Where’s The Journalism???

Local sports coverage is slipping in Oklahoma.  As a former member of the Tulsa media, it saddens me to make that statement.  Covering local sports was my passion and my livelihood.  Back then I sensed it, and even more so now, I see the profession slowly dying.

There is no longer an investment being made in real, substantial journalism.  When I tune into local news these days, I cringe because each station’s sportscast is predictable and dull.  Each channel airs a slightly altered version of the same show.

It’s fine to show highlights from the Drillers, Shock, Talons, Barons, OU, OSU, and of course the Thunder.  However, I have a feeling no one is flipping on their TV to see a couple of lousy highlights.  Nobody is sitting at home anxiously awaiting 20 seconds of Redhawks footage.

So why do stations fall into this cookie cutter pattern?  Is it because the anchors and producers are afraid to miss something or is it because they’ve been in the same routine for so long that they’re just too comfy and complacent to think outside the box?  Frankly, I know it’s the latter because I was guilty of it when I sat at the anchor desk.

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On the Horizon: The Man Behind the Voice

For many, author Michael Wallis is the voice of the heartland. A transplanted Tulsan, Wallis made his literary mark with books on the famous and infamous. In addition, Wallis is well known for his passion for the open road, penning multiple books on route 66.

He also garnered fame as the voice of the sheriff in the Pixar movie, Cars. In this week’s video blog, I visit with the author about what he believes writing is all about.
~ Rob McClendon

On the Horizon: The Man Behind the Voice from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

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Casey Anthony: The Real-Life Keyser Soze

In the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, small-time con man Verbal Kint spins an elaborate tale about a Turkish criminal mastermind and murderer named Keyser Soze, whom few have ever seen and whose very existence is doubted.  At the end of the film, the investigators discover too late that Kint’s story was largely a highly-detailed fabrication, made up almost entirely and on the spot from cues he spotted around the office in which he had been interrogated.  He was released and, in one of the all-time most fascinating cinematic shockers, we see him walking away and transforming sinisterly into his Keyser Soze persona.

I love getting duped in movies.  Getting duped in real life is a different story.  Does the above sound eerily familiar to the fantastical tales we heard throughout the highly publicized Casey Anthony trial?  The difference is that the movie is fiction meant for our enjoyment, while the murder of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony is very, very real.  By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard the “Not Guilty” verdict and, like me, have expressed thoughts and emotions about the jury’s decision and the performance of the legal teams.  One camp celebrated jubilantly while the other walked away in sadness and disgust.

I am not a lawyer and I don’t pretend to be one on t.v.  I tried my darnedest to avoid being the judge presiding over the Court of Public Opinion.  However, I longed for answers – for Caylee, the Anthony family, and society – and I was utterly disappointed.  The truth did not prevail because the truth was so completely mangled from the beginning that no one could determine right from wrong or up from down.  From the moment the world became enraptured by the images of that little girl, I’ve watched tragedy turn to train wreck.  I’ve seen a trial become a three-ring circus.  And Casey was the ringmaster as she spat out lie after lie after lie.  Continue reading Casey Anthony: The Real-Life Keyser Soze

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The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 27

#27 of 52 : BETH AND MABEL
Imaginary Family Project - Week 27

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
I remember her hands, always her hands—moving when she talked.  Emphasis and emotion rolling from her fingers, a constant energy in the air.  Some nights I sat on the floor in front of her by the fire as she wound my hair in her hands, coiling each lock into a perfect pin curl.  “There, Beauty,” she whispered. “All ready.  Are you packed?”  For thirty years we were together.  For many of those years I was a photojournalist and split my life between worlds.  With them and abroad.

On that day in the photograph, she was coming out of the back of the cathedral, carrying the baby tucked closely to her.  She never took her out in a pram, wanting to keep the child constantly connected, it seemed.  But I had watched them in the church before.  I often came to the cathedral to study light and shadow.  Sinner and salvation.  To duck out of the rustling hum and chill of the city turning to fall.  To be lost.  To be found.  And then I found her there. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 27

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Five Rules for Dads Raising Daughters

I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs lately on fatherhood and raising girls. From what I’ve read, there seems to be at least five common threads (probably more) running through most of the stuff that really speaks to me. Maybe they’re not really rules. Maybe they’re more like tips… tips, hints, suggestions, guidelines, or something like that. Whatever you call them, in no particular order, here are five:

1. Love her mom. Treat her mother with respect, honor, and a big heaping spoonful of public displays of affection. When she grows up, the odds are good she’ll fall in love with someone who treats her much like you treated her mother. Good or bad, that’s just the way it is. I’d prefer good.
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