On The Ninth Congressional District (Seriously)
(ScreenShot: YouTube)
Give state Rep. Joe Towns credit for comedic timing last Sunday.
He cracked wise at Nikki Tinker's constant whine about grandmothers waiting on the porch for a check; he said nowadays grandmas get their checks via direct deposit. Burrrnn.
Yet, to suggest-- as CA columnist Wendi C. Thomas does-- that Towns was more prepared than Tinker Sunday night is a joke in and of itself.
It's a silly guise aimed at hiding the contempt that a columnist has for being excluded from a debate without even the honor of a courtesy call. Still, Thomas has point about that damn porch, though:
Surely a more savvy campaign consultant could finesse Tinker's story so that it emphasized better health care coverage, preventative care, the need to shore up Social Security or something other than waiting on a check.Point taken. Yet, point lost when she says Cohen has a track record on civil rights and issues that affect people of color. And what would that be?
Calling for a national apology for slavery? Now, that's hilarious. Or even better, is it his shout-outs to Thomas's sorority before an empty House chamber? Symbolic, yet ultimately meaningless, which seems to sum up Cohen's first term in Congress.
But I digress.
Speaking of hilarity, it's telling that Cohen found a moment to turn a congressional hearing on 9/11 and the deaths of 3,000 people into late-night TV. From the CA, which found it funny too:
Cohen: General, you said you believe we have disrupted plots to hurt our liberty and hurt our country. Was one of those plots when Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Card came to your hospital room? (Wink, wink.)Talk about comedic timing.
Ashcroft: You know, this isn’t late-night television so your wink may not appear to everyone else but, no, I don’t think so. Let me make a comment. There should be robust debate. If you take — and I’m not in a position to recount, and wouldn’t — but say you take the reports as being true. Certainly wouldn’t call those untruthful folks about what happened. You had a situation where you had people with differing legal opinions and eventually somebody has to decide whether they’re going to side with the legal professionals or others. The president comes down on the side of the Department of Justice, according to all the accounts, no matter which one you believe…. What’s wrong with that picture? Eventually, you get to the right decision being made. That’s something that I would expect: a free society to involve vigorous debate, especially when you’ve got as many lawyers as we do in this country…. I’m just right now next to standing up and singing the national anthem. I think that’s how the system ought to work. Pardon me.
ON ANOTHER NOTE: In an expansion on his earlier take on last Sunday's WREG debate, Jackson Baker included this nugget:
After being introduced by DeBerry in the pulpit of Monumental Baptist Church on Sunday, Tubbs-Jones delivered an enthusiastic endorsement of Tinker as "a young woman who is talented, who is skilled, and who deserves to represent the city of Memphis in Congress." After scolding the media for allegedly making too much of Tinker's being a black woman, Tubbs-Jones repeated, "Nikki Tinker is talented and qualified, and, praise God, she's a gorgeous black woman."Lord, help us. Look Tinker, you don't need to fight the media. You need to take a page from Barack Obama when he visits Clintonites or John McCain's visit to the NAACP.
Appearing in the pulpit on her own behalf, with two small children in tow, Tinker said, "This is not about my race, it's not about my religion. I'm concerned about where these young people are going to be 20 years from now." Reprising the elements of a TV commercial she ran in 2006 and which has been recycled this week, she said, "You all know my story. You know I was raised by a strong-working, hard-working single mama and a disabled grandmother, who lost her eyesight to diabetes. And when I'm traveling through Memphis, up and down South Parkway and Whitehaven and Boxtown and Westwood and New Chicago, I see people like my grandmother, who are afraid to get to the mailbox, still looking for help and support ... ."
Tinker continued, "I will go through the fire if I have to. ... And I want to tell you, I will deal with this media. I say I will fight 'em and do everything I have to do. I'm looking for some prayer warriors, though."
It's not about winning people over and making them love you. It's about earning respect for simply showing up and making an effort.
Bottom line: Tinker, Cohen and Towns need to be hitting the morning circuits and editorial boards because they've committed errors that need to be repented.
Seriously.
*CA: A positive for Tinker?
Labels:
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9 comments:
Cohen's record on human and civil rights is abismal. He has accepted funds from the Turkish lobby to deny the Armenian Genocide. Denial of a genocide is the last stage of a genocide. Cohen's position on this matter is nauseating!!
RT, my interpretation of Wendi's column was, "At last, finally a journalist who will stand up to politicians who try to game the media." We have far too many politicians around here who will only speak to outlets they perceive as friendly. The White House plays this same game with their press pool; if you write something critical, they take away your credentials.
Don't you think it's about time reporters and columnists started fighting back against this nonsense? Call it sour grapes if you like, but while politicians come and go, the media is here to stay. The balance of power favors the media in the long run, and Wendi is well within her right to exploit that fact in an attempt to get an answer from Tinker.
Remember, this all started when Tinker wouldn't answer questions about whether she is for or against an abortion ban. This is not about Wendi Thomas' hurt feelings.
AG. Thanks for reading and commenting.
The media is here to stay but the business of calling a spade a spade gets tricky when your own house seems a bit confusing. That's not necessarily a deterrent for the media but it is a responsibility to be accurate and fair in making those points.
And to your point, Tinker's media relations have been the source of problems ever since she ran the first time. She needs to find a solution--and perhaps that lies in a call to Wendi.
You know, one sorority girl to another.
It is NOT the job of journalists to fight back. We are just supposed to write the facts. It's not my job to say Nikki Tinker is a jerk, or Willie Herenton dissed the Watchdog as being ill prepared. Just report it. Let people figure things out for themselves.
And Richard, I agree with your comments about Wendi. WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO HER? When she first arrived her stuff was fresh, controversial, hard hitting. She was a pretty damned good columnist. AFter she returned from the Baltimore debacle she seems to be taking herself way too seriously. And her pieces seem to be nothing more than filler...with occassional rants against Herenton and Kenneth Whalum. What a waste.
At a recent meeting of the Ministerial Alliance, after Cohen spoke, Tinker arrived.
Instead of addressing the ministers, she had Sidney Chism speak on her behalf. She was in the room and did not address the ministers.
Perhaps she can only speak while using two children as props.
Richard: Well maybe Nikki can hire Marc Perrusquia as her PR person. After all, what is he going to do now that John Ford is going to prison for an extended term? The dude has been "doing the Don Quixote" on Ford for a long time now.
He needs to stay out of Nashville and West Memphis, and go back to work on Herenton. He sacks him and I'll buy him a newspaper company!!!!!!!
"We are just supposed to write the facts?" You're joking, right? That's not journalism, that's stenography. Is that what they're teaching in J-school nowadays? What do you do when someone tells you a bald-faced lie? Just report the fact that they said it?
Good God man, no wonder this country is in such rotten shape. The Framers of the Constitution gave special protection to your profession from acts of Congress for a reason, my friend, and it was not so you could "just write the facts." As a journalist you have a responsibility to protect the public interest. It's as if a cop said "my job is to write tickets" or a firefighter said "I just point the hose at the fire." That's simply not good enough, buddy.
As for Wendi Thomas, I couldn't disagree with you more. You are absolutely correct that it's not your job to call someone names, but for the love of America, when a public figure is interfering with your ability to report the truth, you owe it to your readers to tell them about it. Don't be such a professional that you forget to do your job.
Auto, you have no idea what the press is for. There ARE columnists. Thomas is a hack, but if you want to read great columnists, with OPINIONS, Maureen Dowd and Bill Safire come to mind. So does Jimmy Breslin in New York and Mike Barnicle in Boston. THEY WRITE OPINIONS. EDITORIAL STAFFERS WRITE OPINIONS. Reporters deal with facts. Your idea of what a reporter does is way off base, to the point that you're almost living in a fantasy land. And if you think Wendi Thomas is a good columnist, that is also a sad commentary on your views on journalism.
I know how to do my job my friend. I've been doing it for more than 30 years.
I'd love to debate you over a cold one sometime...we might never agree but it sure as hell would be interesting!
I'd love to sit down with you over a cold one, but I think you misunderstand me here, or else I you. We don't disagree about the difference between editorializing and reporting, that's basic. My contention is that unbiased reporting should also be aggressive, skeptical, and as painstakingly rigorous as deadlines will allow. Journalists should make judgements, which is not the same thing as presenting one's personal opinions. I would offer Marc Perresquia as an example of someone who I think gets it right.
By the way, I'm not making Wendi Thomas out to be the second coming of Molly Ivins, but I will always applaud her when she uses her column to hold politicians' and elected officials' feet to the fire. My idea of a good columnist is Mike Royko, who said that before someone can write a good column, they should have some experience pounding the pavement covering car wrecks and the like.
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