Your thoughts on the GOP primary?
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Judging by a number of phone calls, emails and a personal meeting or two, several loyal HCP readers appear to have serious concerns over the May 3 Hillsboro mayoral primary.
Some have even gone so far as to ask my opinion on the Republican primary between Rod Daniels, Drew Hastings and Terry Mikkelsen.
While I appreciate the inquiries, I’m not all that confident that I have sufficient information to form a logical opinion. Not yet, anyway. I am close to what I believe is an intelligent thought, or two; but before making any public announcements, I’d like to know what you think.
Send your thoughts on candidates Daniels, Hastings and Mikkelsen to me at: roryeryan@gmail.com or just stop me on West Main Street around 5 a.m. most mornings. I’ll be the guy with the broom.
* * *
Another year and another outstanding telethon. The 39th annual Rotary telethon raised $120,000 in pledges this past Wednesday evening to go toward the Highland County Society for Children and Adults. Given this county’s widespread economic struggles, this achievement is nothing short of amazing.
Hosted by US Bank in Hillsboro and at McClain High School in Greenfield, the event was once again emceed by Ernie Blankenship, the longtime radio sports voice of southern Ohio.
Ernie, with a little help from his friends, rose to the challenge as they always do.
Just a few moments before the start of the 2011 telethon, Ernie asked me to use just one quote: “People need to be remembered, not for what they did, but for what they gave. We need people to give tonight.”
Thanks to the efforts of people like Ernie Blankenship, Gayle Coss, the Rotarians of Greenfield and Hillsboro, and so many caring individuals, this year’s fundraiser was another success.
Nice work, folks. You did good. Real good.
* * *
Former ABC News and longtime “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel was on CNN this past weekend. To be honest, I seldom watch CNN. I just happen to know its channel number on our television without looking it up.
When Koppel made his final remarks prior to signing off on “Nightline” six or seven years ago, he stepped out of the all-too-typical tradition of reflecting on past interviews and personal achievements. Instead, he offered the following, the answers to which ought to be included in Journalism 101:
“There’s this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at ‘Nightline.’ I didn’t do it with the last batch; it’s a little too close to home. ‘How many of you,’ I’ll ask, ‘can tell me anything about Eric Sevareid?’ Blank stares. ‘How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds?’ Not a twitch of recognition. ‘Chet Huntley? John Chancellor?’ Still nothing. ‘David Brinkley’ sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised, and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news. What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early 20s appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everyone in the country knew their names. Everybody.
“Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat Rather, Chancellor begat Brokaw, Reynolds begat Jennings. And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right.
“You’ve always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for ‘Nightline’ a fair break. If you don’t, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you’ll be sorry.
“And that’s our report for tonight. I’m Ted Koppel in Washington, and from all of us here at ABC News, good night.”
The helluva it is I do remember Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, Frank Reynolds, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley (Good night, Chet; good night, David) and Walter Cronkite. And I once spoke with John Chancellor back in the late 1970s or early ’80s.
But let’s get back to the recent CNN show. Howard Kurtz was interviewing Koppel about the state of affairs in today’s news media. Shortly after I switched channels from “True Grit” or some other John Wayne classic Sunday afternoon, Ted Koppel told Kurtz:
“There’s no way of saying this, Howard, without sounding a little bit like an old man who is losing touch with new technology, but...in a democracy, an uninformed electorate is the greatest danger that there is.”
An uninformed electorate is the greatest danger that there is.
We’ve all witnessed an uninformed electorate. We’ve witnessed it on local, state and federal levels. In fact, I’ve often thought that those in power are banking on an uninformed electorate.
The uninformed electorate has given us bad presidents, bad legislators and bad policies. To their credit, however, the uninformed electorate can tell us the names of every “Survivor” winner, every “American Idol” winner and where Homer Simpson works.
Kurtz then asked Koppel: “A lot of TV people are on Facebook and Twitter. And what is the danger?”
Mr. Koppel replied: “In and of itself, when you frame it as narrowly as that, the danger is not all that great. But when we find a large segment of the information-consuming public consuming information that is limited to 140 characters, consuming information that, by virtue of Facebook, for example, tends to deal with some of the more frivolous parts of our lives, that’s attention, then, that is not being given to some of the issues out there that are of much greater importance.
“If we confuse just the rapid-fire exchange of small morsels of information on trivial subjects with real information, then I think we knock the props out from under a really functioning democracy.
“And there’s a certain irony in the fact that at precisely the time when we are celebrating what we perceive to be the rise of democracy, encouraged by Twitter, encouraged by Facebook, in places like Tunisia and Libya and Egypt, that we fail to see that that is just the first step in the process. And already in Egypt, we’re beginning to see that what we thought was the revolution was just the overthrow of a tyrant.”
And, in the case of Egypt, the apparent ushering in of a new tyrant.
Too many of us find it all too easy to become a part of the uninformed electorate.
And too many in power continue to count on it year after year and election after election.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
Some have even gone so far as to ask my opinion on the Republican primary between Rod Daniels, Drew Hastings and Terry Mikkelsen.
While I appreciate the inquiries, I’m not all that confident that I have sufficient information to form a logical opinion. Not yet, anyway. I am close to what I believe is an intelligent thought, or two; but before making any public announcements, I’d like to know what you think.
Send your thoughts on candidates Daniels, Hastings and Mikkelsen to me at: roryeryan@gmail.com or just stop me on West Main Street around 5 a.m. most mornings. I’ll be the guy with the broom.
* * *
Another year and another outstanding telethon. The 39th annual Rotary telethon raised $120,000 in pledges this past Wednesday evening to go toward the Highland County Society for Children and Adults. Given this county’s widespread economic struggles, this achievement is nothing short of amazing.
Hosted by US Bank in Hillsboro and at McClain High School in Greenfield, the event was once again emceed by Ernie Blankenship, the longtime radio sports voice of southern Ohio.
Ernie, with a little help from his friends, rose to the challenge as they always do.
Just a few moments before the start of the 2011 telethon, Ernie asked me to use just one quote: “People need to be remembered, not for what they did, but for what they gave. We need people to give tonight.”
Thanks to the efforts of people like Ernie Blankenship, Gayle Coss, the Rotarians of Greenfield and Hillsboro, and so many caring individuals, this year’s fundraiser was another success.
Nice work, folks. You did good. Real good.
* * *
Former ABC News and longtime “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel was on CNN this past weekend. To be honest, I seldom watch CNN. I just happen to know its channel number on our television without looking it up.
When Koppel made his final remarks prior to signing off on “Nightline” six or seven years ago, he stepped out of the all-too-typical tradition of reflecting on past interviews and personal achievements. Instead, he offered the following, the answers to which ought to be included in Journalism 101:
“There’s this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at ‘Nightline.’ I didn’t do it with the last batch; it’s a little too close to home. ‘How many of you,’ I’ll ask, ‘can tell me anything about Eric Sevareid?’ Blank stares. ‘How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds?’ Not a twitch of recognition. ‘Chet Huntley? John Chancellor?’ Still nothing. ‘David Brinkley’ sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised, and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news. What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early 20s appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everyone in the country knew their names. Everybody.
“Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat Rather, Chancellor begat Brokaw, Reynolds begat Jennings. And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right.
“You’ve always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for ‘Nightline’ a fair break. If you don’t, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you’ll be sorry.
“And that’s our report for tonight. I’m Ted Koppel in Washington, and from all of us here at ABC News, good night.”
The helluva it is I do remember Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, Frank Reynolds, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley (Good night, Chet; good night, David) and Walter Cronkite. And I once spoke with John Chancellor back in the late 1970s or early ’80s.
But let’s get back to the recent CNN show. Howard Kurtz was interviewing Koppel about the state of affairs in today’s news media. Shortly after I switched channels from “True Grit” or some other John Wayne classic Sunday afternoon, Ted Koppel told Kurtz:
“There’s no way of saying this, Howard, without sounding a little bit like an old man who is losing touch with new technology, but...in a democracy, an uninformed electorate is the greatest danger that there is.”
An uninformed electorate is the greatest danger that there is.
We’ve all witnessed an uninformed electorate. We’ve witnessed it on local, state and federal levels. In fact, I’ve often thought that those in power are banking on an uninformed electorate.
The uninformed electorate has given us bad presidents, bad legislators and bad policies. To their credit, however, the uninformed electorate can tell us the names of every “Survivor” winner, every “American Idol” winner and where Homer Simpson works.
Kurtz then asked Koppel: “A lot of TV people are on Facebook and Twitter. And what is the danger?”
Mr. Koppel replied: “In and of itself, when you frame it as narrowly as that, the danger is not all that great. But when we find a large segment of the information-consuming public consuming information that is limited to 140 characters, consuming information that, by virtue of Facebook, for example, tends to deal with some of the more frivolous parts of our lives, that’s attention, then, that is not being given to some of the issues out there that are of much greater importance.
“If we confuse just the rapid-fire exchange of small morsels of information on trivial subjects with real information, then I think we knock the props out from under a really functioning democracy.
“And there’s a certain irony in the fact that at precisely the time when we are celebrating what we perceive to be the rise of democracy, encouraged by Twitter, encouraged by Facebook, in places like Tunisia and Libya and Egypt, that we fail to see that that is just the first step in the process. And already in Egypt, we’re beginning to see that what we thought was the revolution was just the overthrow of a tyrant.”
And, in the case of Egypt, the apparent ushering in of a new tyrant.
Too many of us find it all too easy to become a part of the uninformed electorate.
And too many in power continue to count on it year after year and election after election.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]