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Entries for 'Gary Pearce'
Gary Pearce posted on July 07, 2010 09:46
It’s Reporter Versus Reporter. UNC-TV versus UNC Radio. And the best drama of the legislative session.
Senator Fletcher Hartsell’s inspired idea to subpoena UNC-TV’s unaired Alcoa story stirred up great mischief. It:
- Put Alcoa in an unwelcome spotlight
- Put UNC-TV in an unwelcome spotlight
- Put a UNC radio reporter at odds with a UNC-TV.
“Vajda claimed in her affidavit that she has decided to cooperate ‘without waiving my right to exercise my journalist’s privilege.’ That’s like deciding to have a car wreck without waiving your good driver’s discount. You can’t have it both ways.”
Then Leslie zeroed in on Vajda’s bosses at the station:
“I'm still wondering how half-hour segments on local golf clubs, botanical gardens, and the AndyGriffithMuseum rated higher on UNC-TV's priority list than allegations of contamination in one of NC's most popular lakes. The station had the resources to air all those segments in May, but nothing on Alcoa. So help me out here.”
Plus, Leslie blasted UNC-TV for “(rolling) over in record time with barely a whimper” to the subpoena.
This year’s Press Corps Follies should be interesting.
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Gary Pearce posted on July 06, 2010 14:07
I heard that Jim Goodmon of WRAL was so incensed by the legislative subpoena of WUNC-TV that he called Erskine Bowles – and urged him to fight it.
Of course, given the just-completed state budget, UNC was in no position to defy the legislature.
Both UNC-TV and the First Amendment probably will survive.
But the flap dramatizes the tension between UNC-TV’s status as a tax-paid institution – and part of the public university system – and its news operation.
I wonder what PBS would do if Congress subpoenaed one of its unaired stories.
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Posted in: General, Issues
Gary Pearce posted on July 02, 2010 09:37
The proposed international port at Southport is headed for Davy Jones Locker. The money was cut from the budget, and Congressman Mike McIntyre came out in opposition.
A wise reader – and veteran Raleigh hand – believes there a lesson here: how to royally screw up a public-policy initiative.
His take:
“This was the GTP By The Sea, a classic example of bureaucrats finding an expensive solution for which no problem existed. They sold the state on the economic development benefits, which sounded good and everyone was on board. But once political and community leaders learned that the price was the disruption of an entire region (new roads and rail), threats to critical infrastructure (power plants and munitions facilities), and the impact on the coast (dredging, etc.) the support evaporated.”
Plus, the Ports Authority lost more than the project. It forfeited a huge amount of respect and trust.
The reader adds: “Our coastline isn’t even suitable for this kind of project. Hell, the pirates learned 400 years ago that North Carolina’s coast totally sucks for sailing ships.”
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Posted in: General, Issues
Gary Pearce posted on July 01, 2010 08:32
President Obama rolled out his best 2010 message yesterday at a town hall in Wisconsin. Click here to see one clip that captures it.
The message is simple: The Republicans gave us a mess, and they refuse to help clean it up.
Maybe Obama’s team has learned a lesson: They haven’t played the Blame Game well enough.
Ronald Reagan played it for eight years. Obama can play it at least four.
In The Promise, his book about Obama’s first year, Jonathan Alter quotes a great analogy Obama used – one that Democrats could ride all year.
It’s the mop analogy.
Obama is trying to mop up Bush’s mess: starting a war that didn’t attack the people who attacked us, squandering a budget surplus and turning it into a deficit, and nearly running the economy into a depression.
But Republicans won’t help mop up. They complain about how Obama’s holding the mop. Or they say it looks like a socialist mop.
Coincidentally, congressional Republicans reinforced the message yesterday – not once, but twice. They blocked the financial regulation bill AND extended unemployment benefits.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 30, 2010 08:11
Elaine Marshall has to make a tough choice: raise money from Raleigh lobbyists or not.
She already took flak for it in the primary. Her defense: It wasn’t much money, and the donors were old friends.
Now that she’s won, it could be a lot more money. And a lot more flak.
If she were running for reelection, she couldn’t legally take the money. And the proposed Senate ethics bill prohibits raising money from people you regulate. As Secretary of State, she regulates not just lobbyists, but ALL corporations in North Carolina.
Some people in Raleigh view this as a fundamental conflict in her decision to stay as Secretary of State and run for Senate.
The upside for her is that, no matter what happens in November, she has a job.
The downside is the scrutiny that will come.
She got a taste of it by attending the Democratic Party fundraiser this week. Her campaign needs to recognize there’s more trouble where that came from.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 30, 2010 08:06
Richard Burr better hope that debate performances have little impact on the November election – or get better fast.
A lawyer friend (I’m not sure if she’s a Democrat or Republican) went to the Burr-Marshall debate last week at the N.C. Bar Association.
Her take: Marshall was stronger than she expected – and Burr much, much weaker.
In fact, his performance – smiling, aw-shucking and not saying much substantive – reminded her of George W. Bush. That is, clueless.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 29, 2010 08:15
Conventional wisdom is that runoffs are hurtful. Not always.
Elaine Marshall’s runoff helped her. Helped her especially with her most important target right now: the national fundraising community.
If Cunningham hadn’t called for a runoff, doubts would have lingered about Marshall’s electability.
As in: “She couldn’t even get 40 percent against a first-time candidate.”
Instead, the story in Washington now is that she pulled off a surprising and convincing victory against an attractive challenger.
For now, the money race is her most important campaign.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 28, 2010 08:00
The Powers That Be on the WakeCounty school board are once again demonstrating their fatal flaw: They pick needless fights.
What is the sense of this fight over changing the name of EnloeHigh School?
Clearly, it’s payback – and spite.
If Margiotta and Tedesco were bigger men – and real leaders – they would let protests and criticism roll off their backs. Clearly, they are too small to do that.
Instead, they give their enemies more ammunition and more incentive.
Mark my words, again: Margiotta, Tedesco & Co. are riding for a big fall.
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Gary Pearce posted on June 26, 2010 08:00
General Stanley McChrystal and his hard-driving team probably didn’t say anything about their civilian bosses that military leaders haven’t always said about their civilian bosses.
McChrystal & Co. just said it in front of a reporter. From Rolling Stone, no less.
No wonder these guys can’t catch Osama.
McChrystal never quite hit me right. Like yon Cassus, he has a lean and hungry look. He eats one meal a day and runs seven or 10 or 12 miles a day or something.
Now, I’ve been a runner for more years than I want to count. But there’s a point where fitness crosses over into obsession.
The real surprise in reading the Rolling Stone article was that McChrystal voted FOR Obama for President. What would he have said if he hadn’t?
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Gary Pearce posted on June 25, 2010 12:50
Carter and I taped WRAL’s “On the Record” today for airing Saturday night at 7 p.m. Or you can watch it on the station’s website.
We were with anchor Bill Leslie and WUNC radio’s Laura Leslie (no relation to Bill). The topic, of course, was Tuesday’s runoffs and the November elections.
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