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Alex Dunne, in a Blue Ear Books column on the struggle to complete a book manuscript, reminded me of the fear that haunts writers:A quote from Hemingway's 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro" sits prominently on my desktop. "Each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised, dulled his ability and softened his will to work, so that finally, he did no work at all."It's somehow calming to know that this uneasiness, the fear of casually and gradually losing the writers' edge, is familiar to many, across literary generations, although I'm not sure I needed the lesson first thing in the morning.
Star-Bulletin owner David Black was in Honolulu this week, huddled with his management team several floors above the Star-Bulletin newsroom, providing grist for the rumor mill. Then he made an appearance in the newsroom yesterday to announce that Oahu Publications' Star-Bulletin/MidWeek combo is now profitable. Probably not out of the woods yet, but in the black after just three months.
Just a few TGIF snippets.Perhaps Gannett isn't going to close the cafeteria in the newspaper building after all, contrary to my comment yesterday. According to an email received early yesterday, "we were asked to give suggestions as to what we wanted." And a decision favoring vending machines has not been made, the writer says.
Another email agreed with my criticisms of the Pearl Harbor frenzy.
You are right -- the media coverage of Pearl Harbor the movie was nauseating. The local coverage (amateurish, fawning) was downright embarrassing. Funniest was KINE FM 105's website of images from the premiere -- actual photos of smiling DJs positioned in FRONT of legitimate reporters interviewing Ben Affleck, so they are in a picture with Ben, even if he doesn't know it. Reminds me of the Japanese tourists who hop up on stage at the hula show, make a peace sign, get their picture taken, then leave, without ever watching a lick of hula. [caution: the radio station's web page is slow loading.]Sort of the Bowfinger approach to news coverage.
And a colleague of Meda's at the University of Hawaii, referring to my approach to things, made the comment of the week: "The man is plenny laid back. He should write a book called "Don't sweat the huge stuff." I like the ring of that.
Meanwhile, we've told our new canine acquaintances that they would be web stars, and here are a couple of them.
Axel is making his second appearance, and it's not the same photo as the first one several weeks ago. It's just about the same pose, though, because he is also a very mellow dog, trained not to react much to people, other dogs, or events. He's a pro, although retired.
Axel
And this is Ms. Shelby, if we heard her name correctly (subject to fact checking during this a.m.'s walk). She lives across from the beach in Kaaawa, right near the school, and gets an escorted run/walk up and down the beach each morning.
She loves the water, and usually ends up wet, sandy, and very happy.
Ms. Shelby
The impact of the decision by both Honolulu dailies to eliminate bureaus in the nation's capitol was demonstrated again yesterday, when neither the Advertiser nor the Star-Bulletin mentioned the local impact of a shift to Democratic control in the U.S. Senate.
The S-B ran a wire story on page A-12 on the possible defection of Vermont's Republican senator, with no mention of the impact on Hawaii. I don't think the Advertiser carried anything on the matter, although Jeffords' move had been reported by AP on Tuesday.
I'm told there were chuckles in the Star-Bulletin newsroom when a page from the latest issue of SPJ's magazine, Quill, went up on the bulletin board. It was a column on newsroom morale by Gannett/Honolulu Advertiser Executive Editor Jim Kelly ("Newsroom attitude starts at the top"). A mind bender, since complaints about Kelly's management style were heard loud and clear during his stint as managing editor, although somewhat muted since his move over to executive editor.
I especially appreciated Kelly's comments about the importance of quality of work issues. "See if the cafeteria can stay open a half-hour later for the night shift," he suggests, while Advertiser management recently decided to close the cafeteria and replace it's hot meals with vending machine sandwiches, or so I'm told.
Kelly advises against the nickel and dime approach, saying good management will find money to pay for professional memberships "or to put something toward entry fees for contests." This after surprising reporters by failing to enter anything in the recent annual competition sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association.
In any case, Kelly's suggestions are good ones. Someone over at the Advertiser should make a checklist to show how many have been implemented in his own newsroom. Hopefully we've got the wrong impression of what's happening over there.
Toronto's National Post Online is featuring a lengthy story on Star-Bulletin owner David Black's adventures in Hawaii. The former editor of one of Black's papers is credited with a highlighted quote: "He is a nice man but just below the surface he is a shark." In fact, they might have said, just about what is required to take on Gannett directly. It's an interesting version of David's tale.A former partner of Black's in a Vancouver Island paper two decades ago describes splitting with Black over his approach to the news business: "I was more interested in the paper being a community paper. David was interested in the return on investment." It reflects one of the nagging worries in the Star-Bulletin newsroom over just what level of journalism Black and his management crew are willing to support.
And I finally had a chance to read though a late generation fax version of the Brill's Content story. I was quoted several times, mostly snippets from this diary, but the story never mentioned my current status. There's just a passing reference to a few staffers who were not rehired. There isn't much here to turn heads, except perhaps the assertion that independent observers agreed that the Star-Bulletin was clearly the superior Honolulu daily prior to the breakup of the joint operating agreement. That one will have the folks at Gannett and the Advertiser gnashing their teeth again.
And this brief thought from another reader:
Just to let you know, I enjoy your 'journal'. I enjoy the commentary about the newspaper 'war'. You said you don't get much insider info these days--too bad. For me, the anticipation of that first new Star Bulletin and then the Sunday edition was exciting. I was interested in the same way I was interested in the Gore/Bush election outcome. I watched the Spin Room religiously because of it. Now Bush has been in for a while and the fussing is nearly all gone. Till 2004 at least. The newspaper 'war' is still on but not as intense as before. Advertising is kicking in for the Bulletin-ever so slowly. Ah the anonymity of cyberspace I admit such strange but true things.
Thanks to the Disney version of Pearl Harbor, we now know just how much news coverage money can buy. Stomach-churning, "makes me want to hurl" levels of it. Pity the poor reporters sentenced to provide fawning copy. It feels like this Hollywood remake has claimed more column inches than the real thing did 60 years ago. Thankfully, it will pass.I forgot to point out "reader representative" John Simonds' column in Sunday's Advertiser, a straightforward recital of some of the errors and omissions caught by readers. It's a good feature, and John carries it off gracefully.
Word is that the June issue of Brill's Content is out, complete with the story on the Star-Bulletin and the birth of the newspaper war. Copies haven't arrived here yet, as far as I know.
I made a routine run through both federal and state courts yesterday. One little tidbit relevant to Sunday's entry popped up in a document filed by the attorney for union chieftain Gary Rodrigues in a pending civil lawsuit brought by a former union staffer. The attorney, John Perkin, said in a declaration: "Additionally, I am informed that a criminal investigation of Mr. Rodrigues may be ongoing and could potentially result in additional criminal charges." So we could see a superseding indictment that extends the original 43-counts.
This is Mr. Leo posing as an innocent.
He actually can remain innocent of most wrongdoing as long as he's in direct interaction with us. Let your attention stray, though, and he's capable of most inventive attention-getting behavior.
But he's a cutie nonetheless.
Mr. Leo, Sunday, May 20
An interesting personal aside to the story of "Fat Boy" Okuda.It was 1986 or early 1987, the judiciary scandal was in full swing, and I was the executive director of Common Cause in Hawaii. Among other activities, I had been monitoring the Campaign Spending Commission, what was then a relatively obscure agency where reporters were seldom seen. A woman from the Judiciary, a key associate of Okuda's, was a member of the commission. One day after a commission meeting she came over and said there was a "real" job open in the courts that I might be interested in. She told me the office and the person to contact, but the instructions were unusual because the job wasn't even known to the head of that office. She said I should tell the administrator the name of the position, explain that it had only recently been funded, and that they should check and confirm that it was available to be filled. Nothing was said about why the job was being offered to me, but I could reasonably infer that it was a not too subtle bit of local graft. It remains the only time anyone has ever made an effort to buy me off with a job offer, or any other kind of inducement.
We had a great walk at low tide this morning, found a row of blooming sunflowers just around the corner from home on the return walk, and then sat down for a leisurely breakfast while perusing the two Sunday papers. That's when the heartburn hit in the form of Bob Dye's chatty interview with United Public Workers' state director Gary Rodrigues, which appeared in Gannett's Sunday Advertiser.
There's nothing unusual in reporting the political insights of one of the islands' elder statesmen of organized labor. It's actually a good addition to Dye's series on the 2002 elections. Unless, of course, you find it unusual--as I did--that Dye never saw fit to mention the 43-count federal indictment for embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy that Rodrigues faces for allegedly skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union members that he has represented for twenty years. Indictments which stemmed, in part, from my series of investigative stories on UPW and Rodrigues (although my list of stories is a bit dated). Some hint of these problems might have been useful information to provide readers assessing his views on politics.
Kaaawa sunflower
Maybe that's why Gary didn't have much of an appetite during the interview. Perhaps he was waiting for the obvious question that apparently was never asked.Mid-interview, though, I choked on another bit of news--Rodrigues, we learn, is backing a bid for Lt. Governor by Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Clayton Hee. And Dye, without comment, quotes Hee's reply to the news. "We've always gotten along," Hee says, referring to Rodrigues, "because we're cut from the same cloth."
When Clayton's right, he's right. Some folks may recall Hee's last term in the State Senate, back in the mid-1980's, as the often uncouth and bullying chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The main targets of Hee's wrath at that time were Judiciary officials, including Chief Justice Herman Lum, who Hee blamed for the downfall of his friend, Tom "Fat Boy" Okuda.
The problem with his perspective was that Fat Boy lost his job in a sweeping reform of the courts spawned by a massive scandal in which he was the central character. Okuda was the key player a political group within the Judiciary that was found to have misused court resources, including facilities and personnel, to further the political careers of favored politicians in exchange for their support for the Judiciary's expanding budget. Okuda, the deputy administrative director of the courts, was eventually convicted of "fixing" traffic tickets, a practice which was used to reward the Judiciary's friends, and which had become a well-known "secret" at the time among political insiders.
The long drought in pay raises for judges dates back to this legislative backlash against the cleanup in the courts, and Clayton was a prominent spokesman at the time.
Interestingly, many key players from Fat Boy's political team surfaced in the campaign team and administration of Gov. Cayetano, another story waiting to be told.
But that's a story for another time.
Meanwhile, fans of our Kaaawa cats can check out the new series of photos, available by clicking Wally's picture (left) or the "Cat Census" banner at the top of the page.
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