In article <852353439.998@dejanews.com>, grady   wrote:
>
>Then you're a fool. The Independent is a weekly paper. They don't cover the crap
>that the dailies call "news." There's no point. There is no way to get
>in-depth into a fucking hurricane. If you're not on the story the day it
>happens, you pretty much miss it. And if you do write about it a week later,
>there's not a whole fuck of a lot to say, which you might have noticed if
>you read the ongoing, lame, dragged-out coverage in the N&O over the course
>of the 2 weeks after the storm. yeah, there are trees down. But one more
>human-interest story about some family having to replace their roof, and
>I'm gonna kill somebody.

That's the community spirit.

>*All* of the editors questioned took the narrow-minded approach, and replied
>with the story which had been their own biggest *personal* pain-in-the-ass
>this year: Fran.

Not true.  As I pointed out, only the editors in the eastern half of the
state (save the Robeson County paper, who asserted their most important
story was the convictions in the James Jordan murder trials) noted Fran as
their top story. The western portion of the state was not affected by
Fran and the news stories reflected this.  The Charlotte Observer noted
the Carolina Panthers' Division Championship as their big story.

>But come on. It happened in September. The point of the piece was to give
>us an overview of regional news from around the state for the whole year,
>not for every fucking editor in the state to come to a consensus that Fran
>made for good newspaper sales for one month. Geez. 

I agree.  WUNC should've narrowed the question to exclude Fran and made
the other guys think a little harder.  I was disturbed that no one brought
up the national or local elections, either.  

>At least he *did* say something different than the rest. 

But he came off trying to sound different for different's sake.

My whole point is that there's themes that seem to consistently ring
through every other issue of the Independent, such as standing up for blue
collar people and encouraging activism, both of which are commendable.
Yet I drive through southeast Raleigh every day and there are still houses
there with blue tarps on the roof. And I saw more community activism in
one day after Fran than the Hot Spots column will attract in a year.  But
there's other things:  Raleigh's emergency water supply, Lake Raleigh, is
a grassy field right now.  Last time I drove by Umstead Park, it was still
closed.

Yeah, you can drive around for twenty pictures and sort of get a feel for
the physical side of it.  But you can dig just as deep and find out how
many insurance companies reneged on policies on technicalities and how the
insurance commissioner's office failed to pursue them for doing so.  It's
all a matter of where you choose to dig.

Eric

Teen1: Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. He's cool.
Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
Teen1: I don't even know anymore.