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March 15, 2006
Say a prayer for Claude Allen
Claude Allen is a right-wing Republican idealogue who most recently was President Bush's domestic policy advisor. He also has been deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was the equivalent of the secretary of HHS in Virginia. And Bush nominated him to be a federal appeals judge.
Now, Claude stands accused of a scheme to steal about $5,000 of merchandise in a refund scheme at D.C.-area Target stores.
I met Claude when he was a 25-year-old press secretary for Senator Jesse Helms when Helms was running for reeleciton in the 1984 epic U.S. Senate battle with Jim Hunt. I was a reporter for The Charlotte Observer. We saw a lot of each other in those days, and we talked several times a week.
Claude was a recent Univesity of North Carolina graduate. He had been the first black student body president at Raleigh's Sanderson High School.
Claude was unfailingly pleasant, even when I asked him hard, maybe even unfair, questions. National political reporters would marvel that Helms, viewed as a racist by many people, would hire a 25-year-old black man as press secretary. I never figured out the race thing. I figure that most of us have racist inclinations at some level. Many of us overcome them, although Helms did not.
But here's what I thought about a 25-year-old press secretary. For Helms, the job was easy. Everything is clear-cut. There was not much nuance about Jesse Helms. Most everything is black and white, cut and dried. Anybody could state his positions. Taxes? He's against them. Abortion? Against that, too. Welfare? Ditto. Communism? Please.
So now, instead of seeing Claude in a newspaper photo accompanying the president out of the White House to Marine One, there's a mug shot taken at the police station.
I vehemently disagree with Claude on most issues. Siding with Bush on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% while cutting student aid, Medicaid and other social services for the poor, I would argue, is sinful.
It may be that the accusation of the refund scam is, as he claims, a big misunderderstanding. But his friends I have spoken with talk sorrowfully about Claude's being in denial. They say he needs help.
So today I will say a prayer for Claude Allen. And at the same time I'll try to resist being angry at him for blowing an opportunity to make a difference. And I'll try to resist being smug about another right-wing idealogue whose life seems to be inconsistent with his faith rhetoric.
Posted by Ken Eudy at 06:36 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
McClatchy-Knight Ridder -- Enhancing Quality Journalism? Please.
My darkest day as a journalist was in 1984 or 1985, when Knight Ridder folded The Charlotte News. The afternoon News had been losing circulation, and the transaction made financial sense.
But the reason it was a dark day for me is that I was assigned to write the story of the The News' demise for The Observer. I quoted the then-publisher, Rolfe Neill, as saying the outcome would be better news coverage for our readers.
I knew then and I knew now that that was a whopper. No way would the News' death result in better coverage. It was a scrappy paper that had kept The Observer on its toes for years.
Now we read that the McClatchey newspaper chain is going to swallow Knight Ridder, then regurgitate the big-city papers in low-growth markets. They'll probably end up with a second-rate chain like Gannett.
According to one McClatchy paper, the Raleigh News & Obsever, the McClatchy CEO, Gary Pruitt, says "the purchase should enhance the quality of journalism."
Please. This is more about survival than quality. Maybe we should give Pruitt and McClatchey the benefit of the doubt. After all, McClatchy is making a bet on newspapers. Only McClatchy was willing to place a bet on Knight Ridder.
But you would have to be pretty naive to think that achieving efficiencies that Wall Street will demand of this deal will enhance the quality of journalism anywhere.
Posted by Ken Eudy at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)