April 29, 2006 - Saturday

To the anonymous letter writer supporting the Turtle Bay expansion using the title, "North Shore Against Hypocrisy"--obviously I am not averse to anonymous sources. But if you want to be taken at all seriously, you will have to identify yourself to me so that I understand your position and motives, just as you characterize the motives of those who oppose this development. If you can't go that far, then unfortunately you're wasting your stamps, however interesting your letters might be.

I still haven't found a simple explanation of rights and responsibilities regarding flooding, but a reader pointed me to www.floods.org for lots more information. It's the web site of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. The document, "NAI Case Studies", was recommended. It's a virtual flood of flood info.

Condolences to Advertiser writer Mike Liedemann, whose wife, Helen Higman Leidemann, passed away yesterday. Her obituary appears in today's Advertiser.

From Hilo, another firing of a union activist reported at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, and the Newspaper Guild alleges an open union-busting policy by the paper's management. Click here for the Guild's press release.

Did I forget something? I scanned this little item on Hawaii's housing crisis, which I found in an old file, but then I'm afraid I forgot to mention it. Oh, the clip dates from 1982.

April 28, 2006 - Friday

A reader added a few more thoughts regarding the Star-Bulletin's Merrie Monarch coverage:

Articles such as Burl's on the Merrie monarch event do more than double duty. Aside from the aforementioned work he does to elucidate the basic structure and elements of hula to the uninitiated, it also helps to show to those that take "hula" and use it for their own cartoonish amusement, a different viewpoint. They believe hula is nothing more than the titilating koochie koochie hula-hula dance performed by the profane, clad with inappropriate garb, just before or after they lead the maitai'ed drunken haoles in a limbo contest while they all but choke in their plastic leis at the latest weekend tiki party. News reports such as Burlingame's may serve to also change the jokey disrespectful stance too many mainlanders have of this aspect of Polynesian culture, to a more respectful, thoughtful perspective.

Right. Retrieve tongue from cheek. Move on.

And Bob Jones offers up a few thoughts prompted by yesterday's announcement of the departure next month of Honolulu Advertiser editor Saundra Keyes:

For what it's worth as a former Advertiser reporter (1963-1966) and Hawaii journalist for 42 years, the departure of Saundra Keyes as editor reminds me how much journalism has become a business with regular changes of CEOs.

I came from an era where newspaper editors (Tom Harris at the St. Petersburg Times, Norman Isaacs at the Louisville Courier-Journal, George Chaplin at the Advertiser) were around much longer than most reporters. The newspapers WERE the editors and reflected their strong personalities, for good or for bad.

After Chaplin, the paper had Buck Buchwach and Gerry Keir, who were not there long enough to leave their marks on the product. Saundra Keyes seems to be an unknown product in the community despite her years here. Nobody will say "oh, remember when Keyes ran the paper?"

It gives me new appreciation for Don Chapman's long tenure at MidWeek. He DID put his imprimatur on it....

I wonder if editors can really be editors today, or if they mainly keep the lid on problems and interface with the sales chief and keep the money flowing to the outside owners?

Does anyone recognize, say, S-B editor Frank Bridgewater as the driving force of that paper and its editorial stance the way we knew its earlier drivers such as Bud Smyser? Or John Simonds or John Flanagan before Bridgewater? Anybody remember them?

Can many readers NAME their Honolulu newspaper's editor(s) without looking at the masthead?

Just something to ponder.

Right you are, Bob.

Meanwhile, it's Friday, the Legislature is racing towards its final decking deadline and adjournment next week, and I'm in the process of further taming Mr. Silverman, who seems to be enjoying his private time downstairs. Yesterday morning he wasn't much interested in heading outside, so spent the day in his private lounge.

Communing with Silverman

[link to today's entry]

April 27, 2006 - Thursday

A message came in yesterday from Georgette Deemer, press spokesperson for House Democrats, in which she says the immediate question of non-media use of the remaining press box had already been resolved by the time the emails were flying. Here's her side of the story.

For the record, I need to correct your account of what happened with the issue of the use of the press box in the House of Representatives chamber. Your story made it seem like I just recently try to place myself inside the press box.  When I came on board in December of 2004, I was instructed to sit in the press box during session.  I've been sitting in the box with media for all of the 2005 session and all of the 2006 session up until last Friday. Since I've been at the Capitol, no one ever expressed objections to my being in the press box, at least not to me directly.

One of my duties is to coordinate the use of the press box. Last week, the House Minority informed us that they had hired a new communications person, Danielle Douglas, and since I was stationed in the box during session, they wanted to place her in the box as well. I did not just announce that this would happen. As a courtesy to media, I told the media folks who are regular users of the box that we had received this request and to let me know if there were any objections.

The feedback I received was mixed and given that there is less than 2 weeks until the end of session I decided that both Danielle and I would stand to the side (out of the reporters' way and with absolutely no view of the floor) and we could sort it out after session.

That's when Crystal weighed in, and I must admit that I didn't include her in my initial survey because she normally covers city issues and is in the box infrequently. She brought up some good points and both she and BJ Reyes asked me to reconsider, which I did. I discussed the matter immediately with the Speaker, and we decided that even though there was disagreement among members of the media, it would be best to have both of us find other space. The issue was resolved less than an hour after receiving her email.

To say that I was trying to bully reporters is ridiculous. I respect the reporters at the capitol bureau which is precisely why I asked their opinion. I think I was also fair to the Minority. I ended up removing myself out of the box. 

Fair enough.

And, likewise, from Star-Bulletin writer Burl Burlingame, who defends the choice of perspective and writing style adopted for the Merrie Monarch coverage:

Sigh. Covering the Merrie Monarch as a writer is one of those exercises in futility. No matter how you do it, someone will take exception.

I see that your note writer was in hula class. Of course. But a newspaper is not in the business of telling people already in the know exactly what they want to hear. (Unless, like the other paper, you're hellbent on fawning). No, we're writing for the other folks, the people with little or no knowledge about the subject, and try to do so in a way that gets them interested. You, of course, know better -- you can't let the subjects of a story dictate the tone and style of the reporting. And if you're too "inside baseball," you become a specialist instead of a generalist publication.

We made the decision to be descriptive and impressionistic, and write for readers who might be curious about the subject but basically don't know anything. As for myself, yes, I do know better, but I'm not writing for myself. I'm writing for the reader. THAT'S THE NATURE OF THE JOB.

One of the most common complaints about newspapering is that the questions (and answers received) are well below the level of knowledge the reporter certainly has after years on the the job. This comes from both left and right, and criticizes coverage not for what it is, but for what that reader thinks it should have been. But when you start pursuing an agenda, you lose objectivity.

I wasn't there to be a press agent for the halau. I was there as an observer for the average reader, someone who doesn't know an 'ili'ili from a kala'au, but who just might develop an interest in hula from this admittedly simplistic coverage.

Hula is an insular world, inwardly focused, and there are folks who would rather that the outside world either bugger off or gush glowing press releases. It's a control issue. These are the same folks who have criticized Uncle George Na'ope for his lifetime achievement of popularizing hula.

Isn't Sonny a handsome dog, slobber and all? I suppose these big dogs are an acquired taste, but he does grow on you. Not as tidy as a cat but he's got a lot of personality. Anyway, Sonny is just one of this week's Kaaawa morning dogs. Just click for more (and today I remembered to include the link).

[link to today's entry]

April 26, 2006 -Wednesday

Another late entry today due to continuing problems with Server 4 at my hosting service, HostRocket.com. I'll have to escalate the level of my complaints.

My apologies to my friend Burl Burlingame but...his irreverent reporting on last weekend's Merry Monarch hula festival apparently raised quite a few eyebrows, leading to this email from another old friend:

...he wrote some amazingly horrible drivel about the hula performances. The paper should be ashamed. For example, he said one halau used a "knee trick" (the common dance step 'uwehe) -- as if they invented it. He called 'ili'ili, the water-worn stones, another common hula implement, as "rocks for clicking" -- and likened the sound to "Bobby Darin's jazzy finger-snapping syncopation." This, referring to a respectable hula kahiko style. Ouch.

Hau skirts, another traditional item, he called "horsehair skirts" and the common dried ti-leaf rain cape, he called "grass ponchos." The whole thing reeked of HAOLE, and worse, MAINLAND HAOLE, and had the cocky air of a total neophyte ("Wow!") to it. He referred to one ipu heke accompaniment as "disco rhytms" (indeed!), called the kala'au "big honkin' rattlesticks," and when he described a halau which used the common puniu, he gushed that "they even tied tiny drums to their knees," again, as if the halau just invented this.

...I've seen his name for decades, and can only imagine it was an editor's mismatching writer to subject and he did the best he could. But it was AWFUL. We spent much of hula class on Sunday laughing about it, with kumu admonishing us, "No knee tricks, now!" and stuff like that.

In his defense, Burl's stories on Friday and Saturday didn't suffer from the same degree of the fresh-off-the-boat-from-Topeka viewpoint. It was the Sunday story that was over the top, perhaps with feigned ignorance. In any case, however, it was somewhat embarrassing for the newspaper that prides itself on having a local attitude to orient its reporting on the Merry Monarch so entirely to hula neophytes in such a flippant style.

Imagine the howls of protest from football fans if the biggest game of the season were reported with a similar attitude as if it were the first time the reporter had ever witnessed this sport being played and wasn't quite sure what it was all about. "Hey, those guys in blue did this neat ball trick, tossing the pigskin right over the top of all those big sweaty guys who were smashing each other in the front rows with sounds like Friday Night Smackdown on steroids, and a cool knee thing and kicked the ball"...You can see the problem.

Several dozen Kaaawa residents gathered at the school last night for a special meeting with officials about the flood problem. Representatives were there from the Dept. of Transportation, state and city civil defense, the Army Corps of Engineers, Land and Natural Resources, as well as staff for Sen. Clayton Hee and Council Chair Donovan Dela Cruz. It was quite informative and lots of questions were asked.

I finally asked what I thought would be a simple one. Is there a simple publication or web page that explains the laws that apply to flooding? If you live next to a stream, what responsbilities do you have, if any? If water flows from my neighbor's yard and damages my property, is it just an "act of God" or does my neighbor have to do something to prevent the water flow? Can I bring in fill to prevent my yard from flooding next time? There are quite a few common questions. The best those officials in attendance could do is refer me to the statutes, but that doesn't seem to me to be a sufficiently accessible response to such a common set of questions that thousands of people were asking last month.

I only received a single reaction to yesterday's entry, and she makes a good point:

Instead of Crystal Kua sending an e-mail to Deemer, I think her boss--the top person at her newspaper--should have written a formal letter of complaint to Deemer's boss. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing at the Capitol? Why are they treating the press with such disdain? The media in town here should take a stand, loudly and clearly on this. I can't believe that these politicians/representatives of the people don't want to have as favorable a press as possible. Or have things changed that much since I worked at the Legislature back in 1987/88?

To be fair, it may be that the whole situation has been sorted out satisfactorily since this flurry of emails. I'll be trying for an update today.

Finally, it did rain yesterday morning at dawn, but these April showers were nothing like the pounding we took last month. Note: Some of the back roads in Kaaawa were dry for the first time this week for the first time since the flooding began at the beginning of March. Oh, did I mention that you'll get a larger photo if you just click on this picture? (and, of course, I forgot to add the link...okay, it's done now.)

[link to today's entry]

April 25, 2006 - Tuesday

Star-Bulletin owner David Black has joined with Toronto-based Onex Corp. to form a hui to bid on the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, former Knight Ridder newspapers now put on the auction block by McClatchy, according to a published account in the Inquirer. Citing sources familiar with the bidding process, representatives of the hui are scheduled to visit the newspapers this week, the Inquirer reported. Globe and Mail media reporter Grant Robertson got several "no comments" from Onex and Black Press reps in a follow-up report.

Whether or how an actual bid in Philadelphia could impact the ongoing contract negotiations at the Star-Bulletin is unclear.

A move to have place a Democratic spokesperson inside the press box with reporters while the House is in session has sparked a heated behind-the-scenes debate at the state capitol. What should be a media-savvy House leadership, complete with its own in-house media consultant, appears bent on bullying rather than respecting the reporters they rely on to communicate their message to the public. That's not a smart or a healthy kind of relationship to be promoting.

Georgette Deemer, former head of the state film office who now works out of the House Majority Leader's office and serves as spokesperson for the House Democrats, announced more than a week ago that she and another staffer would take up positions within the press box, which offers a direct view of the actions on the House floor.

This brought a quick response from several capitol reporters, who charged that it marks a further erosion of traditional press freedoms that have been "unilaterally eroded" over the past several years by the House leadership under Speaker Calvin Say.

They cite loss of a second press box designed for media use which has been taken over by House staff, causing all reporters as well as TV crews to crowd into a single press room during House sessions, and the barring of reporters from the House floor begining in 2003, a sharp change in a 20-year tradition.

In the Senate, by contrast, reporters continue to enjoy use of both press boxes as well as floor access during breaks and when the session is over.

In an email to Deemer, Star-Bulletin reporter Crystal Kua strongly objected to Deemer's presence in the press box:

With all due respect, I don't want you all listening in on any of my conversations that potentially could lead to a story. To me, that's prior restraint. It's akin to me sitting in your office when you are trying to do your job.

Kua's email, along with several other media responses, has circulated widely in the House. Her full comments are reprinted here.

April 24, 2006 - Monday

An editorial in the Sunday New York Times blasted Hawaii officials for failing to protect against the recent sewage spill in Waikiki and went further by calling for accountability.

Hawaii is now frantically doing cleanup, repairs and post-crisis analysis. It is also learning the hard way that preventive maintenance is better than an emergency ad campaign to keep tourists coming, and that a clean, healthy environment is the bedrock on which the state's biggest industry rests.

"With all this loveliness," say the words to "Blue Hawaii," "there should be love." There should be accountability, too. And adequate attention to infrastructure.

For a while, it was the most emailed story from the day's NYT. Of course, all this means that we can probably forget rolling back property taxes in any significant way, since all those overdue infrastructure upgrades are going to suck up dollars.

If you stopped by here over the weekend, you read about the Hawaiians honoring Grover Cleveland in New Jersey. Today's Star-Bulletin is featuring the same Associated Press story.

Thanks again to the Supreme Court of Hawaii Blog (Unofficial) for pointing out a fascinating story from the Vancouver Sun about the Hawaii murder case and trial of Maryann Acker.

And Mr. Silverman continues to surprise with his easy acceptance of indoor status. After a couple of hours visiting his old haunts yesterday, he let himself back into the house and promptly looked for places to sleep. This is a major change from his former "eat and run" lifestyle.

[link to today's entry]

April 23, 2006 - Sunday

It may come as a suprise to those who enjoy bashing local ways, but a survey by the Center for Public Integrity released last week ranked Hawaii 2nd among the states in disclosure of information about legislator's financial interests, due primarily to the extensive personal financial disclosures required of lawmakers and other public officials. Click here for more of the Center's assessment of Hawaii.

Here's another interesting site if you've got some time on this Sunday: Disinformation.com, "news, politics, conspiracy and weirdness".

From Seattle, a description of the current round of contract talks at the Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer, along with the Newspaper Guild chapter's web site.

It wasn't the Merry Monarch, but our favorite twins performed on April 1st along with the other keiki studying hula with Maile Loo. Their Sunset at the Beach performance was rained out, so they put on a show at the Arcadia, part of a program featuring Kent Ghirard and his Hula Nanis. It was a great show! Unfortunatly, Maile Loo has asked that the photos not be posted for general viewing and, while I don't agree with her request, for the time being their photos will now require a password. To view these photos, contact me (ian@ilind.net) for the password.

Here's the latest entry in the gallery of readers' pets. This is Ms. Po, described as a Southern Marianas Sporting Hound. Quite a beautiful girl, worthy of her "Princess" title. Just click on her photo for more...

Ms. Po

[link to today's entry]