Because, we come from a print journalism background, we carry the bias most print people have of their television colleagues. So, when this screen grab made its way across the Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon, it was time for much lollerskating. Keep up the good work, WIS.
We’re uncertain where the Twitter meme #joepinnerfacts started, or how, but it took off and a friend of ours was on us for a while to start slinging ideas. We weren’t real big on the idea — despite being residents of Columbia multiple times in the past 21 years, the most we knew of Joe Pinner was that he’s been a WIS meteorologist and spent so much time on TV and involved in local matters that he’s become the sort of local celebrity that everyone knows. But after some more goading, the back-and-forth got our brain going and we put a few tweets out there.
Little did we know it was going to lead to a lede by Otis Taylor in The State.
On Tuesday, election day, Wes Wolfe posted this from @WolfeReports, a Twitter account: “Joe Pinner doesn’t need to go vote. The voting machines come to him. With breakfast.”
The post was followed by #joepinnerfacts, a hashtag that allows users to track tweets on the short message social Web site twitter.com. Posts about Joe Pinner, the gregarious local television personality, were recently a trending topic on Twitter.
Wolfe was wrong, though. Pinner goes to the polls. He was voting when we reached him, and he was unaware of his recent Twitter fame.
Oh, journalism — always there to take down a joke. Actually, and here’s the thing, we’ve been seeing some activity among the #joepinnerfacts twitterati that are considering making plans to mosey on down to Capital City Stadium, where Pinner will be recreating his role as Mr. Knozit before a Columbia Blowfish game on Saturday. Nothing like seeing the man in person to help generate more ideas.
People in this country don’t know shit about language. For about 20 years, there’s been this aggressive, and at times passive-aggressive, push for kids to have a high-level proficiency in math and science. But English and history? Fuck those kids and their humanities skills. So now we’ve raised a generation of people who can determine a missile trajectory but don’t know why the missile is being fired, can’t spell the name of the country it is being fired at and have the vocabulary of a sixth-grader.
And not a damn person can use an apostrophe correctly. Witness a sign (it’s metal and everything!) outside a Richland County election office. The photo was taken by WIS reporter Jack Kuenzie, who is being vigilant about said “bee’s.”
You would think that Democratic candidate for SC-02, Rob Miller, would have taken some good lessons from his 2008 campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson. When he announced again, it looked a lot to us like it would be similar to Beaufort architect Jane Frederick‘s second run against the late U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence. He’d pull some votes, but wouldn’t significantly challenge Wilson.
Last fall’s fun and games infused both campaigns with an insane amount of money for a South Carolina race for Congress. Miller now has more money than Democratic Sen. Vince Sheheen, who actually has to run a statewide campaign for governor instead of just one of six districts. Capitalizing on his buzz, Miller has been traveling the country to raise money and making the best of his Internet fundraising.
But other than that, his campaign has largely been a low-key affair. So, it came as an interesting revelation to see the report and fallout from Miller’s appearance at a meeting of the Greater Irmo Democratic Club. From what we’ve been able to gather, the Club invited WIS to the meeting, then there was a brouhaha about who ordered the WIS cameras be kept out.
After a couple days of thinking about this, we consider it Miller’s, or his campaign’s, fault. The woman who spoke for the GIDC, Joanne Hafter, said in a story by WIS, “I just want to set the record straight, neither I or anyone from GIDC made the decision to exclude the media, especially after we invited the media in the first place. It was Rob’s campaign manager who was adamant about not having press coverage.”
We actually met Ms. Hafter years ago, when we went to school with her daughters. Between the person we knew (however briefly) and the person we don’t, we’re siding with the GIDC on this incident. After all, we’ve been alerted to other screw-ups with the media committed by the Miller campaign.
When you’re the underdog in a district that skews against your party, you have to be very careful about what your campaign does, who it courts for support and how you manage your media exposure. Common sense would say that Miller would have known this already. Doesn’t seem like his campaign figured that part out.
Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like the gentleman who likes to roll over people’s feet got a little owned Monday evening through some Twitter exchanges. Couldn’t happen to a better fella.
GinaNSmith: Spent the day flying around S.C. w/ Gresham Barrett for a story. So windy that little plane was flying sideways! Glad 2 b back on ground!
PalmettoScoop: @GinaNSmith I’m sure you’ll straighten it all out in your “objective” story about @GreshamBarrett.
GinaNSmith: @PalmettoScoop excuse me?
SCSenatelawyer: @GinaNSmith didn’t get the memo? Unless you’re biased in our favor you’re not objective. :)
SCSenatelawyer: @SCSenatelawyer and I didn’t mean “our” as I’m a mcmaster guy
LoganJames: @GinaNSmith I’m also interested in his explanation. If you’re gonna take cheap shots, at least make them understandable :/
GinaNSmith: For the record, we’re writing profiles on each of the 10 gov candidates. Each candidate gets their own story. We’re hanging out w/ em all!
GinaNSmith: t fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.
GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. Yeah. I find it hillarious when BLOGGERS who get paid under the table question our objectivity. What the heck do tho …
GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. What do those guys know about fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.
wesleydonehue: @GinaNSmith you’re not direct tweeting him. you need a space between your d and “scsenatelawyer”
wesleydonehue: @PalmettoScoop You’d think that after @ginansmith’s ass kicking of Gov Sanford, you’d learn not to screw with her. I did.
scott_english: @wesleydonehue @GinaNSmith What Wes said. Also Ubertwitter is good.
Robert Ariail, the political cartoonist who became legendary during his time at The State, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist twice. He won a bevy of awards. But, when the paper acted like a pro sports team offloading talent to clear up salary cap space, he had to set out on his own.
Recently, WIS wrote this: “Inez Tenenbaum went from South Carolina to Washington to help keep our nation’s products safe. Her new job took her in Asia this week and that landed her in the comics section of a Richmond newspaper.”
We don’t have the print edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch laying in front of us, but we’re pretty sure that illustration was on the editorial page(s), not slipped in next to Get Fuzzy. We haven’t had the top of respect for TV reporters, mostly over things like in WIS’ story on the cartoon, it fails to mention that Ariail was the cartoonist or anything about him. The entire missive could be shrunk to a tweet, “Cartoon about Inez in Va. paper. Cute! twitpic.com/g1a2h3″
So the fact that it was drawn by a hometown guy who happens to be among the best in his profession isn’t newsworthy? OK.
Brooks Garner, one of the meteorologists for Columbia NBC affiliate WIS, fell victim to a number of people who decided to take advantage of his wardrobe late Thursday evening. While he didn’t come out and announce himself as the “Meaty Urologist,” he did try out a number of looks.
According to the WIS Facebook page, “Perhaps you didn’t notice this during Live at Five, but Brooks had three different looks. The discussion in the news room is which one looked the best. What do you think?”
Now, the only time we’ve seen Garner in person was at Art Bar a while back, when he had a leggy blonde hanging on him as he tried to put in a drink order. Still, what do y’all think — the fat tie, the skinny tie, or no tie? All of Columbia electronic journalism relies on your answer!
