The speaker at this morning’s Madison County Republican breakfast was Huntsville Times editor Kevin Wendt. Last year about this time he addressed the MCGOP as the newly hired editor, and he’s had a year or so to settle into his job. He recognized then the frustration that many people in Huntsville felt about The Times, and IMO he has made some positive steps toward improving the paper’s relationship with the community. More about Wendt in a minute…
Tim James won the Madison County GOP Straw Poll with 35%, Bradley Byrne came in second with 26%, and Roy Moore came in third with 15%. In a departure from previous straw polls, this poll was open to MCGOP members only (to minimize skewing the poll results).
Here’s a post about Tim James MCGOP visit in May 2009.
Tim James visited the meeting today, and it was nice to hear that he and his friends read Flashpoint.
The meeting was standing-room only, packed with about 250 people. In addition to Tim James, notable notables included State Senator Paul Sanford; State Representatives Mike Ball, Howard Sanderford, and Mac McCutcheon; County Commissioner Mo Brooks (AL05 Congressional candidate); County Schools Superintendent Terry Davis; Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle; Huntsville City Council Members Sandra Moon and Mark Russell; and Judge Bruce Williams. Candidates for office included Les Phillip (Congress AL05), Mary Scott Hunter (State Board of Education), John Wilson (Senate 9), Tony Cochran (Senate 9), and Don Spurlin (Senate 9). I was pleased to see that Dale Jackson of WVNN joined us for breakfast.
I enjoy seeing Mayor Battle and I appreciate that he’s accessible to the citizens of Huntsville. I should probably write up something positive about the City to make up for all the fussing…
***
Now back to Kevin Wendt. In his speech noted that he’s made some “changes at The Huntsville Times”. He noted that circulation dropped a little bit to 50,000 papers daily, due to the “economy” and the “price increase”; Sunday’s paper circulation is 72,000 (about the same as last year).
Wendt said that when he took over, the editorial page writers “leaned to the left” and that he was trying to “balance out the editorial page”. He promoted John Peck to editorial page editor, offered buyouts to John Ehinger (who I think was fair and pretty good), David Persons (who was one-dimensional), and David Prather (who was a poor tipper according to people I know in the restaurant industry).
Wendt expanded the Business Section to make it a stand-alone section of the paper. He hopes to differentiate the paper based on it’s strength reporting local news and business. The paper is focusing on local coverage and started up a “watchdog page”.
The Sunday paper is where Wendt is building a “national page”. He cited as an example of this page the recent printing of the text of the health care bills and the text of a Dick Cheney speech. He said that The Times ran Cheney’s speech with the purpose of reaching out to the right and getting “to know our audience better”.
Wendt says there are things The Times can do better. He plans to improve election coverage, in part because “we didn’t do a good job” in the Sanford / Hall Senate 7 special election (if only someone like Dale Jackson at WVNN had spoken up about it or maybe if Brian had said something the Times would have realized their error sooner).
Wendt said that endorsements for candidates “are key to what a local paper can bring to the table”.
QUESTION AND ANSWER (brief summary):
Q = is political diversity important
A = Yes. Need to be “aware of issues”
Q = ACORN on page 8
A = “national story”, “goal is to highlight local issues”
Q = Are you going to balance the Faith and Values section – buncha lefties
A = “don’t plan changes”, “aware of it”
Q = why Cynthia Tucker
A = email Peck with ideas
Q = Great job, you’ve made the paper better
A = Thanks
I missed a couple Q&As here… Keep in mind I’m trying to eat, listen, and write at the same time…
Q = Why is the Big10 covered in the Sports section?
A = “we won’t get into a discussion about the Big10 being overrated”
Overall, Kevin Wendt made a good speech, he was witty and forthright in the Q&A, and his remarks were warmly received. Good job, Kevin!
I’ve often noticed writers on the Times who seemed to be taking dictation from the Republican Party. For instance, using the phrase “government run health care.”
As I’m sure you know, that phrase was devised by Republican consultant Frank Luntz to push public opinion in a direction that will kill health care rerform.
The reporters in the Times are also slipshod in their treatment of the facts, resorting to he-said she-said reporting while their fact checkers seem to be on vacation.
The Huntsville Times is the print equivalent of Fox News. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the editor was sacking employees who fail to pass an ideological purity test.
“I enjoy seeing Mayor Battle and I appreciate that he’s accessible to the citizens of Huntsville. I should probably write up something positive about the City to make up for all the fussing…”
Hmmmm, lemme see, I am positive that the mayor and city government does not give a tinker’s damn about the folks in SE Huntsville beyond collecting our taxes, that positive enough for you?
dcm
Sorry had to add this:
Q = ACORN on page 8
A = “national story”, “goal is to highlight local issues”
really? Organization that is openly corrupt with “an organized crime structure” stealing millions of tax dollars, extortion tactics on banks and possibly making the dead vote, nah let’s put that on page 8.
that type stuff and the Times treatment of the HHA/SE Huntsville story was why I cancelled my subscription, I have finally had to realize that I was paying money to movie stars and other entities (like the Hsv Times) that would then take my money to advance causes that were in opposition to me, I was funding my own enemy in part. I am a small piece of the pie but i do not see movies with people in them that give money or support to things I consider to be evil or destructive to my own values . Lucky in today’s world with streaming video.Netflix and cable I do not suffer much from this, I did however have to give up “My Name Is Earl” since most of the cast appeared in that idiotic video that Oakrah made the lemmings do. My money so if you wish to give it to people that are not your friends and work against your way of life take the easy road. Actually taking a stand I find can be hard at times and makes you the target of ridicule more than respected.
OK, that was a ramble, I I gotta keep better focus:)
Bottom line: Huntsville Times thought moving poverty to SE Huntsville was a great idea, I thought I needed to keep my money out of their hands.
dcm
So he’s aware that the Faith & Values section has a decidedly leftward tilt but “doesn’t plan changes”? Why not? The phenomenally clueless Kay Campbell has turned that section into a weekly lefty diatribe — Why is this not an issue to Wendt? Several people have complained to him about it, yet he does nothing.
Sorry, Reactionary, but I just don’t give Wendt much credit for changing the ideological tone of The Times. Most of the changes that he cites — such as canning the entire editorial staff — were made for budgetary reasons, not to move the paper back to the center. Similarly, the Cheney speech was printed for the same reason the Sunday Forum section every week is full of columns by politicians: Such content is 100% free. Why pay for an excellent column by Mark Steyn or Charles Krauthammer when you can print a speech written by Sen. Shelby (actually, his staff) free of charge?
Of course, the real culprit here is the publisher, Bob Ludwig. Wendt’s hands are probably tied for the most part. Still, I really hate being lied to. Kevin needs to just man-up and admit the truth, rather than claiming he’s doing things he’s not really doing.
Ben – as you’ve noticed, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and then some. Maybe it’s a bug, maybe it’s a feature… Please keep calling me on it if I go overboard.
As far as ‘balancing’ the Faith and Values section, I wouldn’t expect Wendt to discuss personnel issues publicly before speaking with his employees. I totally agree with you about the lefty diatribes – I hope that his awareness of the issue will lead to corrective action.
I also hope that he follows through with his plan to improve The Times’ coverage of local politics. So far no good – e.g., Sanford / Hall coverage. We’ll see if he follows through soon enough with the primaries this Spring (or with the school board story now).
We need a good paper, and deserve a better one.
He has defended Campbell to me before by noting that she has won awards (from the far-left press corps, natch). He has no intention of dumping her, reining her in, or making her change anything. I was plenty willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he came here, but he has simply not delivered on his promises and doesn’t seem inclined to do so.
what do you guys criticizing it want from the faith and values section — hellfire and damnation preachers’ sermons? Maybe a photo showing a pretend dead kid is carried around the church in a casket while the preacher fumes and snorts about how “thinking sinful thoughts” got the kid killed? i’m a liberal and i don’t recall ever getting a feeling that the section is “liberal” from a religious, social or political point of view. Do you want a columnist who will tell you that evolution is only a “theory” because it’s spoken of as “the theory of evolution?” Maybe a weekly homily from Judge Moore on religion and constitutionality? Or did some people decide to gang up on the faith and values editor just to stay in practice in case the paper reports something positive about a Democratic candidate in the months ahead?
Please, Ivan — Is really so difficult for you to avoid being so condescendingly obtuse?
Whatever your political alignment, it is patently obvious that the Faith & Values section has a far-left tilt. Kay Campbell routinely dresses down conservative Christianity for what she sees as its shortcomings, but she treats every other faith tradition — wiccan, Islam, the “religious left” — with kid gloves. Despite all the people killed in the name of Islam, including the most recent “honor killings” in Arizona and the Fort Hood murders, Campbell has never run a critical article asking when Muslims are going to evict the radicals in their midst. Instead, we get sappy articles about how peaceful and misunderstood Islam is, and scolding articles about how awful conservative Christians are for not supporting open borders and socialism.
Lefty ministers routinely get columns from which to use religion as a cudgel to push their political views, but more conservative ministers are never heard from. Campbell writes happy-clappy, soft-focus profiles of “religious left” groups like the Interfaith Mission Service and defends this sort of thing by saying it’s not her job to judge whether such groups are “good” or not, but to give them the benefit of the doubt. Fine. But she has never — not once — done a similarly positive profile of a conservative group such as Choose Life.
Only someone utterly blinkered by their ideology could fail to see what is patently obvious to anyone else.
Actually, Ben,
I write about Choose Life at least once a year (near their annual banquet), have featured their new facility on Rand as a centerpiece when it was opened, and have featured (and continue to offer to feature) their volunteers and staff in the “Spiritual Journey” testimony sections that you have refused to participate in. I expect if you spoke to Austin Boyd, active on their board (and whose own work I have featured) or their director or volunteer coordinator, they would be happy to vouch for me. They do an incredibly important ministry to thousands of women and babies in this area.
I think you just have decided what the Faith & Values section of The Huntsville Times is about and, therefore, see only the things that reinforce your calcified opinion.
For instance, you began this complaint string the day after my section had a center-front feature on the Alabama Baptist Convention, an event surely no one could classify as “left-leaning.”
I wish you’d give the section an unjaundiced look: It’s a lot more faithful than you believe it is!
As for the “liberal” ministers you accuse me of featuring in LifePoints — I can think of several who would strenuously object to that classification, including Pastor Lee Singley of Wall Highway Baptist, a highly respected leader, pastor and a good writer, too.
As I’ve said to you privately when you e-mail your infrequent correctivess directly to me: I really think you have found the section to “feel” liberal merely because it includes a representation, as best as we can get it, of all the religious traditions being practiced in the Valley.
I don’t make them up — they’re really here! I just try to get their stories as accurately as I can. This is not a denomination’s paper; it’s not my job to judge, but to report.
That’s probably why you have not read about hateful Muslims in my pages: I have yet to meet one in the Valley — in fact a few Christians have been much meaner to me than any Muslim here ever has, even the few times I’ve made a mistake in reporting.
I thought about not replying to your posts; I know our extended conversations in the past have been frustrating for you, but I guess I keep hoping you will come to see the section for what it is: the secular press’ attempt to faithfully and fully report on the infinite variety and activities of the many people of faith in our area. I hold that charge to be a sacred duty because I really do believe that as we come to understand the deepest truths of each other’s ways to God, we’ll understand both our neighbors and, perhaps, even God in more meaningful ways.
At the very least, people who feel the need to convert their neighbors to their own faiths will have a better understanding of what matters to them.
And, finally, but this time in this semi-public arena, I invite you to share your own faith statement with our readers through the Spiritual Journey feature which allows readers to give their own testimony their own way — as long as they do it without tearing others down. That invitation remains open to you.
@ivan: how about some articles in the Faith & Values section about how faith can both inform and conflict with human values, like they do at Religion Dispatches: http://www.religiondispatches.org/ Articles written by and for people with IQs above room temperature. Beacon Broadside also doesn’t suck.
Mavericky Christmas everyone: http://wonkette.com/412151/a-childrens-treasury-of-earnest-sarah-palin-christmas-tree-ornaments
The one on the bottom is really special.
I don’t doubt that there are muslims here in the US who at this moment are wishing they could kill “infidels” including muslims who disagree with their version of the Koran, who enjoy the distressing casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan and the trillions down the drain, and who would love to see wahabbist type islam world-wide. There’s no way to tell how many, what percentage, but as one individual who knows a few muslims, some well, some casually, i can say from person knowledge that i know muslims who are here because they like the fact that daughters can get an education equal to sons, that education opens doors for muslims as well as practitioners of other religions, and they appreciate constitutional protections.
While we’re on the subject of religion, there’s a fascinating article in the December Atlantic called “Did Christianity Cauce The Crash?”
I just can’t shut up …
“as one individual who knows a few muslims, some well, some casually, i can say from person knowledge that i know muslims ”
All I can say is you should have been in Iran and saw how suddenly those “moderate” Muslims were joyful that they could practice their restrictive brand of Islam under the Ayatollah. People you would have though of as great neighbors, now would be willing to stab you for looking at their wife/daughter too long. Forgive me if I just protect my family by wanting them as far the hell away from me as possible. All those poor homeless Palestinians that danced in the streets on 9/11, nah I think I will just continue to hate the bastards. my rights as an American for a little while longer anyway. My “live and let live” feelings were damaged with those towers but they died when I saw the REAL feelings of the Muslim world, the Palestinians were not the only ones joyful. They hate us, so I just hate them right back. Great solution.
How much time you spent in the Middle East NOT as a soldier but as a civilian where you could see the real Islam. Been there done that and your remarks are naive in my experience.
dcm