Tag Archives: Journalism

Where Have You Gone, Bill the Cat?

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Editor’s Note: Notice the people you knew who slept through high school civics and changed their university major to forestry to avoid college civics have become experts on the Constitution, the Electoral College and political issues of all sorts? They know things. They’re also allowed to vote and drive and birth humans. Yea, your fear is real.

Vote and Vote Often.

Citizens pressed forward to get a glimpse. The front-runner from Cromwell County mounted a contentious, arduous campaign, and with the polls opening in less than 24 hours, his election as state legislator was all but assured. The Bowie Review & Caller was on the scene.

“Helluva a candidate, I say. One HELLuva a candidate,” said Dexter Bottomfeed, long-time political consultant and full-time backslapper, wingman and good buddy. “Bar none. We’re no longer taking names. Gerald P. McGillicuddy will be the finest legislator from Jackson County who’s ever roamed the statehouse.”

“Cromwell County?” said Bonnie Truthfinder, recent graduate of the Texas State School of Journalism and now political reporter. “You just said Jackson County.”

“Didn’t I say Cromwell?  Dang. After 20 years, these elections start to run together. Jackson County was last year,” he said. “Well, no matter the county, we all need a Gerald P. The finest man and the finest candidate I’ve ever had the pleasure of representing.”

“Pleasure, I’m sure. You’re declaration, I’m not sure. How much is he paying you?

“Balderdash and folderol. The campaign has nothing to do with compensation. It’s about providing effective leadership to the most downtrodden of our citizens, the disaffected middle class and the hardworking wage earners desperately clawing their way back from the abyss of social decay and economic calamity.”

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2016: The Election That Never Ends

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website under Blog on July 19, 2017.

First Meeting of Presidential Advisory Commission on Election

Just when we thought the plot lines couldn’t get crazier. Just when we swore the name Kris Kobach never would trend on Twitter, we get a J. Jonah Jameson dream scenario. The 2016 presidential election results are being called into question. By the winner.

In the words of Kobach, vice chairman of the commission that’s looking into voter fraud, we “may never know” if Hillary Clinton actually won the popular vote. Or so he said Wednesday to MSNBC after the commission’s first hearing. If that’s the case we then may never know if Donald Trump actually won the Electoral College.

Lest we forget, the White House is occupied by a realty television star who uses social media with the zeal of a clique-conscious teen. “Modern Day Presidential” is the way he describes his penchant to tweet when on the attack or on the defense. And though his approach could be described as a shrewd use of the radio and television of the 21st century, our fascination with social media con-tent has led to a precipitous drop in our country’s IQ.

We’re now distracted by fake magazine covers adorning the walls of Mar-a-Lago, comments about a newscaster’s plastic surgery and the president’s professional wrestling greatest hits. What is he going to do or say next? How will the Congress react? While these incidents are extensions of our need to read tabloid headlines while standing in the checkout line, they should give us, as it does our allies, pause and consideration to what’s going on in Washington.

For there’s one troubling issue that is getting too little attention. No, we’re not talking about pageant contestants locking their doors to the leering eyes, groping hands of celebrities. We’re talking about an issue that should cause every-one, no matter their political ideology, to say enough is enough.

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Journalism: No More Funny Business

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website under Blog on July 6, 2017.

Trump, Flamingos and Provocateurs

Today’s politics is like a daily trip to the circus with clowns piling out of the car. There’s seemingly no end. A social studies exercise gone awry. The joke keeps on giving, and everyone is in on the joke.

So how does one stand alone?  Set themselves apart when everyone is telling the same joke.  Then it occurred to me.  I was lookin’ for humor in all the wrong places. Lookin’ for humor in too many faces. Searchin’ their eyes. Lookin’ for traces … And that was just a televised White House press briefing.

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Then I heard an all too familiar voice booming from the corner office of the newsroom. And it wasn’t Johnny Lee. And she didn’t need a mic.

“No more mister nice guy. The gloves are off. Call us fake news. Call us enemy of the American people. Body slam our reporters. Well, that party is over.” My publisher was in a touchy mood.

Two things could explain her outburst. One, either the Keurig was broken. Or two, some hapless journalist was caught staring out the window. So I took another sip of my coffee, as I brought my own, and closed the blinds. Hard to concentrate on a black bear cub mauling a pink flamingo yard ornament across the street when files are being thrashed about the newsroom.

“We’ve been playing it safe way too long. Let’s make everyone happy. Let’s bring people together. Let’s support the military industrial complex,” then she took a deep breath. “How about let’s not? No more goody two shoes. No more dear sweet Pollyanna. I want edgy. I want controversial. I want provocative.” Read more →

Local Writing Group Has Become a Major Inspiration for UCF Affiliates

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Editor’s Note:  The following story by up-and-coming journalist RACHEL STAMFORD was published by Nicholson Student Media on its website NSM Today for UCF by UCF on April 8, 2017.  Her story profiled our local writing group Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts.

As the sun sets on a Wednesday evening, twenty-or-so patrons file in to a small Winter Park coffeehouse. The walls are lined with bookshelves and the ceiling is adorned with colorful lanterns. Fairy lights crawl up the cement walls and over the bar in the back of the performance room. The bartenders serve wine and lattes alike under the menu written on a chalk board with names like Best Boring Waffle and Vote for Pedro.

While there is usually a featured writer slated to speak on the schedule, a clipboard left on a table near the stage offers last minute sign-ups to anyone who wants to perform throughout the night. The writers range from UCF affiliates to complete strangers and patrons of the coffeehouse.

One may see retired UCF math professor Mike Taylor reading his own science fiction. Writing and rhetoric major Ross Ellison is developing his novel, and asks the audience for critiques on his characters. A young man in a hoodie who calls himself “J” requests no one takes his picture, joking he has some “alleged outstanding warrants or whatever.” J. Bradley shows off copies of his newest novel “Jesus Christ, Boy Detective”. Published writer Shasta Grant stays in the back of the room and reconnects with her old dance coach; someone she ran in to at the venue just by chance, as they haven’t seen each other in over a decade.

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Clinton, Trump Eye the Florida Prize

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website under Legislative on August 11, 2016.

Late-night comedians have spent the better part of the past decade and a half ribbing the Sunshine State’s electoral mishaps and for good reason.  Even our well-heeled counties have found ways to offer comedic fodder with voters misunderstanding the mechanics of voting and creating embarrassing delays in Election Day vote tabulation.  But comedy aside, based on the numbers and the state’s recent refusal to be labeled electorally either red or blue, Florida is the most important state in the upcoming presidential election.

Of the top seven most populous states, all but two have consistently given their electoral votes to the same party, election after election, since 2000. And of these behemoths of population and electoral votes, Florida and Ohio are the only states to accurately select the past four winners.  California and Texas?  Locks respectively in the Democrat and Republican columns.  New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania?  Though Pennsylvania claims diversity in its voting ranks, all three states have gone Democrat since 2000.

Florida and Ohio remain electoral powerhouses of no certain allegiance but one is more so than the other.  Read more →

Florida Takes Center Stage at GOP Debate

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website as a Blog on September 21, 2015.

Was there anyone left in Florida last Wednesday night? Or, was the state’s entire population at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley for the second Republican primary debate? Ok, so that was an exaggeration. Only the 35% of the state’s voters, those registered as Republicans, attended. More on that soon enough.

With The Walking Dead television marathon unavailable, I devoted my Wednesday evening to the debate. And after more than four hours of watching 15 candidates squabble over issues while a 16th candidate, with an approval rating consisting of his wife and three fishing buddies, watched from his Virginia basement, I can attest little differs between the CNN “reality show” and a zombie apocalypse.

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#NationalSoWhatDay

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Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website as a Blog on September 16, 2015.

Social media applies grinding pressure to journalists accustomed to gazing out windows in search of inspiration. Now late-afternoon deadlines are mere follow-ups to the day-long deadlines imparted by posting, tweeting and pinning, and the need to treat each day as #NationalSomethingDay has made irrelevant the important days like the opening of the livestock show and publication of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

Hashtags elevate importance. Anything following a hashtag has immediate prominence and relevance to our existence. Like getting approval from People. But more likely hashtags are coding designed to manipulate our minds. In fact, I made it halfway through the first Friday in June before thunder roared on an otherwise clear day. Lights flickered, wall decor shook, the art director’s cat actually moved. Did the deity of social media demand favor?

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Not Your Average Top 10 List

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Editor’s Note:  The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website as a Blog on August 3, 2015.

Was a time when people subscribed to print news for the articles, editorials and columns, the vast information written by seasoned journalists and readily available simply by walking to the curb before morning coffee. Then Pluto fell out of favor with the astronomy club and was demoted to dwarf planet. On Earth the print media began an excruciating demise and the 24-hour news cycle was born. Coincidence? I think not.

As a result the modern day subscriber, short on time and technologically savvy, developed a never-to-be-satisfied need for content in short takes on media websites, Facebook and Twitter, to name a few. Newsprint be damned. It became about RAM and speed and updates on the Kardashian girls. Quick bits of important information, streaming live to one’s phone, desktop, laptop and wristwatch.

But even filling space with pseudo news can’t help print media keep up with Billy McGuffin’s middle school blog. He has the inside source on the latest school district scandal involving an overzealous science teacher and hydroponic hallucinogenic crops. Billy taunts the traditional media with hourly updates from the basement of his parents’ house. Only a 10 p.m. curfew abates his fury.

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