PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth
It's back-to-school time, and on Aug. 23 former UTA PR director Donna Darovich schooled IABC/Fort Worth on two things of importance to journalists: So what? Who cares? If you were there you know how informative and entertaining she was. If you weren't, then you missed out on a lively discussion of the only questions reporters really want answered.
On Sept. 27 be sure to catch management consultant and Amazon.com book reviewer Robert Morris speak on how your company can go from "Good to Great." Join us at the Petroleum Club at 11:30 a.m. for networking, fine dining (read great desserts) and an outstanding professional development program.
Want to join IABC or renew that lapsed membership? This month IABC is offering a membership incentive for new and former members by waiving the application fee. That's a $40 value ($30 online). In addition, the chapter is having a contest for our members in September and October. If you refer someone who submits an application during these months, you will receive a $25 gift certificate for an area restaurant and be eligible for a drawing to win a free year's membership in IABC or the cash equivalent. See membership VP Paul Sturiale for details.
Hope to see you Sept. 27.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library offers a splendid opportunity for journalists in September -- timely and interesting enough to count as the monthly SPJ meeting. Go back to p. 1, read about it again, then contact Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com. Time is short. ...
SPJ joined 13 other media organizations or companies in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in New York federal district court that argues that FOIA exemptions should not be used "to hide incendiary evidence of government misconduct." The brief supported an earlier court decision directing the Defense Department to release photos related to Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse to the ACLU. The Defense Department refused and filed a partially sealed brief arguing that release of the materials could result in harm to U.S. citizens and military personnel overseas. More here. ...
Clayton Woullard, vice president-elect of the SPJ chapter at Metropolitan State College of Denver, has created a blog for student journalists. "This is sort of an experiment for me," he says, "so I'd like feedback." E- him at claythescribe@comcast.net. ...
Former SPJ president Robert Leger, editorial page editor of The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, recently received two Best of Gannett awards, competing among the company's largest newspapers. He won for a selection of columns related to the First Amendment and for general editorial writing that criticized Springfield building inspectors for a raid on a church that provided shelter for 32 homeless people. Robert was national prez in 2003, the year FW hosted the national convention. Think we still owe him one of those miniature branding irons. Thanks, Robert. Again. ...
Closing words, Katrina edition: "The only dangerous hurricanes so far are the ones we've been drinking. We can't get out, so we might as well have fun." -- Fred Wilson of San Francisco, as he sipped on the mixed drink of fruit juices and rum at Pat O'Brien's Bar in the French Quarter the night before Katrina struck New Orleans. ... "We've lost our city. I fear it's potentially like Pompeii." -- Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, four days later ... "A moment of truth is arriving in the form of a decision whether this Administration's policy will be to regulate and/or tax CO2 as a pollutant. The question is whether environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore." -- former George W. Bush campaign strategist and now Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in a March 2001 memo to the vice president that Bush cited for reversing his position and not backing a CO2 restriction; the memo derided the idea of regulating CO2 as "eco-extremism" and scoffed at the idea that environmental concerns would be allowed to "trump good energy policy, which the country has lacked for eight years." ... "My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in [hurricanes'] destructive potential, and -- taking into account an increasing coastal population -- a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century." -- MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel in a paper appearing in the July 31 online edition of the journal Nature
Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi'ites. It's shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state. ... I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the American people want." -- a secular Kurdish politician, quoted by Reuters, on a U.S.-approved draft constitution for Iraq that makes Islam "a main source" for legislation and bans laws that contradict religious teachings
Closing words III, doddering, lying, squint-eyed televangelist division: "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator (referring to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez). It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with. ... You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we are trying to assassinate him, we should go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot easier than starting a war." -- religious broadcaster Pat Robertson on his TV show "The 700 Club," Aug. 22 ... "I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should go 'take him out,' and 'take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time." -- Robertson on "The 700 Club," Aug. 24
