20 December 2008
Better wait a few days before trying the recipes (cont'd)
As we've noted before, it's always good to wait a few days (for corrections) before trying any recipe that appears in the Chronicle.
Here's something from recent corrections that helps make the point:
A recipe for Beef Tamales on Page F5 of Wednesday's Flavor section was mistitled. Also, the ingredients should have called for 4 ounces of dried New Mexico chilies and 4 cups of masa mix. For the corrected recipe please see chron.com/food.
Happy cooking (once you've checked the corrections)!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/08 11:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 November 2008
Andrea Georgsson has left the Chronicle
Andrea Georgsson, the Houston Chronicle editorial board member who apparently violated newspaper policy by donating to political candidates, has left the newspaper.
Georgsson left the newspaper just after the election, according to this column from Richard Prince:
Andrea Georgsson, the only African American editorial writer at the Houston Chronicle, left the paper Wednesday after being at the paper since 1987 and a member of the editorial board since 1995. "It was my own decision," Georgsson told Journal-isms. "I'm going to just follow my bliss," Georgsson, 44, said. She said she has three little boys to take care of and may do volunteer work.
Media monitor Cision (as well as Georgsson's own Facebook page) confirms the departure:
Longtime Houston Chronicle staffer leaves
Posted on: 11/10/2008Andrea Georgsson recently left her post as an editorial page writer for the Houston Chronicle. She previously served as an education reporter. Prior to that, she covered Harris County and state news. She joined the paper as an intern in 1987. To learn more, call 713-362-7171.
If anyone calls the number, please let us know if you "learn more." We would be surprised.
Recall that we found Georgsson had donated to the Harris County Judge campaign of David Mincberg (not to mention the presidential campaign of Barack Obama). Such donations apparently violate newspaper policy, and for good reason -- it is hard for an editorial board to preach transparency for others when it doesn't practice what it preaches. Even worse than the lack of transparency, it is thought that Georgsson penned at least one editorial about Harris County ethics (which referenced Ed Emmett, the incumbent opponent of Mincberg) -- an editorial that was quickly posted to Mincberg's campaign site.
The Houston Chronicle refused to answer substantive email queries about Georgsson in the leadup to the election, and has not addressed the scandal publicly. On the surface, it appears that Georgsson left the newspaper of her own accord. It seems likely, however, that both she and the newspaper concluded that it would be best for all if she moved on. We would email the reader representative and ask, but we have yet to see evidence that he actually uses email.
It's too bad that the Chronicle didn't take the opportunity to practice what it preaches about transparency and to inform readers about the scandal. Chronicle execs like to describe the editorial board as leading a community discussion, but more often it seems like the insular editorialists are simply lecturing to the community, without much interest in an actual conversation.
And it's not even a very good lecture these days. In recent weeks, the editorial board -- sans Georgsson and James Howard Gibbons -- has turned out some truly clunky prose. We certainly didn't agree wth Georgsson or Gibbons on most issues, but who knew their departures would give readers even less cause to visit a so-so, left-leaning editorial page?
Perhaps it's another reason for the Editorial Board to start a blog (as we've suggested before). Even poor writers can get better if they really work at the craft (practice, practice, practice!). Frequent blog posts on local affairs could be just the sort of practice that is needed. And who knows -- a little interaction with readers might actually improve a product that could use it.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Hair Balls.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/23/08 08:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
17 November 2008
A new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy!
Allan Turner offers up a Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy* today.
The Death Row Killer Guy's lawyer declined to talk to the Chronicle, and the newspaper could not reach members of the victim's family, so Turner was reduced to building this Chron Eye from court testimony:
Cathey's sister, Charlotte Ezeh, testified that the killer was pampered at home. But his mother, Willie Lee Cathey, told jurors that the family's home life was tumultuous, with her husband drinking, using drugs and accosting family members with firearms.
Cathey married at 17 and fathered two children, jurors were told.
Luke Ezeh, Cathey's now former brother-in-law, said he employed the killer in his battery shop.
"He was a very good guy," Ezeh said. "He sold batteries and kept the money and never took anything from me. I don't think he deserves to die. He made a mistake, but he should be corrected, not put to death."
Ezeh said Cathey was a musician whose partner had absconded with a recording. "He was trying to locate him through the girl and things got out of hand," he said. "That is what I heard. I was not there."
In a death row interview, Cathey insisted he had spent the night of the murder watching television with his girlfriend.
"I am not guilty of the crime," Cathey said. "I never met the woman."
The killer admitted he had been convicted of an earlier drug offense, but said he had never served prison time.
Upon arriving on death row, he said, he was "very fearful."
"I knew that I didn't do anything," he said. "I had a sense of hopelessness. ... I had seen guys who had gone off to their executions."
Now, he added, "I play it by ear. I'm praying to God to work things out."
We trust that He will.
This Chron Eye does continue the very recent practice of working in the term "Huntsville death house," which the author/editors would surely deny is subtle editorializing** (despite the fact it tends to be used -- derisively -- by those opposed to the death penalty).
Why a shrinking business with declining readership continues to expend so many resources on pet political causes favored by the editor's wife is an ongoing mystery.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/08 10:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 October 2008
Chron circulation plummets; Sweeney spins himself silly
The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest newspaper circulation numbers today, and the results weren't pretty for the Houston Chronicle, which saw a decline of 11.66% in daily circulation. Among the 25 largest newspapers in the country, that drop was exceeded only by that of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (13.62%). The Chronicle Sunday edition did manage to click in atop the Top 25, though, with a whopping circulation decline of 15.73%!
Chron publisher and spinner Jack Sweeney said the big decline was just part of the newspaper's strategy:
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney attributed most of the declines to strategic decisions made by the newspaper to discontinue circulation outside a 90-mile radius of downtown Houston, increase the daily newsstand price to 75 cents and eliminate advertiser-sponsored distribution. Hurricane Ike also affected circulation in coastal communities.
Matt Bramanti takes apart Sweeney's business "strategy" here.
People may not be buying the newspaper like they once did, but Chron.com is doing well, according to Sweeney:
And chron.com has seen a 20 percent jump in readers who don’t buy the Chronicle. Chron.com exceeded 90 million page views in August and spiked to 185 million in September due to Hurricane Ike coverage.
“Our journalists keep consumers of Chronicle content engaged no matter what platform they choose,” Sweeney said. “It could be our City&State section, Gloss or one of our online channels like Moms or Houston Belief.”
More likely, it would be chron.com's comic section, a popular online attraction. Or perhaps user-contributed party pics!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Brazosport News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/27/08 10:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
24 October 2008
Chron editorial board endorses Judge Ed Emmett
The unethical and unprofessional Chronicle editorial board endorsed Ed Emmett for county judge today.
The Chronicle editorial board probably felt it had no other choice given David Mincberg's disastrous post-Ike campaign AND the fact that editorial board member Andrea Georgsson was caught donating to Mincberg. Perhaps even the editorial board's discomfort with the resulting mess explains the typo and grammatical error in the endorsement (or perhaps that's giving them too much credit, and they just write poorly when not plagiarizing from well-written material).
We confirmed with officials from both campaigns that Georgsson was NOT present at the candidate screening described by Liz Peterson in this blog post*. That's too bad. While the Chronicle's reader rep(s) PR spinners refuse to answer questions about how the newspaper has handled the matter, it seems at the very least Georgsson should have been suspended from editorial board activity for a significant period of time AND have been asked to appear at the start of this particular screening to apologize to both candidates for effectively reducing the value of a Chronicle editorial board endorsement through her unethical and unprofessional behavior.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/24/08 07:58 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 October 2008
Chron editorial board fritters away last vestiges of credibility
Over at Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti documents the latest embarrassment for the unethical Houston Chronicle editorial board: presenting large chunks of a press release as their own work.
Bramanti concludes:
It’s a shame that the Chron’s editors celebrate education by taking another’s words and passing them off as their own. There’s a word for that.
Yes there is. In addition, it's lazy and unprofessional.
In recent weeks, the Chron editorial board has been caught donating money to political candidates, has refused to answer questions about the ethical transgressions, and just when you think their credibility really can't decline any further, they prove that it can by plagiarizing from a press release.
This is not the sort of behavior one would expect from professionals at a major daily newspaper (although since columnist Rick Casey once plagiarized with no repercussions, one can understand why some writers at the newspaper wouldn't worry that much about it, especially Jeff Cohen's pets).
We can't help but wonder -- if these "professionals" can't even manage to craft original words for two editorials* per daily edition, why shouldn't the editorial page simply be terminated and the resources redistributed through the newsroom?
Bramanti has an email out to the Chron's reader representative(s) about this, and so do I. Since said reader representatives refuse to answer my emails or approve my comments to their blog, I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response. But I'll post it if they surprise me.
* On occasion, the editorial page still runs those insipid "Another Voice" reprints from other newspapers in place of a house editorial. Maybe they could just start posting press releases too?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/22/08 11:48 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
16 October 2008
HISD superintendent blasts Chron editorial board
The Chronicle published a letter from HISD superintendent Abe Saavedra today. Here's the start:
On Oct. 8, the Chronicle published an editorial that gave an incomplete — and thus misleading — account of the steps that the Houston Independent School District is taking to make up instructional time lost due to Hurricane Ike.
Incomplete and misleading? The unethical Chronicle editorial board? Shocking!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/16/08 09:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
07 October 2008
Chron editorialist gets early start on endorsements
The Harris County Clerk's website has new campaign finance filings posted (which we like!).
David Mincberg's latest report (PDF download) is interesting. If a person clicks onto page 18, the name Andrea Georgsson turns up. Georgsson gave Mr. Mincberg $250.
Georgsson lists her occupation as "writer" for none other than the Houston Chronicle.
That's not untrue, but more specifically, she is on the editorial board for the newspaper (readers may recall she is a passionate advocate for abortion and leftover adoption).
Presumably, she will participate in the editorial board's interviews of both candidates for Harris County Judge, and will help determine the editorial board's endorsement. It is thought that she writes many of the editorials on county affairs for the board, although it is impossible to know with certainty since they are unsigned.
Do you think Georgsson will recuse herself from the process, since she already is openly supporting a candidate? Do you think she'll let the candidates and her fellow editorial board members know of her donation (err, we guess we pre-empted her)? Do you think the Chronicle should allow its editorial board members to support candidates in partisan elections, even though editorial board members are charged with screening those candidates for the public?
It doesn't seem like a very good idea to me, and many news organizations have rules against such behavior. This afternoon, I emailed old reader rep Steve Jetton and new reader rep Jim Newkirk about this discovery, and asked about the Chronicle policy and how it intended to proceed with the screening/endorsement process for Harris County Judge. This evening, Jetton emailed that "We're looking into the situation."
One should hope so. The question is, what will the newspaper DO about the situation.
Incidentally, Georgsson also gave $250 to Barack Obama's campaign a few months ago.
UPDATE (10/12/08): Rorschach notes another possible ethical lapse by Georgsson. The Chronicle editorial board's credibility is really suffering. Perhaps one day soon the reader rep(s) will be done "looking into the situation" and the newspaper will announce some plan to deal with the problem.
UPDATE (10/13/08): The Chronicle reader representative(s) continue to ignore repeated email followups from me asking what steps are being taken to restore integrity to their candidate endorsement process. It is a bizarre thing for a newspaper to have a reader representative charged with interacting with readers and for said reader representative to refuse to answer substantive questions about the newspaper.
UPDATE (10/14/08): The Chronicle's Steve Jetton finally answered repeated email queries with this non-substantive response:
A Chronicle editorial writer made political campaign contributions that she regrets. We’ve dealt with it internally and appreciate your concern.
I KNOW she made contributions, as we pointed out. Apparently, the Chronicle has gone into the bunker, and doesn't intend to tell readers what it has done to try to restore its credibility.
Therefore, we can only conclude that readers should ignore the Chronicle's unethical and deceptive editorial board on any musings it might offer on candidates or county politics, since it is impossible to regard the board as a fair, uninvolved commentator on such matters.
BLOGVERSATION: Unca Darrell (and more), Brazosport News, Red Ink: Texas, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Lone Star Times (and more), Hair Balls.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/07/08 09:50 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (24)
03 October 2008
It's buyout time at the Chronicle!
A friend recently alerted us that buyouts were being finalized this week at the Chronicle
Apparently, today is the day for some of the announcements. We presume this blog post from Julie Mason is related (and the Chron's D.C. bureau just got a little more serious).
John Wilburn, most recently the Chron's managing editor, takes over as Opinion Director. Steve Jetton takes over as Outlook editor. David Langworthy slides into an editorial writing position. Jim Newkirk takes over as reader rep (and will apparently retain his gigs as budget czar and high school liaison).
That's what we are hearing so far. If you have any other interesting Chron buyout tidbits, feel free to pass them along in the comments (or anonymously here if you prefer).
Here's hoping these moves improve what had become simply a dreadful editorial page -- one that recently confused the date of 9/11 and the name of the Harris County Sheriff (calling him Tommy Thompson, and refusing to correct the mistake). We can't say we'll miss the Editorial Journals of one James Howard Gibbons -- or his editorials in an erroneous state. But if he decides he misses the opinion game, we still have his diary space at the ready!
UPDATE: We hear that Rad Sallee has taken the buyout. Will METRO have a position for him?
UPDATE (10/09/08): Per Media Bistro, Mason didn't get the buyout and Bennett Roth of the D.C. bureau was also laid off.
UPDATE (10/12/08): Another source says Mason and Roth were offered the buyout. Maybe at some point the newspaper will issue a press release and clear it all up.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times (and here), Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/03/08 06:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
19 September 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists lecture HISD
Add another Chron editorial to the list of examples of why Banjo Jones' Modest Proposal is a good idea:
All schools in the Houston Independent School District, which closed the Thursday before Ike made landfall, will be closed through Friday and possibly longer. In the aftermath of the massive storm, that's understandable. What makes less sense is HISD's game plan to open all schools on the same day.
This strategy has not been well thought out. Obviously, each school will have to remain closed until it has power and water restored. Some parents have expressed relief at not having to worry about maintaining a school schedule during this hectic post-hurricane week. Too, many families who evacuated remain out of the city.
But after a week without class, it is imperative that HISD officials open schools as quickly as power is restored and inspections of grounds and mechanical systems are complete. It is not reasonable to wait to open the first school until the last school is ready.
As of Thursday, about a third of district schools had power, according to district spokesman Norm Uhl.
Anyone with half a brain knows that school districts want to be up and running as soon as possible. As HISD spokesman Norm Uhl has said on KTRH-740, once a school gets power it still takes several days to check out all the necessary electrical functions to see if all is running properly. The Chron editors would be the first ones throwing a hissy fit if HISD didn't practice due diligence to make sure schools were safe and functioning. Plus, add in the fact that districts will schedule make-up days on a district-wide basis, not on a school-by-school basis.
The ending paragraph of the editorial is especially offensive:
No one says making schools sound enough to get kids back to their desks will be easy. But HISD officials must rise to the occasion, keeping foremost in their plans what's best for the students, not their own convenience.
Please, shutter the editorial page.
UPDATE: Obviously HISD was afraid of facing the wrath of the Chron's editorial board:
The Houston Independent School District announced today that 120 schools with electricity will reopen for students on Tuesday. The remaining schools will be phased in as they become ready.
"We will continue to add to the list of ready schools on a daily basis," HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said.
Dr. Saavedra was no doubt mindful of the Chron's displeasure with the slow pace of schools getting power...as if HISD has anything to do with getting electricity flowing again.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/19/08 11:53 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
18 September 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists forget when 9/11 took place
Matt Bramanti noticed that the Chron Editorial LiveJournalists were playing Editorial Humorists today:
Last weekend, as Hurricane Ike buffeted Southeast Texas, another massive storm pummeled Wall Street, leaving financial institutions reeling and triggering the most precipitous drop in the stock market since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 9, 2001.
That big a gaffe HAD to be intentional, right? They're trying their hand at humor, surely?
If not, then this proposal from Banjo Jones looks smarter and smarter.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/18/08 08:20 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
10 September 2008
A "modest proposal" from Banjo Jones
A few days ago, Banjo Jones posted some thoughts on areas the Chronicle might consider cutting as part of its latest round of downsizing:
I have an idea on one way the paper can handle the layoffs. I don't think it would get rid of the entire 80 employees they're looking to shed, but it'd be a start -- eliminate the entire opinion section where the paper publishes its institutional view of the world.
Such a move could be couched in terms that a lot of mainstream media haters would love; tell them, it's not our business to tell you what to think, we'll leave that you. Think whatever you want. We don't care! We're just gonna report the damn news.
Like Matt Bramanti, Cory Crow, Unca Darrell, and others, we used to spend a fair amount of time debunking and/or mocking the Editorial LiveJournalists and their error-ridden prescriptions, although we have gradually come to the realization that nobody pays much attention to them (as evidenced by the little traffic generated from Dwight Silverman's whimsical linkblog on the online editorial page), and that our own time is usually better spent tossing out our opinions for discussion. So we tend to agree with Banjo that if that page went away, it wouldn't be a huge loss.
Banjo goes on to suggest that the paper might keep some local columnists (since Jeff Cohen fashions himself a great developer of the same -- really!), or it might just as easily whack them. The newspaper's metro/state/DC columnists are such an undistinguished group that it's hard to object to the "whack them" proposal. For that matter, why not also save some money by downsizing that D.C. bureau that rarely breaks important stories, and letting Hearst set up a D.C. bureau from which all its newspapers can draw (not unlike the Chronicle/Express-News combined Austin bureau)?
We're all for whatever can be done to protect the local/state news staffs from further cuts.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/08 10:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
05 September 2008
More downsizing at the Chronicle
Over at Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti notes that the Chronicle is facing more downsizing:
The Houston Chronicle offered voluntary buyouts to its employees today, with a goal of reducing staff by roughly 80 full-time positions, Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said Thursday.
Depending on how many employees request buyouts, layoffs might be necessary. When the reductions are completed at the end of the month, the full-time staff will be cut by 5 to 6 percent, Sweeney said.
The problems the newspaper industry faces are numerous, but the Chronicle's current "dumbed down and trashed up" strategy should not be a model for other newspapers.
Final word goes to Matt:
A little math reveals that the Chronicle employs about 1,450 people. Less than four years ago, more than 2,400 people worked for the Chron.
Firing a thousand people must be good for editor Jeff Cohen’s golf game. His handicap currently stands at 8.6, down from 9 during last year’s layoffs.
Nice shooting, Jeff!
RELATED: Chronicle to reduce workforce (Houston Business Journal)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/08 06:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
24 August 2008
Chron: School districts saved money with later start date; HISD: No we didn't
Last week the Chron's Jennifer Radcliffe wrote a story with the following thesis: School district utility bills have gone down since the Lege ordered later start dates:
Texas public school leaders may still be fuming about the legislative mandate that delayed the start of the school year until the last week of August, but advocates point to lower utility bills as a sign that lawmakers made the right choice.
In the first year, schools statewide appear to have saved millions of dollars in August utility bills. The Houston Independent School District's monthly payment to Reliant Energy, for example, dropped almost $200,000 between August 2006 and August 2007. Officials attribute about $66,000 of the savings to lower electricity costs.
You might already be able to see the problem with Radcliffe's story: She focused on August utility bills alone. Guess what? A later start date means a later end date, which means the possibility of extra utility usage at the end of the year. Might the savings have been offset by that? The Chron doesn't know:
HISD spends about $57 million a year on electricity, meaning $66,000 is a slight savings, officials said. And they said some of the savings probably were erased by extra days in May and June, but they couldn't provide the figures.
We heard from HISD's Terry Abbott who disputed Radcliffe's conclusion. Abbott said HISD advised Radcliffe the assertion might be wrong, and that HISD was running the numbers to see if the savings held up with the addition of the extra days at the end of the year. As it turned out, HISD's month-by-month electricity usage analysis did not show a savings; in fact, HISD's electricity usage and costs were higher for the 2007-08 school year when compared to the 2006-07 school year.
Abbott requested a correction or retraction from the Chron, but so far the editorial leadership has declined.
While Radcliffe's story features HISD, a sidebar notes August utility savings for fourteen school districts. In asserting that Texas schools "have saved millions of dollars," did Radcliffe get the last-month-of-school numbers for any of those school districts? If she did, they're not listed; therefore, Radcliffe's conclusion (millions saved) is not supported by her partial facts (August numbers only). To come up with that conclusion she needed to get complete utility numbers for all the districts.
Did any other districts try to warn her against using incomplete data? Unclear, but it doesn't appear the Chron is going to revisit the issue, and this will be the end of the story for Houston's daily newspaper of record.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/24/08 01:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
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)
13 August 2008
E&P: Chron, Express-News discuss "generic" features
Hairballs points us to an Editor and Publisher story that indicates that the Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News may be sharing some content in their features sections:
The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News are in talks to share some feature-section production and design efforts, according to Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney -- who said the move could include using similar generic stories.
However, he stressed that the changes are in the planning stage and would not dilute local stories from either newspaper. "There would still be local content," Sweeney told E&P. "It would be more of a layout and production thing."
The Chronicle and Express-News are both owned by Hearst Newspapers. The potential joint effort comes as both papers are seeing more niche products and feature efforts.
Perhaps MeMo will enlighten us on her diary about these possible changes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/08 10:52 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
28 July 2008
Baby steps: Chron editorial board gets name of treaty right!
Last week, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists weighed in once again on the Medellin matter.
We have previously noted the Editorial LiveJournalists' lack of expertise on the intersection of constitutional law, treaty obligations, and federal/state relations in regard to the same.
It is worth noting that this time, they at least got the name of the treaty right. Baby steps!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/08 11:00 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
12 July 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists tackle...office distractions
It would seem MeMo was in charge of today's inexplicable editorial offering:
Feeling distracted? Plagued by constant interruptions? Can't concentrate on the job? Drowning in a flood of data and stimulae?
Now it can be known: You're not alone. According to the New York-based consulting firm Basex, the typical American office worker spends no more than three minutes on task before being interrupted. Many U.S. workers — those in the news media, for instance — would give much to have three uninterrupted minutes.
The distractions stem from e-mails, calls, visitors, colleagues dropping by to chat, the temptation to visit YouTube or another amusing Web site. Added to those are environmental noise from construction, traffic, air handlers, and seemingly omnipresent radios and televisions.
Basex reports that such distractions waste 28 percent of a worker's shift, costing businesses $650 billion a year.
So Chron employees waste 28 percent of their work time? This explains many things at 801 Texas Avenue.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/08 08:51 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
07 July 2008
Chron metro/state diarist tackles energy security
Just before the Fourth, Chronicle metro/state diarist Lisa Falkenberg decided to step outside her area of expertise to tackle the more complicated subject of energy security -- or, to be more precise, the superiority of her own knowledge of that subject when compared to our state's candidates for U.S. Senate (because most Falkenberg columns do revolve around Falkenberg, after all).
Here are some excerpts from a metro/state column -- COLUMN -- that really did appear in the newspaper of record in the energy capital of the world:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/08 11:17 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
02 July 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists: License renewal office NOT the ideal state!
One of the Editorial LiveJournalists apparently descended from the sheltered offices of 801 Texas Avenue to discover that in-person license renewals are inconvenient and inefficient:
Texans can renew their driver's license online, and change the address on the license online. But for no obvious reason, the department won't let Texans do both if their license has expired. Those with an expired license and a new address must go to one of the department's crowded, poorly maintained offices.
At the office on Dacoma Street, visitors are met with a dysfunctional bureaucracy that combines the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled. First, one must wait in line for an application. Then applicants must fill it out standing up or squatting on the floor, because there aren't enough chairs, and using the office's broad counters is prohibited. Tantalizingly, DPS officials withhold the purpose of this policy.
After a torturous wait of a couple of hours or more, applicants are called by number to stand in a second slow-moving line before getting their applications processed. At the rear of the second line is a small sign stating "No cell phones beyond this point."
I had to go to the Dacoma office a few weeks ago. While it was slow and inefficient (like many bureaucracies! Imagine how splendid it would be if there were a Department of Government Healthcare!), it actually wasn't as bad as I expected (total wait was slightly over an hour), and in my experience it didn't approach "the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled."
We think we know which Editorial LiveJournalist didn't qualify for online renewal, though. Check out this Editorial LiveJournal by Mr. Gibbons that we mocked way back in 2005:
The presiding judge of Houston's municipal courts, Berta Mejia, announced that police officers will soon be coming around and arresting those who failed to appear in court or pay the fines for their traffic tickets. As police and court officials are making their list of delinquents, I suggest they check it twice.
Last week as I was driving downtown I was pulled over by a Houston police officer. He said there was an arrest warrant issued for the driver of a car with my license plates. It was a mistake, perhaps a clerical error. I receive few tickets and have none outstanding. The officer allowed me to go.
Before I drove off I asked the officer if he could do something to prevent me from being stopped again. He said no, there was nothing he could do. It was up to me to straighten it out.
I called Judge Mejia's office, but an official said that mistaken warrants were not her department. There was nothing the judge could do. I was referred to the office of the chief clerk, but my call was neither answered nor, after I left a voice mail, returned.
An operator at the city's 311 help line confirmed that there was no warrant in my name or in the name of anyone driving a car with my plates.
The city computer showed an old ticket had been paid, leaving a balance due of zero. The operator said she could not withdraw or dismiss a warrant because none existed.
So there it was. There was nothing anyone could do.
I have not used the adjective "Kafka-esque" since the Nixon administration, but it's always there, ready and waiting, if I should need it.
Like when an Editorial LiveJournalist must descend from the Chron mothership to go renew a license in person. The DPS office must be cowering in fear about now!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/08 09:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (10)
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ACTIVE TOPICS
The threads above are the most recently active in the blogHOUSTON comments (RSS).
LOCAL BLOG TALK
This section is regularly updated with posts from local bloggers who add to the blogversation about Houston media, politics, and life. It is powered with a little help from Furl.
LOCAL BLOGS
- Pure Bloggers
- +A Certain Slant of Light
- +A Veneer of Certainty
- +Ain't Chicken
- +Around Town Houston
- +B.S. Houston ArtBlog
- +Baboon Pirates
- +Bayou City Madman
- +Beldar Blog
- +Blue Bayou
- +Boyd's Blog
- +Brazosport News
- +Business Unusual
- +By the Bayou
- +Chelsea Hotel No. 2
- +Chief Hurtt's Blog
- +Connections
- +Custos Fidei
- +Defending People (Mark Bennett)
- +Diana's Place
- +Dissonance
- +Down the Writer's Path
- +Fabulous Jen
- +Fireballs, Lightning Bolts and Hell Storms
- +Food In Houston
- +Greg's Opinion
- +H-Town Grooves
- +High Tech Texan
- +Houblog.com
- +Houston Calling
- +Houston Consigliere
- +Houston Photobloggers
- +Houston Strategies
- +Houston's Clear Thinkers
- +Houston, Hot and Humid
- +Houstonist
- +Houtopia
- +Intermodality
- +Jeff Balke
- +John Little
- +Laurence Simon
- +Laurie Kendrick
- +Liberty's Blog
- +Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
- +Lone Star Times
- +Lose an Eye
- +Lou Minatti
- +Metroblogging Houston
- +Midtown Live
- +Misunderestimation
- +Off the Kuff
- +Perfectly Cromulent
- +Perry vs World
- +Polimom
- +Professors R-Squared
- +PubliusTX.net
- +Quaint Quiescence
- +Rant Fever
- +Red Ink: Texas
- +Rep. John Culberson's Blog
- +Right of Texas
- +Run Houston
- +She Eats
- +Sit, Ubu, Sit!
- +Slampo's Place
- +Stolen Thunder
- +Talk In Texas
- +Texas Liberal
- +Texas Safety Forum
- +Texas Yankee
- +The County Seat
- +The Light Bulb
- +Twelve Two Two Fondue
- +WILLisms
- +Write on METRO
- Journo Bloggers
- +Brent Clanton
- +HC: About Chron
- +HC: About Last Night
- +HC: Baseball
- +HC: Bayou City History
- +HC: Cook's Tour
- +HC: David Barron
- +HC: Hand Stamp
- +HC: Helpline
- +HC: Houston Departures
- +HC: Houston Politics
- +HC: Inside Central Houston
- +HC: Jerome Solomon
- +HC: John McClain/NFL
- +HC: Loren Steffy
- +HC: MeMo
- +HC: Nick Anderson
- +HC: School Zone
- +HC: SciGuy
- +HC: Sports Justice
- +HC: Sports Soup
- +HC: Tag's Baseball Plays
- +HC: Tech Blog
- +HC: Texas on the Potomac
- +HC: The Unofficial Scorer
- +HC: UH Cougars
- +HP: Eating Our Words
- +HP: HouStoned
- +HP: HouStoned Ballz
- +HP: HouStoned Rocks
- +Isiah Carey's Insite
- +KTRK: Consumer Blog
- +KTRK: Miya Shay
- +KTRK: Prof 13
- +KTRK: Roussel Report
- +KTRK: Tim Heller
- +Matt Lavine's Left Field News
- +Mike McGuff
The local blogs above cover topics of interest. Drop us a line if you blog about local topics and would like us to consider your blog. While a link back to blogHOUSTON is not required, it would be much appreciated.
LOCAL NEWS
+Examiner News
+Houston Business Journal
+Houston Chronicle
+Houston Community News
+Houston Forward Times
+Houston Press
+KPRC-2 (NBC)
+KHOU-11 (CBS)
+KTRK-13 (ABC)
+KRIV-26 (FOX)
+KTRH-740 AM
+KPRC-950 AM
+KUHF-88.7 FM (NPR)
LOCAL INFO
+AOL Cityguide
+B4-U-Eat
+Citysearch Houston
+Crime Maps & Stats
+Houston Architecture Info Forum
+Houston Chronicle Dining
+Houston Press Dining
+KPFT Music Calendar
+Links to Houston
+Pollstar (Houston)
+RadioInfo.com (Houston)
+Red Pub
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+Slampo
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+Chron columnist Richard Justice
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+Councilman Michael Berry
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+Alex Whitlock
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+Vikk Simmons
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+Aziz H. Poonawalla
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+Greg Wythe
"[A] lot of public masturbation...."
+Bayou City Madman
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+Chron cartoonist Nick Anderson
"[I]t's clear your reality and facts are not one and the same."
+WOAI/San Antonio talker Joe Pags
[T]heir political commentary involves absolutely no analysis, ever.... It's hackery."
+Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
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