Nashville Scene – Memphis Flyer

Locker and Locker

Rick Locker, the Commercial Appeal‘s longtime Capitol Hill reporter, has left his post to take a job in communications with the Tennessee Board of Regents. As the Nashville Scene‘s Steven Hale put it, in a piece bemoaning the dwindling institutional memory in government reporting, there’s now a little, “less scrutiny for a legislative body that could always use more of it.”

Newspaper culture changed overnight in Tennessee when Gannett added both the Commercial Appeal and The Knoxville News Sentinel to a list of media properties that already included the Tennessean. The CA reporter had become a contributing presence in all of the state’s three major publications, and his voice will be missed.

Check out the Scene’s commentary for a brief, pithy overview of the situation.

Verbatim

Tennessee Representative Andy Holt made national headlines last week after he tweeted and deleted his support for the federal wildlife refuge-occupying Bundy militia. His comments came from liberals and conservatives alike. Nobody described the fallout from Holt’s scandalous tweet better than Nashville Scene blogger Jeff Woods, who wrote, “For grabbing attention, it might go down in Twitter history — right there with Kourtney Kardashian’s iconic ‘do ants have dicks?’ tweet.”

Parade Critic

A writer for Arkansas’ Northwest Democrat Gazette was unimpressed by Memphis’ New Year’s Day celebration on Beale. As part of his Liberty Bowl coverage, Bobby Ampezzan fired off a column titled “Fans in Memphis Find Kooky Collection in Parade.” According to Ampezzan, “The parade featured two AutoZone semi-trucks, high school marching bands from as far away as Ohio, a couple of New Orleans-style krewes, and a Chevy Camaro car club.” And things just get worse from there: “One float advertising pizza featured a few unskilled dancers plodding their way through the Cha-Cha Slide. Another for Gun Oil featured plaid-clad dudes pitching Mardi Gras beads. By the time the Razorbacks’ spirit squad and marching band came through, spectators clapped their approval because this, at least, had something to do with something.”

@MistakenIdentity

Memphis educator Pat McFadden received his 15 minutes of internet fame last week because he shares a name with a British Labour Party politician who was sacked from his Shadow Cabinet position. By virtue of having the Twitter handle @patmcfadden, the Latin teacher at St. Mary’s School was frequently tagged in heated political conversations.