10 January 2010
Just another weekend at America's worst big-city daily newspaper
FRESH OFF TWO EDITORIALS on college football (!?), the Chron editorial board decided effectively to outsource one of its weekend editorials to Christof Spieler, a local urban-utopia professional/activist/blogger.
With Carolyn Feibel's departure, we wondered if he'd be getting as much time in print, but between the editorial board and Mike Snyder, we suspect he'll remain a go-to source for the local Hearst daily, which is fairly predictable on these sorts of matters.
MORE (Six points more, in fact): Harris County Almanac.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/10 08:35 PM |
09 January 2010
If this had been the Center for the Mentally Retarded...
MAYBE IF THE CITY didn't let tenants fall hundreds of thousands of dollars behind in rent, its financial outlook wouldn't be so bleak. How many other tenants owe the city money?
Via KPRC-2, which pointedly notes that this happened under former mayor and current gubernatorial candidate Bill White's watch, and that Mayor Parker just learned of the situation. Back in 2006, Mayor White created a new department to handle city rents, after a similar, embarrassing KHOU-11 story. That seems to have worked out well.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/09/10 07:39 AM |
Mayor Parker left to tighten City Hall's belt
THE CHRON'S BRADLEY OLSON writes about the challenge Mayor Annise Parker faces in dealing with the city's worsening financial situation. Mayor White's finance director makes an appearance:
Finance Director Michelle Mitchell said the sales tax collections are likely to improve and defended the White administration's decision to use $50 million in reserves to meet expenses.
Someone's a little defensive.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/09/10 07:17 AM |
06 January 2010
Bennett: DIVERT agreement
ATTORNEY MARK BENNETT posts a copy of the Harris County DWI/DUI DIVERT agreement.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/06/10 08:26 AM |
The Chron doesn't have a monopoly on bad Houston journalism
THE USUALLY SOLID FINANCIAL TIMES takes a page from the Chronicle in its selection of sources for a story on Bill White's gubernatorial run. Only two sources are quoted -- Bicyclist Bob Stein and Richard Murray. Neither one is identified by author Sheila McNulty as a Democrat (nor did the FT mention that Stein's wife worked for the White administration, or that Stein himself was an occasional advisor), and of course neither one had anything negative to say about the great White hope of Texas Dems. The sloppy story also still has Kinky Friedman in the gubernatorial race.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/06/10 07:42 AM |
04 January 2010
2010: Things you won't hear
CORY CROW posts a fun list of "things you won't hear (or see, or read) in 2010."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/10 08:43 PM |
Local news comings and goings
MIKE MCGUFF has the scoop on a couple of Houston Chronicle departures (sports editor Carlton Thompson and assistant business editor Tara Young) and a couple of TV news reporter arrivals (Jason Volentine and Hasti Taghi).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/10 08:34 PM |
If he could just get as excited about actual reporting and analysis....
THE CHRON'S MAIN TEXANS CHEERLEADER "is already excited about next season."
Hard to see that one coming, huh?
Rah rah!
UPDATE: While McClain was leading the cheers for next season, the best coach in the NFL ripped the terrible surface at Reliant Stadium today. Bob McNair really should consider replacing that sorry "grass" (in varying shades of gray/green/brown!) with Field Turf. It is not world-class.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/10 08:27 PM |
Councilmember Johnson to take on Queen Sheila
COUNCILMEMBER JARVIS JOHNSON has decided to challenge (Queen) Sheila Jackson Lee for the CD 18 primary.
This could prove to be entertaining (although wouldn't it be refreshing if some Houston pols could just focus on the jobs they already have?).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/10 08:19 PM |
03 January 2010
Keeping the cheerleading in the family
SLAMPO FOLLOWS UP on some recent BH forum discussion with a fun and informative media-criticism post.
As it turns out, the Chronicle's main staff Dynamo cheerleader, Bernardo Fallas, has a sister who happens to work for the soccer club. Fallas assures Slampo that his superiors know of this relationship, and that it does not affect his coverage. Readers were never informed of the relationship, of course.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/10 10:28 PM |
"News" is kind of a stretch at times
SOMETIMES, messages of 140 characters or less really DO say quite a bit (like this 30 December tweet from the "Content director of chron.com, Houston Chronicle's news Web site"):
Going out on New Year's Eve in Houston? Share party photos from your cell phone on chron.com!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/10 10:05 PM |
Rah rah!
THIS is some heavy-duty cheerleading.
The next Chron transportation reporter is going to have some mighty big pom-poms to fill. Or something like that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/10 09:58 PM |
Winners
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HOUSTON TEXANS, for the first winning season ever.
And congratulations to the fans, who made enough nosie at the end to help seal the deal against the Pats' backup quarterback.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/10 03:13 PM |
30 December 2009
Curious priorities till the very end
IN A FITTING END TO HIS TERM, Mayor Bill White announced the formation of a commission to recommend changes to (but not elimination of) the city's term limits:
White, in announcing the commission, said he had no particular goal for the outcome of its work. He said any public policy benefits from periodic review.
Mayor White doesn't believe that's true, of course, or HPD's sanctuary policy might have been brought to Council for its first public review ever.
As for term limits, we've tossed this topic around before in the forum, and are not that bothered by some tinkering with the limits. It's another of Mayor White's priorities we find curious, however, given so many real problems facing the city (that will be passed on to the next administration).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/09 05:01 PM |
Campaign-finance scofflaw update
THE CHRON'S MIKE SNYDER reports that carpetbagger councilmember-elect Al Hoang's "extra" homestead exemption is valid (this year).
As for all the other concerns raised about Hoang's campaign-finance disclosures and residency, well....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/09 08:01 AM |
29 December 2009
Chron: Let's celebrate a convicted, corrupt former public official (whee!)
ANTI DEATH PENALTY ACTIVISM POSING AS JOURNALISM may have taken a hit at the Chronicle due to layoffs and a decline in death-penalty sentences (relative to Bexar and Tarrant counties), but it's good to see that our poor excuse for a big-city newspaper has found a new way to apply an old formula in the form of today's Chron Eye for the Convicted-Felon, Pull-Peddling, Hispanic Political Guy!
Do you think a few years down the line that the newspaper will be profiling former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay so sympathetically? Probably not....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/09 10:00 PM |
Too bad Feibel won't be around to "report" the METRO/CTC spin
MICHAEL REED follows up his earlier reporting on METRO's coming light-rail mobility mess on Post Oak.
Remember after Reed's earlier reporting when METRO's army of PR spinners assured that the organization was working closely with businessowners along the high-end commercial strip? They seem to have missed a pretty prominent one:
"Nobody said anything to me," said Jim McMcIngvale, whose Gallery Furniture location at 2411 Post Oak, opened in March. "It sounds like another mess."
Yes it does, despite the best efforts of METRO's army of PR spinners and even a bogus METRO-generated traffic study (the predictions of no impact on traffic in the already congested strip simply are not believable, and are even more reason for Mayor-elect Parker to take Tory Gattis's advice and audit every aspect of METRO operations).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/09 07:49 AM |
28 December 2009
Activists/bloggers call for greater METRO scrutiny; Chron disagrees
TOM BAZAN passes along the latest dismal METRO ridership and fare collection statistics, which we have posted for public review.
Tory Gattis posts separately that "an immediate deep-dive audit and analysis of Metro's cloudy future plans and financials is absolutely called for." Agreed!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/09 08:51 PM |
The County Seat: Yuletide Greetings
IN AN ALL TOO RARE POST, The County Seat mocks the Chron Editorial Board's Christmas wish list.
Our newsy wish list for the nation's fourth largest city would include a newspaper metro desk befitting the same and an alt-weekly (or three) staffed by real journalists doing real journalism (instead of mostly amateur bloggers). Alas....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/09 08:31 PM |
Slampo: ¿Dónde Está Bob?
SLAMPO LAUNCHES his Bob Stein Watch (so the rest of us are saved the trouble of tracking when the pro journalists at the Chron and elsewhere get lazy and tap an easy quote from Houston's expert on everything).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/09 09:51 AM |
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