Listen to Me on the Radio (and Podcast)

Starting with this weekend's episode, I am the host and producer of "The Score," a podcast featured on the news and politics web site Bearing Drift. "The Score" is also broadcast over the airwaves on WINC 1400 AM and WINC 104.9 FM in Winchester, Virginia. In addition, “The Score” can also be heard around the world on Red State Talk Radio Network, its affiliates, and on its Roku channel and free Android app.

This week's guests on "The Score" are Elliott Harding, former legislative director for Congressman Tom Garrett (R-VA5), who talks about a bill that would reduce students' debts in return for their deferring retirement; Libertarian Party nominee for the U.S. Senate Matt Waters; and Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute, who answers my questions about Africa's economic future.

If you're in the vicinity of WINC's AM and FM signals, you can listen to "The Score" at 7:00 o'clock on Saturday morning, preceded by "America This Week" and followed by "In the Garden with Andre Viette."

Hosting a radio show has long been an ambition of mine.  It probably dates to my earliest days listening to talk radio in Milwaukee as a teenager.  Back then it was a late-night program on WEMP-AM hosted by Ira Fistell.  His mix of interviews with authors and celebrities with listener call-ins was still new in the early 1970s (before the FCC repealed the "fairness doctrine") but it set a standard for me.  I also appreciated and learned from Joey Reynolds' laid-back, conversational style manifested in his longtime overnight program from WOR-AM in New York City.  Because, really, what is an interview but a form of conversation?

In my career as a public policy analyst, author, and activist, I have been a guest on more radio and TV programs than I can count, in studios from Las Vegas to New York to Johannesburg and by phone across North America and around the world.  In the early 1990s, I was co-host of a cable access show in Arlington, Virginia, called "Politics: Landry vs. Sincere" and I was a correspondent, book reviewer, and anchor on "Gay Fairfax," a news magazine show originating in Northern Virginia but bicycled to cable systems throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

Readers of this web site will recall that, in July 2015, I sat in for host Coy Barefoot on WCHV-FM while he was on vacation.   Later that year, I auditioned to take over the afternoon drive-time program on that same station.

I have been contributing interview segments to "The Score" since I began writing for Bearing Drift in late 2011, with spots featuring Virginia politicians like former governors George Allen, Bob McDonnell, and Doug Wilder; Senators Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and Jim Webb; and Members of the House of Representatives like Eric Cantor, Tom Garrett, Bob Goodlatte, and Robert Hurt -- not to mention numerous candidates for public office, members of the General Assembly, and authors and experts on public policy issues.  (Scroll through "The Score" archive to track those down.)  My thanks to former host Scott Lee and former producer Norm Leahy for those opportunities.

In addition to all this, I have been a happy participant in the weekly political roundtable on Coy Barefoot's "Inside Charlottesville" show on 94.7 WPVC-FM, along with fellow panelists Jackson Landers and Shaun Kenney.  You can listen to us live on Monday afternoons at 5:00 o'clock.  There's a livestream of the program and it is also archived as a podcast on InsideCville.com.

The past week has been a whirlwind as I taught myself the basics of editing a 55-minute radio program but I hope the result is easy listening to provocative and timely interviews that inform our audiences and stimulate their conversations. One aim:  to syndicate the show to more broadcast stations, not just in Virginia but elsewhere in the United States, too.  If your favorite radio station could use some fresh content, please recommend "The Score" to its program director.

The Big Lie and How It Travels

After White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer audaciously lied, in his first news media briefing, about the attendance estimates at Friday's presidential inauguration, a friend on Facebook posted an analysis that has since gone viral on social media, particularly on Twitter.  For instance, Oscar-winning composer John Legend, Helen Hayes award-winning actor Will Gartshore, and Republican political consultant Ana Navarro all tweeted a screenshot of the mini-essay to their thousands of Twitter followers.

The provocative analysis has caused a stir -- a real conversation about facts, lies, and propaganda -- so, since the original author gave his permission to "copy and paste" his status as long as his name was removed and the originator remained anonymous, I'm offering it here to expand its reach. It deserves to be read, reposted, restated, and challenged.

The White House

If you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible man (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

U.S. Capitol

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

The point is, if the Trump administration and the President himself are willing to lie about such petty things as the number of people who were or were not on the National Mall on January 20, what will they do when they want to send American soldiers into battle in some far-off place? What will they do when the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues a monthly unemployment figures that is unflattering to the Administration? What will they do when the number of anti-Administration protesters far outnumbers the guests at the inauguration?

A final note: Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau proves himself amazingly adept at interpreting Donald Trump. His comic strip today, which had to have been drawn days before the inauguration, as the President in the White House challenging the news media's reports on the inauguration's attendance numbers. You can't make this stuff up.

Update: Russian chess champion and political dissident Garry Kasparov made a similar, and pithy, point on Twitter:

The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 13, 2016

On the Radio This Week: Guest Hosting 'Inside Charlottesville'

At the invitation of regular host Coy Barefoot, I will be substituting for him two days this week (Thursday and Friday) and two days next week (also Thursday and Friday).

Coy's show is called "Inside Charlottesville" and it is heard Monday through Friday from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on 107.5 WCHV-FM.  There is also a live stream on line (scroll down for more information).

I have already lined up a good group of guests who, I expect, will provoke an interesting conversation.  We'll be talking about sex offenders, Austrian economics, capital punishment, local politics, libertarianism, poet and Civil War nurse Walt Whitman, ethics, theatre, and the state of the law and litigation -- and that's just in the first four hours this week!

Tomorrow's guests (Thursday, July 23) will be:

Andrew Extein, executive director, Center for Sexual Justice (4:00 p.m. -- all times EDT)
Jimmy Morrison, documentary film maker, “The Bubble” (4:30 p.m.)
Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (5:00 p.m.)
and
Anson Parker, candidate for Charlottesville City Council (5:30 p.m.)

Friday's guests (July 24) will be:

David Boaz, executive vice president at the Cato Institute and author, The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom (4:00 p.m. EDT)
Garrett Peck, historian and author, Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C. (4:30 p.m.)
Jack Marshall, lawyer/ethicist, and co-founder and artistic director, The American Century Theater (5:00 p.m.)
and
Walter Olson, editor and publisher of Overlawyered.com and author of Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America (5:30 p.m.)

The schedule for next week is not completely filled out, but my guests on Thursday, July 30, and Friday, July 31, will include Wayne State University philosophy professor John Corvino; Steve Foerster, president of New World University; Will Hammer, Libertarian candidate for the Virginia General Assembly; and Thomas P. Rosandich, president of the United States Sports Academy.

I'll have more details about next week's shows as we draw closer to those dates and I've had a chance to flesh out the schedule.

In the meantime, tune in to WCHV-FM 107.5 in Charlottesville or listen to the livestream at www.insidecville.com.  That's where you'll be able to hear the podcasts if you miss the live broadcast.  If you want to call in to join the conversation, the number is 434-964-1075.  (I'll be repeating that a lot when we go on the air.)

Stating the obvious in a single newspaper headline

Charlottesville's Daily Progress wins the prize for stating the obvious in its banner headline on Sunday, October 12.

There, above the fold, was this shattering piece of news:

That's right:  "Not all churches open to same-sex marriage."

Next week we'll learn that "Not all halal butchers sell pork" and "Not all Unitarian-Universalists believe in god."

To be fair, the web version of the newspaper's article has a better, more explanatory headline -- but most readers of the Sunday Daily Progress read what's tossed on their lawns in the pre-dawn hours.

Virginia's 'Sprawling' Eighth District?

Get well wishes are due Delegate Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), who injured himself -- breaking a rib and fracturing other bones -- while campaigning for the Democratic party's congressional nomination in Virginia's Eighth District.

Or should I say Virginia's "sprawling" Eighth District, as that is the unlikely adjective used by the Washington Post's Patricia Sullivan in a squib appearing in Monday's print edition.

Sullivan writes:

Hope has been trying to visit every precinct in the sprawling district, which covers Alexandria, Falls Church, Arlington County and part of Fairfax County. He will have to abandon that effort, Tribbett said, and will now have to wear a rib belt, take painkillers and rest. Hope is one of seven Democrats vying to win the June 10 primary in a bid to succeed U.S. Rep. James P. Moran (D).

"Sprawling" is an odd word to use to describe this congressional district, which is geographically the smallest and arguably the most compact of Virginia's eleven districts. "Sprawling" more accurately describes the Fifth District, represented by Robert Hurt (R-Chatham). The Fifth stretches from the North Carolina border to the outer Northern Virginia suburbs of Fauquier County. It is often noted that the Fifth District is about the size of New Jersey.

As to the Eighth? It's no wonder that Delegate Hope has been doing door-to-door retail campaigning. He's running in just about the only congressional district in Virginia where that makes sense to do.

It's no wonder that Sullivan (or her editors) has omitted the word "sprawling" from a longer version of the story on the Post's web site.

Daily Progress to Charge More for Thanksgiving Day Edition

Today I received this message in my email box from Lawrence McConnell, publisher of the Charlottesville Daily Progress:

On Thanksgiving Day, we will deliver to you the biggest newspaper of the year! As always, it is loaded with information you can use and valuable advertising to get your holiday season off to the right start. Because of its sheer size, the Thanksgiving Day newspaper is one of the most expensive to produce and difficult to distribute. And many of our carriers must use additional help to complete deliveries in a timely manner.

Effective this year, we will charge a premium rate of $2.50 for the Thanksgiving Day newspaper. This charge will be debited to your newspaper account on Thanksgiving Day. The small increase in the rate for the Thanksgiving Day newspaper will result in a slightly earlier expiration date for your current subscription term.

We hope you can appreciate the value of the Thanksgiving Day newspaper and the necessity for the premium charge to partially cover our added expenses and those of your carrier.

Thank you for reading and supporting the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Now, I am aware as much as anybody of the challenges the legacy media face these days. Revenues are down, expenses are up, subscriptions are down, newsstand sales are down while competition proliferates in the form of cable and satellite TV stations, talk radio, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and web-only news sites.

But think about this for a moment: Just why is the Thanksgiving Day edition of the Daily Progress so big? Or that day's edition of any newspaper?

The answer should be obvious. It's because that day's newspaper carries more advertising than any other day of the year, with the possible exception of December 26.

In other words, the Daily Progress is saying, "Subscriber, we are charging you more because we are making more money that day."

I hope I'm not the only Daily Progress reader who noticed this attempt to turn us into Thanksgiving turkeys.

Post talking points on Bachmann and Dole

Michele Bachmann at CPAC 2010

(This article originally appeared on Virginia Politics on Demand on June 1, 2013.)

Say what you will about Michele Bachmann's middle-of-the-night announcement that she will not be seeking another term in Congress next year, but the Washington Post has the commentary down-pat.

Here are the opening paragraphs of Dana Milbank's page A2 analysis piece on May 29:

Bob Dole must be some kind of prophet.

Not 72 hours after Fox News Channel aired the former Republican leader’s suggestion that the GOP put out a “closed for repairs” sign, Michele Bachmann announced that she’s going out of business. Just like that, the Republican conglomerate got an unexpected chance to shutter one of the balkiest shops in its supply chain.

And here's the first paragraph of E.J. Dionne's oped piece, published the same day

Maybe Bob Dole has more clout in the Republican Party than we think. He suggested on Sunday that the party put up a “closed for repairs” sign for the rest of the year. Then along comes Michele Bachmann declaring on Wednesday that she won’t seek reelection.

This is the sort of coincidence one finds after letting the print edition of the newspaper sit unread for a couple of days. At least we know that both Milbank and Dionne got the memo. Who sent it is a question yet unanswered.

Top Ten Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner Stories for 2011

Much of my effort in on-line reporting during 2011 has been devoted to regular contributions of articles to Examiner.com as the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner.

Last week, I decided to investigate the top ten most popular stories of 2011, based upon the preferences of the readers of the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner, using statistics made available through Google Analytics.  No real patterns emerged.  Several of the favorites were about Virginia politics, others were interviews with national celebrities; the number one story was about a movie.  All of them were published during the calendar year 2011 and none were carryovers from 2010.

Surprisingly, two articles that used "porn" in the headline did not break the top ten:  "Library of Congress collects pornographic films, violent video games" (published November 4) and "Porn king Larry Flynt defends free speech in Charlottesville" (published November 6).

Apparently adult content no longer has the cachet on the Internet that it once had. Not so long ago, using words like "porn," "erotica," "panties," or "scrotum" would be a surefire path to search engine optimization (SEO). Paraphrasing a Supreme Court decision and replacing "penumbra" with "aureola" was pure traffic-enhancing gold. But, it seems, no more.

For reasons of space, I ended up publishing three "Year in Review" articles on Examiner.com, dividing the top ten into groups of three, four, and three.

What follows is just the list of the ten most popular Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner articles of 2011. To see the annotations, please visit the original year in review pieces published on December 16, December 17, and December 18.

#10 - NEH chairman Jim Leach talks about ‘civility’ in Charlottesville
[Published March 17, 2011]

#9 - Disappointment as Va. House subcommittee votes to keep pot possession a crime
[Published January 17, 2011]

#8 - Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell says GOP stands for ‘equal opportunity for all’
[Published October 26, 2011]

#7 - Libertarian writers Welch and Gillespie unveil the ‘Declaration of Independents’
[Published July 19, 2011]

#6 - Virginia’s school supplies ‘tax-free holiday’ more complicated than necessary
[Published August 4, 2011]

#5 - Attorneys Ted Olson, David Boies discuss Proposition 8 and gay marriage at Cato
[Published May 18, 2011]

#4 - Charlottesville write-ins reveal voters’ allegiance, impishness
[Published November 9, 2011]

#3 - Libertarian reactions to the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces
[Published May 2, 2011]

#2 - Gary Johnson wins RLC straw poll, places third in CPAC poll
[Published February 13, 2011]


Drum roll, please...

#1 - 'Atlas Shrugged' movie: Audience reactions mixed, box office returns respectable
[Published April 17, 2011]

Next year will bring new topics, new stories, new personalities and -- eventually -- a new year in review article.

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Tax-Free Shopping Revisited

In 2006 and 2008, I wrote blog posts about Virginia's tax-free holiday for back-to-school shoppers.  The first such holiday was in August 2006, which means that this year's "celebration" is the sixth consecutive one.

Last night, I published an article about the tax-free holiday weekend on Examiner.com, which made the argument that the lengthy list of tax-exempt and non-exempt items is inconsistent, confusing, and needlessly complicated.  It would be better, I said, for the General Assembly to simplify the whole matter by declaring that all retail items priced at $100 or less should be tax-free during the tax-free holiday period.  (Both the 72 hour window and the $100 limit are arbitrary.  Each of those numbers could be bigger or smaller.)

The article caught the attention of Jim Hanchett, news director at CBS19 TV in Charlottesville (part of the Charlottesville Newsplex, which also includes the local Fox and ABC affiliates).  He assigned reporter Frankie Jupiter to do a story on the topic, which included an interview with me conducted at the Ix Building studios of the Newsplex.

Here's the video from tonight's 5:00 o'clock newscast:

Jupiter also interviewed a local sporting-goods store owner, and he pointed out that swimming trunks are tax-exempt, but swimming goggles are not. (I had pointed out, in my article and the interview, that dancer's clothing, like leotards and tights, is tax-exempt, but ballet and tap shoes are not.) Jupiter said he found the list of exempt and non-exempt items from a link in my Examiner.com article and was amazed at the complexity and inconsistency.

Some excerpts from the print version of the interview:

The first day of school is right around the corner, which means back to school shopping, and this weekend in Virginia you can do yours tax free.

But Rick Sincere, a local blogger, says the rules on what is tax free and what isn't are way too complicated.

"We have these weird combinations where an athletic supporter is tax exempted but athletic shoes with cleats are not."

* * *

"A lot of the things on the list that are tax exempt have no relation to school at all. Wedding dresses, now if you can find a wedding dress for less than $100 you deserve a lot of credit," said Sincere.

And items such as printer paper, printer ink and zip drives are not tax exempt.

"Simplify it, simplify it, simplify it."

Sincere suggests tax breaks for anything $100 or less across the board, not just school.

"Easy to understand, much easier for our retailers who have to program their computers."

My article for Examiner.com is headlined "Virginia’s school supplies ‘tax-free holiday’ more complicated than necessary" and can also be found through Google News.

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Governor Gary Johnson Plays 'Not My Job' on NPR

Gary Johnson in Charlottesville

"Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" is a weekly quiz show on NPR stations, usually broadcast on Saturdays or Sundays.  The show is recorded on Thursdays.  It's normal home is in Chicago, but sometimes it goes on the road.  A few years ago, I attended a taping at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Each week features a segment called "Not My Job," in which a celebrity -- actor, singer, author, race-car driver, computer guru -- has to answer three questions on an obscure topic.  The point is that the questions are about things the contestant knows nothing about.

This week's "Not My Job" contestant was former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.  In the introduction, "Wait, Wait" host Peter Sagal (author of The Book of Vice:  Very Naughty Things [and How to Do Them]) reviewed Governor Johnson's qualifications for high office:

Gary Johnson built a construction business from nothing; then became a two-term Republican governor of a Democratic-leaning state, New Mexico. He cut taxes and put the budget in surplus. He has competed in triathlons and climbed Everest. He lives in a house he built himself. And he once put our a forest fire with his feet.

During the pre-quiz interview, Sagal noted:

We looked you up and we were amazed. You are like - if we had like a campaign consultant draw up the ideal candidate, it would be you. You are fiscally conservative, which is absolutely essential these days. You cut taxes in New Mexico. You vetoed all these budget - I mean you actually held the record for vetoes nationally, right, during your two terms?

When Johnson replied that he had vetoed more bills than the other 49 governors combined, Sagal quipped:

Right. And Republicans love that. They love people who hate laws.

Later, the host recounted some of Johnson's additional accomplishments, and how they might prepare him for the presidency:

I just want to say, I mean one of the things you hear a lot about in presidential primaries is toughness, how tough is he. And you've got this locked. You've done four or fire Hawaii Ironman Triathlons. That's the two mile swim, the hundred mile bike ride, the marathon....

You've climbed Mount Everest, plus three other of the tallest mountains on the various continents. Don't you think after all that the Oval Office would be dull?

Johnson's response says a lot about his character:

From a personal standpoint, I think this is really one of life's great adventures, and I'm really thrilled to be a part of it. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I could do the job. I wouldn't be doing this is I didn't think I could do a good job at doing the job. But thirdly, that personal notion of this really, I think, is right up there with regard to adventure and maybe one of the great adventures of humankind.

Sagal went on to point out that while a lot of Republicans "pick and choose" when it comes to small government, Johnson is a libertarian through and through. That leads to a discussion of traffic signals and speed limits.

At the end of the interview -- just before the three quiz questions about sex tapes and viral videos involving Paris Hilton, Rebecca Black, and Sandra Bullock's ex, Jesse James -- Sagal asked Johnson a general question about the other GOP presidential candidates. Johnson's off-the-cuff response is priceless. Here's the partial transcript:

SAGAL: Do you ever look around at the other candidates on the dais with you or on the trail with you and say "oh I wish I had that"? Is there any characteristic of any other Republican candidate that you wish you had?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Gov.JOHNSON: Or, do I look around and go, you know I got the best of all of that stuff?

(Soundbite of laughter)

(Soundbite of applause)

I have to say, it's nice to hear my favorite presidential candidate on my favorite public radio program.

If you like this blog post, you might also like:

Sagal and Ferguson on the 'Real America'
Gary Johnson on WINA's 'The Schilling Show'
RLC Videos: Peter Schiff and Gary Johnson
"Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me"
Is There a Litmus Test for Conservative Republicans?

And on Examiner.com, you'll find:

At the 9/12 March on Washington: Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson aims 'to put a voice to the outrage'
Gary Johnson wins RLC straw poll, places third in CPAC poll
Gary Johnson reflects on his first visit to Jefferson's Monticello

You can hear Gary Johnson's interview and find out how well he did on the "Not My Job Quiz" by listening here. To listen to the complete program, click here.

Update:  The Johnson for President campaign has put the full interview and "Not My Job" quiz on YouTube.

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Social Media Mischief at The Washington Times?

The Washington Times has an article on its web site about Thursday's Capitol Hill hearing on Don't Ask Don't Tell, the now-repealed policy that prohibits the service of open and honest gay and lesbian Americans in the military.

The headline and subhead read:

Services OK with ending ‘don’t ask’
No ‘push-back,’ brass reports to Capitol Hill

The first paragraph says:

Preparations for repealing the military’s ban on openly homosexual service members have proceeded very well — even among Marines, who have not demonstrated any resistance, the Marine Corps commandant testified Thursday.

If you click to share the story on Facebook, however, the headline reads:

Lawmaker skeptical of repeal of 'don't ask' - Washington Times

And the excerpted first paragraph, designed to appear on Facebook's feed, says:

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said on Thursday that he is troubled by the rushed way the Obama administration is moving to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military.

Similarly, if you click to share on Twitter, you get this retweet:

RT @washtimes Congress skeptical of repeal of military's gay ban - Washington Times http://bit.ly/i1eqHq

However, if you click on a different Twitter icon, you get this:

Services OK with ending 'don't ask' - Washington Times http://t.co/la0otOW via @AddThis

(Note that the shortened URLs are different in the two different Tweets.)

And if you click on a different Facebook button, you get this:

Services OK with ending 'don't ask' - Washington Times
Preparations for repealing the military's ban on openly homosexual service members have proceeded very well — even among Marines, who have not demonstrated any resistance, the Marine Corps commandant testified Thursday.

Confused? I was.

It looks like somebody at the Washington Times -- I don't know who, but it's certainly not the reporter who wrote the story, Shaun Waterman -- is attempting to put a spin on the story through social media that is not borne out by the actual report itself.

I just noticed this by chance.  An important question to ask is, does the Washington Times do this with other articles, or is this a one-off phenomenon?  What are the ethics of changing the headline and the emphasis of a story when spreading it through social media sites?  Is this worthy of criticism?

Your thoughts are welcome in the comments space, below.

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Jim Webb Visits PVCC

Earlier today, U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) visited the campus of Piedmont Virginia Community College near Charlottesville.

Webb's stay was not long, perhaps 90 minutes in all, but he packed in several activities in the process. 

At about 1:00 p.m., he met with PVCC students who are utilizing the educational benefits available through the GI Bill and others who qualify for financial assistance under the "Great Expectations" program.

Those eligible for GI Bill assistance are, of course, military veterans, many of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are 102 PVCC students attending under the GI Bill.  The Great Expectations program is for students who are emerging from the foster care system; there are 42 people in that category attending PVCC.  Webb spoke about his principal role in creating an upgraded and expanded version of the GI Bill to fit the circumstances of a post-9/11 environment.

At 1:30 p.m., Webb gave some brief remarks to an audience of about 160 people in the auditorium of the V. Earl Dickinson Building.  He is introduced here by the college's president, Dr. Frank Friedman.

He spoke for just over 10 minutes and then opened the floor to questions for another 10 minutes or so.  (At the end of this segment, Dr. Friedman presents Senator Webb with a "Virginia cup" and a hoodie emblazoned with the PVCC logo.)

When that session ended, Senator Webb was escorted backstage where he engaged local news media in an informal press gaggle. Reporters from the Daily Progress, WINA-AM, NBC29, and the Charlottesville Newsplex were there, as well as yours truly, representing Examiner.com and The Metro Herald in Alexandria.  (C-VILLE and The Hook were conspicuous by their absence.)

While the TV cameras were setting up, I lobbed the first question in Senator Webb's direction.  I asked him about the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which was signed last month by both countries in an updated version.  (The Bush 43 Administration first negotiated the agreement in 2007, but it has been languishing for more than three years while both the U.S. Congress and the Korean National Assembly have delayed ratification.)  Webb indicated that he is a strong supporter of the agreement.

I reported Webb's answers to my questions on Examiner.com, as well as his replies to a related question from WINA radio's Chris Callahan. (Callahan's question and mine are not included in the press gaggle video, above, because I was operating my audio recorder at the time and picked up the video camera when the TV reporters started filming.)

Perhaps the most politically pertinent question addressed to Senator Webb -- what does he think about a rematch with former Senator George Allen in 2012? -- was answered with a curt "no comment."

Before Senator Webb arrived, I was able to interview PVCC's president, Frank Friedman, who offered his suggestion for a question that should be asked of the senator in the public forum.

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Survey Says? Bloggers Shape Opinion

The second of two (so far) annual surveys by the Society for New Communications Research has found that professional journalists have a stronger, more positive opinion about social media that both leads those journalists to use social media as a tool to disseminate information and also to rely on social media -- including Facebook and Twitter, for example, but also blogs -- as sources of information.

The survey was conducted by Jen McClure, the founder and president of the Society for New Communications Research (also CMO and director of community development for Redwood Collaborative Media), and Don Middleberg, CEO of Middleberg Communications. The survey included 341 journalists from around the world, with 54 percent from the United States. Among the survey's findings:

* Nearly 70 percent of journalists are using social networking sites, a 28% increase since the [previous] 2008 study

* 48 percent are using Twitter or other microblogging sites and tools, a 25% increase since 2008

* 66 percent are using blogs

* 48 percent are using online video

* 25 percent are using podcasts

* More than 90 percent of journalists agree that new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism to some extent

The most intriguing finding (to me, at least) was this:

Nearly 80 percent of respondents agreed that new media and communications technologies allow them to report with greater accuracy, and 80 percent of journalists believe that bloggers have become important opinion shapers in the 21st century and many are increasingly incorporating citizen-generated media into their reporting.

Paolina Milana, executive vice president for Marketing/Editorial Operations/Media Relations at Marketwire, a corporate sponsor of the study, said:

Social media is immediate, it is accessible, and it has irrevocably changed the relationship between makers, reporters and consumers of news. The more that all journalistic participants understand each other's needs, how they use various media channels at their disposal, and how they want to work with PR professionals, the better the entire communication process will be.

H/T Joe Ciarallo



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Why Dress in Texas?

DC Agenda (successor to the venerable Washington Blade) has an interview with two Arlington residents who help contestants in female beauty pageants.  One of their "projects" is the new Miss America, Caressa Cameron.

The story, by Tyrone Ford, begins:

Chip Brown and his partner, Scott Freda, have achieved their dream by helping someone else achieve theirs.

The two gay men recently assisted 22-year-old Caressa Cameron of Fredericksburg, Va., as she worked toward becoming the latest woman to win the Miss America crown. Brown and Freda, who started the Miss Arlington Scholarship Organization nine years ago in keeping with their love of pageants, worked with Cameron as the Miss Virginia champion prepared last month to compete for the Miss America title.

A member of the Miss Virginia and Miss America families, the Miss Arlington Scholarship Organization previously helped three women take the Miss Virginia title. Cameron is their first champion to win the Miss America contest.

Later we find this curious exchange:

Agenda: After being in the pageant business for nine years now, what do you personally do to assist these young women?

Brown: We help them with their platforms, we take care of the paperwork, we do mock interviews and we help them shop for outfits. Every year, I take Miss Arlington to Texas and I buy her a dress or have one made by a dressmaker in Texas.

If any answer cries out for a follow-up question, it's that one.

Why Texas? Not that there's anything wrong with the Lone Star State (my visits there have been pleasant and educational) but it's not exactly known for haute couture. One's inclination is to think that, if you want to dress up a beauty pageant contestant, you'd go to New York or Paris or Milan. But why buy a dress in Texas?

The answer is probably that Mr. Brown knows a fashion designer in Austin or Laredo. But Ford doesn't ask the implied follow-up question.

In related news -- since, unless things have changed in the 30 years since I last saw a Miss America Pageant, there is still a swimsuit competition -- the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit issue is out, and it's a big moneymaker for the magazine and its parent company, Time Warner.

The cover model is Brooklyn Decker, opposite-sex spouse of tennis player Andy Roddick, and the issue is, as usual, getting a lot of buzz.

Dylan Stableford reports on The Wrap:

Make no mistake: the swimsuit issue is big business. Here are some hard numbers.

The issue generates 7 percent of the annual ad revenue SI generates. This year, SI sold 67 ad pages into its swimsuit issue, which was flat over last year. (In 2009, though, pages were down 33 percent -- so maybe that’s a sign the ad market is stabilizing.)

The magazine points out that more than a dozen advertisers created custom packages for the issue -- making it something like the print equivalent of the Super Bowl broadcast for print creatives on Madison Avenue.

And at the newsstand, the magazine usually sells well over a million single copies, or about 10-15 times how many regular issues of SI are sold.

I make no claim to understand the motives of heterosexual adolescent males, but aren't there a lot of other outlets for soft porn on the Internet? Perhaps the SI swimsuit issue is just a ritual or rite of passage, like getting a driver's license or a boy's first hangover.

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Asking for Whom the Bell Tolls?

Forget about the sacking of its top three business-side executives, or the "resignations" of executive editor John Solomon and editorial page editor Richard Miniter.

If you want the strongest sign that The Washington Times is teetering on the edge of self-destruction, consider this: The paper has dropped its comics page, which has not appeared in the past two days.

When a whole section of a newspaper disappears without comment, you know that trouble is at hand.

At least Mallard Fillmore -- which, oddly enough, started at the Daily Progress in liberal Charlottesville -- remains on page A2 of the Times.




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Weekly Wrap-Up 1

Sometimes one comes across interesting, intriguing, or -- let's be honest -- silly items in the news media or around Web 2.0 that deserve being pointed out, but don't require extended commentary.

With that in mind, I have decided to start a weekly (perhaps less frequent) series of posts that simply list a few of those items and let readers look at them, if they wish, or skip them, if they prefer.

Here, in no particular order, is the weekly wrap-up for Thursday, October 1, 2009.

The Cato Institute's Gene Healy, author of The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power, extends his thesis to include the Obama administration's strategy to impose green values on U.S. economic policy, in an article earlier this week in the Washington Examiner.

Reason.tv names its "Nanny of the Month" for September 2009.

Legendary risks/benefits analyst Sam Kazman notes that living without cars is a luxury only the urban rich can afford, in an op-ed piece in the Washington Examiner.

Speaking of cars, the Wall Street Journal reports that former Vice President Al Gore is one of the investors in an automobile manufacturing firm that is being subsidized by American taxpayers. The company is making high-end sports cars that run on electric engines -- playthings for the green-oriented wealthy car owner.

Speaking of Al Gore, former Virginia state climatologist Patrick Michaels reveals in National Review Online that the historical tempurature data purporting to prove global warming -- oops, global climate change -- has been destroyed or lost. At least it is not being made available to researchers.

Educational administrator Steve Foerster asks why two University of California-Berkeley executives engage in special pleading, in their Washington Post op-ed that argues for expanding federal taxpayer subsidies to state universities.

Radley Balko documents another ridiculous result of the multiplying tentacles of the government's War on Drugs: a grandmother arrested in Indiana for buying too much cold medication for her family. The original article he found, from the Tribune-Star in Indiana, is here.

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia (the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nominee) looks at how the idea of a "summit meeting" has been dumbed down. He also points out that common sense can solve more problems than two-day government-sponsored conferences, and do so more efficiently.

Speaking of the LP, Libertarian candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates Matt Cholko is profiled in the Springfield Connection. Matt is running in the 39th House of Delegates District.

An alternative newspaper in Colorado is looking for potential pot reviewers. (I don't mean cooking utensils; I mean marijuana.) Will they double up as fast-food restaurant reviewers?

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are in Copenhagen to persuade the International Olympic Committee to grant Chicago the rights to host the Olympic Games in 2016. If they are successful, it will be a Pyrrhic victory. A story on NPR's Morning Edition noted that Olympic Games-hosting is a money-losing proposition, despite all the hype. Here's the money quote:

"There has never been an Olympic Games that has made a profit," says Robert Barney, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Barney is also co-author of Selling The Five Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism.

Fold in all the costs and revenues, he says, "including federal allotments, municipal allotments, provincial or state allotments, it's always been that a debt has to be paid somewhere."

Benoit Denizet-Lewis has a cover story in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine on a neglected topic: coming out in middle school. Anyone who used to be a gay teenager should read this article. So should anyone who is or will be the parent of teenagers.

Ryan Sager points to a widely-commented-upon study about "gaydar." Those really, really interested can see the original study (or at least the abstract) by Nicholas O. Rule here. Those slightly less interested can see a newspaper report in the Tufts Daily and a report on a different, but thematically related, study in the Boston Globe. Blogger Jena Pincott also comments.

Finally, I found a very funny video on YouTube, a parody of the famous "David After Dentist" video that now has had over 30 million views. (When I first saw it several months ago, it only had about 600,000.) Be sure to watch the whole thing.

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