Category: default || By jt3y

Yesterday, Fast Eddie got some bad news, so he shot the messenger, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

As Gov. Rendell's nominee to head the Gaming Control Board withdrew yesterday, Rendell blasted the news media, through clenched teeth, for "what you did... to one of the most decent, honorable men."

Rendell said that the criticism of Francis P. Friel was, in part, fed to news organizations by political opponents. It produced "the worst and most unfair result in my 27 years" in public office, he said, adding, "We have to stop trying to pick people apart."

Addressing reporters at a Center City news conference, Rendell asked, "Would any one of you out there want to be evaluated by one mistake you've made?

"Judged by the Frank Friel standard, I could no longer remain governor."

Now there's a chilling thought: Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll. Br-r-r-r.

No offense to his honorable high-and-mightiness, but when you're appointing someone to head a gambling commission, you really need to appoint someone above reproach. In case he hasn't noticed, there seems to be an unusually high proportion of alleged organized crime figures involved in gambling and gaming as opposed to, say, shoe repair.

Also, there's more than one "mistake." One of the "oopsies" that Gov. Rendell's appointee is accused of making includes testifying as a character witness on behalf of a mobster. He was also accused of taking $50 from a nightclub owner in 1974. And, it turns out he fibbed about his credentials.

That doesn't sound like someone who's above reproach to me. In fact, he was reproached --- by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission and a grand jury.

Furthermore, as the Governor of Pennsylvania, Rendell has at his command the resources of the Pennsylvania State Police, not to mention dozens of political operatives. It seems to me, an unimportant writer in McKeesport (Our Fair City), that a rudimentary background check would have turned up these problems with Mr. Friel's record. If the Inquirer could turn up these salient details, why couldn't his staff? It seems to me that someone who works for Rendell screwed up, big time.

The only other explanation is that Rendell knew about Mr. Friel's background, and thought he could just slip it past people.

According to Milan Simonich's story in the Post-Gazette, Rendell had "tears welling in his eyes" yesterday.

Oh, please, Mr. Governor, spare us the clenched teeth and histrionics. They're beneath you, and frankly, they insult the public's intelligence.

...

It's the end of an era at my beloved alma mater, as the last four Franciscan friars have stopped teaching at Serra Catholic High School in Our Fair City.

According to Jennifer Eisel's story in The Daily News (unfortunately, it's not online), the Franciscan Friars Third Order is strapped for manpower, and decided to place their members at St. Francis University in Loretto and at Franciscan University in Steubenville.

Principal Michael Luft told Eisel the departure of the friars is "a tremendous loss."

"Truthfully, it's been like losing family members," he said.

There are still four nuns at Serra, Eisel writes, and the friars may return for special visits and to celebrate Mass. In addition, the school will remain dedicated to Franciscan ideals.

Some of my favorite teachers at Serra were friars (so was Mr. Luft, if he happens to be reading this someday), and they definitely added something to the educational environment. It may be the reason I haven't been as outraged by the scandals in the Catholic church as some people I know; my experiences with the clergy were always positive.

Of course, we did have one friar whom we privately called "Crash" because he had several accidents with school vehicles, but it was done with affection. And my senior year, several of us collaborated on a recruitment video which teased the friars ("on Fridays, they're fish friars") was one of the lines I recall. (One of the brothers didn't get it. "You realize that 'friar' and 'fryer' are spelled differently, right?" he asked.)

Still, it's unfortunate, and I hope that pastors at the local Catholic parishes can step up their involvement at Serra. Young people deserve to know that most clergymen aren't substance abusers --- or worse.

...

Tired of the faked/not-faked CBS memos yet? The media isn't.

In any event, the thought occurred to me the other day that some low-level producer at CBS was probably asked to check those memos out, and probably didn't think it was a bit suspicious that the memos were word-processed because they had never seen anything but word-processed memos. Most low-level TV news employees are fairly young, because the jobs don't pay much.

The credibility of the entire network is on the line, perhaps, because no one at CBS was old enough to know that nearly all documents were produced on plain old typewriters until the mid-1980s. (How many 20- or 30-somethings have ever used a typewriter?)

It's a mystery why no one further up the food chain didn't immediately realize these memos were garbage --- or maybe it isn't. Throughout my mediocre newspaper career, I was continually amazed at the lack of knowledge of history that some reporters have, and their lack of intellectual curiosity. "Well, so-and-so said it, and we attributed it to him, so we're off the hook," seems to be the attitude of many reporters. (Or worse yet: "Well, I have to find someone to say this, so I can attribute it to someone," which is one step removed from, "I'm just going to make it up.")

The "attribution" excuse, by the way, was used in the 1950s by reporters covering "Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy's reckless accusations, even though they knew the charges weren't credible. Some reporters who were interviewed later basically said, "well, he was a senator, and we attributed the information to him, so what difference did it make if it wasn't true?" A half-century later, journalism has apparently not progressed at all. Some crackpot produces memos, and the information was attributed to the crackpot, therefore, CBS News feels it covered its bases. Maybe legally, but not ethically.

Still, if someone had just been intellectually curious enough to ask, "Well, what does a real U.S. Air Force memo from 1972 look like?" before those memos were aired on TV, this whole controversy would have been avoided.

...

(By the way: I know certain IBM Selectrics could type in Times Roman. But it's been proven on several Web sites that those typewriters were high-end jobs used by professional printers and typesetters. Also, attempts to reproduce the disputed memos on one of those IBM "Composers" have been unsuccessful. More to the point, it beggars the imagination to think that a lieutenant colonel who could barely type would have just casually banged out a memo to himself using a $3,000 piece of specialized graphic arts equipment.

(And finally, I have an IBM Executive, which also has been named as one of the typewriters that could produce documents like the memos. Believe me, an IBM Executive does not produce type that clean, or at least mine doesn't; I should know, because I was using mine last Friday to fill out some forms. Type samples are available upon request. Send $500 in unmarked bills, and I'll even type up some phony memos for CBS.)

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Canadian fans to hockey players: Take a hike, eh?

The Ipsos-Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians, which has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, found that six in 10 say the teams' owners are being fairer and more reasonable than the players. Half think the dispute will last long enough to cancel the 2004-05 season, but almost two-thirds agree the NHL will rebound from the dispute and possibly become a better league. (The Globe and Mail)

To paraphrase the late Pittsburgh Press sports editor Chet Smith, if they were playing a hockey game in my front yard, I'd close the drapes, so I can't say I care one way or the other.

But as someone who was saddened when major-league baseball copped a walk a few years ago --- and has never really regained my love for the game --- I can sympathize with all of the hockey fans who are being left out in the cold, as it were. If there's no Stanley Cup awarded this year, according to the Globe and Mail, it will be the first time that's happened since 1919, when a flu epidemic forced the playoffs to be cancelled.