Tag: editor

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Announcing Several Flyer Promotions

I am excited to announce that the Memphis Flyer’s next editor will be Shara Clark. Shara officially took charge on November 1st, but she is no stranger to the paper, having been its managing editor since 2019. Her commitment to editorial excellence and integrity has been clear throughout her time not only with the Flyer but at CMI broadly, where she has worked since 2008.

In those years, Shara has helped guide and strengthen nearly every facet of our editorial products. She has worked extensively on Memphis magazine as senior editor, producing an impressive array of memorable feature stories as well as special sections. Since 2018, she has edited Memphis Parent, where her dedication and talents have been evident in every issue of the evolving publication. In her early years with the company, Shara was involved in sales, so she truly understands all aspects of CMI. Most recently, in her time with the Flyer, Shara has helped the paper weather several leadership transitions while maintaining its high quality.

Shara possesses a specific array of skills that make her well suited to the role of Flyer editor, excelling in the realm of process and detail and in that of vision, leadership, and values. We are confident that under her guidance, the Memphis Flyer will provide its readers with the blend of news, views, and culture they have come to expect, while continuing to evolve its valuable place in the local media landscape with an increased commitment to arts and culture coverage. We could not be more thrilled to usher in the bright new ‘Shara era’ of the Flyer.

Two other promotions within the Flyer’s editorial team also took effect November 1st. Samuel X. Cicci takes on the role of managing editor. Sam is a CMI veteran in his own right, having been with the company since 2016. In that time, he too has worked on a blend of special projects and core publications, most notably as editor of Inside Memphis Business, the local business vertical that is a part of Memphis magazine. Sam is an excellent editor himself, and possesses a wide range of expertise, writing about everything from business to dining to soccer to home remodeling. He will continue to supervise Inside Memphis Business and write restaurant reviews for Memphis while serving as managing editor for the Flyer. We are grateful to Sam for always stepping up when called upon (and volunteering when not), and we know he will be an adept managing editor for the Flyer.

In line with the Flyer’s commitment to arts and culture coverage, we are promoting Abigail Morici into the new role of Arts and Culture Editor for the paper. Abigail started at CMI as an editorial intern in the spring of 2021. When her internship concluded, we were fortunate that she agreed to join our organization full-time. In the not-quite-two years she has spent with us, Abigail has demonstrated her prodigious talent for writing, editing, and developing ideas. She has been working as calendar and copy editor for the Flyer, as well as associate editor of Memphis magazine. She has shown a special skill for capturing the essence of arts assignments (though she’s not to be missed when writing about anything), and we will be looking to her to guide and develop the Flyer’s arts and events coverage, while also ensuring that the paper continues to be an authority on what makes Memphis so peculiarly and particularly itself.

Finally, we would be remiss not to extend our sincere thanks and respect to those who have worked to keep the Flyer running smoothly during the transition between editors. Special appreciation goes to Toby Sells, Bruce VanWyngarden, Jon Sparks, and of course Shara, Abigail, and Sam.

Please join me in congratulating Shara Clark, Sam Cicci, and Abigail Morici.

Shara Clark
Samuel X. Cicci
Abigail Morici
Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Low-Information Voters

I’ve been reading recently about “low-information voters.” These are people who, for the most part, don’t read newspapers, political websites, or opinion magazines to learn candidates’ voting records or political positions. They don’t pay much attention to politics at all, which in theory makes them susceptible to whatever information is put under their nose — whether it’s from a talk-radio host, a preacher, a co-worker, a random e-mail rumor, a bumper sticker, or a catchy slogan on a T-shirt.

These are not discerning voters. Another name for them would be “dumbasses.” I say this without fear of retribution, knowing that low-information voters, i.e., dumbasses, don’t read this column. (I can’t wait for someone to write me and say, “That’s CRAP, buddy. I’m a dumbass, and I read your column.”)

But I digress. For years, low-information voters have been seen as easy targets, a group that can be manipulated at will by a clever politician. Nuance and policy positions are for pointy-headed liberal losers. All you need is a simplistic slogan: “Mission accomplished!” “We can’t cut and run.” “He’s a flip-flopper.” “Jews hate Jesus.” You get the idea.

Similarly, complex policy issues are distilled into easy to digest messages: “He’ll raise your taxes.” “She has San Francisco values.” “He’ll take away your guns.” “Drill here, drill now.”

Nationally, we’re seeing a major push for low-information voters by the McCain campaign, which seeks to paint Barack Obama as a vapid celeb. “Hot chicks love Obama” is a tag-line at the end of one of McCain’s latest ads. (Frankly, I think conceding the hot-chick vote is a bad idea for McCain. I mean, what’s the corollary? “Ugly schlubs love McCain”?)

The point is, the campaign seems to think there are lots of fools in America who will decide their presidential vote based on their resentment of uppity celebrities. (“Uppity” being the operative word here.)

Locally, 9th District candidate Nikki Tinker did her best to get out low-information voters — people she perceived would be receptive to messages that painted her opponent as the wrong race and wrong religion. Unfortunately for her — and fortunately for Memphis — there were way fewer dumbasses hereabouts than she was hoping for.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: The Tale of the Silver Carp

Fisherman are known liars, but this is a true story.

A friend and I were fishing on a lake near Marion, Arkansas, several weeks ago. It’s an old ox-bow lake, a former channel of the Mississippi that’s been isolated by the vagaries of time and mud and current. It floods every spring, replenishing the fish supply, and we’ve caught many a nice bass there. But it was August — a deathly hot and still evening — and we weren’t having any luck. The only thing biting were the mosquitos.

But there were herons and ducks and geese to watch and a nearly full moon on the rise — and we had cold beer to drink and lies to tell.

Then we heard a motor. Headed our way was a jonboat containing three shirtless teenagers, all standing. The one in the middle was holding a bow and arrow. As they approached, fish lept from the water, right and left — big fish. And as we watched in utter amazement, the kid with the bow shot a fish in mid-air and hauled it into the boat with a line attached to his arrow.

“A country boy can survive,” as the song goes. In this case, a country boy can astound.

We waved them over and they pulled up to our boat, flashing grins. The bottom of their boat was ankle deep in big fish.

“What the hell … ?” we said, or words to that effect.

“Mr. Sample [the lake owner] told us to shoot as many of these dang silver carp as we could,” one of the boys said. “They’re killing off all the game fish and he’s tryin’ to get rid of ’em.”

It was my first encounter with the phenomenon of silver carp. I did some research and learned that the fish, an Asian import, was originally stocked in Southern fish-farm ponds to control algae. As was no doubt predictable, they escaped into the Mississippi River system and now threaten to take it over completely. They screw up the food chain; catfish and bass and other game fish are usually eliminated in waters where silver carp live. They grow to almost four feet long and cannot be caught by rod and reel. Their defining characteristic is the fact that they jump out of the water when a motorboat approaches.

These waterborne kudzu have spread to the point where they are now threatening the Great Lakes. The lesson is an old one: Don’t fool with Mother Nature. A corollary: Don’t water ski without a helmet.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com