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12/31/03 Aloha
Bounding around the house on New Year's Eve, here's Antone, the
Star-Bulletin foundling puppy. Just a few months ago, he was not
expected to live overnight. Thanks to some love and attention,
today he's a healthy, tail-wagging rascal, fearless and friendly,
and he's getting bigger all the time.
You can draw your own simile.
Four years ago, I started the Honolulu Newspaper War site as SaveStarBulletin.com
as a way of keeping track of the illegal shutdown of Hawaii's
oldest newspaper. It was apparent to all that Gannett's tactics
were at best unethical. Lucky for us, their arrogance cost them
the attention of both the Communications Workers of America --
who funded a legal challenge -- and the anti-trust division of
the U.S. Justice Department. Hubris has proved expensive for Gannett.
A simple way of getting the word out evolved into a near-daily
record of the struggle. I wrote about it from the inside, while
Ian Lind wrote about it from the outside. There was an interesting
evolution that we had not considered at the outset -- that these
"blogs" would become a resource for others facing similar challenges.
Since having their asses handed to them by the 9th Circuit Court,
Gannett's actions have come under increasing public scrutiny.
Newspaper shutdowns have not become easy for them. Like a little
yipping dog at the media giant's heels, we simply alert folks
to their actions. Just Google a Gannett player's name, like Jim
Gatti or Saundra Keyes or John Jaske, and you'll find links near
the top either from Ian or myself. It's probably not Gannett's
idea of good publicity, but then, they shouldn't do the things
they do. Gatti couldn't deal with it, and ran away.
I should make it clear that, while Gannett's interchangable managers
are fair game, I pretty much considered the staff of the Honolulu
Advertiser to be off-limits. None of them asked to work for Gannett,
it was thrust upon them. They have enough to deal with their own
climate of fear and intimidation in their own workplace, not to
mention a kind of "Stockholm Syndrome" in which they have no choice
but to identify with their crazed captors. Oops, I mean their
managers.
My own site also developed into a kind of homey appreciation for
the extraordinary people who work in the Star-Bulletin newsroom.
It became a chronicle or their achievements and changes. That
was deliberate on my part. I believe that the public should know
us as human beings, not as faceless "media." We are your friends
and neighbors, your colleagues and fellow citizens, and putting
out a newspaper isn't done by magic. It's done by a lot of hard
work by people who care a great deal about their community.
But the time has come to pull the plug on Honolulu Newspaper War.
Why? Well, the Star-Bulletin won, frankly.All we had to do to
prevail was to survive, and we're still here,despite all the efforts
of the G-men to kill us. In fact, we're healthier now than at
any point in the last three years.
I was also physically unable to update the site for most of December,
thanks to the lightning strike. The responsibilty was irksome,
particularly when folks assumed the worst.
There's also the matter of focus. The scope of Honolulu Newspaper
War was laid down in the first desperate days of the takeover,
but now it's rather confining. Gannett is less stupid and greedy
-- at least, in public -- and I'm not going to waste bandwidth
keeping track of Gannett Advertiser typos. We have enough of our
own.
And there's the logistical problem. It's a very large site right
now, and kept up at my own expense. Time to put a bow on this
package!
As Honolulu Newspaper War spun out of SaveStarBulletin, a new
site will be spun out of this one. I'm calling it Check6Honolulu
and it's a blog devoted to somewhat wider issues of culture and
citizenship and media. But that doesn't mean I'll be ignoring
Gannett or their thugs in charge of the Advertiser. No sirree.
If they do something petty or stupid or mean, this little dog
will yip right up.
Thanks to everybody for this incredible ride. See you at Check6Honolulu. |
12/13/03 Merry Christmas, Saddam! Happy Holidays, Saundra!
Given the circumstances, I wasn't going to attend the Star-Bulletin
Christmas party but Mary Poole and Nancy Christenson threatened
me with bodily harm if I didn't, so I went, reluctantly. And it
was fun. Owner David Black sought me out to chit-chat and publisher
Frank Teskey was quite nice to me as well.
The real fun occurred about midnight. The newsroom was deserted
and Mary, Nancy and I were packing it in when I noticed a breaking-news
crawl on CNN. Something was happening in Baghdad. The three of
us decided to awaken the publisher and bug him. Luck was on our
side -- between the three of us still in the newsroom, we had
all the neccessary skills to bust the front page and get the breaking
news about Saddam Hussein's capture into the Sunday Star-Bulletin.
When the publisher gave to go-ahead, we did so, and then did it
again when Paul Bremner held his press conference and confirmed
it at about 2:10 a.m. Hawaii time.
Our press guys were great, breaking into the run to switch plates.
We were certainly the first paper in the country to print the
news, and, best of all, the Gannett Advertiser had nothing until
Monday. (The greatest fear of both papers is real news breaking
late on a Saturday night. The print cycle means a 36-hour bump
in coverage.) I was told by an Advertiser editor that they were
aware of the breaking news, but that no one on duty respected
editor Saundra Keyes enough to give her a call. So they ignored
the story.
And so, irony on irony, we were commended in a message-to-the-staff
the following day, but I wasn't there, because I was suspended
for being a pottymouth. Stuff like that makes you think. |
12/12/03 If you don't like it, go firetruck yourself
Right about this time, I managed to get myself suspended for three
days for saying naughty words in the newsroom, thanks to the stress
of having to juggle simultaneous assignments. Yes, we have editors
with delicate sensibilities. It's a measure of the Star-Bulletin's
success that the paper's managers are now spending their time
on, ahem, broader issues. |
12/10/03 The Flying Tiger is a Chinese 'aumakua, yeah? |
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I spent the Centennial of Flight weekend painting this P-40 replica
with my pal Brad Hayes of the Hawaii Museum of Flying. I chose
a scheme similar to Col. Robert Scott's when he was flying liaison
with the 23rd Fighter Group, succesor to the American Volunteer
Group in China and Burma. The air show didn't draw as many people
as the state hoped, thanks to a lack of promotion, fears of parking,
a rival event only a mile away and holding it on one of the busiest
shopping weekends of the year. Still, the Barbers Point airfield
proved that it is a terrific site for such large events. |
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12/1/03 It won't strike twice, will it?
Not my idea of starting off the day with a bang -- on this moring,
the hard rains we'd been experiencing for weeks suddenly clustered
over the Windward side of the island and lightning bolts began
smacking down in Kailua. I returned from taking the kids to school
and discovered the corner of the house blown out, electrical circuits
dead and smoking, the smell of ozone and burnt insulation and
a complete lack of response from most electronic tools, including
our two computers. They were fried. Katie's bedroom had a hole
blown in the floor and foot-long, blackened splinters poking out.
The telephone lines were all charred and smoking, right out to
the pole. The Hawaiian Electric guy who came out said it looked
like termite damage!
Errr-right. We had no telephone or cable service for nearly two
weeks, and, a month later, we're still discovering damage. A week
later, we discovered that the rug in Katie's damaged room -- she's
been sleeping on the couch ever since -- was becoming waterlogged,
and that water was backing up in the showers. No amount of drain
cleaner would dislodge it. A search for the water source determined
that the shock of the lightning strike cracked the plumber's putty
off the fittings in the adjacent bathroom, creating a slow leak,
and that the shower drain system was possibly cracked. And so,
the money we were going to spend on Christmas went instead for
plumbing and other repairs.
An interesting discovery was that the computers weren't fried
through the power ports. The surge entered through the Ethernet/cable
connection to Roadrunner, which also burned up the family DVD
player, but left the other home-entertainment equipment alone.
So, surge protectors work, but remember to get one that also protects
against cable surges as well. |
11/30/03 Taking off
The Thanksgiving holiday and weekend were primarily spent at the
office, working on a special tab insert dealing with Hawaii's
aviation history. I'd discovered that the state planned a big
whoop-ti-do at Barbers Point/Kalaleloa to commemorate the centennial
of powered flight, and suggested to the publisher that we do something.
I started working on my own in early November gathering facts
for a "100 Milestones of Hawaiian Aviation History" graphic, but
the newspaper editor told me there'd be no room in the paper in
December to run anything I produced. I switched gears and began
to redesign the graphic either for Feature or OpEd when word came
down in mid-November that the tab was on! There was a tremendous
amount of research to be done right away, but it could only be
done after the normal days' duties were completed -- the daily
newspaper comes first. It made for a stressful work environment,
particularly since the actual contents of the section weren't
to be decided until the last second by Star-Bulletin managers.
Despite it all, Flights of Fancy was printed and distributed to Star-Bulletin readers in early
December. The Gannett Advertiser had nothing comparable. |
11/25/03 We become an ingredient in the Wall Street Journal's facist fruitcake!
Whatever. The WSJ's Internet scouring pad, James Taranto, misread
a Star-Bulletin editorial and heaped scorn upon the paper for
suggesting that some issues are best left up to the courts instead
of the predjudices of the voters. That's how blacks got the votes,
BTW, but the WSJ still longs for plantation days. We're the item
underneath Dispatchs From the PC Nuthouse. |
11/24/03 Miss Baraquio's assigned reading list |
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The uncontrolled drooling of newspaper columnists aside, it's
a fact, Jack, that Miss America 2001 Angela Perez Baraquio is
awfully cute. Here she is showing off her favorite reading material,
or maybe she was just amused by the "Destructive wind" headline.
An elementary teacher by profession, Baraquio has quite a successful
second career as a TV pitchwoman, such as the new icon for First
Hawaiian Bank. She's not the reason my wife and I are leaving
Bank of Hawaii after a quarter-century relationship, however --
Bankoh managed tp alienate us all on their own with their creative
bookkeeping and mystery fees. Bankoh also removed their ATM machine
from Restaurant Row, so we actually have to go for a drive to
get cash, and we're in downtown Honolulu! Anyway, back to Miss
Angela -- the Hawaii Visitors Bureau is missing out by not making
her the "face" of Hawaii to the world. |
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11/21/03 Communications restored
Whatever glitch it was that was preventing email from going back
and forth between the two newspaper has been fixed, or simply
went away. Now, if we just had something to say ... |
11/20/03 Tuning us out
One of the great innovations of the Web is the concept of sharing
original music. I'm not talking about ripping off established
musicians by downloading their tunes. It's about independent artists
trying to connect to the rest of the world in as direct a way
as possible. The leader in that is the great mp3.com site, where you put your original music and anyone can listen
to it. The Star-Bulletin has at least three artists who do so
-- myself, Nancy and Mark -- and to me it's like a cool miracle that someone in Uganda
or Tibet or Finland or Uruguay can groove on some song I've written. It's not just cool, it's way-cool. I've heard from
folks about it, from around the world. But alas, all good things
must pass. Mp3.com has been acquired by C/NET, and the future
of the site is in limbo. Here's an essay by Glenn Reynolds that sums it up better than I ever could. |
11/18/03 Playing catch-up
* This one sailed right by me, but Ian noted the irony the other
day -- a Crimestoppers alert went out last month about a company
raising funds for the University of Hawaii, but the UH folks had
no idea who they were, so they smelled fraud. We did a story on
it to alert citizens, which the Gannett Advertiser picked up on
and repeated the next day. But, as Rod Antoine reported Saturday,
the company is supposedly legit --- and working for the Advertiser! The geniuses at the Tiser
failed to adequately notify the university. Or read their own
newspaper.
* In response to the item about emails between the two papers
on 11/15/03, one of our make-up people responded: I'm not sure bout u, but the advertising dept gets emails from
the G-men all the time ... theyre usually from someone@honolulu.gannett.com
... they bug us when theyre too lazy too build their own ads and
ask us to send them ours.
* And in the Gannett story about their new presses, this line appeared: Removing the old presses on Kapi'olani Boulevard will take 10
months, beginning in 2005. The hole left behind will create room
to begin a total renovation of the 75-year-old News Building at
605 Kapi'olani Blvd., which will continue to house advertising,
news and administrative operations ... Note there's no mention of the other Gannett-owned address, which
is 610 Kawaiahao. The complex where the facility sits is actually
two lots, both owned by Gannett. The one fronting Kapiolani, more
than 84,000 square feet, contains the original News Building and
the parking lot, while the rear lot, 78,000 square feet, contains
the production, printing, sorting, distribution and paper-storage
facilities. This is the lot that will be disposed of and demolished,
but Gannett faces a lot of environmental clean-up first, including
those underground gasoline tanks. |
11/15/03 The newspapers that can't communicate
Interestingly, we've discovered that emails with starbulletin.com
addresses can't be sent to folks at honoluluadvertiser.com, nor
the other way 'round. A filter has been set up so there will be
no interaction between workers at the two newspapers. I checked
with our web guys, and it's not on our end. How are we going to
catch up on the latest gossip about Jim Kelly's job-hunting elsewhere? |
11/13/03 "Comp" doesn't stand for "complementary"
The Gannett Advertiser's editorial staff has a quickie Guild meeting
planned for noon today to discuss the company's latest anti-worker
measure, the abolition of "comp" or compensatory time. Most reasonable
employers use comp time as a safety valve for those times when
there just aren't enough hours in the day to do the job. That
happens when news breaks. Journalists are generally motivated
professionals who know they are performing a public service and
don't mind putting in the extra hours when the public interest
is at stake. Gannett knows this and uses it against them. Comp-time
isn't in the Tiser's Guild contract, it's a side agreement. What
will happen is that the employees will resent putting in extra
hours for the company's benefit without being compensated -- no
overtime pay, either -- and that attitude will be noted in their
secret personnel files, and if they work the hours they're paid
for and leave with the work undone, that will be noted too, and
all those mid-level Gannett managers will finally earn their pay
by riding employees every second of the day, making sure no one
takes a breather, and if they do, THAT will be noted as well,
They'll have plenty of self-created excuses to fire employees.
And there's your hidden agenda.
In other news, Gannett publisher Mike Fisch waxes flatulent about
the wonders of the new press and pretends he's a guy who likes to get his hands dirty. That's
about as likely as Leslie Wilcox leaving KHON. |
11/11/03 Over There -- The War to End All Wars ended 85 years ago today |
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I couldn't resist making this screenshot off my computer at work
this morning. It was at this moment that an Armistice went into
effect during the Great War. Most nations still commemorate the
event, but in America we morphed it into the more generic Veteran's
Day. Here's my favorite Marine Corps quote from that conflict:
I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company.
We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here
as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is
on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I
will hold! -- First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, USMC, 96th Co., Soissons,
19 July 1918. |
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11/11/03 A patriotic tale for Armistice Day |
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Recently, Spike TV wrapped up their highly rated "Joe Schmo Show,"
in which some doofus thought that what was happening around him
was real, when it was really an elaborate con. Filming the next
season of "Joe Schmo" is the only logical explanation for what
happened to Maher Arar, a Syrian-Canadian citizen and by all accounts an average Joe
who was seized by Tom Ridge's Secret Police, jailed without charges
and then illegally deported to Syria, where he was beaten and tortured for nearly a year. The Syrians didn't want him; he was held at
U.S. request. He recently got out, and the Canadians are hopping
mad about the way one of their citizens was treated. I didn't
know that pissing off allies was creating a safer world, but then
anything's possible in the "Joe Schmo" universe |
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11/10/03 The Presidential Game
True Confessions Time: I've been enjoying the Democratic Presidential
debates. And primarily for their entertainment value! Watch 'em
while you can, before the Homeland Security Office shuts 'em down.
(On Fox News yesterday, anchor Laurie Dhue (sp?) kept comparing
Democrats to terrorists in the gist of her questions to Republicans.
Yeah, you decide, all right.) Politically, there's not a lick of real difference
between the candidates, so it comes down to personality issues
-- Lieberman is a little too wound up, Kerry a little too smug
and vacant, Mosley-Braun is the strict teacher you had in intermediate
school, Kucinich is the brainy nerd who tells you how to build
a watch when you ask the time, Clark is earnest but uncomfortable
as a politician (point in his favor), Edwards drags along his
middle-class background like luggage, Gephardt needs to grow some
eyebrows before anyone will take him seriously, Dean appears to
be enjoying a private joke at our expense and Sharpton is crazy-scary-hilarious,
but a headline writer's dream. The "Rock the Vote" debate orchestrated
by CNN last week was particularly fun -- in a "Fear Factor" kind
of way -- and I thought one of the questions posed by one of the
kids was brilliant: "Are you Mac or PC?" In a short stroke, it
asks a lot in a way that's deep and illuminating. Are you a creative,
get-it-done, out-of-the-box dreamer, or are you a detail-oriented
slave to a crumbling, unknowable mystery? It turns out the question was invented by a CNN journalist, and the student really wanted
to ask some rambling hypothetical about technological inducements.
Snore! Kids today, huh? Anyway, here's a link toi my recent encounter with President Bush. |
11/8/03 MidWeek melee
And here's a response to the item below, from a former MidWeek
staffer:
MidWeek's cover "for sale"? Of course it was, for a long time.
It's an info-tainment guide, not a daily newspaper, and can't
be compared, and why should it? Publisher Ken Berry made no secret
that the cover was for sale under his watch -- and that's why
he was hired by Gannett, to do the same for Island Weekly. These
days, it's the Island Weekly that goes to the highest bidder,
not MidWeek, thanks to Berry. That's his brand of journalism.
Who would "buy" a cover showing Hawaii's Most Wanted, or the one
of nuns playing guitar? Get real. |
11/5/03 Can't we all just get along (Lance does not play well with others)?
I know, I know, it's surprising -- unbelievable, really -- that
this little yappy-dog Web site occasionally gets negative comments
from readers. Here's one that arrived yesterday, apparently after
people up the street at the other newspaper learned that Star-Bulletin/MidWeek
publisher David Black suffered an injury requiring some stitches:
With any luck, he'll be permanently disfigured from crappy Canadian
health care. That's what he gets for messing with an American
newspaper ...
Well, that's just plain mean. As annoyed as I've ever gotten at
the fascist thugs running Gannett, I've never wished for disfigurment.
Jail time, yes, maybe an unfortunate incident in a prison shower,
but nothing that leaves a mark.
Here's one that's more typical, from a "Lance Ta." I have no idea
if that's a real name, or if some prankster has hijacked his email
address. It was subjectlined "sour a(ss)pple"
you are such a sore loser ... always knocking competition, out
of jealousy?
how come nothing had been mentioned about midweek.
it appears the "cover" is for sale, for a price to your advertisers.
what makes the furniture store a cover? and bia? hmmm, could it
be the $$$ they spend?
why don't you mention or respond to that in your website, huh?
Respond? OK. I don't work at MidWeek. My company and MidWeek are
owned by the same parent, but the operations are completely separate.
Each has their own personality and market. If I wanted to work
at a chain of publications that are micromanaged into numbing,
cookiecutter sameness, I'd be working for Gannett. Speaking of
which, Gannett is counteriing MidWeek by imitating it with Island
Weekly, except that the contents are pilfered and recycled from
the Gannett Advertiser.
Lance's comment that is interesting is "sore loser." What have
we lost? We win simply by remaining in the game, and it is not
a competition to destroy the other player (at least, not on OUR
part). It's about providing an alternative local voice to mainland
corporate dogma. It's about coexistance and competition. As long
as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin stays alive, there is competitive
news coverage, lower advertising rates and better deals for everyone.
If the Gannett Advertiser becomes the only publication, it's highly
professional news staff will be decimated, ad rates will go sky-high,
Gannett's charity monies will evaporate and we'll wind up with
a thin, pennysaver-type daily newspaper, excactly as Gannett has
done elsewhere in the country. So who "wins" by this competition?
Hawaii's citizens. |
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