Tag: Commercial Appeal

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall: Jason Miles and The Nutbush Area

Miles Files

Fly on the Wall was convinced that WMC reporter Jason Miles was fearless. Time and time again, he’s illustrated how far he’ll go to get a story. He’s crawled under cars. He’s crawled under buildings. He’s stuck his head through pet doors. Once upon a time, he even chest-bumped a police officer on Beale. Last week, Miles showed the limits of his bravery by choosing not to visit the Streets Ministries headquarters on Vance to report on a colorful mural that artist Erin Miller Williams had spent the last three days painting. “Well, I’m not standing right next to that mural tonight because, quite frankly, we wouldn’t feel completely safe,” Miles said. Williams’ mural is 25 feet tall, 35 feet wide and says “Hope will lead us there.” Jason won’t, apparently.

Headline News

There’s a famous moment in the classic detective film The Thin Man when the glamorous Nora Charles turns to her dashing husband and says “I read where you were shot in the tabloids.” Nick answers “That’s not true. They never came anywhere near my tabloids.” WREG similarly reported that a woman was “recovering after she was shot in the Nutbush area.” Some people were outraged when pictures of the suggestive report circulated online because, no matter how ill-considered the teaser might have been, the story was serious. A similar situation resulted when Commercial Appeal reporter Ron Maxey waxed poetic in his story about a North Mississippi family marking the mysterious disappearance of a relative by releasing balloons. According to Maxey, the family “watched the 30-odd balloons drift slowly away until they vanished into a clear blue sky, much as James Irby Jr. did three years ago Wednesday.”

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Commercial Appeal Declared a “Legend” Following Story About Frat Bro’s Date with a Porn Star

For maximum enjoyment press play on this video before reading. 

Commercial Appeal Declared a ‘Legend’ Following Story About Frat Bro’s Date with a Porn Star

 

It’s not the stuff of a Pulitzer Prize winning series, but a digital report on the Commercial Appeal‘s website is receiving attention across social media for recounting the epic tale of UT Knoxville student and Sigma Chi frat brother Patrick Goswitz, who invited porn star Cherry Morgan to a formal dance this weekend.

This is what a legendary legend looks like.

“UT fraternity brother declared ‘a legend’ for date with porn star,” was originally published by the Knoxville News Sentinel and tells the touching story of young Goswitz who was, in fact, described as a “legend,” as a result of his date with Morgan, the Knoxville-based actress famous for appearing in adult films where, like many porn stars, she gives blowjobs to plumbers, pizza guys and other dudes who deliver.  (WARNING: LINK VERY NSFW).

“Goswitz told [Dan] Regester [of the website Total Frat Move] via an Instagram interview uploaded on TFM that he had invited Morgan to the formal via a message on Facebook and she sent him “her digits” and accepted.”

The saga of Goswitz and Morgan is told using quotes from blogs and social media and is most notable for containing the worst sentence in the history of print journalism: “Goswitz told [Dan] Regester [of the website Total Frat Move] via an Instagram interview uploaded on TFM that he had invited Morgan to the formal via a message on Facebook and she sent him “her digits” and accepted.”

As it happens, people with internet connections and Google alerts for Cherry Morgan had many newsworthy things  to say about the hot date. One person wrote, “Atta boy.” Another said, “Lucky guy!” A third anonymous commenter wrote “Good for him,” while a somewhat sadder post read, “I would consider myself legendary to even bring a girl to meet my family.”

This is easily the greatest thing the CA has published since yesterday’s breaking story about how how nicotine makes it hard to quit smoking.

 

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1398

Fun with Scanners

Be sure to check out @ScannerMemphis, a Twitter account devoted to sharing the “highlights and lowlights from the Memphis and Shelby County police and fire scanners.” Some sample tweets: “Intoxicated woman taking pictures of Taco Bell on Elvis Presley. Says she works for the corporate office, but she has a beer,” “Man is threatening to stab his television,” and your Pesky Fly’s personal favorite: “Car is on top of a fire hydrant and is on fire at this time.”

In the Street

Fly on the Wall would like to thank The Commercial Appeal for all of its St. Jude marathon coverage. Especially this handy little map of everybody’s favorite street, Popular Avenue.

Neverending Elvis

The Belfast Telegraph, a daily newspaper published in Northern Ireland, tells a strange story about an awkward bathroom encounter between “What’s Up Pussycat” crooner Tom Jones, who was fully naked, and Elvis Presley, who was naked from the waist down. According to the Telegraph, Jones was in the shower when Elvis dropped by to pitch a song. As it happens, the King needed to take care of a little business himself, so he joined Jones in the bathroom, where he proceeded to perform his song while sitting on the toilet. “I’m trying to towel down, and Elvis is singing,” Jones was quoted as saying. “So I’m naked, and he’s half-naked; his pants are down by his ankles.” The report notes that Elvis called his bodyguard and assistant Red West into the bathroom to help him back into a pair of leather pants.

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News The Fly-By

Teen Appeal Newspaper Loses Funding

CREDIT: Elle Perry

Overton High School junior Breyanah Graham describes herself as “quite shy,” but she says her role as a reporter for the The Teen Appeal newspaper has given her a chance to express herself.

“Since my high school doesn’t have a school newspaper or any opportunities for interested students to participate in journalism, I never really had the chance to explore the aspects of journalism and reporting before I became a part of the The Teen Appeal,” said Graham, who is now planning to pursue a double major in journalism and biological science.

Only a handful of Shelby County Schools (SCS) have their own newspapers, and for most students, The Teen Appeal, a monthly newspaper for all high school students in Shelby County (including schools in the municipal district), is the only option for students interested in journalism. But unless it finds a new funding stream by December 31st, The Teen Appeal may be going out of business.

Elle Perry

For 18 years, the paper, which is headquartered on the University of Memphis campus, has been primarily funded by a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation. But after the former Scripps paper The Commercial Appeal was sold to Journal Media Group this year, Scripps decided to discontinue its annual $71,500 grant to The Teen Appeal.

“[Scripps] had been a very supportive partner up until they spun The Commercial Appeal into a unit — the independent Journal Media Group. And now we have word that Gannett might buy out this new company,” said David Arant, the chair of the University of Memphis journalism department. “The Scripps Foundation said we can’t support you anymore, and that’s the end of our relationship.”

That grant covers the salary and benefits for Elle Perry, the full-time newspaper coordinator. She edits the paper, assigns stories, handles day-to-day management, and holds monthly meetings for the paper staff on the University of Memphis campus. The U of M also supports the paper with a $10,000 grant that pays for a summer boot camp for the newspaper staff, which Perry is charged with planning.

“The program is unique because it allows students from different schools and backgrounds to form friendships and learn how to work with each other,” Perry said. “And it provides students the kind of skills to approach someone they don’t know and start asking questions.”

Currently, The Teen Appeal has a staff of 65 students from 19 schools. The paper publishes eight issues a year, and those are distributed in every SCS high school and a few municipal schools. The Commercial Appeal donates printing and distribution, and they’ve committed to continuing that donation so long as The Teen Appeal can find the funds to keep going, according to Otis Sanford, a U of M journalism professor and the former managing editor of The Commercial Appeal.

Sanford, who helped found The Teen Appeal in 1997, said he’s been meeting with various local foundations and national journalism organizations all year to try and nail down the funding. So far, no deals have been struck, but Sanford isn’t giving up.

“The opportunity to introduce journalism and interviewing and writing and critical thinking and professionalism to high school students who would not have that opportunity has been the most gratifying thing in my 40 years [in journalism],” Sanford said. “It would be a shame if this program went away. And I’m doing everything I can up until the last day to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Central High School junior and Teen Appeal staffer Reginae Butler wants to go into public relations, and she said the newspaper has been “an amazing opportunity” in preparing her for her future career.

“I get a chance to write about anything that’s going on in my high school. Most of us on The Teen Appeal, we don’t have a paper in our schools. So this is our one outlet for that. I want to make sure this continues,” Butler said.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said… (August 13, 2015)

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Bianca Phillips’ cover story, “Transgender in Memphis” …

When my oldest son came out as a transgender female last year, I immediately offered unconditional support to her. We attended the support group at MGLCC together. That is a great place to start. They are an awesome group that is ready to share their experiences. They are ready to listen to you. I am a big Southern, straight, non-trans man, and the people there made us feel at home. My daughter now knows she has support from family, friends, and the people at the group.

Dept. of Redundancy Dept.

Memphis has come a long way! And I, for one, am very happy about that.

Clint

This is a sin and an abomination. God have mercy on your souls. Trans people are dressing that way because they are confused and need help to define their appropriate roles. This nation was founded upon Christian principles.

Screamer15

Screamer15 seems to think he knows more about God’s plan than God does. But that’s okay. Someone who must rely on religious nonsense to hide their fear, hatred, and bigotry is obviously not someone who has any sort of ability for rational thought.

GoProtege

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Aborting the Truth” …

I find it fascinating how this new “culture war” crisis popped up as soon as being anti-gay marriage got firmly shut down by the Supreme Court. It is as if the GOP was looking for some new and shiny thing to get their base off of gay marriage and on to some other topic.

Charlie Eppes

In truth, no one “likes” abortion, but birth control not being 100 percent reliable, not all are willing to compromise the lives of their living children or those they hope to have in continuing a pregnancy that would capsize their lives. Thank you for speaking up.

Elizabeth Hinds Davis

If there is no smoking gun, why all the invective against an investigation? PP may be the most wonderfully altruistic organization on earth, but as long as my tax money is used to subsidize their activities, I think I have a right to find out what is going on with these body parts.

Arlington Pop

To me, the use of fetal tissue is no different than using donated organs. I’m an organ donor, because, the way I see it, when I’m dead and gone, my body is no longer of value to me, so whatever good can come of using the remaining parts is the best thing to do with it.

If you have an abortion and allow the aborted fetus or tissue to be used for research, why is that a bad practice? I fully understand those who are against abortion, but if it happens, why would you not want the tissue to be used for something positive if possible?

GroveReb84

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that there is an entire class of people who proudly display their “pro-life” bona fides, while simultaneously enacting and supporting policies that make actual living problematic?

Jrgolden

About Bruce S. Newman’s Viewpoint, “Pay the Band” …

On behalf of musicians and songwriters, I sincerely thank you, Bruce Newman.

Nighthawk

Correction: An image in last week’s calendar was misidentified. The caption should have read “Work by Nathan Yoakum at Jay Etkin Gallery.”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Roundabout to a Dead End

Last Friday, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced that it would delay its planned closure of the I-55 “Old Bridge” over the Mississippi River for at least a year while it conducted “further studies” on the economic impact of the project.

“Over the past several weeks, we have heard from residents, business owners, elected officials, and other stakeholders in Memphis and in Arkansas, and we understand there is a significant level of concern over a full closure of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge,” TDOT Commissioner John Schroer said. “We want to take the opportunity to address those concerns before moving forward with construction.” In other words, back to the drawing board.

I don’t want to say there were a couple high-fives given in the Flyer office, but we were pretty pleased that our efforts to raise civic consciousness on this ill-advised plan bore some fruit. Reporter Toby Sells covered the project extensively, and we vigorously editorialized against it. The Commercial Appeal, on the other hand, editorialized in support of the closure project and ran a couple of soft, pro-TDOT articles.

Mayor A C Wharton was also seemingly clueless about the project’s potential to devastate the local economy, offering tepid, boilerplate support for TDOT’s bridge closure plan.

Whoever the next mayor is, whether it’s Wharton or one of the candidates running against him, it’s essential that he get actively involved in helping to ensure that this TDOT project has as small a negative impact as possible on our tourism business, our transportation and distribution industry, and the booming Bass Pro Pyramid. Memphis business and political leaders need to be proactive and not let Nashville bureaucrats determine our future. They need to join with officials on the Arkansas side — who should get most of the credit for stopping the closure plan — and begin working with TDOT to craft the least painful alternative.

To that end, easy access to downtown (and Bass Pro) via northbound I-55 to Riverside is critical. That means the proposed “roundabout” also has to be off the table. Replacing a free-flowing four-lane entrance to (and exit from) the city with an intersection that forces all north-south traffic to interact with Crump Boulevard traffic heading onto and off the bridge is not progress.

But for now, we’re content to enjoy a victorious first step — stopping what TDOT officials said less than a month ago was the absolute “final plan.” No further changes were possible, they said. In response to which, I’m happy to quote Arkansas state Senator Keith Ingram, who said, prophetically: “TDOT probably didn’t think the Overton Park expressway was going to be stopped, either.”

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1355

Bad Fly

Your Pesky Fly pokes fun of other media figures when they do silly things. Turnabout is fair play, so, for your entertainment and edification, allow me to share the hard lesson I learned about modern digital communication while conversing online with Opera Memphis’ General Director Ned Canty. Never use your iPhone’s voice-to-text function while discussing the opera Aeneas and Dido. That is all.

The Grizzness Report

Sure, the Memphis Grizzlies have developed a formidable on-court strategy. But this is 21st-century NBA basketball, and the value of a gritty psy-ops program simply cannot be underestimated. Consider what happened to the confidence-shaken Atlanta Hawks, who recently lost to the Grizzlies by a score of 88-94. During Atlanta’s incredible 19-game winning streak, the clever person behind the Hawks Twitter account added an additional “W” to the team’s name for every consecutive victory until Hawks became HaWWWWW-

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWks.

When the Grizz beat the Hawks, the official Grizzlies account dropped this masterful social media dis: “Good game Haks (No #W tonight).” Boom.

Bad With Numbers

Typos happen. Mistakes are made. Nobody’s perfect. But sometimes you’ve just got to step back and scratch your head. On Sunday, February 8th, The Commercial Appeal posted a story about the sad and untimely passing of a Memphis coach titled, “East High Basketball Coach Desmond Merriweather Dies at Age 43.” The opening sentence: “East High basketball coach Desmond Merriweather died Sunday following a long battle with cancer. He was 37.”

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1347

Racy Headlines

This is an unfortunate story about how headlines sometimes have more than one meaning. It all began innocently enough with a letter to “Annie’s Mailbox,” an advice column by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar: “Dear Annie, I am a 14-year-old boy … and I take tap dancing lessons.” The column was picked up by The Commercial

Appeal. And then this happened.

Holy War

American Atheists recently set off a firestorm of criticism by erecting a billboard that depicts a grumpy-looking dark-haired little girl in a Santa hat scribbling a note. “Dear Santa,” it reads. “All I want for Christmas is to skip church. I’m too old for fairy tales.” The billboard also advertises the organization’s Easter week conference in Memphis. Not to be outdone by the Godless, a local Christian group erected a second billboard depicting a happy little blonde girl wrapped in Christmas lights. She is wearing a Santa hat and standing near a family of holiday bears. A note someone has written reads, “Dear Santa, all I want is to keep Christmas sacred and celebrate without being bullied.” Once again, in the battle between believers and nonbelievers for the soul of the Christmas holiday, the clear winner is outdoor advertising.

Neverending Elvis

Elvis made an appearance in South Park‘s 2014 Christmas extravaganza. Sort of. The cartoon featured an animated version of an Elvis hologram singing “Holly Jolly Christmas” with Iggy Azalea’s flatulent bottom, decorated to look like a snowman. South Park‘s Cartman, commenting on the performance like a video blogger, is unimpressed.

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News News Blog

UPDATE: Commercial Appeal Changes, 17 Laid Off

A memo circulated to Commercial Appeal employees Sunday, Sept 21 announced that the newspaper would undergo major physical restructuring. Today 17 layoffs were announced including 13 employees covered by the Memphis Newspaper Guild.

The breakdown of layoffs according to a Guild memo:

Seven [layoffs] in editorial. (Two photographers, four reporters, one copy editor)
Four in customer service.
Two in transportation. 

The changes being instituted to save money on newspaper production costs include the publication of only one daily edition, 
moving daily business reporting to the paper’s A section, and creating a Sunday-only standalone business edition. Daily editorial copy will be reduced to a single page between Mondays and Saturdays. The CA will discontinue its DeSoto, Mississippi, edition, which had previously been identified as a successful suburban edition during a period when the CA, which once reached deep into surrounding counties, was heavily courting suburban readers and advertising. Also, the M section will only appear 3 days a week. 

In 2010, following a protracted seven-year contract negotiation, and the loss of many jobs, the AFL-CIO-affiliated union accepted the CA‘s final contract offer, choosing to preserve an “evergreen clause,” that maintains the terms of an existing contract until it’s replaced by a new contract,  but eliminating language that protected employees against layoffs made to facilitate department outsourcing. There have been major shakeups in management, and additional layoffs over the past four years, although the bad news for employees seemed to slow  considerably. After several new editorial hires, including photographers, it even began to look like things might be turning around. The recent round of layoffs was announced following on the heels of the announcement that E.W. Scripps Co., the parent company of the Commercial Appeal would abandon its entire newspaper division in order to focus on the development of television and radio properties. The announcement comes just before   the Newspaper Guild and CA management to reconvene for further contract negotiations.

Affected Guild-covered employees include longtime editor and reporter Lela Garlington, Marlin Morgan, Karen Focht, Bryan Brasher, William DeShazer, and Jeff MacAdory.

The Commercial Appeal will become part of  the Milwaukee-based Journal Media Group.

In its own reporting on the situation the newspaper quoted CA publisher George Cogswell saying the changes were being made in response to soft revenues. 

The format changes will begin this week. 

The following email was circulated by Wayne Risher, President of the Memphis Newspaper Guild. 

Job Cuts Announced
September 23, 2014
From the Memphis Newspaper Guild
Once again we’re in the sad position of announcing job cuts. Management told us this morning (Tuesday) that a total of 13 people are losing jobs within our bargaining unit at The Commercial Appeal. Here’s the breakdown.
Seven in editorial. (Two photographers, four reporters, one copy editor)
Four in customer service.
Two in transportation.
In addition to those 13, four people outside the Guild bargaining unit lost jobs. That usually means managers, but we’re not sure.
The company began telling the people affected this morning. We sent representatives to most of those meetings and we’ve requested additional information to ensure that those who lost jobs are treated according to our contract.
CA attorney Warren Funk and HR manager Eunice Johnson said this action had to do with longstanding financial issues. “It’s just the way the business is going. It hasn’t been good. Hasn’t been good for a while,” Funk said.
They said it didn’t have to do with the upcoming deal with Journal Media Group. We asked if the officials with the new company were consulted about this action. They said they didn’t know. We asked them to find out.
That’s what we have right now.
We’ll plan to have at least one meeting to help those who lost jobs connect to resources and employment leads – look for an announcement in the next few days. And please start looking for job leads – we’ll organize a way to get those to people who need them.
Wayne Risher
President

Mediaverse-Memphis, a blog following print, digital, and broadcast media in Memphis, obtained and published a memo from CA Editor-in-chief Louis Graham. 

Everyone:

There are major changes coming this week in booking of the print edition and, consequently, in staffing.

The print product is being reorganized to reduce space and save on newsprint and production costs. You’ve heard some of these changes, others will be new. Beginning with Thursday’s edition:
—We will publish a single edition. DeSoto Appeal is discontinued. So is B section zoning for the Shelby suburbs.
—The full Business report moves inside Section A. We will continue to have a standalone section on Sundays.
—We will publish a single Editorial page, also inside A, Monday-Saturday.
—M will publish on Mondays, Tuesdays (Food) and Sundays only. On the other days, comics will front the Classified section and include puzzles and the TV grid.
—Sports moves to Section C.

As a result of these changes:
— Peggy McKenzie will head a newly created Suburban department responsible for the coverage of the burbs, including DeSoto.
—Responsibility for the three M sections a week shifts to Chris Herrington.
—All line editors have or will be relocated to the center of the newsroom to work on a new multi-department desk co-op coordinated by John Stamm. More explanation to come.
—Kim Coleman will supervise copy and design.

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News News Blog

Wendi Thomas to Become Flyer Columnist

The Flyer has hired former Commercial Appeal metro columnist Wendi C. Thomas to write a bi-monthly column.

Thomas is a product of Memphis City Schools and a 1993 graduate of Butler University. She has been an editor or reporter at The Indianapolis Star, The (Nashville) Tennessean and The Charlotte Observer. From 2003 to 2014, she was metro columnist at The Commercial Appeal.

She was inducted into the Scripps Hall of Fame for commentary in 2008, took second place in in the 2011 National Headliner contest for local columns and in 2013 was named a Champion of Equality by the Tennessean Equality Project. She’s also the founder of Common Ground, a race relations initiative that is now a program of the YWCA. She tweets at @wendi_c_thomas and blogs at wendicthomas.com.

“We’re pleased to have a writer of Wendi’s caliber join the Flyer‘s fine roster of local columnists,” said Flyer editor, Bruce VanWyngarden. “Her perspective on the city and its issues is always interesting and provocative — and, yes, sometimes controversial — but we think it’s a voice that should be heard. I think Flyer readers will agree.”

Thomas’ first column will appear in the September 25 issue.