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30 March 2009
Clay Robison has left the building
Clay Robison, the longtime Chronicle Austin bureau newsman (six days per week) and editorialist (one day per week), pens his farewell column for today's newspaper.
Much of the column is the customary reflection on a long career on a beat, although Robison couldn't resist dispensing this bit of advice:
I offer an observation to bloggers, whose presence in the political arena is expanding as the ranks of traditional news reporters thin. There is a difference between reporting and spinning. I have done both for a long time, and reporting is a lot harder.
With regard to the bolded portion -- yes, you have, and the combination of heading up the news bureau six days per week and producing a reliably lefty opinion column one day per week was one that many of us found odd (and, frankly, part of the problem).
So ... kudos to Clay Robison for a long run in a career he obviously enjoyed. Maybe we'll even see his writing surface somewhere; surely there's a publication that could make good use of his institutional knowledge. But looking to the future (instead of back), let's hope the Chronicle Austin bureau moving forward takes Robison's parting advice to heart, and focuses only on reporting. There are plenty of sources of opinion these days, but those (we?) editorialists are, in most cases, no substitute for hard-news reporting done by pros.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Clay Robison has left the building"> 03/30/09 07:37 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
15 May 2006
Chron Austin bureau chief reads Governor Perry's mind
The Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and Sunday lefty editorialist Clay Robison had an odd conclusion to yesterday's editorial on third-party gubernatorial candidates Carol Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman:
Next year, if Perry has his way, [Strayhorn] will be retired, with lots of time for her grandkids. That's the gentle version of the governor's vision. Another version would be less charitable ... and probably illegal.
Does Robison really mean to charge Governor Perry with sinister thoughts about a mere political opponent?
Or is Robison simply trying (and failing) to be funny?
Either way, it once again illustrates the peril of having the bureau chief offering up scattershot opinions one day per week about the people he's supposed to cover "objectively" the other six days of the week.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/06 10:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
05 April 2005
Why is this guy in charge of the Austin news bureau?
Matt Bramanti fairly well exposed Robison's ignorance of American constitutionalism by pointing out to Robison that he might actually read the text of our venerable Constitution before ranting incorrectly about Congressional authority to alter jurisdiction of courts.
A quality newspaper surely wouldn't run editorials of this quality every Sunday.
Alas, we don't have a quality newspaper in this city. Yet.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/05 07:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
19 June 2005
Robison: Perry promoting "prejudice and divisiveness"
Weekend partisan lefty ranter and weekday "objective Austin news bureau chief" Clay Robison criticizes Governor Perry today for his support of traditional versus gay marriage in Texas:
For better or worse, Perry has hitched his re-election to the social conservatives who are influential in the Republican primary and who warmly applaud further restrictions against same-sex marriages.There isn't anything wrong, of course, with the governor courting conservatives, but he should be more careful to temper his remarks. Even on the eve of what may be a hotly contested re-election campagn, the governor is supposed to lead, not divide.
The same-sex marriage amendment, however, doesn't invite leadership as much as it promotes prejudice and divisiveness.
Leaving aside the horror of a politician courting conservative voters in a conservative state, one still is left wondering why Clay Robison thinks his own position on gay marriage is preferable to the 60-70% of voters who will vote yes on the gay-marriage amendment he is discussing, voters he's come very close to accusing of being prejudiced.
Robison is no fan of social conservatives in Texas, as he makes clear in this editorial. Fine. We're no fan of Austin bureau chiefs who have such strong antipathy towards social conservatives, and we think there should be more of a firewall between opinion and news. The Chronicle editors obviously feel differently.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison: Perry promoting "prejudice and divisiveness""> 06/19/05 10:43 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (15)
10 October 2004
Robison gives himself away
Clay Robison, the Chronicle's Austin news bureau chief, moonlights as a hyperpartisan editorialist on weekends.
It's an arrangement that doesn't seem to give Jeff Cohen pause, although Texas Media Watch's Sherry Sylvester has frequently pointed out that it should.
Today, Robison is throwing flames in his typical fashion. This sentence is probably more revealing than he intended, however:
The most obvious is the war in Iraq, which is producing divisions in America that are beginning to remind us of the Vietnam era.
Us?
You're not speaking for me, Mr. Robison.
Maybe you intended to refer to coworkers at the Chronicle? Or perhaps you were referring to liberals who oppose any projection of American power abroad? Or maybe you were referring to supporters of Senator Kerry?
But please, be specific about the groups YOU are affiliated with. And please don't include me in that "us." Thanks!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison gives himself away"> 10/10/04 08:29 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
31 October 2004
Robison's world - cont'd
Clay Robison, the Chronicle's Austin news bureau chief who moonlights as hyperpartisan editorialist every Sunday, penned another column blasting Governor Rick Perry (R) and conservatives today.
This excerpt from the column is all too typical of Robison:
Perry's political "sensitivities," if you can call them that, are more limited and defined by what must be an overwhelming urge not to be blindsided from the right.In a concrete sense, that urge has led to such things as cuts in health care for children and other important state services, an unwillingness to raise state taxes to adequately and equitably fund the public schools, and a hard-line stance in favor of the death penalty. You may recall that a few months ago Perry even allowed a severely mentally ill man to be executed after the governor's own appointees on the Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended commutation of the sentence to life imprisonment.
In Robison's worldview, mean conservatives are all out to hurt children, execute the innocent, and keep taxes low for rich people.
As we frequently point out, if the Chronicle's editors want to feature such childish, simplistic columns on their editorial pages, that's certainly their prerogative. However, it continues to boggle the mind that Jeff Cohen lets someone who writes columns like this on Sundays direct the newspaper's coverage of state politics the rest of the week.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison's world - cont'd"> 10/31/04 09:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 May 2005
Robison: Perry didn't really show fiscal restraint
Leave it to reliable lefty (on the weekends *wink wink* -- he's an objective news bureau head the rest of the time!) Clay Robison to beat up Chronicle "bad guy" Rick Perry (R), who got a bit of indirect, positive press from the Wall Street Journal this week in a story more directly aimed at Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R):
THE myth that Texas leaders bridged a $10 billion revenue shortfall two years ago without an assault on taxpayers' pocketbooks continues to be perpetuated, most recently — and on a national scale — by The Wall Street Journal.An editorial in The Journal last week applauded Gov. Rick Perry for "heroically" closing the gap "without a penny of new taxes."
Nonsense.
The paper overlooked, of course, all the increases in local school taxes that have helped keep the public schools open since then.
No, not nonsense. A bit of hyperbole perhaps, since user fees (and tuition is a user fee) increased on some items, but the Chronicle is certainly guilty of hyperbole on its editorial pages from time to time (not to mention outright distortion and error).
Governor Perry did hold the line on major new taxes at a time when leaders in some states -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- showed no such restraints, and at a time when Texas liberals like Clay Robison were almost giddy with the thought that Texas might finally institute an income tax. No nonsense there, just fact.
Perry never has gotten much mileage out of that act of fiscal restraint -- especially since major editorial boards in the state have blasted away ever since at him for resulting cuts in "services" (otherwise known as wealth redistribution) -- and that's bad news for the Governor, because he will need to use the issue effectively if he faces a serious primary challenge.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison: Perry didn't really show fiscal restraint"> 05/15/05 04:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
31 October 2005
Robison: Prop 2 proponents really no different from KKK
Clay Robison's Sunday op-ed is some pretty asinine journalism, even considering the source (who's an expert):
STATE Rep. Warren Chisum apparently was surprised when the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to hold a pre-election rally in Austin in support of his constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage.
He shouldn't have been, because flies are attracted to garbage wherever they may find it.Chisum, a Republican from Pampa, isn't a cowardly cross-burner who takes delight in bashing African-Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. But his sponsorship of Proposition 2 on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot offers the KKK another opportunity to do what it does best — promote prejudice and hatred, albeit of a different brand than produced the racial lynchings of not so many years ago.
I am not equating the debate over whether homosexual couples should be allowed to marry to the long, often bloody civil rights struggle of blacks and Hispanics in America.
But....
I omitted the rest of the sentence that begins "But" because it contradicts the bolded paragraph. Robison is indeed doing exactly what he says he's not doing. Perhaps his frothing produced a shock from his keyboard, thereby causing his confusion.
There are reasonable arguments for and against Proposition 2. And then there is Robison's column, which really isn't the sort of thing one expects to find in a quality newspaper.
Jeff Cohen and the rest of the Chronicle's executive editorial leadership, of course, expect readers to believe that Robison can crank out work like this on Sundays, but serve as a completely objective bureau chief six days per week. That's laughable.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison: Prop 2 proponents really no different from KKK"> 10/31/05 09:36 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 December 2004
Unintentional humor from Clay Robison
Clay Robison penned an unintentionally amusing column about Governor Rick Perry today.
By the usual weekend editorial standards of the hyperpartisan Austin news bureau chief, it was relatively tame stuff, much less incendiary than his usual fare, although still replete with the usual bellyaching that the state is not engaged in enough wealth redistribution.
Mainly, though, he took Governor Perry to task for factual errors contained in a display about him in a Texas museum.
Such nitpicking is rich coming from the newspaper that recently misidentified Dan Rather's network affiliation and reported Lee Brown worked for the Bush (not Clinton) Administration, not to mention the newspaper that threatens local bloggers for excerpting its articles even though its metro/state columnist is not punished for reproducing another person's copyrighted text, without proper attribution (some call that plagiarism).
Robison's funny, even if he doesn't know it.
And then there's this separate, odd recollection of Texas votes in the 1980s that ran this weekend, which isn't funny, but isn't really anything else either.
Mr. Robison may need a vacation. Or maybe he actually was taking a vacation when he phoned in these latest columns.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Clay Robison"> 12/05/04 11:37 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
14 November 2004
Recollection day at the Chronicle
The Chronicle's three partisan staff editorialists must be worn out from all the electioneering and "bad guy" articles they've penned through the election season.
That's the best explanation I can manage for today's "recollection series," in which Clay Robison recalls Governor Bush's efforts at tax reform in Texas, Rick Casey recalls his time as a non-Harris County grand juror, and Robison further recalls various Texas election challenges (a double shot of Robison).
While it's not especially groundbreaking or exciting journalism (although Robison seems way out there with his speculation of what might happen to Republicans IF they vote for a new election in the Heflin/Vo race IF Heflin contests the election -- so many IFs would suggest to good editors this story isn't ripe for publication yet), it's at least not offensive journalism.
Even Cragg Hines seems to have dialed down the rhetoric on the editorial page today.
We're happy to applaud such baby steps from those three columnists. Maybe more trips down memory lane are in order for at least two of them. Whatever it takes!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/04 04:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 January 2009
Chron Austin bureau chief can't remember facts, opines regardless
Poor Clay Robison must be one tired guy.
He oversees the combined Chronicle/Express-News Austin Bureau.
He moonlights as a (lefty) editorialist once a week.
And a legislative session just got underway.
So, perhaps that explains this snippet from his latest opinion column:
Let’s see, now. Most of the Republican judges in Harris County who were on the ballot in November were ousted in heavy, straight-ticket Democratic voting. A few years ago, Dallas voters booted a bunch of Republican judges in similar fashion.So, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, files a bill to prohibit — guess what — straight ticket voting in judicial races.
It won’t pass.
But it reminds me that Republicans took over the courts in Harris County in 1994 in a similar straight ticket sweep that unseated many Democratic judges.
I don’t remember if any Democrat filed a similar bill then. If so, it obviously didn’t pass either.
That's about the laziest bit of journalism to appear in the Chronicle since... well, since somebody sat down over Froot Loops and (mis)reported a KHOU story a few mornings ago.
Over at Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Cory Crow gives the matter a more comprehensive treatment. We're betting he's not going to hear from the newspaper's invisible reader rep.
In any case, we'll suggest once again that Robison shouldn't be writing opinion columns and running the news bureau. Maybe if he stepped away from one of the jobs, he could actually do the other one well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/26/09 10:00 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
01 December 2004
LBJ casts a big shadow for Chronicle columnists
A group of Chronicle columnists seem to be fixated with the memory of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In his column today on election challenges, Rick Casey goes back to 1948, in a section subtitled "The Ghost of LBJ":
In 1948, when Lyndon Johnson trailed Gov. Coke Stevenson in the race for the U.S. Senate by a tiny margin, LBJ phoned George Parr, the "Duke of Duval."
Parr saw to it that Ballot Box 13 came in late and that it added 203 votes for Johnson, enough to give him an 87-vote margin of victory and the nickname "Landslide Lyndon."
Almost two weeks ago, Clay Robison gave President Bush some, no doubt, heartfelt advice about avoiding an LBJ-like quagmire in Iraq, "Here's hoping that Bush won't wear LBJ-style scar: Clay Robison writes that President Bush doesn't want to fall into the type of quagmire that scarred Lyndon B. Johnson."
And back in September, Cragg Hines wrote a column about President Bush's determination in Iraq, titled "As Iraq fighting goes on, is W to be LBJ's stepson?"
There seems to be a theme here for these three liberal columnists who probably came of age during the Vietnam era. Dan Rather may be chit-chatting with the ghost of Edward R. Murrow, but the Chronicle's Big Three are hanging on to LBJ.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/04 08:26 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 February 2009
Why would anyone miss this when it's gone?
The Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and one-day-per-week lefty editorialist offered this snippet in his latest opinion column:
Although a lifelong Republican of the traditional, country club genre (as opposed to the more-rabid social conservatives who now control the Texas GOP), Straus has in the past voted for Democrats for selected offices and presumably will do so in the future.
Nice, objective treatment from the Austin bureau chief.
I'm sure that's how (other) people who dislike social conservatives feel, anyway.
And I'm sure that Clay Robison's attitude would never come through while he is playing bureau chief the other six days of the week, when he's objective and evenhanded. *wink*
The Chronicle's erratic features editor keeps telling us we're going to miss them (them being newspapers) when they're gone. But this regular business from Robison, a deceitful editorial board, unethical impersonation of hurricane refugees, a featured columnist who's a plagiarist, or even the typical MeMo fare aren't really going to be missed.
We are hopeful some metro/state reporters will still be around if that dead weight is ever cast aside, though, because what they do is important and should be valued.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/09 09:00 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
26 March 2007
But what about his moonlighting as an opinion columnist?
Bob Richter, the public editor for Hearst's San Antonio newspaper (the Express-News), wrote about the merger of the Austin bureaus of the Chronicle and Express-News this weekend. Richter's (good corporate) take is that even though competition has been reduced, the advantages of the larger bureau outweigh the drawbacks:
"The large size of the bureau and our combined experience give us opportunities for coverage that we may not otherwise have had," bureau chief Clay Robison says, noting he's put two reporters, R.G. Ratcliffe and Lisa Sandberg, on the Texas Youth Commission story, which "wouldn't have been possible with a smaller bureau."
"Things are going smoothly," says Peggy Fikac, his deputy and chief of the Express-News bureau until the merger. "We're all rowing in the same direction, so that's pretty cool."
Richter does not address why Robison continues to act both as bureau chief (in charge of hard news coverage) and opinion columnist (delivering lefty fare reliably). The bureau merger seemingly would have been a good opportunity to make Robison choose one or the other, or simply to designate him as a columnist and reward Fikac with the bureau chief position for her good work running the Express-News Austin bureau previously.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/26/07 09:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)
02 October 2005
In the aftermath of Rita...
Readers may recall that a while ago, I highlighted a new Chron approach to editorializing: Simply write, "in the aftermath of Katrina," followed by whatever opinion previously held on unrelated issues.
[Governor Perry] should rescind the recent executive order — of dubious legality — that tries to restrict how school districts spend their money. Issued to give the governor political cover from the summer's education reform failures, it could block the ability of local officials to rebuild schools destroyed or damaged by Rita.
Translation: In the aftermath of Rita, Governor Perry should rescind an executive order I oppose politically on Sundays (but cover fairly *wink* *wink* six days a week when I'm wearing my "Bureau Chief" hat).
That editorial page is just a riot.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/02/05 10:11 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 March 2005
News and opinion all the same to Robison
It included a line that explains quite a bit about Robison's worldview, even though I'm ripping it out of context (in this case, his celebration of the Robin Hood school finance "system") and truncating it:
But the Legislature needs to do more....
That's Robison's honest view, not just on school finance, but on any number of issues. And to "do more," government usually needs more money.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison"> 03/06/05 05:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
18 August 2008
The Chron's bad few days
The Chronicle's substandard journalism has been taking more of a pounding than usual on blogs over the last few days (albeit not this one, because work, software maintenance, and life in general have been intruding more than usual on our blogging time).
Over at the Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti takes the newspaper to task for incorrectly asserting cops had beaten a prisoner to death (but they did run a correction -- not always the case at the Chronicle).
Bramanti also notes that the Editorial LiveJournalists got the Russian president's name wrong (we haven't seen a correction on that one).
At Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Cory Crow picks apart a Chron story on the recent sales-tax holiday weekend.
National Review Online's Media Blog writes that Sen. Cornyn is unhappy with the Chron's repeated (mis)characterization of some healthcare comments he made. Unsurprisingly, a Chron editor was not available to discuss the matter with NRO.
And today, Bramanti is back at work, skewering the latest screed by Clay Robison, who moonlights as Hearst's Austin bureau chief when he's not penning such articles.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/08 09:30 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
11 January 2005
May the session (and Robison's news editorializing) begin
Here's a snippet from his (and R.G. Ratcliffe's) dispatch at the opening of the session:
The Texas Public Policy Foundation said Strayhorn's revenue estimate proved lawmakers in 2003 did the right thing by cutting the budget rather than raising taxes.
But the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for the poor, said lawmakers now are facing a budget that will require billions of new dollars to maintain current services and to restore cuts made in 2003 in programs for the poor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison's news editorializing) begin"> 01/11/05 10:34 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
23 October 2004
Governor's communications director criticizes Chronicle columnist
Eric Bearse, communications director for Governor Rick Perry (R), engages in some textual analysis of recent Clay Robison columns in a letter the Chronicle published earlier this week:
Though it is not unusual for Chronicle columnist Clay Robison to take issue with Gov. Rick Perry's approach to governing — after all, Robison's Oct. 17 column, "Texas' vulnerable pay the price of limited government," was the 22nd time this year he has mentioned our governor in a negative light — I take great exception to the way in which he ignored the full context of the governor's remarks.
Gov. Perry's speech to a conservative audience hosted by the National Center for Policy Analysis included a challenge to conservatives to see the importance of protecting abused and neglected children, as well as adults unable to care for themselves.
The governor's comment that there is "not only a limited role for government, but a legitimate role for government" was a strong acknowledgment of the need for a strong safety net to protect the most vulnerable among us.
He also advocated for more spending at Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services to hire more caseworkers, which is consistent with his record of supporting past funding increases at CPS.
Robison's negative column amounts to "drive-by journalism," where a member of the media doesn't stop to explore the facts, but instead finds a few words to nitpick in order to continue a drumbeat of criticism.
Hopefully your many readers will see it for what it is: a reflexive ideological reaction, not a reflective look at Gov. Perry's policies.
As we frequently point out, the Chronicle is welcome to whatever partisan stance it chooses to adopt for its editorial pages, however out of tune it may be with a majority of Texans (and Harris County readers).
The problem with Robison is not so much his extreme ideological leanings, but that he engages in partisan flamethrowing every Sunday, even as he serves as the newspaper's Austin news bureau chief. It boggles the mind that Jeff Cohen expects readers to believe Robison will confine his partisan flamethrowing to Sundays and cover state politics objectively the rest of the week. A quality newspaper would have more of a firewall between its news and editorial coverage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/23/04 12:17 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 October 2004
A rather transparent endorsement
As we noted earlier, Sherry Sylvester predicted that the state's major newspapers would endorse President Bush, and then use that endorsement as cover to continue their left-of-center coverage the rest of the time.
In the case of the Chronicle, it didn't take long to get to the "rest of the time."
In the same edition that endorses President Bush, the Chronicle's staff editorialists consist of:
1) Cragg Hines, who blasts top Chronicle "bad guy" Tom DeLay (R) while penning a column that could pass as a press release from Charlie Stenholm (D), given the praise of Stenholm and criticism of opponent Randy Neugebauer (R) as an "over the top Republican robot."
2) Clay Robison, who gets in digs at DeLay and another favorite "bad guy," Governor Rick Perry (R) for their role in redistricting before moving on to the main point of a column critical of Governor Perry and the state GOP broadly for failing (so far) to deliver on the reform of the state's controversial "Robin Hood" education finance scheme.
3) Rick Casey, who is a little more subtle than Hines or Robison (who don't seem to know the meaning of the word) in a column that portrays Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal (R) and his prosecutors as uncaring lawyers who pursue the death penalty at all costs.
It's most problematic that Clay Robison serves as Austin News Bureau chief during the week, even as he engages in flamethrowing on the editorial page every Sunday. But it's also problematic that the Chronicle's other two regular opinion columnists (Casey's columns are merely op-eds running on the metro/state pages) consistently pen hard-left columns, with no regular balance from any conservative staff writer.
One endorsement for President isn't balance.
(Update) I should add that Hines' column on the editorial page is another example of editorializing on news the newspaper doesn't really cover with any depth, effectively letting the editorial serve as the news coverage. It's a peculiar practice, as we've noted before.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/24/04 07:50 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 July 2006
Just because the Chron missed the story...
On Friday, the Chronicle's featured metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist moved on from the topic of former Rep. Tom DeLay on to redistricting. Specifically, Casey addressed State Sen. Jeff Wentworth's longtime efforts to pass legislation that would reform redistricting. Casey had this curious observation:
But in a development that drew no media notice that I could find, the Texas state Senate last year passed a bill that would remove the drawing of congressional lines from the Legislature and give the task to an eight-member citizens' commission.
No media notice? Has Jeff Cohen taken away Casey's research assistant?
The Dallas Morning News covered the Senate passage of Wentworth's bill in 2005, and so did the Austin American Statesman (which also blogged about it just before it passed).
It's true that a search of the Chronicle archives turned up nothing. Austin bureau chief Clay Robison must have been too busy working on a Sunday editorial to get that bit of news in the newspaper.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/06 12:33 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
14 August 2005
Robison: Lege should get out the money catapult
Sedosi Alhambra has previously noted Clay Robison's preferred approach to Texas education reform (get out the money catapult and fling tax dollars).
Today, the Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and Sunday partisan lefty editorialist tries a sneakier version of the money catapult argument:
There is the real world, where there would be no judges without lots of teachers, helping future jurists navigate everything from nap time and the three Rs to contracts and torts.And there is the Texas statehouse, where lawmakers, meeting in a so-called "education" session, recently sent Gov. Rick Perry a bill giving judges a pay raise while continuing to reward teachers with compliments and promises.
[snip]
Most judges nevertheless deserve the higher pay, which will be financed with higher court fees. Stemming the turnover of experienced judges taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere in the legal profession frequently was cited by the governor and others as the main reason a raise was needed.
Judicial turnover, however, may be no greater a problem than the turnover of classroom teachers. According to a cursory statewide check, members of both professions are leaving their jobs at comparable rates, but time is rapidly running out for higher teacher pay.
[snip]
Meanwhile, 11 percent of the teachers in classrooms at the beginning of the 2004-05 school year didn't return last fall, said Ed Fuller, an adjunct professor in educational administration at the University of Texas at Austin and former director of research for the State Board of Educator Certification.
Some retired after long careers, but many younger teachers quit for other reasons, unhappiness with their pay being a significant factor. Fuller said a 1999 study, the most recent done on the issue, determined that low pay was the No. 1 reason for teacher turnover.
Even if one accepts Robison's turnover statistics, it's arguably far easier to replace teachers than judges, simply because the talent pool from which to draw is MUCH larger and the required education is much less difficult to obtain. Robison tries to present his turnover statistics as a self-evident reason that the money catapult should be brought to bear on teacher salaries. However, as a matter of public policy, that view is not self-evident at all.
Furthermore, Robison's citation of a 1999 study tells us hardly anything about current conditions and attitudes, and Robison doesn't provide enough information about that study for interested parties to doublecheck his presentation of the facts.
Because the Chronicle inexplicably has its Austin bureau chief double as a partisan lefty editorialist on weekends, such sloppy editorial work of course calls into question the credibility of the news reporting from Austin the other six days of the week.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison: Lege should get out the money catapult"> 08/14/05 09:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 July 2006
Chronicle, Express-News to merge Austin bureaus
The San Antonio Express-News announces a merger of sorts between its Austin bureau and the Chronicle's:
The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News are combining their state government bureaus in Austin, effective immediately, in an effort to dramatically expand original reporting and investigative efforts -- in print and online.
The move combines the Chronicle's four statehouse reporters with the three reporters from the Express-News to create a seven-person bureau that will illuminate issues in state government, provide insight into how decisions are made in Austin and investigate the use of public money in Texas.
Chronicle Bureau Chief Clay Robison will serve as chief of the combined operation; Express-News Bureau Chief Peggy Fikac will become deputy bureau chief. Chronicle reporters R.G. Ratcliffe, Janet Elliott and Polly Hughes will also be part of the new bureau, as will Express-News reporters Lisa Sandberg and Gary Scharrer.
“We welcome the opportunity to align more closely with our sister newspaper,” said Jeff Cohen, editor of the Houston Chronicle. “This merger will allow us to effectively double the resources we use to report on state government.”
This is potentially a good move for both Hearst dailies, which should be able to deliver more comprehensive, focused coverage of Austin and Texas politics as a result. It would also have been a good opportunity for the Chronicle to move Clay Robison to the editorial page exclusively and let Fikac run the news operation in Austin. Now, both newspapers are in the awkward position of their Austin bureau chief serving as a lefty Sunday editorial commentator on the people he allegedly covers objectively during the week, a situation that the Chronicle's own reader representative has criticized.
Next, Hearst might consider consolidating its Washington, D.C. operations. The Chronicle's D.C. bureau manufactures news from Washington seemingly as often as it breaks news, but perhaps a merged, comprehensive Hearst operation in D.C. could produce better work. Who knows, the merged operation might even rank a more prominent position than the Chronicle's fifth-row seat in the White House briefing room (with other major regional papers, as Julie Mason put it).
UPDATE: KHOU-11 posts AP coverage of the move. The Chronicle still has no coverage that I can find.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/06 08:01 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
19 October 2004
Demagogue on Sunday, "objective" journalist the rest of the week?
Clay Robison penned a typically shrill column for the Chronicle's editorial page this past weekend, and one that is highly reflective of his worldview.
Here is an excerpt:
While controversy continued to swirl last week over Texas' poor record in protecting abused children, Gov. Rick Perry was in Dallas bragging about a major cause of the problem.
In a speech to the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank, Perry touted "limited" government and his role in perpetuating it in Texas.
"I believe there is not only a limited role for government, but also a legitimate role for government," he said, patting himself and the Legislature on the back for bridging a $10 billion revenue gap last year by squeezing needed services rather than raising state taxes.
Excuse me, governor, but abused children have had about all the limited government that they can stand. So have frail, elderly Texans with no one to look after them.
This is the sort of demagoguery one hears from the minority party in Texas all of the time, especially on blogs. As we've noted time and again, if the Chronicle is determined that staff editorials shall be childish and simplistic, that's entirely the prerogative of the editors (although one wonders why even have an editorial page at all if the newspaper's resources and vaunted trained journalists cannot produce higher quality than the better left-of-center blogs in the state).
In any case, the problem with Robison is not so much the substance of these columns, but that as he's serving as hyperpartisan weekend editorialist, he also serves as the head of the Chronicle's Austin news bureau.
It boggles the mind that the newspaper expects readers to believe that Robison can engage in such partisan flamethrowing on weekends, yet cover the majority party and politicians in the state capital fairly during the week.
A quality newspaper would make him a full-time editorialist and find a more credible newsman to run the Austin operation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/19/04 09:24 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 April 2005
Is the staff three if they include the receptionist?
Because of my move, internet access has been and remains sporadic.
Still, I've saved this priceless Chronicle correction from last week:
An editorial in Wednesday's Chronicle, "Hillary-us politics," quoted from a column by Austin Bureau Chief Clay Robison. The quote was mistakenly attributed to another Chronicle writer.
So if they include the reporters and the receptionist, what is the size of the Austin bureau? Three? Four?
It's not very impressive that the same editorialists who can lecture us mere bloggers can't even get the names of their own writers right on their editorial page.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/03/05 11:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
29 January 2006
Robison: Where's the Christian social-welfare money catapult?
Clay Robison, the Chronicle's lefty weekend editorialist, is trying out a weeks-old argument in favor of increased spending on social welfare:
He is the same Bill Ratliff, the unassuming engineer from Mount Pleasant who, in a radical departure from prevailing attitudes, tried to govern with a conscience.
And he is promoting what he attempted to practice as a lawmaker, a Christianity not intended simply to comfort the comfortable and lock their religious views into the law of the land — high priorities of the controlling GOP faction — but a Christianity that also attempts to comfort the afflicted and help the sick and the down-and-out.
The latter goal has been mostly skirted by the hand-washing Republican leadership in Austin."Up to now, the application of religious principles in political debate has been mainly applied to social mores, such as abortion rights, same-sex marriage, intelligent design vs. Darwinism and other similar social issues," Ratliff pointed out in a speech several weeks ago to the Austin Project, a group dedicated to helping at-risk youth.
His remarks later were reprinted in the Longview News-Journal and have received attention elsewhere.
"But all too often," he added, "those Christians who take strong stands on such issues based on moral or biblical teachings do not then continue the application of such teachings to other issues."
What about, Ratliff asked, Christ's admonishment to "suffer the little children to come unto me"?
He didn't name names, but it was obvious that state leaders conveniently forgot that verse of Scripture when they attacked the budget a few years ago, cutting thousands of low-income children from public health care so they could brag — as Gov. Rick Perry is doing in his reelection campaign — about holding the line against higher state taxes.
Joseph Knippenberg addressed arguments that Christianity requires expansion of the social welfare state effectively a few weeks ago:
Let me repeat what I’ve said before on the subject of poverty and religion. There are reasonable disagreements about how best to assist the poor. That we have a duty to do so doesn’t mean that we have [a] duty to support large government programs.
That's as far as I care to go substantively on that topic.
From time to time, though, it is useful to note Robison's political views and characterizations of those with whom he disagrees, as expressed on the editorial page every Sunday. Six other days of the week, he serves as the Chronicle's Austin bureau chief, putting aside his lefty political views to ensure that the Chronicle delivers Houstonians objective, balanced coverage of the goings on in the capital.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison: Where's the Christian social-welfare money catapult?"> 01/29/06 01:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
18 November 2005
Nothing like that division between news and opinion/gossip
Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey is up to his usual antics today:
NOBODY is saying state Rep. Joe Nixon improperly pressured Farmers Insurance Group two years ago to pay him more than he had coming in a settlement over severe mold damage to his home.
Nobody is saying it, but the Chronicle's gossip columnist is just throwing it out for fun.
On the metro/state news pages.
Even though the Chronicle previously reported that prosecutors found "no evidence of criminal conduct."
Because that's the sort of journalism that serious newspapers place on their hard news pages.
Casey blasted Nixon similarly two years ago. So did Austin Bureau Chief Clay Robison, albeit in his "I'm not the Bureau Chief on Sunday" editorial column (and in another Sunday editorial, in passing).
If the Chronicle executive editorial leadership wants to mix news and opinion as Casey and Robison frequently do, that's certainly their prerogative. But other editors really shouldn't expect us to take seriously their comments on "the division between the opinion pages and the news pages."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/05 10:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
25 March 2006
Patrick continues political evolution (cont'd)
Fresh off his convincing victory over three primary opponents, Texas Senate candidate and local talker Dan Patrick will be getting a little help from Texas lobbyists to retire his campaign debt. The Chronicle's Clay Robison reports:
State Senate nominee Dan Patrick, who blasted an opponent in the recent Republican primary for taking contributions from lobbyists, is having a fundraising reception in Austin next week, hosted by lobbyists for a range of special interests, including casinos.
Lobbyist Steve Bresnen, whose clients include the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters and the Bingo Interest Group, said he organized the Thursday event at the private Austin Club.[snip]
It is not unusual for newly elected legislators or legislative candidates to have Austin fundraisers, but Patrick, campaigning before the primary as a political outsider, all but condemned the lobby.
In a campaign television spot, he urged voters to help him "take our state back from the special interests and the lobbyists."
"It's time for change," he said.
In an interview Thursday, Patrick said his principles haven't changed. He said he still isn't soliciting special interest money but would take some donations if they were offered with the understanding that no strings were attached.
"I have a lot of debt (more than $300,000) to retire," he said.
It is probably not a coincidence that the amount of money that the wealthy Patrick personally loaned his campaign was in the neighborhood of $300,000.
And so, as we've pointed out before, the "insurgent" continues his transition to ordinary politician. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say.
PREVIOUSLY: Patrick makes quick transition from insurgent to politician, Patrick continues transition from insurgent to pol.
BLOGVERSATION: Greg's Opinion, Off the Kuff, Isolated Desolation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/06 02:03 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 December 2004
Doesn't Robison have something in Austin to write about?
The Chron's Austin news bureau chief is acting as Mayor White's PR man at the newspaper again this week, rambling once more in favor of cameras at traffic lights.
The "argument" doesn't go much beyond last week's effort, which effectively said "red light runners are bad, and the city should go after them."
But Robison does concede one point to opponents, even as he takes shots at them because they might be conservatives:
What's wrong with the city raising money, to be used for public needs, from people who willingly endanger other people on the road?
Here's what's wrong -- a little thing called accountability. The private contractor has an incentive to raise revenues, and the city wants those revenues -- for what? Nobody has bothered to answer that question, because they all insist this is a safety issue (as I've pointed out before, when politicians say it's not about the money, of course it's about the money). There's all sorts of potential for mischief when our city officials engage in public-private partnerships, as those of us who have lived here for a while understand quite well. Since Mr. Robison spends so much of his time in Austin, he may not realize that. Maybe he should be writing pro-camera editorials for the Austin American Statesman and telling Austinites how to raise more money for their city? Except that newspaper tends to have better taste on its editorial page.
Further, since the paranoid Austin bureau chief imagines a right-wing conspiracy against him, here's an unlikely ally of that conspiracy:
"This is a case of the city looking for money, and they're looking for the money in the wrong way," said ACLU attorney Randall Kallinan. "No study has shown that the safety is increased with red light cameras."
Of course it's about the money.
Robison concludes with another condescending lesson in American constitutionalism:
A popular misconception to the contrary, we don't even have an unrestricted, constitutional right to drive, much less to ignore basic rules of traffic safety.
You mean the Chronicle editors who embrace the constitutional privacy penumbras that protect the "right" to kill fetuses do not embrace the logical extension of said penumbras to traffic cameras? I'm so very disappointed in their selective embrace of constitutional fiat!
All joking aside, here's something for Robison to chew on: citizens do have a right to oppose bad public policy, policy that is designed to further liberal ends of expanding municipal government by raising revenues that are not earmarked for any particular purpose, and is presented under the guise of public safety. And even citizens who might be Republicans (or -- shock -- ACLU members!) enjoy that right, no penumbras necessary.
You would think the Austin news bureau chief might have something in Austin to write about, especially as the upcoming legislative session approaches. Maybe he was busy Kwanzaa shopping, and it was just easier to write a column belittling the people who sent him emails than come up with anything more substantive.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Robison have something in Austin to write about?"> 12/19/04 10:25 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)
06 November 2004
Apply Casey's reasoning to his own newspaper
The spirit of conciliation that follows national elections has surely spread to blogHOUSTON.
How else to explain that we've found an area of agreement with noxious Chron metro/state columnist Rick Casey?
But we mostly agree with this snippet from Casey's Friday column:
In politics, we're still in the days when Ma Bell had no competition.
The difference is, the courts broke up that monopoly, spawning huge rate cuts and unimagined innovation.
We're pleased that Rick Casey is coming around to our way of thinking. Just substitute "local newspapers" for "politics" in that paragraph above, and we're with him 99%.
We come up 1% short, because we're not that enthusiastic about courts telling newspapers what to do.
But the idea of a competing newspaper in this town sounds great!
And in the absence of an actual competing newspaper, maybe just one right-of-center staff columnist to balance the out-of-touch lefty trio of Rick Casey, Clay Robison, and Cragg Hines?
We're sure Casey will join us in urging his boss and friend Jeff Cohen to act quickly on our suggestion. Right, Rick?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/04 10:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
14 December 2004
Austin bureau chief in favor of cameras in Houston
The Chronicle's Austin bureau chief took time out from covering the news in Austin this past weekend to let us know he's in favor of the White/Hurtt push to install cameras at red lights all over town.
It's a typically simplistic Chron editorial:
White is asking the Houston City Council to install cameras at intersections with high accident rates, so that violators can be assessed civil fines by mail.It's a good idea but is predictably generating some moaning and groaning, mostly from people who will be in a hurry some day to get to their own funerals. (Just don't try to hurry the rest of us to ours, please.)
No one has an unrestricted right to drive a car. Government, in the interest of promoting public safety, already has the long-established authority to set age and competency requirements for driver licenses, impose traffic laws and require drivers to have insurance. Using cameras for enforcement is a reasonable extension of that authority, provided the city imposes adequate safeguards on how the cameras are operated and revenue collected.
There are just a few problems here.
First, the Mayor isn't proposing to fine violators after positive identification (as is the case when an officer typically issues a citation); Mayor White is proposing to fine the owners of cars identified by an outside firm by looking up license plates based on camera imagery. That's a BIG difference for those of us who generally believe in the notion of positive identification when assessing fines (of course, the recent performance of HPD's crime lab suggests that positive identification isn't always a priority for the city). Besides, this is the sort of thing likely to get Marvin Zindler riled up, and we don't think the Mayor wants to cross Marvin.
Second, what procedures will ensure that the private contractor does not abuse the system in order to generate more revenue for itself? Even Robison favors "adequate safeguards" in this area, yet we've not heard what those will be. Citizens deserve to know before Council rams through another of Mayor White's proposals.
Third, what does the city plan to do with the extra revenue (because this is all about generating new revenue)? Will it be used to fund HPD cadet classes that Mayor White and his council have ignored thus far? Or will it fund some boondoggle? Again, citizens deserve to know.
To its credit, the Chronicle actually has run some letters critical of the White/Hurtt revenue enhancement plan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/04 10:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
10 December 2007
Is its news, opinion, or what?
Chron.com's recent tendency to mix opinion columns with the regular news stream was on display in the metro/state section again today.
Austin Bureau Chief Clay Robison's column, "Appointing Wilson could be a battle," appears in the regular online metro/state news section with just that title (and no indication that it is opinion or analysis). But, the same column also appears in the Columnists sidebar in the same section.
So, how are online readers to know whether the Austin Bureau Chief's column is opinion or news (and what of this "firewall" between news and opinion that we sometimes hear about)?
Good questions.
Of course, those questions have long been raised by the Chronicle's odd practice of having the head of its Austin NEWS bureau moonlight as an OPINION columnist. Even some Chronsters have confided to us privately that he ought to be doing one or the other. But apparently the Really Important People at the Chronicle feel differently.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/10/07 10:24 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
21 August 2006
Get your name on a downtown park poopie station!
KHOU-11 reports that Mayor White is asking for help raising money for the new downtown park and giving it a name:
on the open land in front of the GRB, civic leaders picture a dozen acres developed into a unique urban park. A place with everything from restaurants to water fountains, underground parking and special programs designed to draw visitors, day and night.
“We really want this to be a place that captures the spirit of the city and is a place that kind of reveals the city to visitors and to Houstonians, a place we can all really be proud of,” said park director, Guy Hagsette.
Sort of like New York city’s Bryant Park.
But a park like this costs a lot of money.
So, Houston’s Downtown Park Conservancy plans to raise funds by naming attractions after donors.
“Everything in the park is for sale,” said Nancy G. Kinder with the Conservancy. “The fountain, the promenade, the dog runs, even the dog benches and the poopie stations. So we have something for everyone at all different levels.”
But one name that’s not for sale here is the name of the park itself.
“We want the people of Houston to participate in the naming of this park. So beginning today, for the next several weeks, we’re going to invite Houstonians to give us their names for the downtown park,” said Mayor White.
Oh heavens. What an opportunity! How expensive do you think it would be to "buy" a poopie station? And who could we name it after? This could be fun!
As for the name of the park, I nominate Kevin Whited's suggestion. =)
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Further to Anne's bolded excerpt above -- can we expect the Chronicle's lefty Sunday editorialist and six-days-per-week objective Austin bureau chief to condemn the plans of Mayor White (a Democrat) to commercialize this park, since Clay Robison recently blasted state government (largely in Republican control) for daring to consider such ideas?
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Isolated Desolation, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/21/06 06:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
29 September 2004
Bias by omission on the death penalty
Sherri Sylvester of the invaluable Texas Media Watch penned a column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram yesterday.
She brought up an interesting point about bias by omission:
There's also an odd, anti-Texas-style bias that keeps some positive stories about the state out of newspapers altogether.
In February, The New York Times reported a study on the death penalty showing that, contrary to what many locals believe, Texas is not more likely to sentence convicted murderers to death than other states and in fact is below the national average.
The Times version did not appear in any major Texas paper after it broke, although a version of the story by The Associated Press did appear in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Months later, a portion of it was cited in a news report on another issue.
A search of the Chronicle archives confirms Sylvester's assertion that the newspaper never ran the Times story or original reporting on the study.
That's hardly surprising, as the Chronicle's editorial stance is firmly anti-death penalty, and regular columnists Clay Robison, Cragg Hines, and Rick Casey can be counted on to blast the death penalty with some regularity. Indeed, sometimes the editorial position even bleeds over onto the news pages.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/04 05:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
29 October 2007
Chron reader rep addresses election coverage
Steve Jetton, the Chronicle's interim reader representative, posts a reader's criticism of the newspaper's election coverage thus far (specifically, coverage of the constitutional amendments), and then responds as follows:
The Chronicle has written numerous articles about the amendments, including this round-up by Austin Bureau Chief Clay Robison that appeared on Oct. 21 and which I e-mailed to this reader.
Dean Betz, Online Content Director, said the Chronicle is partnering with E The People to produce an online voters guide that should be up and running by early next week. It will be available on chron.com's Politics page.
Tony Freemantle, Metro Editor, said a package of advance election stories will run in print in the City/State section on the Sunday before election day. And of course the paper will have continuing coverage of ongoing developments in political races right up until Nov. 6.
The Chronicle's election coverage has been better this time around, which is a positive development. However, as noted in the comments of Jetton's blog, both Betz and Freemantle seemed to miss the reader's point. Early voting started last week. An online voter's guide or package of stories that appears just before next Tuesday isn't much help to people who vote early. The newspaper understandably needs to fill print space with election-related stories right up until the traditional election day, but an online voter's guide that doesn't precede early voting isn't much of an online voter's guide.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/29/07 08:11 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 December 2004
The future of newspapers?
The Christian Science Monitor has an intriguing story about a newspaper in Chile with a new approach:
[...]it's a revolution in journalism, a reader-driven product that reflects the changing values and interests of a postdictatorship public that grew up on a diet of establishment news and now wants more. Or, as some say - because of the often low-brow content - less.
This revolution has occurred, says the paper's publisher Augustine Edwards, thanks to his decision to listen to "the people." Three years ago, under Mr. Edwards's guidance, LUN installed a system whereby all clicks onto its website (www.lun.com) were recorded for all in the newsroom to see. Those clicks - and the changing tastes and desires they represent - drive the entire print content of LUN. If a certain story gets a lot of clicks, for example, that is a signal to Edwards and his team that the story should be followed up, and similar ones should be sought for the next day. If a story gets only a few clicks, it is killed. The system offers a direct barometer of public opinion, much like the TV rating system - but unique to print media.
[snip]
None of the LUN correspondents have news beats anymore, rather, they compete one against the other. Edwards says he will start financial incentives, with salaries reflecting the monthly clicks each reporter accrues. Editors, he adds, will work more as coaches than bosses. "I want my correspondents to be writing for the people," he stresses. "Not for me, or their editors, or the bureaucrats who put out press releases."
Well, that's different! blogHOUSTON is very interested in the Chronicle improving the quality of its content, but until that happens, this idea holds some promise.
Just imagine how this would change the face of the Chronicle, if a reporter's worth was based on the popularity of what he or she wrote: the Big Three Dinosaurs -- Cragg Hines, Clay Robison and Rick Casey -- could all retire; MeMo could move back to her beloved Northeast; Lucas Wall could start a travel blog; and Ken Hoffman would become the Chronicle's editor-in-chief!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/02/04 11:33 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
12 March 2008
Chron: Perry close to naming Magidson as Harris County DA (updated)
Earlier today, the Chronicle's Allan Turner and Peggy O'Hare reported that Gov. Rick Perry was close to naming an interim Harris County District Attorney.
Tonight, Alan Bernstein and Clay Robison are reporting a name, along with the hard-hitting "news analysis" you expect from Houston's leading information source:
Gov. Rick Perry plans to name Kenneth Magidson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston, as the new Harris County district attorney, once he gets approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, a source close to the process said today.
It wasn't known when that approval would be received.
Magidson was waiting to get an assurance from the Justice Department that he would get his job back after a district attorney is elected in November, the source said.
Magidson would not comment about the appointment today.
He would succeed Chuck Rosenthal, who resigned under pressure earlier this year amid a controversy over e-mails sent on his county computer.
Magidson, 59, was a Harris County assistant district attorney in the early 1980s and became an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston by 1985. His wife Anita is a former administrator of a state felony court.
He has a Northern accent and frequently comes across as nonchalant.
That little bit of useless editorializing suggests that he didn't return some self-important reporter's phone call at some point in the past (maybe even from one of the reporters who wrote this story!).
That possibility alone is enough for us to be optimistic about this appointment!
UPDATE (03-14-2008): KHOU-11 just sent out an email news blast that Gov. Perry has officially named Magidson to the post. As of 11:23 am, the lead story on Chron.com is a promo for a Lost chat.
BLOGVERSATION: Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/08 09:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
24 July 2005
Sunday Chron opinion page: Not (quite) everything is stale!
Although the Sunday Chronicle opinion page remains far short of the ideal state, there was some progress this weekend.
In addition to fresh house editorials and the usual lefty rants from Clay Robison and Cragg Hines, the section actually had two original op-eds with a local twist, one by Sen. John Cornyn (R) and one by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) and David Cole.
Of course, the bulk of the material was stale. Jeffrey Rosen's op-ed ran on July 21 in the New York Times. John Yoo's op-ed ran on July 21 in the Washington Post. John P. Avlon's op-ed ran on July 19 in the New York Sun. David Barash's op-ed ran on July 18 in the LA Times. Charles Krauthammer's column ran on
July 22 in the Washington Post. Paul Krugman's column ran on July 22 in the New York Times. Karl Inderfurth's op-ed ran on July 11 in the LA Times.
That's still a lot more stale content than one might expect of editorial pages in their ideal state.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/05 10:46 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
24 April 2005
Casey mimics editorial board on political speech
We've noted before that the column of the Chronicle's Rick Casey is frequently used to flesh out and develop opinions that are taken by the Chronicle editorial board.
Thus, it was hardly surprising on Friday when Rick Casey devoted an entire column to a political campaigning scenario that then got him to this conclusion:
These corporations are forbidden by law to contribute to [Rick Perry's] political campaign, but they can contribute to "issues" ads.
In practical reality, these ads would be part of Perry's campaign for re-election.
Maybe it's better for our elected officials to pay lobbyists than to be in debt to them.
Recall that the Houston Chronicle editorial board has, several times, come out in favor of legislation being considered in Austin that would ban certain "issues" ads. And note how Rick Casey's Friday column cleverly tied such "issues" ads to Chronicle "bad guy" Rick Perry.
There's a reason Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen wasted no time in getting Rick Casey to Houston. He's reliable, and he's good at what he does. Readers can decide for themselves whether it's good journalism, but Casey is rarely (if ever?) out of step with the editorial board on their issues, and consistently fleshes out that perspective on the "news" pages. It's not subtle to careful readers, but it's effective.
Turning back to the "issues" ads that Casey and the editorial board are attacking, we'd just like to remind Houstonians that this is yet another example of their local newspaper criticizing the political speech of others, while continuing to advocate special privileges for professional journalists.
That, in our view, serves a very special interest (the Chronicle and other "professional" journalism outfits), but not the public interest.
Further, if the Chronicle is as philosophically opposed to "issue" ads as they say, we'll be looking forward to a Cragg Hines/Clay Robison/Rick Casey/James Howard Gibbons denouncement of the "issue-oriented" activities of the Center for American Progress. Philosophical consistency would seem to demand no less from the Chronicle.
So long as there is disclosure of funding sources, we don't mind those ads or other issue ads. Indeed, we tend to think of it quaintly as political speech. Then again, we try to practice some degree of consistency here, and don't merely craft our posts to attack "bad guys" or advance pet causes. Maybe the Chronicle could learn from that example?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/24/05 10:43 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
06 October 2005
Do Barnum & Bailey need a Texas partner?
For the past two days, the Chronicle has posted interesting reporting on the DeLay indictment(s), although the most compelling tidbits have been buried at the bottom.
Yesterday, Chris Elam caught the following information in reporting by R.G. Ratcliffe, Kristen Mack, and Janet Elliott on the first DeLay indictment:
The Chronicle obtained the grand jury list on Tuesday under the Texas Open Records Act. State District Judge Mike Lynch had ordered it sealed.
Seven of the 12 grand jurors have voted in Democratic primaries in recent years, according to Travis County records. One grand juror voted in Republican primaries.
The other four grand jurors either had no history of voting in primaries or could not be positively identified.
Today, an article by R.G. Ratcliffe and Clay Robison contained even more interesting information about that grand jury (also near the end):
William Gibson, the foreman of the grand jury that returned the first indictment against DeLay, said in an interview with Austin radio station KLBJ on Wednesday that he was friends with a Democratic candidate who had been defeated by the corporately funded ad campaign run by the Texas Association of Business in 2002.
James Sylvester, one of the losing Democratic candidates who has sued the business group, worked at the Travis County sheriff's office. Gibson is retired from that same office.
Gibson said newspaper stories about the TAB's activities, which were coordinated with TRMPAC, convinced him that improper political activity had occurred before he ever was on the grand jury.
The partisan composition of the first grand jury -- not to mention the fact its foreman seemed to bring some strong preconceptions to the matters being considered -- does not itself say anything about Rep. DeLay's guilt or innocence, but when combined with Ronnie Earle's jury shopping, his comments about DeLay to a Democratic fundraiser, his starring in a documentary (of which I've requested a preview copy), and his seemingly messianic view of his own role in stopping whatever he might deem "abuse of power" (instead of actual trangressions of law), it's hard not to agree with the Austin American Statesman editorial board's recent assessment of Earle's conduct as "erratic" and "circus-like."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/06/05 10:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
07 October 2004
How about a little ideological diversity?
In her regular newsletter, Texas media watcher Sherry Sylvester notes that trust in major media has reached historic lows, and suggests that it's not a coincidence that major media outlets across Texas have announced layoffs.
Sylvester argues that major media outlets in this conservative state might want to respond by rethinking the imbalances on their editorial staffs:
This bad business news could be positive for media bias fighters because it means editors and publishers must re-evaluate their product and there's a chance they will focus on the role chronically biased reporting has played in plummeting readership.
We have a number of ideas about ways to stop the hemorrhaging.
First, how about a full-time, Texas-based, conservative opinion writer. Though most state newspapers print outside commentary from conservative writers, the high-profile columnists and opinion writers on staff who focus on state politics and public policy are all liberal – some radically so.
The list includes Molly Ivins and Cragg Hines along with Jan Jarboe Russell, Clay Robison, Alberta Phillips and Democratic collaborator Dave McNeely. No conservative columnist with experience in that big chunk of Texas policy that is conservative has a staff position at a major Texas paper.
[snip]
Nobody begrudges the right of the state’s big papers to take whatever editorial positions they want to take, but some balanced commentary on state issues would reassure Texans that the folks at their local paper aren’t mailing their columns in from another planet.
Emphasis supplied to highlight the Chronicle's two hyperpartisan editorialists, one of whom moonlights as the Austin news bureau chief. Sylvester neglects to mention the Chronicle's featured metro/state columnist Rick Casey, who also comes at things from left-of-center (not to mention he sometimes takes work from other columnists without proper attribution).
Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen had a golden opportunity to hire a conservative columnist when John Williams left the newspaper for Baker Botts. Instead, he promoted staff writer Kristen Mack to Williams' old position. In her very first effort as the new columnist, Mack managed to get in an ideological dig that turned out to require a correction. Even worse, the correction itself wasn't accurate.
Until Cohen begins to address the real problems at the newspaper -- and by that we don't mean retooling the typefaces and renaming entire sections to symbols -- he should expect the criticism (and the decline in revenues) to continue.
(See also: Staff restructurings and layoffs at the Chronicle)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/07/04 08:50 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 May 2005
The Casey LiveJournal Monologues, blogged
Some time ago, we noted that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey would be speaking to the Harris County Democratic Party.
Certainly, journalists are welcome to speak to groups -- even political groups -- to promote their news organization and their work, whether it's Rick Casey speaking to Democrats or Dan Feldstein speaking to conservative-activist talk-radio listeners (an appearance scheduled and then canceled).
However, it's extremely useful to news consumers to know what those journalists actually say when out and about. Thus, the Houston Democrats blog has performed a fine service to news consumers and media watchers alike in Houston by recounting Casey's remarks. Here's a sample:
Rick says there is a new nationl religion: God wants you to be rich. If you are not rich, you are not with God. Basically, the right wing would like to do away with CHIP, Medicaid, and the school fund. Instead religion says we should worship markets.Markets aren't all bad, but Rick cautioned that we should consider how to make markets do what they do well and to tame them so they do. The rich say we do not have to do anything to manage markets. The poor just have to get with God, and that will solve their problems. Rick noted that at one time it was the blacks who were not believed to be with God, now it's the poor.
Essentially, the right wing has stollen the identity of Chritianity and turned it against the "non-believers." Rick asked how is it that God wants us to have a 3-5% revenue cap?
It's certainly provocative and informative reading.
Casey's columns regularly lean to the left, and we have pointed out occasions when he seems willing to flesh out details on issues that are of interest to the editorial board. The fact that he is a columnist on the news pages, but regularly offers editorial opinion in his column, seems not to be a concern to anyone at the Chronicle, although it's not clear to me why his column doesn't run on the editorial page where it belongs.
Of course, if he were moved there, the lack of balance on the editorial page would be even more striking (Cragg Hines, Clay Robison, and Casey as the staff writers on the Left, not to mention James Howard Gibbons, Andrea Georgsson, and Mr. Kathryn Kase representing liberal pet causes in unsigned editorials -- with no identifiable local conservatives writing regularly), and the laughable claim that the editorial position is "not liberal or conservative" would be that much harder to take seriously. One does feel sorry for actual reporters who have to share the news pages with Casey, though.
RELATED: My double-top-secret agenda (Rob Booth, Lone Star Times), Pay no attention to that columnist behind the veil (Sedosi Alhambra, Isolated Desolation).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/05 10:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
03 September 2007
Is she a reporter, editorialist, or unfunny blogger?
We've long suggested that the Chronicle shutter its D.C. news bureau, and either rely on pooled Hearst coverage of Washington or go with wire copy. We've suggested as much because we can't really see why the local newspaper expends the resources required to maintain a bureau that rarely publishes news that isn't covered adequately by many other outlets, especially when those resources could be put to good use boosting the newspaper's local coverage or its woeful editing and headline writing.
The more we read Julie Mason's blog, the more we wonder what in the world the Chronicle is trying to accomplish with its D.C. bureau.
Mason is allegedly the newspaper's White House correspondent, which we think makes her not an opinion columnist, but a reporter. So we've long tried to understand why a reporter for a major newspaper is allowed to refer to the major newsmakers she covers on her blog with derogatory nicknames like "Bushie" (for the President of the United States) or Ciaoberto Gone-Zales (for the now-departed U.S. Attorney General). Whatever political opinion one may hold of those two men, surely most reasonable people don't think those nicknames are appropriate references by a White House beat reporter writing on her newspaper's website.
Some time ago, I emailed Chronicle reader rep James Campbell about Mason's editorializing, asking him if the Chronicle considered her a beat writer or opinion columnist (in light of her flippant and disrespectful blog references to the people she covers). Here is the response Campbell received from Alan Bernstein, then listed as National Editor for the Chronicle:
The Chronicle considers Julie Mason a beat reporter, whose reporting is usually online rather than in print as way of offering online readers a special resource and to allow her work to be read more widely. She does perform pool duty like any other White House reporter. Her column, like Clay Robison’s from Austin, appears on the news pages rather than the opinion page because she is chartered to offer insights and insider news from Washington, as opposed to, say, her personal opinion about who deserves to win the next election. Her weekly column is somewhat akin to the type of articles we run labeled “analysis.”
Her blog is a "special" resource, all right -- with the sort of fare we expect to find on Wonkette or Firedoglake, rather than the blog of a beat reporter who covers the White House professionally (if only for a second-tier newspaper). The Chronicle's Austin bureau runs a very good blog that supplements the bureau's news coverage, and Matt Stiles (with occasional co-bloggers) does the same for the City Hall beat -- without flippant and disrespectful references to the newsmakers they cover. It's not clear why their approach (with a cleaner break between reporting and editorializing) does not apply to Ms. Mason and her blog.
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: We are often told that journalism is best handled by the professionals. If that's the case, where did Julie Mason's professionalism go? And why would we depend upon her for White House news and analysis, when we know from her blog that she's a liberal journalist harboring deep animosity toward the Bush Adminstration?
It colors everything she writes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/03/07 05:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (18)
15 November 2005
KTRK's Willey reports on Katrina sex offender problem (updated)
In a Saturday blog post, we suggested that local media had neglected a key local aspect of the Katrina story: the dispersal of sexual offender refugees and FEMA's seeming refusal to work with state and local authorities on tracking them down.
On the 10pm broadcast tonight, KTRK-13's Jessica Willey followed up with a solid report on the problem. The story is posted here.
UPDATE (11-16-2005): The Austin American-Statesman has an update today. Mike Ward reports that the state of Texas has finally received a list of sex-offender evacuees from FEMA:
After a month of high-level finger-pointing, federal officials have finally turned over to Texas authorities a list of convicted sex offenders who evacuated from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
The release of the list Tuesday comes after officials said four children fell victim to displaced sexual predators in Texas.
State officials moved quickly to start tracking down the estimated hundreds of convicted sex offenders they think are now living in Texas but have failed to register with local police, as they are required by law to do.
"We have received the list, aliases included, and are processing it as quickly as we can to get the names into the hands of the appropriate agencies," said Kathy Walt, press secretary to Gov. Rick Perry. "We want for local law enforcement to be able to identify these sexual offenders in their communities and make contact with them to make sure they register so we know where they are, that they're not around children and not in situations they shouldn't be."
[snip]
Walt and other Texas officials said Tuesday that the list they received from federal officials contains hundreds of names. An exact count was not available because the list also included aliases, meaning some offenders are counted more than once.
Since Katrina hit New Orleans in late August, state officials said, at least four offenders from Louisiana have been arrested and charged in Texas with sexual assaults involving children -- two in Houston, one in Richardson, one in Plano.
The American-Statesman story should be read in its entirety.
The Chronicle's coverage of this story with greater implications for our community than for Austin? A thin, four-paragraph rehash of AP copy. Perhaps Austin bureau chief Clay Robison was too busy looking for Proposition 2 supporters dressed in sheets to cover this state news of importance to Houstonians.
At least Houston news consumers have KTRK and the American-Statesman keeping an eye on the story.
UPDATE 2 (11-16-2005): Chief Hurtt held a press conference on the issue this morning, which KHOU-11 covered and posted to its website almost immediately.
Since it was a press conference, the Chronicle finally managed to cover the story, with a short online story that carries a webstamp of 1:41pm. At least they beat KPRC-2 to the news, but that's really not saying much.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 10:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
31 March 2005
Texas shield law for journalists rears its head again
A few weeks back, the Chronicle editors wrote an editorial encouraging the Legislature to pass HB188, a bill that would give journalists special privileges -- in essence, a shield law. We pointed out then that the bill is poorly worded and it would be unwise to grant special privileges to journalists.
A blogHOUSTON reader gave us a heads up today that the Senate side has its own bill -- SB604 -- introduced by state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D), and the reader suggests that Ellis may have the votes needed to move it out of committee.
We cannot emphasize enough what a lousy piece of legislation this is. The press already has a protection in place -- it's called the First Amendment.
Amusingly, in its earlier editorial, the Chronicle said:
The bill would not create a special class of persons. Journalism is an activity open to anyone with a copier or Web site. The bill stipulates only that the journalism must be disseminated, drawing the distinction between reporters and commentators, and diarists and people who merely agree to keep a secret.
However, the two bills do not make that distinction. Here is how the (identical) bills define "journalist" and "news medium":
(1) "Journalist" means a person, or an employee,
independent contractor, or agent of that person, engaged in the
business of gathering, compiling, writing, editing, photographing,
recording, or processing information for dissemination by any news
medium.(2) "News medium" means a person who in the ordinary
course of business publishes, broadcasts, or otherwise
disseminates news by print, television, radio, or other electronic
means accessible to the public.
There is nothing in those definitions that draws a distinction between reporters and commentators. How many times have we seen columnists and bloggers dig up news that the "professional" media doesn't, for whatever reasons? And bloggers and columnists use the internet which would be included in "other electronic means accessible to the public."
My question then, as now, is if Rick Casey is covered, in the Chronicle's interpretation? What about Clay Robison or Cragg Hines? They are commentators. What about Kyrie O'Connor? She writes the blog MeMo, which is available online only. Are bloggers considered journalists?
These definitions are muddy and open to numerous interpretations. We don't agree that "professional journalists" should be given special privileges that would not be given to any average citizen -- including diarists and secret-keepers. The First Amendment is sufficient protection.
If you are so inclined, please call your state representative and senator and politely voice your opinion on this proposed journalist shield law.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/31/05 05:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
31 May 2005
Pithy thoughts on "olds"
I rolled back into town last night from nearly a week of camping, and am pleased to see that Anne's held down the fort wonderfully.
Indeed, her radio appearance was so good I might well be out of a regular gig! If you missed it, scroll down the right sidebar and click on the two segments. (Warning: the mp3 files are several megabytes each).
Following are some quick thoughts on stories I missed and am just now catching up on (some of which Anne has already posted about). I'll stick it under the [Read More] button for those who aren't interested in my random thoughts on what is now "olds."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/31/05 11:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 July 2005
Sunday Chron editorial page recycles "olds"
James Howard Gibbons must have been really eager to get out of the offices at 801 Texas Avenue on Friday to get started on a long weekend, because he certainly left a dud of an editorial page for Sunday readers.
There's a staff editorial that argues the U.S. needs to lower its dependence on oil, a cutting-edge notion.
There's a staff editorial that criticizes conservative city council member Addie Wiseman for the suggestion that perhaps the city ought to be interested in whether or not vulgar and/or obscene material is being broadcast on its public access channel. The same editorial board that favors restricting some political speech erroneously says the First Amendment means anything goes on public access; it does not. (Personally, I think it would be fun if devout Christians took over the channel and began proselytizing in the wee hours of the morning, just to see how quickly the editorial board would reverse course.)
There are the usual Sunday snoozers from Cragg Hines and Clay Robison.
And then there are the items chosen by Gibbons and crew to fill out the editorial page.
Four of those stand out: We can all learn from LBJ, Ev by Jack Valenti, Tom Cruise: You are out of control by Brooke Shields, Running away from America, until I stopped by Kennedy School student Fatina Abdrabboh, and Betting our future on the mirage of endless Saudi oil by Hubbert Peak enthusiast Michael T. Klare.
Valenti's op-ed first appeared in the New York Times on 24 June 2005.
Shields' op-ed first appeared in the New York Times on 1 July 2005.
As David Benzion points out, Abdrabboh's op-ed first appeared in the New York Times on 23 June 2005, and has been widely derided across the blogosphere.
Klare's op-ed first appeared in the Los Angeles Times on 27 June 2005. Klare is one of many Hubbert Peak enthusiasts who take disputed geological facts, make a series of (frequently unstated) economic and political assumptions, and then predict calamity in the very near future. Alan at Petrified Truth alerts us to Mr. Klare's association with any number of leftist political organizations, associations that go unmentioned in the op-ed and byline but that are not irrelevant given the political and economic assumptions involved.
All of these op-eds are old -- really old, in internet time.
James Howard Gibbons, who once lectured bloggers on the superiority of editorial pages in their ideal state, ought to be embarrassed that he put out this collection of "olds" and otherwise mediocre opinion writing in a Sunday edition, holiday weekend or not. Even if he is not, one would think folks higher up the food chain at Hearst might be concerned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/05 07:00 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 May 2005
A Sunday edition in a less-than-ideal state
Reading the Chronicle today made us tired. And we're feeling bratty on a Sunday when we'd rather be out catching some sunlight. So the following blurbs are just some quick observations about a Sunday edition that seemed below average even by the usual standards. Or, as they might say in the biz, the following are compiled from staff (that is, Anne, Callie, and Kevin) reports.
Posted by blogHOUSTON @ 05/01/05 07:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
13 November 2004
Editorial contortions, Chron style
The Chronicle's editors really betray themselves as dull thinkers sometimes.
It's far-Left conventional wisdom that John Ashcroft is an evil man who lives for the chance to lock up innocents and turn America into a theocracy.
His defenders are just as adamant that he's a man of integrity who has effectively used new anti-terror powers bestowed upon his office by an overwhelming majority of Congress, not to mention pursuing those guilty of corporate malfeasance at a time when scandals like Enron and Global Crossing and such were threatening to wreck the economy.
In an editorial celebrating Ashcroft's resignation, the Chronicle's editors of course adopt the far-Left conventional wisdom, accusing Ashcroft of "prudery," "contempt for individual rights," being "delusional," and even scaring away foreign exchange students!
The editorial doesn't get far beyond the name calling, which is fairly typical when the editors are dealing with their favorite "bad guys."
Amusingly, though, the editors offer praise for Alberto Gonzales, who has been nominated to replaced Ashcroft as Attorney General.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/04 10:18 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 September 2004
The Chronicle still isn't happy with Prop. 12
Recently, Texas Media Watch noted that the Chronicle was less than happy with Proposition 12, medical liability reform:
When medical liability reform was on the ballot last year, the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle adamantly opposed it. In addition to chronically slanted news coverage of the issue, the paper produced twelve editorials during the campaign stressing their opposition. Two days before the vote they wrote:
If Proposition 12 passes in Saturday's statewide election and becomes an amendment to the Texas Constitution, Texans almost certainly will have given up an important constitutional right and consumer protection tool.
In exchange, they will have received a dubious promise about lowering the cost of medical malpractice insurance rates.
Houston Chronicle, 9/11/2003
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/21/04 05:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
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