Slow-hio Turnpike

Ok ... this is gonna turn out to be a bit of a rant ... but so be it.

I've been driving the Turnpike quite a bit recently, and am absolutely amazed at the traffic backups at the toll plazas at I-77 and Rt. 8.

Frankly, things could run smoother ... and I blame both the Turnpike's workers ... AND it's drivers.

A couple things.

To the workers, when I give you a dollar on my 50 cent toll, does it really take 2 minutes to make change? Please, please, please Turnpike commission ... put these people on the clock or something.

Seriously, I've never seen a slower collective group of workers in my life.

And to the drivers, you know, you too can speed up the process.

My suggestion: Look at the ticket BEFORE you pull into the toll plaza. That way, you don't have to dive into your purse or change tray when you suddenly find out the toll is 50 cents.

Also, if you do know the correct amount, just hand the money to the toll booth worker along with your ticket.

Honestly, you do NOT need to hand the workers your ticket, wait for them to say "50 cents", THEN give them the 50 cents!

What do you think is gonna happen? The worker is going to say ... "Hey, you're our 100th driver of the day, it's on the house!"

And, to the Turnpike Commission, why is it taking more than a year to get EZ Pass up and running? Take a look at this map of the states who managed to beat you to the punch. Pick it up already.

Oh, and looking at that map, you know what else it could represent? States where you could legally gamble ... of course Ohio isn't a part of that one either.

Don't get me started.

My favorite Palin

Sorry Sarah, Michael is still #1 on my list.

Pigskin & Politics

Being a now-former TV guy, it's interesting to watch things unfold from the outside.

Of course, tonight is the night that Barack Obama will officially accept an historic nomination to become the nation's first African-American candidate for President of the United States.

NBC's coverage begins at 10pm ... following a pre-season football game that begins at 7pm.

So, here's a question ... what happens if the game runs long? Does Obama delay his speech for a pre-season football game? Of course not.

But, will the network risk missing Obama's speech? I don't think so ... I think they'd cut off the end of the game if they absolutely had to.

But, here's an interesting twist. My old employer, WKYC, is showing the Browns instead of the NBC game tonight.

One difference. The Browns game kicks at 7:30 ... and should go until at least 10:30.

That leaves a greater chance that Channel 3 will pre-empt some of Obama's speech.

Now, I can't say as I blame WKYC. This all comes down to money. Why show the NBC game ... when you can show the Browns, and reap all the local ad revenue from the game.

And, I also know that Obama's speech will be available on about a dozen other channels.

But, here's a question ... how does showing the Browns game ... and potentially missing Obama's speech ... position WKYC's news department?

The station, after all, wants you to turn to it as a source for politics. It has the city's lone television political "beat" reporter, it worked hard to land and sponsor the Democratic debate at CSU, and it has a team of political analysts ... many of whom have given convention insight on the station's 11pm newscast this week.

Doesn't a failure to show Obama's speech undermine a lot if not all of that?

I'm sure Channel 3 has its fingers crossed that the game ends in enough time to cut to the speech.

But if it doesn't, make no mistake, this decision was made for one reason. Cold, hard, cash.

And you can run that one ... right into the end zone.

(UPDATE: The Game wrapped up about 10 minutes after Obama took the stage, which isn't bad. However, while we were learning about the "player of the game" ... Barack Obama accepted the nomination.)

Running? What the Devil?!?!

Well, I'm trying something new with my down time ... running.

It's a big leap for me, because, frankly, I'm not a runner.

It's not the act itself that worries me ... it's the huge mental block I have towards the activity.

You see, I grew up a baseball player. And in baseball, running is punishment.

We would begin practice indoors in March, and play catch in the school gym.

Coach would say "Every time I hear a bad throw rattle off the bleachers ... the team runs a lap." Needless to say. you grew to hate that noise ... and those laps.

Then, once we moved outdoors, we would end particularly bad practices with the baseball version of a suicide. It involved running out a single, double, triple, and home run .. from home plate ... in succession ... at full speed.

Now, running 90 feet as hard as you can, followed by 180, 270, and 360 doesn't sound like a lot. But, as John Kruk once so eloquently said, "Honey, I ain't an athlete, I'm a baseball player."

So, running has always been a bad, bad thing in my mind.

But, since I have some time on my hands, need to get outdoors, and frankly, need something to take my mind off my situation ... I'm giving it a shot.

Look, I'm never gonna run a marathon ... nor would I ... because frankly, I'd lose interest a few miles in. And, I vow to never be one of those people who feel the need to tell you how many miles they ran that day.

I don't look graceful doing it. I don't feel graceful doing it. All I'm trying to do is avoid hearing my old Coach yell "That's another lap!"

But, if it keeps me moving ... I'll give it a shot.

A Penny Earned

A major milestone for this little blog o'mine today.

Yes, I have Google Ads on the side.

Yes, I don't expect anything from them ... but I'm new at this game so I tossed 'em on for the heck of it.

I'm proud to say, that as of today, I've earned my first penny!

Where do I begin with the thank yous?

Seriously, to the both of you who read this on a regular basis, I appreciate your eyes.

And, to whomever it was that actually clicked on one of those things, allow me to buy you a beer.

Well, at least allow me to buy it after I've earned a few more pennies. :)

The Follow-Up

First of all, thanks to Eric Mansfield for linking to my blog yesterday.

I didn't feel my words on the Stephanie Tubbs-Jones reporting were all that strong, but it was certainly interesting to watch.

I feel as though I should post a quick follow-up.

The Plain Dealer wrote about it's erroneous reporting here. Here's a excerpt:

"We are deeply distressed that we got this wrong, and sincerely apologize to the congresswoman's family and to our readers," Goldberg said. "Obviously, we believed we were on solid ground, or we would not have gone with the story."

Also, The PD says it reported the "death" at 1:49 pm ... if that's true I got it wrong in my original post. However, it felt MUCH earlier than that to me.

I did not see it myself, but I am told that Fox 8 News read a lengthy on-air apology as well. I could not find the statement on their website.

I'm a little unclear on the actions of Channels 5 and 19.

As I said before, WKYC was the only station to get it right. And I want to explain a little something I wrote in one of my updates to the previous blog post.

I'm happy the station showed restraint in it's reporting. However, I was a little turned off by the fact that they went out of their way to TELL me they got it right. At that point in the proceedings, Tubbs-Jones was obviously still in very grave condition.

When I worked in television, I was a big fan of letting the work speak for itself. I still believe that.

In a situation like this one, I would have downplayed the "we got it right" chest-thumping out of respect for the Congresswoman, and let others (bloggers, columnists, etc.) give the station credit for doing their jobs the right way.

I'm all for tooting your own horn ... but not in a situation like this one.

The Tubbs-Jones Incident

Wow. Quite a day to watch from my post as a currently ex-member of the news media.

In case you haven't heard, a prominent Congresswoman from Northeast Ohio ... Stephanie Tubbs-Jones ... was hospitalized after being found unresponsive in her car last night.

Well, at around 12:30 this afternoon, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper broke some somber news on its website that Ms. Tubbs-Jones, a key player in Hillary Clinton's campaign, had passed away.

The PD quoted "sources" saying the Congresswoman had succumbed after life support was removed at a local hospital.

Her family then scheduled a 2 pm news conference at the hospital. 3 of the 4 local television stations pitched live to the presser saying Tubbs-Jones had died.

That's when the assembled members of media found out the surprising news.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones wasn't dead.

Instead, the hospital told reporters that Tubbs-Jones was in very critical condition, after suffering a brain aneurysm.

The Plain Dealer quickly pulled it's original story replacing it with this. Here's a quote from that article.

"Officials updated her condition this afternoon after conflicting reports that the congresswoman was dead. Numerous media outlets - including The Plain Dealer on its Web site cleveland.com, CNN and the Associated Press - reported that Tubbs Jones had died."

So, here's a question ... where do you think CNN and the AP picked up on Tubbs-Jones' "death" in the first place? I'm guessing from the original article on the PD's website.

The paper has also disabled the "comments" section of its story, I'm guessing because of the sensitive nature of the Congresswoman's condition.

I'm sure, though, that they also don't want anyone calling them out on today's shoddy piece of journalism.

On a side note, I want to give some kudos to my former employer WKYC. They showed restraint as the only television station in town to hold off reporting on the Congresswoman's condition ... until they had confirmation.

Also, to the Congresswoman's friends and family ... my thoughts and prayers are with you as well, during this difficult time.

(UPDATE: After initially writing this post, I discovered this story on wkyc.com. Sadly, I can't say as I like the chest-thumping for not screwing up the story. Seems a little much for what remains a very grave situation for a local politician. The station loses a couple points for that one. Just do your job, and let others write about how you did it.)

(UPDATE 2: Just learned shortly after 6 pm that the Congresswoman has, indeed, passed away at the age of 58. Condolences to all who knew and loved her.)