eChaser: August 2005


	Welcome to our newsletter ... Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter eChaser archive [graphics format] We appreciate our advertisers! Advanced Mobility Systems Barr Printing Bass Performance Hall Business Wire DFW Printing Co. Fort Worth Business Press Fort Worth Transportation Authority Fort Worth Zoo Helping Restore Ability Immotion Studios InterStar Marketing and Public Relations Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Food Restaurant Jubilee Theatre North Texas Daily Optimist, Abilene Christian University Pancho's Mexican Buffet PR Newswire PRSA Creative Consultants SIG The Shorthorn, UTA Star-Telegram TCU Daily Skiff Tony Roma's The University of Texas at Arlington VMS Weber Shandwick Worldwide Wise County Messenger Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations August 2005 Forever a Marine ... KARL KING, 1924-2005 Decorated ex-POW Karl King, 80, an author, former newsman and longtime SPJ member remembered for his addenda from the floor at every program, died July 25. He was buried at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery with full military honors. Mr. King was news director at KFJZ in Fort Worth in 1961 and two years later was among the first to report the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a staffer for Dallas radio station KBOX. He was present two days later when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV, and he interviewed many of the people closest to the tragedy. He did freelance reporting for Paris Match and monitored the 1964 Ruby trial for UPI, radio station WBAP and a California TV station. He worked for several other radio stations before retiring in 1970. His was a full life -- joined first the National Guard and then the Marines, both at 14; walked on the Great Wall of China and visited Vladivostok, Russia, before celebrating his 16th birthday in the Philippines; swam 2 1/2 miles from Bataan to Corregidor, where he threw a grenade into a Japanese gun pit, which gualified him for the first of two Bronze Stars; worked on the railroad, which took him to Las Vegas, N.M., where he was introduced to radio selling ads -- but he was proudest of the harassment he and fellow POWs perpetrated in the Mitsubishi shipyards. One of the 22 ships they helped build sank at the dock, he said, and 18 other ships returned for repairs. He told of setting a shipyard warehouse ablaze with a cigarette and of dumping shipbuilding supplies into the Tokyo harbor. He wrote the book "Alamo of the Pacific" about his time as a POW. In 1980, Mr. King took journalism classes at TCU, where he was given 30 hours credit for life experience. He earned a bachelor's degree. His oral history is on file at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza. =================================================== MEETINGS Next at IABC/Fort Worth ... An Outstanding Program is Being Prepared Members will be notified. Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers RSVP by noon Aug. 19: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com ----- Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ... Blogging 101 Blogs -- short for weblogs -- are the hottest communications strategy going. Are they just the newest trend or will they change the way consumers view and receive news, as well as influence their buying practices? Should you be looking for ways to incorporate blogging into your PR efforts? How do you get noticed? Get the answers from PR practitioner Kent Pingel, who also is a successful blogger, having gained notoreity for his company and acclaim for the site wifi-guy.com, which Forbes named "Best of the Web" for its content. The discussion will highlight the do's and don'ts of blogging. Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10; lunch at noon Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students RSVP by noon Aug. 5: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org ----- Next at Fort Worth SPJ ... Everybody Needs a Rest Now and Then No August meeting. But get ready for September. =================================================== STRAIGHT STUFF Carol Barreyre, ABC, president of Carol Barreyre Communications; EDS marketing director Mary Lewis, ABC; and Brian White, ABC, RadioShack senior director of retail communications, will offer 30 gems of wisdom from a combined 50 years experience -- from solo consultant to Fortune 100 senior VP, and from public relations to internal communications -- at the IABC/Dallas meeting Tuesday, Aug. 9. Call Jerry Stevenson at (214) 219-5341 with questions. Details here. ... Energy experts will provide background on "Gas Pumps, Pipelines and Energy Markets: Reporting the Texas-Gulf Coast Energy Story" at a full-day seminar Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Houston Chronicle, presented by the Foundation for American Communications, SPJ and the Texas AP. Expect an overview of energy economics, including world and Gulf Coast oil and natural gas; energy markets in the post-Enron era; and a look at hybrid vs. hydrogen automobile technology. There's no charge for journalists, but preregistration is required. See facsnet.org, or call (626) 584-0010. ... Go "Beyond the Sound Bite" by learning more about covering politics and public affairs for television. TV journalists may apply for one of 20 expenses-paid fellowships in Los Angeles, Sept. 26-28. Fellows will meet with the 2005 winners of the Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism and attend workshops. Applications, at wkconline.org, are due Aug. 19. Address questions to Vikki Porter at (213) 437-4417 or Sophie Lafferty at (213) 437-4416. ... A partial repeat from last month, now with an end date. Covering Chaos, the story of reporters who reported on the Kennedy assassination, is at the Sixth Floor Museum in downtown Dallas through January 2006. Historic footage, photos and artifacts narrate the four days of continuous news coverage, Nov. 22-25, 1963, and give voice to the more than 300 reporters present in 1963, among them Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer. PRSA local update: Michelle Milford, PR assistant director of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will present "Wear Yellow, Live Strong: How Austin's Champion Charity Spread Its Yellow Fever" at the Dallas PRSA monthly luncheon Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Park City Club, 5956 Sherry Lane, Suite 1700. Details here. PRSA local update II: Give yourself a $20 bonus in August. Members and associate members may join a professional interest section by the end of the month and save $20 off the first-year dues of $60. Join a section here. The form will display the full rate, but you'll only be charged $40. Offer is limited to one bonus-priced section per member and may not be used to renew an existing section membership. ... Deadline is Aug. 12 to submit entries in the PRSA Health Academy Awards competition. Details here. Questions? E- Alissa Marisch at alissa.marisch@prsa.org. PRSA local update III: A Masters SIG has opened for practitioners with 15 years experience or their APR designation. Last month, about nine Masters joined Star-Telegram reader advocate David House for dinner at Kalamatas downtown and had a grand time discussing what really torques newspaper readers as well as headier journalism/PR trends and philosophies. To be a part of the next dinner party, contact Andra Bennett, APR, at abennett@fortworthchamber.com or (817) 336-2491, ext. 265. ... John Ledingham, co-author of "Public Relations as Relationship Management," will discuss relationship management as an overarching concept for the study, teaching and practice of PR in a one-hour Healthcare SIG teleseminar (lunch provided at 12:30 p.m.) Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the American Heart Association, 2401 Scott Ave., Fort Worth. Ledingham will explain how the concept developed, its importance for developing strategy, and what he thinks is needed for practitioners to fully realize its value. RSVP by Aug. 8 to kelly.strzinek@heart.org. SPJ national update: Increasing government secrecy cost $7.2 billion last year; Supreme secrecy; and spy on you. A record 15.6 million documents were classified last year, nearly double the number in 2001, according to the federal Information Security Oversight Office. Declassification, which made millions of historical documents available annually in the 1990s, has slowed from a high of 204 million pages in 1997 to 28 million pages last year. More here. ... The White House cites attorney-client privilege as the basis for refusing to reveal memos written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. when he represented the government before the high court. At the time, Roberts was the top deputy to Solicitor General Ken Starr. But it is not clear that this legal privilege shields the work of government lawyers from government investigators, thanks to a legal ruling won by Starr himself, when he was independent counsel investigating President Clinton. More here and here and here and here. ... The House voted July 21 to extend permanently all but two of the major antiterrorism provisions of the USA Patriot Act after repelling efforts by Democrats and some Republicans to impose restrictions on the government's power to eavesdrop, conduct secret searches and demand library records. Sixteen provisions in the law are set to expire at the end of the year. This sets the stage for what could be difficult negotiations with the Senate, which is considering several very different bills to extend the government's counterterrorism powers. More here. SPJ national update II: Have a cellphone camera? You, too, can be a TV journalist; Judith Miller, hero or hack; porn-fighting Republican in "raunch fest"; and more soldiers are getting divorced (but fewer are killing themselves). Anyone with an Internet connection can right now publish whatever he or she wants, fueling the growth of "citizen reporters." Media companies have begun backing these efforts, creating what some see as a more democratic press but muddying what it means to be a journalist and adding a dimension to debates on fairness, libel, protection of confidential sources and trust in the media. More here and here. ... For Judith Miller of The New York Times, controversy dogs her like a bad ad quarter, from criticism of her pro-administration stories leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to her landing in a Virginia detention facility for refusing to reveal a source to federal investigators. Now the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a 50-year-old group of some 1,100 nonfiction independent writers, may not give Miller its Conscience in the Media award after all, following an outpouring of member opposition. The proposed award prompted at least one member of the group's First Amendment Committee to quit the panel. More here and here. Meanwhile, the Newspaper Guild is encouraging members to send Miller postcards "so she knows we support the stand she has taken on this issue." Her address: Attn: Judith Miller, Inmate No. 45570083, Alexandria Detention Center, 2001 Mill Road, Alexandria, Va. 22314. ... Arizona Sen. John McCain, who held hearings prior to the 2000 elections criticizing Hollywood for marketing R-rated movies to teenagers, has a cameo role in the summer-release "Wedding Crashers," an R-rated movie marketed to teenagers. McCain told Jay Leno that in Washington he "works with boobs every day." More here. ... The number of active-duty soldiers, especially officers, getting divorced has risen sharply. Last year, 3,325 Army officers' marriages ended in divorce -- up 78 percent from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 3 1/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28 percent more than in 2003 and up 53 percent from 2000. During this time, the number of soldiers has changed little. More here. Perhaps related, morale is low among U.S. personnel in Iraq, according to an Army report that finds particular psychological stress in National Guard and Reserve troops, but suicides have declined, from 24 in 2003 to nine last year. More here. SPJ national update III: Shifting-standards White House has nothing to hide and nothing to say; press secretary caught in revolving dour; and PBS chief backs programming investigation. Nearly two years after stating that any administration official who leaked undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity would be fired -- and assuring that Karl Rove and other senior aides to President Bush didn't do it -- the White House on July 11 refused to answer questions about new evidence of Rove's involvement. More here and here and here and here and here and here. ... In a rare burst of follow-up questions and other behaviors associated with actual reporters, the White House press corps on July 12 peppered Scott McClellan. Did Rove commit a crime? Does the president still have confidence in Rove? Is McClellan concerned that he misrepresented facts about Rove? Has McClellan hired an attorney? McClellan, previously chatty on the topic, had little to say. More here and here. ... PBS president Pat Mitchell said she supports an investigation of what she called a "very troubling" use of federal money to track the political leaning of programming on public television. Mitchell declined to say whether Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, should lose his job over surveys he ordered of PBS programming. And is public broadcasting a nest of left-wing biases? No, according to the two ombudsmen Tomlinson hired to review NPR and PBS news segments. More here and here and here and here. SPJ national update IV: Plain Dealer plain wrong?; Portland proves the president wrong; and administration wrong on war-related medical costs. Following the Cleveland Plain Dealer's withholding two articles based on leaked government documents for fear of criminal prosecution, several editors at major newspapers said they will not back off such stories. A number of the editors said they were baffled by the paper's move. More here and here and here and here. ... "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy," President Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. But Portland, Ore., has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions -- below 1990 levels, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord -- while booming economically. City officials say the emissions campaign has reaped benefits: less tax money spent on energy, more convenient transportation, a greener city and expertise in energy efficiency that's helping local businesses win contracts worldwide. More here. ... The Bush administration said June 28 that it vastly underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it warned of at least a $2.6 billion shortfall. In recent months, House and Senate Republicans repeatedly defeated Democratic amendments to boost VA medical funding. Following the disclosure, Senate Republicans announced plans to pass emergency legislation to add $1.5 billion to the fiscal 2005 appropriation. More here. SPJ national update V: More censorship; more journalists dying; and more young journalists being trained, maybe. GOP lawmakers Ted Stevens, Alaska, and Joe Barton, Texas, chairmen of the Senate and House commerce committees, and FCC head Kevin Martin want to broaden federal broadcast indecency regulations to cover cable and satellite TV. A separate measure in the Senate would regulate "excessively violent" programming, not just in broadcasting but on cable and satellite service. More here. ... At least 85 journalists and other employees of news organizations, the vast majority of them Iraqis, have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which opened an office in Baghdad in April. More here. ... The leaders of five of the nation's most prominent j-programs are behind a three-year, $6 million effort to elevate journalism in academia with investigative reporting projects and by integrating their curriculum with other disciplines and providing a national platform on media-related issues. More here. =================================================== GET A JOB The TCU Department of Editorial Services seeks a news editor to produce stories for The TCU Magazine and other publications and work on marketing projects. Will assist with the online catalog and oversee the magazine web site. Must have a bachelor's degree in journalism or related field, competence in Quark, Photoshop and HTML programs such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage, strong verbal and written communication skills. Submit cover letter, résumé and writing samples to Nancy Bartosek at n.bartosek@tcu.edu or TCU Box 298940, Fort Worth 76129. ... The Fort Worth Independent School District seeks a senior communications and media relations officer (job #0405-AP-164). Qualifications include a bachelor's degree in journalism, PR, marketing, communications or a related field, with a master's degree preferred, and at least five years experience. Salary $85,000-$110,000. Submit a cover letter and résumé to Fort Worth ISD Human Resources, 100 N. University Drive, Fort Worth 76107. Include copies of high school diploma/GED or college transcript(s), professional certificates or appropriate licenses and service records. ... M Booth & Associates, an award-winning PR firm based in New York City, seeks an account manager with at least four years experience in fashion or lifestyle brands to work in Plano with the fashion publicity team at JCPenney. Salary range $60,000-$75,000. E- letter and résumé to M Booth executive VP Jane F. Cabot at janec@mbooth.com. ... The North Texas Tollway Authority has an opening for a marketing analyst. Requirements include a bachelor's degree in marketing/communications or a vocational training associate's degree in marketing/communications, and at least three years experience. Starting salary $46,000-$55,000. Download an application at ntta.org. ... North Richland Hills seeks a marketing and research coordinator. Must have a bachelor's degree with major coursework in PR, economic development, marketing, urban planning, business administration or public administration and at least two years of increasingly responsible experience in a related field. Starting salary $40,252-$50,315. Apply at nrhtx.com. ... Freese and Nichols has an opening in its Fort Worth office for an online services administrator to design, write and maintain the company web site and sites for clients. Must have appropriate software knowledge, at least two years experience and a bachelor's degree in journalism, marketing, technical writing or web site development. Send résumé to Human Resources, Freese and Nichols, 4055 International Plaza, Suite 200, Fort Worth 76109-4895; (817) 735-7491 fax; hr@freese.com. =================================================== NEW MEMBERS IABC ... Jenny Walker, Tarrant Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse ... Michael Moore, Public Strategies, Inc. ... Amy Warren, transferring from the Brazos Valley chapter in College Station SPJ ... Ruthanne Brockway, Star-Telegram PRSA ... Jamie Higgins Brown, JPS Health Network ... Anna Riehm, Harris Methodist HEB Hospital ... Margaret Ritsch, Fort Worth Museum of Science & History ... Amy Allen, AmeriCredit ... Margaret Campbell, JPS Health Network ... Cindy Cantu, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, North Central Texas chapter ... Viqui Litman, Freese and Nichols =================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS Additions ... at the S-T: UNT j-grad Patrick Walker on the copy desk; the week he started coincided with the announcement that he had won first place, print category, in the inaugural James S. Hogg Journalism Award for Mental Health Reporting competition sponsored by the UT Austin School of Journalism and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Exits ... at the S-T: Patrick Badgley, to the Houston Chronicle =================================================== PRESIDENT'S COLUMN Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth Our year has started out with a bang. Past president Lori De La Cruz of Blue Marble Media spoke to a full house July 26 about internet marketing and was very informative as well as entertaining. Programs VP Ken Roberts has an exciting fall schedule planned, so stay tuned. If you have a suggestion for a topic or speaker, let Ken know at kmr@freese.com. I am pleased to announce that membership continues to grow. We now have 61 members! If you know someone who might be interested in joining IABC/Fort Worth, contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com. I hop to see you in August. ----- OVER & OUT John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ How soft has journalism gotten? This soft. ... Splash Day, it's called, and for the first time in a long time, the title fit. About 60 SPJ members, prospective members and friends hit the lake for the season-ending fling July 23, and what a fine hoo-ha in the hills it was. Thanks, Gayle Reaves-King and Paul King, Carolyn Poirot and Jack Strickland, Kay Pirtle -- you do know how to throw a party. See Kay's pictures on p. 2. These people aren't faking fun. Troubadors Jeff Prince and Phil Rodriguez entertained, Don LeGrand squired us about the lake on Amon Carter's marvelous old Chris-Craft, the West-Texan, and even the blistering weather cooperated. Local microbrewery Rahr & Sons was represented, the Fort Worth Boat Club staff set a tasty table, and the Star-T (publisher Wes Turner, his associate Nancy Burford and surely Mr. Carter's ghost) loaned us the boat. Thanks, all. And a special thanks to party wrangler Mike Cochran, who saw in advance the potential for unbridled happy and told all his friends to come (and many of them did). Kay headlined the evening "fun in the sunset." That's clever, and so apt. Wish I'd thought of it. Next year, I will. ... Look for Angie Summers, Kay Pirtle and new member Melissa Winn on the Las Vegas Strip Oct. 16-19, respresenting the chapter at the 2005 SPJ National Convention. Join them, why don't you? Details here. ... SPJ is participating in the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, which is lobbying support for a reporter's shield bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ky., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. The bill continues to pick up sponsors, but there are no indications of quick movement despite the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the Judith Miller-Matthew Cooper cases. The Justice Department reportedly wants less than the absolute privilege the bill would provide and is seeking special consideration in national security cases, an element it argues makes any federal shield law different than state law. Media attorneys have been negotiating for language that maintains the strongest possible privilege while recognizing the security issue in limited circumstances. They're also working on modifying the language in the bill to broaden the protection from traditional media to include internet and freelance journalists. ... They're writing letters and awarding money at SPJ national. SPJ recently endorsed legislation that would establish a commission to study ways to improve the FOI Act and speed responses to requests. Direct ideas to Charles Davis, cdavis@spj.org. The board has awarded Legal Defense Fund grants of $3,000 to support Kentucky news organizations' efforts to gain greater access to the state's juvenile courts, $500 to challenge a gag order imposed by Maryland's governor on 30,000 state employees, and $2,000 in The Crimson's lawsuit against its university, Harvard, seeking access to campus police records. A separate fund within the LDF is raising $30,000 for a lobbying effort behind passage of a federal shield law. More: The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation recently awarded $217,000 in grants to improve journalism. Recipients include SPJ, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, and Western Kentucky U. ... Lest I get all the credit for finding the quotes at the end of this column, many of them come from Garrison Keillor's daily update, "The Writer's Almanac." I'd tell you where to find it, but then you'd be as smart as I. Wait, you say you already are? Smarter? You say your standards are higher than that? Closing words: "Like a quarreling group of monkeys on a leaky boat, armed with sticks of dynamite, we are embarked on an uncertain journey. Humanity's best chance of survival lies in creating taboos against the manufacture of nuclear weapons -- such as those that already exist for chemical and biological weapons -- and to work rapidly toward their global elimination." -- Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan ... "The only thing an alligator's any good for is if you happen to be a murderer and you want to get rid of the body." -- Billy Bob Thornton, Life magazine, July 22, 2006 Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "Barney is like, kind of like the son I never had." -- George W. Bush, father of twin daughters, on the first dog

Welcome to our newsletter ...

Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter

Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter

International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter

TCU Daily Skiff
Tony Roma's
The University of Texas at Arlington
VMS
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Wise County Messenger
Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations

August 2005

Forever a Marine ...

KARL KING, 1924-2005

Decorated ex-POW Karl King, 80, an author, former newsman and longtime SPJ member remembered for his addenda from the floor at every program, died July 25. He was buried at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery with full military honors.

Mr. King was news director at KFJZ in Fort Worth in 1961 and two years later was among the first to report the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a staffer for Dallas radio station KBOX. He was present two days later when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV, and he interviewed many of the people closest to the tragedy. He did freelance reporting for Paris Match and monitored the 1964 Ruby trial for UPI, radio station WBAP and a California TV station. He worked for several other radio stations before retiring in 1970.

His was a full life -- joined first the National Guard and then the Marines, both at 14; walked on the Great Wall of China and visited Vladivostok, Russia, before celebrating his 16th birthday in the Philippines; swam 2 1/2 miles from Bataan to Corregidor, where he threw a grenade into a Japanese gun pit, which gualified him for the first of two Bronze Stars; worked on the railroad, which took him to Las Vegas, N.M., where he was introduced to radio selling ads -- but he was proudest of the harassment he and fellow POWs perpetrated in the Mitsubishi shipyards. One of the 22 ships they helped build sank at the dock, he said, and 18 other ships returned for repairs. He told of setting a shipyard warehouse ablaze with a cigarette and of dumping shipbuilding supplies into the Tokyo harbor. He wrote the book "Alamo of the Pacific" about his time as a POW.

In 1980, Mr. King took journalism classes at TCU, where he was given 30 hours credit for life experience. He earned a bachelor's degree. His oral history is on file at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza.

===================================================

MEETINGS

Next at IABC/Fort Worth ...

An Outstanding Program is Being Prepared

Members will be notified.

Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers

RSVP by noon Aug. 19: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com

-----

Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...

Blogging 101

Blogs -- short for weblogs -- are the hottest communications strategy going. Are they just the newest trend or will they change the way consumers view and receive news, as well as influence their buying practices? Should you be looking for ways to incorporate blogging into your PR efforts? How do you get noticed?

Get the answers from PR practitioner Kent Pingel, who also is a successful blogger, having gained notoreity for his company and acclaim for the site wifi-guy.com, which Forbes named "Best of the Web" for its content. The discussion will highlight the do's and don'ts of blogging.

Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10; lunch at noon

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students

RSVP by noon Aug. 5: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org

-----

Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...

Everybody Needs a Rest Now and Then

No August meeting. But get ready for September.

===================================================

STRAIGHT STUFF

Carol Barreyre, ABC, president of Carol Barreyre Communications; EDS marketing director Mary Lewis, ABC; and Brian White, ABC, RadioShack senior director of retail communications, will offer 30 gems of wisdom from a combined 50 years experience -- from solo consultant to Fortune 100 senior VP, and from public relations to internal communications -- at the IABC/Dallas meeting Tuesday, Aug. 9. Call Jerry Stevenson at (214) 219-5341 with questions. Details here. ...

Energy experts will provide background on "Gas Pumps, Pipelines and Energy Markets: Reporting the Texas-Gulf Coast Energy Story" at a full-day seminar Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Houston Chronicle, presented by the Foundation for American Communications, SPJ and the Texas AP. Expect an overview of energy economics, including world and Gulf Coast oil and natural gas; energy markets in the post-Enron era; and a look at hybrid vs. hydrogen automobile technology. There's no charge for journalists, but preregistration is required. See facsnet.org, or call (626) 584-0010. ...

Go "Beyond the Sound Bite" by learning more about covering politics and public affairs for television. TV journalists may apply for one of 20 expenses-paid fellowships in Los Angeles, Sept. 26-28. Fellows will meet with the 2005 winners of the Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism and attend workshops. Applications, at wkconline.org, are due Aug. 19. Address questions to Vikki Porter at (213) 437-4417 or Sophie Lafferty at (213) 437-4416. ...

A partial repeat from last month, now with an end date. Covering Chaos, the story of reporters who reported on the Kennedy assassination, is at the Sixth Floor Museum in downtown Dallas through January 2006. Historic footage, photos and artifacts narrate the four days of continuous news coverage, Nov. 22-25, 1963, and give voice to the more than 300 reporters present in 1963, among them Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer.

PRSA local update: Michelle Milford, PR assistant director of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will present "Wear Yellow, Live Strong: How Austin's Champion Charity Spread Its Yellow Fever" at the Dallas PRSA monthly luncheon Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Park City Club, 5956 Sherry Lane, Suite 1700. Details here.

PRSA local update II: Give yourself a $20 bonus in August. Members and associate members may join a professional interest section by the end of the month and save $20 off the first-year dues of $60. Join a section here. The form will display the full rate, but you'll only be charged $40. Offer is limited to one bonus-priced section per member and may not be used to renew an existing section membership. ... Deadline is Aug. 12 to submit entries in the PRSA Health Academy Awards competition. Details here. Questions? E- Alissa Marisch at alissa.marisch@prsa.org.

PRSA local update III: A Masters SIG has opened for practitioners with 15 years experience or their APR designation. Last month, about nine Masters joined Star-Telegram reader advocate David House for dinner at Kalamatas downtown and had a grand time discussing what really torques newspaper readers as well as headier journalism/PR trends and philosophies. To be a part of the next dinner party, contact Andra Bennett, APR, at abennett@fortworthchamber.com or (817) 336-2491, ext. 265. ... John Ledingham, co-author of "Public Relations as Relationship Management," will discuss relationship management as an overarching concept for the study, teaching and practice of PR in a one-hour Healthcare SIG teleseminar (lunch provided at 12:30 p.m.) Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the American Heart Association, 2401 Scott Ave., Fort Worth. Ledingham will explain how the concept developed, its importance for developing strategy, and what he thinks is needed for practitioners to fully realize its value. RSVP by Aug. 8 to kelly.strzinek@heart.org.

SPJ national update: Increasing government secrecy cost $7.2 billion last year; Supreme secrecy; and spy on you. A record 15.6 million documents were classified last year, nearly double the number in 2001, according to the federal Information Security Oversight Office. Declassification, which made millions of historical documents available annually in the 1990s, has slowed from a high of 204 million pages in 1997 to 28 million pages last year. More here. ... The White House cites attorney-client privilege as the basis for refusing to reveal memos written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. when he represented the government before the high court. At the time, Roberts was the top deputy to Solicitor General Ken Starr. But it is not clear that this legal privilege shields the work of government lawyers from government investigators, thanks to a legal ruling won by Starr himself, when he was independent counsel investigating President Clinton. More here and here and here and here. ... The House voted July 21 to extend permanently all but two of the major antiterrorism provisions of the USA Patriot Act after repelling efforts by Democrats and some Republicans to impose restrictions on the government's power to eavesdrop, conduct secret searches and demand library records. Sixteen provisions in the law are set to expire at the end of the year. This sets the stage for what could be difficult negotiations with the Senate, which is considering several very different bills to extend the government's counterterrorism powers. More here.

SPJ national update II: Have a cellphone camera? You, too, can be a TV journalist; Judith Miller, hero or hack; porn-fighting Republican in "raunch fest"; and more soldiers are getting divorced (but fewer are killing themselves). Anyone with an Internet connection can right now publish whatever he or she wants, fueling the growth of "citizen reporters." Media companies have begun backing these efforts, creating what some see as a more democratic press but muddying what it means to be a journalist and adding a dimension to debates on fairness, libel, protection of confidential sources and trust in the media. More here and here. ... For Judith Miller of The New York Times, controversy dogs her like a bad ad quarter, from criticism of her pro-administration stories leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to her landing in a Virginia detention facility for refusing to reveal a source to federal investigators. Now the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a 50-year-old group of some 1,100 nonfiction independent writers, may not give Miller its Conscience in the Media award after all, following an outpouring of member opposition. The proposed award prompted at least one member of the group's First Amendment Committee to quit the panel. More here and here. Meanwhile, the Newspaper Guild is encouraging members to send Miller postcards "so she knows we support the stand she has taken on this issue." Her address: Attn: Judith Miller, Inmate No. 45570083, Alexandria Detention Center, 2001 Mill Road, Alexandria, Va. 22314. ... Arizona Sen. John McCain, who held hearings prior to the 2000 elections criticizing Hollywood for marketing R-rated movies to teenagers, has a cameo role in the summer-release "Wedding Crashers," an R-rated movie marketed to teenagers. McCain told Jay Leno that in Washington he "works with boobs every day." More here. ... The number of active-duty soldiers, especially officers, getting divorced has risen sharply. Last year, 3,325 Army officers' marriages ended in divorce -- up 78 percent from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 3 1/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28 percent more than in 2003 and up 53 percent from 2000. During this time, the number of soldiers has changed little. More here. Perhaps related, morale is low among U.S. personnel in Iraq, according to an Army report that finds particular psychological stress in National Guard and Reserve troops, but suicides have declined, from 24 in 2003 to nine last year. More here.

SPJ national update III: Shifting-standards White House has nothing to hide and nothing to say; press secretary caught in revolving dour; and PBS chief backs programming investigation. Nearly two years after stating that any administration official who leaked undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity would be fired -- and assuring that Karl Rove and other senior aides to President Bush didn't do it -- the White House on July 11 refused to answer questions about new evidence of Rove's involvement. More here and here and here and here and here and here. ... In a rare burst of follow-up questions and other behaviors associated with actual reporters, the White House press corps on July 12 peppered Scott McClellan. Did Rove commit a crime? Does the president still have confidence in Rove? Is McClellan concerned that he misrepresented facts about Rove? Has McClellan hired an attorney? McClellan, previously chatty on the topic, had little to say. More here and here. ... PBS president Pat Mitchell said she supports an investigation of what she called a "very troubling" use of federal money to track the political leaning of programming on public television. Mitchell declined to say whether Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, should lose his job over surveys he ordered of PBS programming. And is public broadcasting a nest of left-wing biases? No, according to the two ombudsmen Tomlinson hired to review NPR and PBS news segments. More here and here and here and here.

SPJ national update IV: Plain Dealer plain wrong?; Portland proves the president wrong; and administration wrong on war-related medical costs. Following the Cleveland Plain Dealer's withholding two articles based on leaked government documents for fear of criminal prosecution, several editors at major newspapers said they will not back off such stories. A number of the editors said they were baffled by the paper's move. More here and here and here and here. ... "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy," President Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. But Portland, Ore., has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions -- below 1990 levels, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord -- while booming economically. City officials say the emissions campaign has reaped benefits: less tax money spent on energy, more convenient transportation, a greener city and expertise in energy efficiency that's helping local businesses win contracts worldwide. More here. ... The Bush administration said June 28 that it vastly underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it warned of at least a $2.6 billion shortfall. In recent months, House and Senate Republicans repeatedly defeated Democratic amendments to boost VA medical funding. Following the disclosure, Senate Republicans announced plans to pass emergency legislation to add $1.5 billion to the fiscal 2005 appropriation. More here.

SPJ national update V: More censorship; more journalists dying; and more young journalists being trained, maybe. GOP lawmakers Ted Stevens, Alaska, and Joe Barton, Texas, chairmen of the Senate and House commerce committees, and FCC head Kevin Martin want to broaden federal broadcast indecency regulations to cover cable and satellite TV. A separate measure in the Senate would regulate "excessively violent" programming, not just in broadcasting but on cable and satellite service. More here. ... At least 85 journalists and other employees of news organizations, the vast majority of them Iraqis, have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which opened an office in Baghdad in April. More here. ... The leaders of five of the nation's most prominent j-programs are behind a three-year, $6 million effort to elevate journalism in academia with investigative reporting projects and by integrating their curriculum with other disciplines and providing a national platform on media-related issues. More here.

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GET A JOB

The TCU Department of Editorial Services seeks a news editor to produce stories for The TCU Magazine and other publications and work on marketing projects. Will assist with the online catalog and oversee the magazine web site. Must have a bachelor's degree in journalism or related field, competence in Quark, Photoshop and HTML programs such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage, strong verbal and written communication skills. Submit cover letter, résumé and writing samples to Nancy Bartosek at n.bartosek@tcu.edu or TCU Box 298940, Fort Worth 76129. ... The Fort Worth Independent School District seeks a senior communications and media relations officer (job #0405-AP-164). Qualifications include a bachelor's degree in journalism, PR, marketing, communications or a related field, with a master's degree preferred, and at least five years experience. Salary $85,000-$110,000. Submit a cover letter and résumé to Fort Worth ISD Human Resources, 100 N. University Drive, Fort Worth 76107. Include copies of high school diploma/GED or college transcript(s), professional certificates or appropriate licenses and service records. ...

M Booth & Associates, an award-winning PR firm based in New York City, seeks an account manager with at least four years experience in fashion or lifestyle brands to work in Plano with the fashion publicity team at JCPenney. Salary range $60,000-$75,000. E- letter and résumé to M Booth executive VP Jane F. Cabot at janec@mbooth.com. ... The North Texas Tollway Authority has an opening for a marketing analyst. Requirements include a bachelor's degree in marketing/communications or a vocational training associate's degree in marketing/communications, and at least three years experience. Starting salary $46,000-$55,000. Download an application at ntta.org. ...

North Richland Hills seeks a marketing and research coordinator. Must have a bachelor's degree with major coursework in PR, economic development, marketing, urban planning, business administration or public administration and at least two years of increasingly responsible experience in a related field. Starting salary $40,252-$50,315. Apply at nrhtx.com. ... Freese and Nichols has an opening in its Fort Worth office for an online services administrator to design, write and maintain the company web site and sites for clients. Must have appropriate software knowledge, at least two years experience and a bachelor's degree in journalism, marketing, technical writing or web site development. Send résumé to Human Resources, Freese and Nichols, 4055 International Plaza, Suite 200, Fort Worth 76109-4895; (817) 735-7491 fax; hr@freese.com.

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NEW MEMBERS

IABC ... Jenny Walker, Tarrant Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse ... Michael Moore, Public Strategies, Inc. ... Amy Warren, transferring from the Brazos Valley chapter in College Station

SPJ ... Ruthanne Brockway, Star-Telegram

PRSA ... Jamie Higgins Brown, JPS Health Network ... Anna Riehm, Harris Methodist HEB Hospital ... Margaret Ritsch, Fort Worth Museum of Science & History ... Amy Allen, AmeriCredit ... Margaret Campbell, JPS Health Network ... Cindy Cantu, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, North Central Texas chapter ... Viqui Litman, Freese and Nichols

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COMINGS & GOINGS

Additions ... at the S-T: UNT j-grad Patrick Walker on the copy desk; the week he started coincided with the announcement that he had won first place, print category, in the inaugural James S. Hogg Journalism Award for Mental Health Reporting competition sponsored by the UT Austin School of Journalism and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Exits ... at the S-T: Patrick Badgley, to the Houston Chronicle

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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth

Our year has started out with a bang. Past president Lori De La Cruz of Blue Marble Media spoke to a full house July 26 about internet marketing and was very informative as well as entertaining. Programs VP Ken Roberts has an exciting fall schedule planned, so stay tuned. If you have a suggestion for a topic or speaker, let Ken know at kmr@freese.com.

I am pleased to announce that membership continues to grow. We now have 61 members! If you know someone who might be interested in joining IABC/Fort Worth, contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com. I hop to see you in August.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

How soft has journalism gotten? This soft. ...

Splash Day, it's called, and for the first time in a long time, the title fit. About 60 SPJ members, prospective members and friends hit the lake for the season-ending fling July 23, and what a fine hoo-ha in the hills it was. Thanks, Gayle Reaves-King and Paul King, Carolyn Poirot and Jack Strickland, Kay Pirtle -- you do know how to throw a party. See Kay's pictures on p. 2. These people aren't faking fun. Troubadors Jeff Prince and Phil Rodriguez entertained, Don LeGrand squired us about the lake on Amon Carter's marvelous old Chris-Craft, the West-Texan, and even the blistering weather cooperated. Local microbrewery Rahr & Sons was represented, the Fort Worth Boat Club staff set a tasty table, and the Star-T (publisher Wes Turner, his associate Nancy Burford and surely Mr. Carter's ghost) loaned us the boat. Thanks, all. And a special thanks to party wrangler Mike Cochran, who saw in advance the potential for unbridled happy and told all his friends to come (and many of them did). Kay headlined the evening "fun in the sunset." That's clever, and so apt. Wish I'd thought of it. Next year, I will. ...

Look for Angie Summers, Kay Pirtle and new member Melissa Winn on the Las Vegas Strip Oct. 16-19, respresenting the chapter at the 2005 SPJ National Convention. Join them, why don't you? Details here. ...

SPJ is participating in the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, which is lobbying support for a reporter's shield bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ky., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. The bill continues to pick up sponsors, but there are no indications of quick movement despite the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the Judith Miller-Matthew Cooper cases. The Justice Department reportedly wants less than the absolute privilege the bill would provide and is seeking special consideration in national security cases, an element it argues makes any federal shield law different than state law. Media attorneys have been negotiating for language that maintains the strongest possible privilege while recognizing the security issue in limited circumstances. They're also working on modifying the language in the bill to broaden the protection from traditional media to include internet and freelance journalists. ...

They're writing letters and awarding money at SPJ national. SPJ recently endorsed legislation that would establish a commission to study ways to improve the FOI Act and speed responses to requests. Direct ideas to Charles Davis, cdavis@spj.org. The board has awarded Legal Defense Fund grants of $3,000 to support Kentucky news organizations' efforts to gain greater access to the state's juvenile courts, $500 to challenge a gag order imposed by Maryland's governor on 30,000 state employees, and $2,000 in The Crimson's lawsuit against its university, Harvard, seeking access to campus police records. A separate fund within the LDF is raising $30,000 for a lobbying effort behind passage of a federal shield law. More: The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation recently awarded $217,000 in grants to improve journalism. Recipients include SPJ, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, and Western Kentucky U. ...

Lest I get all the credit for finding the quotes at the end of this column, many of them come from Garrison Keillor's daily update, "The Writer's Almanac." I'd tell you where to find it, but then you'd be as smart as I. Wait, you say you already are? Smarter? You say your standards are higher than that?

Closing words: "Like a quarreling group of monkeys on a leaky boat, armed with sticks of dynamite, we are embarked on an uncertain journey. Humanity's best chance of survival lies in creating taboos against the manufacture of nuclear weapons -- such as those that already exist for chemical and biological weapons -- and to work rapidly toward their global elimination." -- Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan ... "The only thing an alligator's any good for is if you happen to be a murderer and you want to get rid of the body." -- Billy Bob Thornton, Life magazine, July 22, 2006

Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "Barney is like, kind of like the son I never had." -- George W. Bush, father of twin daughters, on the first dog