daylights out of President Biden with ad hominem attacks.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the Republican former Navy admiral and medical doctor, doesn’t seem too interested in tweeting policy matters related to the Texas Panhandle, where he moved more than a year ago to run for the office he now occupies.

The only tweets I see from this clown concern Biden’s mental snap. Jackson doesn’t think the president is up to the job and he keeps saying so — incessantly — through the social medium.

What the hell?

This goofball ought to direct some of his waking hours to legislating on behalf of the victims, ‘er voters, who sent him to office.

Just for grins and giggles, I took a look at the Twitter feed of my current congressman, Republican Van Taylor of Plano.

Taylor also is critical of the president, but he bases his criticism on issues and doesn’t lambaste Biden with baseless assertions that seek to sow doubt about his ability to do the job to which he was elected.

Hey, I get that presidents deserve to be criticized when issues present themselves. I just get a serious sense that Rep. Taylor is more dialed in to the needs and concerns of his constituents than Rep. Jackson, who’s dedicated to making as much useless noise as he can while he sits in Congress.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Upsetting news on many levels

The news that a building where I once worked was damaged by fire upset me in more ways than I could have calculated.

Fire has damaged the Amarillo Globe-News building on the outskirts of downtown Amarillo, Texas. It is now vacant, a rotting hulk of a structure that contains a legendary inscription penned by a legendary journalist.

Gene Howe, the former publisher of the newspaper, once wrote: A newspaper may be forgiven for lack of wisdom but never for lack of courage.

The inscription is still there. The building’s inhabitants have vacated the place, having moved to an office suite in a 31-story bank tower around the corner and down the street.

That the building no longer serves as a beacon for good — if not great — journalism in the community is bad enough.

These days I am feeling more like a show-and-tell relic. A former colleague and a still-dear friend and I exchange messages earlier today. I informed her that my granddaughter might one day want me to stand before her classmates so she could tell them what her grandpa used to do for a living.

That likely won’t ever happen. First of all, I don’t even know if they have show and tell these days. Second of all, she might not yet fully comprehend the importance we used to attach to the craft we pursued, often with great joy and equal amounts of diligence and integrity.

Newspapers are becoming a relic of the past, as are those of us who used to fill those pages with words that sought to lend leadership and provide guidance to the communities we served.

The fire at the Globe-News building only reminds me of what used to be in that place. It saddens me at a level I am at this very moment still having trouble understanding.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

‘Truth Social’? Seriously?

If there is a more egregiously misnamed outfit than the one Donald J. Trump seeks to create, then someone will have to find it for me. I am at a total loss.

The 45th POTUS is going to launch a social media network he is calling “Truth Social.” Truth Social? Is this guy kidding?

The former Liar in Chief couldn’t tell the truth, or recognize the truth, if it slapped him in the face.

Donald Trump’s Truth Social is headed for ’embarrassing’ failures, Daily Beast report says (msn.com)

He lied some on the order of 30,000 times during his term as POTUS, according to a survey done by the Washington Post. He lied when he never needed to lie. His lies were incessant and gratuitous.

Now he wants to create a new social media network, given that Twitter and Facebook have banned him for, um, lying.

I won’t bother to dial into whatever lies POTUS 45 wants to spin.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Newspapers dying, but not yet dead

A friend of mine sent me this snippet from a podcast given by acclaimed sportswriter Mike Greenberg.

He writes about the cultural value of reading an actual newspaper. Not something you see online. Greenberg said:

“I fervently believe people comprehend things better when they read them on paper than when they read them on their phone or on line. Your generation and all generations to come are missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures, and that is a cup of coffee and a newspaper. It is a pleasure you’ll never know. It is one that I’ll never cease to enjoy. To my dying day, if they continue to print newspapers, I will continue to read them that way and there is something about a cup of coffee and a newspaper, not reading it on-line; there is an experience reading a newspaper. It is a loss for the culture.”

I am one of those, too. It’s not that I feel necessarily smarter or have greater comprehension skills than those who don’t read newspaper.

It is to say that I will go to my own grave being dedicated to the work that journalists do to inform me of the community where I live and of the world we all call home.

Thanks, Mike Greenberg.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

‘No one reads newspapers’

Every now and then, someone reminds me — even unwittingly — that the job I performed for nearly four decades is no longer relevant. It no longer matters to those who used to consume the thing that I delivered to them.

Newspapers, man! They have become, pardon the expression, yesterday’s news. 

We live in Princeton, Texas. We took our puppy to the veterinarian’s office not long ago. I waited for Toby in the waiting room and was reading some of the signs on the wall. One of them asked customers for newspapers for the vet’s staff to use as kennel liners for the dogs under the doctor’s care.

I told the front-office staff I would be glad to deliver them newspapers. The response from one of the staffers? “That would be great. We need the newspapers but we are having trouble getting enough of them. No one reads the newspaper any more.”

Ouch! Double ouch!

I get three newspapers delivered to my house. The Dallas Morning News comes every Wednesday and Sunday; I get the Farmersville Times and the Princeton Herald delivered weekly. We are a newspaper family. I still write on a freelance basis for the Farmersville Times.

And, yes, I deliver newspapers regularly for the vet’s office staff to use for their canine patients.

So it goes as I trek through my retired life. I keep getting reminders such as the one I have just described that my craft matters to a diminishing number of my fellow Americans.

Hey, I might be saddened at some level, but I am enough of a grownup to understand what has happened to the craft I pursued with unbounded joy for so very long.

It’s a different day and time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com