media

KET’s Bill Goodman goes One-on-One with Kentucky Congressional Delegation

September 13, 2011

Goodies started last night with Questionable Congressman Ed Whitfield. Big Brett Guthrie’s up tonight and it continues nightly through next week when it culminates with Mitch “Tear down this bridge!” McConnell:

Here’s the full schedule:

Bill Goodman will sit down with Kentucky’s entire Congressional delegation in a series of special episodes of One to One. During each individual interview, Goodman and his guest will discuss the debt ceiling debate, future Congressional projects and issues within his district.

Each episode airs at 6:30/5:30 p.m. CT on KET. The schedule of programs is as follows:

Monday, Sept. 12: Rep. Ed Whitfield
Tuesday, Sept. 13: Rep. Brett Guthrie
Wednesday, Sept. 14: Rep. John Yarmuth
Thursday, Sept. 15: Rep. Geoff Davis
Monday, Sept. 19: Rep. Hal Rogers
Tuesday, Sept. 20: Rep. Ben Chandler
Wednesday, Sept. 21: Sen. Rand Paul
Thursday, Sept. 22: Sen. Mitch McConnell

You can watch One-to-One with Ed Whitfield HERE.

Ed looks somewhat terrified. His body language seems constrained, with legs tightly crossed, hands crushed together between his thighs at time, and his eyes… there’s no other way to say it, his eyes are shifty. It’s altogether weird.

Highlights? Well, he (and the rest of the Republican Party, of course!) really didn’t want to see the nation default. He is at pains to stress this, almost as though he’s trying to convince himself. He says “They” brought in former Treasury Secretaries to tell them how batshit crazy the idea of default really was and those, surely, were entertaining conversations.

Goodies later presses him to talk about what his actual job creation plan is and Ed rambles on and on talking about the importance of stimulating the economy but the evils of stimulating the economy and as close as he ever gets to an answer is to talk, of course, about ending regulations but even that he does half-heartedly, almost like he believes it’s a truly stupid idea that won’t actually create jobs.

After that it’s on to enriching uranium in the Bluegrass State but who cares about that? What could possibly go wrong. Then it’s on to the pure evil of the EPA and some harsh words for Lisa Jackson, EPA czar who is “doing everything possible” to hurt the creation of jobs. Which sounds accurate.

And around the 26min mark, Goodies — with a big, big knowing smile on his face — asks Ed if he likes traveling around the 1st District, as if maybe Ed’s never really been there.

Brett Guthrie’s up tonight.

Gannett dragging down the Courier-Journal, 36 50 employees laid off

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June 21, 2011

By Joe Sonka

Just like McClatchy is dragging down the Lexington Herald Leader and forcing them to lay off employees, so too is Gannett dragging down the Louisville Courier-Journal, as they announced today that 36 50 employees will be laid off.

Meanwhile, here’s what the Gannett executives make:

Gannett just disclosed that it paid Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow $9.4 million last year — double his 2009 pay — as the company laid off hundreds of workers and imposed wage cuts on thousands more. His pay included a $1.75 million all-cash bonus.

Chief Operating Officer Gracia Martore got $8.2 million, more than double her $4.0 million in 2009, according to the new shareholders proxy report filed this afternoon with federal regulators. Her pay included a cash bonus of $1.25 million.

*****

* Chief Financal Officer Paul Saleh: $2.9 million; includes a $225,000 bonus, after joining GCI last November.
* U.S. newspapers president Bob Dickey: $3.4 million, including $600,000 bonus. (His total 2009 pay: $1.9 million.)
* USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke: $2.5 million, including $375,000 bonus. (Total 2009: $1.9 million.)
* Broadcasting President Dave Lougee: $2.2 million, including $450,000 bonus. (Total 2009: $1.3 million.)

Then again, should we really blame Jim Newberry and Ashton?

Keith Olbermann Returns to TV… but you probably can’t see him.

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June 20, 2011

By David M. F. Schankula

Countdown returns to nightly television tonight on CURRENT TV at 8PM.

If you’re in the Lexington area:

College Cable Transylvania University

Channel 84

DIRECTV

Channel 358

DISH Network

Channel 196

Insight Communications

Not Available

As you see, Insight Communications doesn’t carry CURRENT on any of its packages which is a shame not really because of Keith but because CURRENT’s doing some interesting things with this television medium… as in, unlike all the other channels, they don’t concentrate solely on exploiting 500 pound albinos who plan parties, bake cakes and raise sixteen year old pregnant girls who don’t know they’re pregnant. By which I mean, it’s slightly different from TLC.

So maybe you should contact Insight and ask them to carry CURRENT TV. And if you’re at Transy or have DirecTV, you should watch Keith or at least the channel.

Daily Yonder: A State With Empty Bureaus

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May 26, 2011

By David M. F. Schankula

The Herald-Leader is closing its last Eastern Kentucky bureau as the probably profitable paper continues its struggle against the parent company’s debt obligations and the news industry remains in trouble and in transition.

Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder has a great story up now on Dori Hjalmarson, the last bureau reporter, what the news bureaus meant to the region, and what is lost with their closing:

The reporters who worked Eastern Kentucky news bureaus helped change the nation and brought Kentucky together. The last bureau will close this week.

It’s fitting that Dori Hjalmarson’s story Sunday was about the decline in population in Breathitt County, Kentucky, as people abandon that coalfield county in search of work elsewhere because Dori is leaving, too.

Eastern Kentucky once had five major press news bureaus, but they’ve been closing as the business of newspapering has declined. The state’s largest newspaper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, closed its bureau in Hazard years ago. The Associated Press followed, closing its bureau in Pikeville.

At one time the Lexington Herald-Leader had three reporters living in Eastern Kentucky. Dori Hjalmarson was the last. She leaves her Pikeville office Friday and nobody is taking her place.
At one time, every county in Kentucky had daily delivery of the Courier-Journal and the paper had reporters in both Hazard, in the far east, and Paducah, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

It was hard to advance in management at the C-J unless you passed through the bureaus. That was the way you learned about the state — the whole state. Then — before the collapse of the newspaper business — the Courier-Journal saw itself as Kentucky’s newspaper.
The C-J and, later, the Herald-Leader sent their best reporters to rural Kentucky. David Hawpe worked out of the Hazard bureau, and became editor of the Courier-Journal. Frank Langfitt began at the Herald-Leader’s Hazard bureau and is now a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio.

Rural bureau reporters in Kentucky were journalistic cops-on-the-beat in their territories. If a person (or a community) was a victim of injustice, the bureau reporter would get a call.

There’s more, of course, on Dori and on history and on the disappearing counties of coal country — at the Daily Yonder.

And let’s take a moment here to also recall Jim Newberry’s Coal-Funded Media Death Star, formed to challenge the stories and strength of the Herald-Leader… right at the time the great H-L needs it least. Way to go, Jim. Way to go.

Jim Newberry is Poochie

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May 10, 2011

By Joe Sonka

Lexington’s New Media Overlord of Vengence, Jim Newberry, is now well on his way to putting his digital bootheel on the throats of the doomed Herald Leader and Jim Gray. After the massively successful launch of kyforward.com yesterday, Jim Newberry couldn’t help but strut. As his pal Ashton Kutcher once said, the revolution will be tweeted, and that’s exactly what media revolutionary Jim Newberry did:

“Lex news with attitude”! Can I get a “what what”, Jimbo?

See, yesterday’s Kutcher video made me suspect this, but now it’s official. Jim Newberry is Poochie:

Sure, we can talk about the foreshadowing of his redemptive slaying of the Herald Leader (“a better source of news”) and Mayor Jim Gray (“Articles not always positive, but always constructive.”), but I’m having way too much fun acknowledging the fact that the man who cheered on the destruction of my block has become Poochie the Dog.

If you can find this video somewhere, you are a saint:

Executive: We at the network want a dog with attitude. He’s edgy, he’s in your face. You’ve heard the expression “let’s get busy”? Well, this is a dog who gets biz-zay! Consistently and thoroughly.

Krusty the Clown: So he’s proactive, huh?

Executive: Oh, God, yes. We’re talking about a totally outrageous paradigm.

Meyers: Excuse me, but proactive and paradigm? Aren’t these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I’m accusing you of anything like that. I’m fired, aren’t I?

Executive: Oh, yes.

(“The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show.” The Simpsons, 1997)

Note to the staff at KY Forward. If you want to keep your job, don’t you DARE say that to Newberry. He’s a thin-skinned New Media Overlord of Vengeance, after all.

The Sun Rises on the Newberry Era of Lexington Media

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May 10, 2011

By Joe Sonka

Schankula and I stopped updating perhaps the longest post in B&P’s history yesterday because Jim Newberry’s New Digital Empire of Ashton kept crashing, as well as crashing the router of all 20 people going there.

But it appears to be up for the time being, so… I think we’re just going to keep updating it today, if you’re into that type of thing.

In the meantime, BOW TO LORD KUTCHER!

P.S.- Here’s how they plan on ~~not~~ paying the 14 white folk on their staff. Check out these advertising rates:

Mm hmm…

Ashton Kutcher pitches Jim Newberry’s new digital media empire (VIDEO)

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May 9, 2011

By Joe Sonka

Even though the launch of Jim Newberry’s new digital media empire has been delayed 9 days due to King Coal Baron Joe Craft having cold feet about bankrolling it, they’ve now officially thrown the first punch at their “competition”, the Herald Leader.

Behold… whatever the hell you call this:

I… I don’t even know what to say. Jim Newberry has rendered me speechless with this impressive display of “locally owned” social media prowess and Ashton Kutcher. And it only took them three months to put this video together!

Thoughts? Bring ‘em.

Herald Leader publisher Tim Kelly to retire, replacement named

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May 5, 2011

By Joe Sonka

Big Kentucky news today, as Herald Leader president and publisher Tim Kelly announced that he is retiring this June. He will be replaced by Rufus M. Friday, who publishes the Tri-City Herald in Washington state:

“I want to congratulate Tim on his retirement and a tremendous newspaper career that spans more than four decades,” said Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re particularly grateful for Tim’s veteran leadership and steady hand over the past few years, which have been tumultuous for our industry.

“At the same time, we’re delighted to welcome Rufus to the publisher’s job in Lexington,” Pruitt said. “Rufus is a thoughtful, seasoned newspaper executive who will build upon the Herald-Leader traditions of journalism excellence and community service.”

Friday, 50, became president and publisher of McClatchy’s Tri-City Herald in 2005. Prior to publisher, Friday worked for two years as vice president of circulation at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., another McClatchy newspaper. He spent 11 years directing circulation at Gannett Co., Inc., newspapers.

“Rufus cares deeply about his employees, his paper and the community,” said Frank Whittaker, McClatchy vice president, operations. “We’re confident he’ll be an excellent fit for the Herald-Leader.”

Sad to see Kelly go, as he’s done a damned fine job with the Herald Leader in perilous times. Even though the Herald Leader is a money maker, the feeble McClatchy empire is hemorrhaging money and has forced the Herald Leader to make cut and cut after furlough after cut. And throughout those cuts, the Herald Leader somehow continues to do great reporting.

I don’t know anything about Friday, but I do know that the Herald Leader is an absolute godsend to this city, and this state. Let’s hope for the best, and hope that doesn’t include more endless cuts that could jeopardize the great work that they put out.

(This is the point where the Jim Newberry Digital Media Empire of Vengeance strikes and eats the soul of the unbelievers, fyi)

Joe Craft pulling the plug on Newberry’s media empire? (UPDATE)

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May 5, 2011

By Joe Sonka

What happened to former Lexington mayor Jim Newberry’s new digital media empire of vanquishing enemies, KYForward.com? It was supposed to launch this week, but is still pointing to a GoDaddy page.

Well, the word on the street is as follows. As we speculated, we hear that King Coal Baron Joe Craft was indeed the deep pocket funding it, but he is now having second thoughts. Just like his display in the Kentucky Coal Lodge, Craft wanted total veto power of KY Forward’s content. This revelation apparently didn’t sit well with a certain non-Newberry contingent of the Newberry Empire, and now they might be going back to the drawing board.

And believe me, if there is no deep pocket funding their website and really large staff, there’s no way that KY Forward can work.

We’ll update you if we get more information confirming this one way or the other. But in the meantime, some of you might want to make arrangements for some kind of Newberry Schadenfreude Party.

UPDATE: Now the word from the KYForward crowd is that it will launch “later today”. The plot thickens!