Archive for the ‘Great Moments in Journalism’ Category
Why I Love Local News: N.C. towns greet new year with giant pickle, flea
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I, um, I remember the Brasstown Possum.
In North Carolina, nothing says “Happy New Year” like a giant pickle. Except maybe a giant flea.
Towns and cities across the state are planning to welcome 2011 with their own distinct variations on the world-famous Times Square ball drop.
Raleigh will drop its famous acorn, while the Cumberland County town of Eastover will drop a 3-foot-tall, 30-pound flea made of fabric and wood.
A celebration in Kure Beach will include the dropping of a giant lighted beach ball. And in the Clay County community of Brasstown, people will gather for the annual lowering of the possum. …
Full story (AP via WNCN-TV/Raleigh, N.C.)
Cat scratch fever
Jim Davis wants you to know that he really, really — really — regrets yesterday’s “Garfield” strip, which some people thought might be offensive to veterans.
That’s “Garfield” — representative of all that’s safe and bland in the comics world — and “offensive to veterans” in the same sentence.
If that seems unlikely, there’s a reason. It turns out the strip offended nearly no one, veterans included. All it did was create a manufactured mini-controversy based on journalists’ assumptions that it would — substantiating my hypothesis that we’re frequently skipping basic reporting steps in our eagerness to stay up to Web speed.
Why I Love Local News: Writers Who Are Too Young Dept.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steve Conway, who had been working on the budget since the winter coat days, wore a sears sucker suit, as he carried out the finished budget in a big cardboard box.
You, too, can live through a plane crash!
The Washington Post has amazing video of the vintage plane that tipped over on landing at Washington Dulles International Airport — thanks to its passenger, a Washington Post reporter who was in the plane and wearing a headcam.
No one was injured.
Don’t Blame the Crew, Dude
The best part of this clip is the anchor’s deer-in-the-headlights look when it comes back to him.
Frustrated Field Reporter (via probablybadnews.com)
Worst or Best Obit Ever?
I’ve confirmed through archives (see photo) that this really did run in the Vallejo Times-Herald, although the original is no longer online.
Alex Johnson - Journalist at Large 