Stay thirsty (for knowledge), my friend

As I am looking for my next job and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my professional life, I've gotten a few suggestions from friends and family. With more than 30 years of experience in community journalism, some have suggested that I consider teaching, perhaps a class on the community college level.

I suppose I'm sort of a dinosaur in the news business. I filed my first stories using a Royal manual typewriter. Computer typesetting was still a few years off. The internet wasn't even a gleam in the eye of more than perhaps a few computer geeks somewhere. We had no way of knowing back then that one day we would be a mere click of the TV remote or a couple of keystrokes away from instant news, 24 hours a day.

Most of the improvements in how we gather, produce and obtain the news has been great. But if I were ever to present a lecture to a class of future journalists, my first observation would be that in this era of instant news and our need for new things every minute, one of the basic laws of good journalism has been put on the shelf.

The first day of almost any journalism class, regardless of whether it is at the college, high school or even junior high level, the teacher walks to the board and writes the following words: “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.” It is and always has been the basic law of any complete news story. All six of those questions must be answered. But it is my fear that in this era of filling the 24-hour news cycle with something new and different all the time, when the style of shorter stories was first introduced by the USA Today newspaper, those questions are not always answered. Trouble is, we are bombarded by so many stories in any given hour of TV news or issue of a daily newspaper, few of us realize what we are missing until it is long gone.

A few days ago, the local TV news showed an explosion of a natural gas pipeline in a city. There was a death and a few injuries in the mishap. As the local newsman was narrating the spectacular film footage, he forgot one main fact. He never said where the explosion was. Luckily, a scroll across the bottom of the screen told us the explosion happened in Philadelphia and not downtown Davenport. But the point is, the narrator should have told us!

In my old age, I've grown less tolerant of lazy journalism. Poor judgment is a big part of this trend. In their desire to keep the interest of the viewer, news directors send crews to the scenes of fires and traffic accidents all the time. Most of the time, the crews present some good footage. But sometimes, what we see from an accident scene are precious seconds of views of squad cars ambulances and street signs. Sometimes there is very little coverage of the mangled vehicles.

With the advice of my bosses, early on in my career I started covering personal injury accidents. But we had an unwritten rule that we would not photograph victims, unless it was a shot from far away as crews were loading somebody in an ambulance. But I always made sure I had pictures of the cars involved and sometimes, even shot pictures of skid marks, in case law enforcement needed them in their investigation. If I was a TV assignment editor and my crew came back without any shots of the wrecked vehicles, it would be a long time before that crew got any more prime assignments.

And how often have we heard accident or crime reports where police withhold the names of victims or suspects? Since when did reporters lose their sense of curiosity? The police chiefs I dealt with over the years were very cooperative. But they knew that if they didn't tell me the names of people involved in incidents, they would have to have a good reason why not. They also knew that I had a long memory and would be asking them for the names the next time we met. As one editor once told me, “The only dumb question is the one not asked.”

Another strange thing local TV does is how it covers winter weather. I have lost count of the number of times our local stations have sent out some poor young reporter to a street somewhere and had them stand there, providing three or more live reports in a half-hour newscast of snow coming down. Hey folks, news flash: It's Iowa! It snows in the winter! File one brief report from the scene of the first snowflake in any given storm and then let those poor reporters come in from the cold. Enough already!

In any news operation, print or electronic, resources are a constant concern. After more than 30 years of relying on TV news from the Waterloo-Cedar Rapids market, it's natural for me to compare how it is done there compared to the Quad-Cities stations. When Iowa and Iowa State played in postseason bowl football games, at least in past years, all three TV stations in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids would send reporters to cover the teams for several days leading up to the games. This past season, there was little of that from the Quad-Cities stations.

Living on the border with Illinois, I've had to become adjusted to seeing University of Illinois coverage and learning the names of more small town Illinois schools than I could ever want.

We all have to learn to adapt to changing circumstances. But we should never let our busy lives keep us from expecting complete news stories. If you have a question about a story after you hear it or see it, call the news department and ask for more information. Maybe if more of us took the time to do that, today's newspaper and electronic media reporters would become more responsible.

A little of this, a little of that

True to the title of this blog, this entry will be several rambling thoughts. Hope you can follow it.

I have one final short thought on this whole gun control debate. The Second Amendment was adopted in 1791. I don't pretend to be very good at American history, but I'll bet there weren't too many 31-clip, semi-automatic handguns or Uzis floating around the colonies. I'll also bet there were no major cities with scores of law enforcement people or any army with hundreds of thousands of folks to protect them.

We consider the people who framed our constitution and helped found our government as national heroes and visionaries. In that light, I would hope that if there was some way to magically transport some of those heroes to today, once they recovered from the shock of seeing skyscrapers, computers, cell phones and vehicles, they would ask us, “Why haven't you repealed that amendment yet?”

That's my two-cents worth on the subject for this edition. Now on to a few other things:

I now live in Davenport, within about a half-mile of a very busy, and rather upscale shopping district. I shop at a Hy-Vee on a regular basis and more often than not, I park next to a Cadillac, Mercedes or Lexus. This afternoon, when I returned to my van, I was parked next to a Cadillac Escalade. I've always thought that if I could own my dream vehicle, it might be an Escalade. It's a good bet that if I had one, I'd never consider putting a bumper sticker on it – not even a Bears or Hawkeye sticker.

But the sticker on the car parked next to me might make me reconsider. It read, “My dachsund is smarter than your honor student,” an obvious jab at rightfully proud parents who display stickers informing the world that they are the parents of an honor student.

One of the features I enjoy watching on CNN on weekday afternoons is the Cafferty File, compiled by former Des Moines TV newsman Jack Cafferty. He asks a question, then invites viewers to send in their opinions. He gets thousands of responses in less than a half=hour. One day last week, he had a question about Tea Parting darling Sarah Palin. One of the responses referred to her as “Caribou Barbie.” Sounds appropriate to me.

I'm getting a bit worried that if we have the kind of gridlock and non-action in Washington for the next two years that many are predicting, at least some voters will view their duty to cast ballots in the next presidential election as a joke and instead of writing in “Mickey Mouse” or “Alfred E. Neuman” for president, they might vote for Sarah Palin. Maybe if they write in “Caribou Barbie” the Palin camp will claim those should be counted in their woman's favor and the Supreme Court will have to elect our president again. Stay tuned.

As I write this, the Steelers have beaten the Ravens in the first playoff game and the game between the Falcons and the Packers is underway. I'm pulling for the Packers tonight, undoubtedly much to the surprise of some of my Packer Backer friends. But if they can win tonight and if the Bears can beat the Seahawks tomorrow, it would set up the third meeting of the season between the two arch-rivals next week in Chicago. Once again, stay tuned.

Is it too late for a little sanity?

Ever since the news hit last Saturday of the mass shooting in Arizona, the subject has been discussed over and over again. But I can't let this pass without a word on one aspect of this tragedy that I don't think has received enough mention.
Gabrielle Giffords, who was the apparent target in this assassination attempt, is a bright, young Congresswoman whose personality apparently brings smiles to the faces of even those who are her most staunch political opponents in Congress. She won another term in Congress in a tough race in a district that the opposition had poured a lot of resources in attempting to take her seat away.
Since this assassination attempt involved a federal elected official, it didn't take long for politics to raise its ugly head as factions from all sides pointed the finger of blame at one another. Sarah Palin, Alaska's most well-known fishing expert, apparently published a map before the election with cross-hairs drawn on districts her group wanted to target for election. Some of her nut case opponents tried to intimate that she was calling for physical harm to come to candidates of the opposition in these districts. Somebody in her camp tried to explain this away by stating that these weren't cross-hairs, but surveyors symbols. That might have been the only statement in this whole event that was funny.
Regardless of what I think of Sarah Palin as a political figure, when I saw that map, I thought immediately that the symbols were what you would see in the sites if you were aiming a gun. But I also don't think she was in any way suggesting that the candidates should be killed. She bills herself as an outdoors woman, one who has probably fired a gun or two in her day and cross-hairs were a logical way of telling her unfortunate followers that these districts should be targeted for change, not physically eliminating the opposition.
In years past, I have commented on the need for real gun control in this country. At one point, I suggested that if people wanted to have guns, we should allow them, but eliminate ammunition for all but police officers and soldiers. Then I suggested that hunters could have ammunition, but only a limited amount and be required to buy it like they would prescription drugs.
I've mellowed a bit over the years. Maybe it's being acquainted with law enforcement people and hunters. Maybe it's having deer cross in front of me on the highway several times and wishing that deer hunters would be more successful to keep these critters off the hood of my car. So as my respect for hunters has increased, I have come to realize the good of such organizations as Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever and yes, even some activities of the National Rifle Association.
That said, I still can't understand why some guy was apparently able to walk into a gun shop in Arizona a few weeks ago and walk out with a Glock semi-automatic handgun with a clip that would hold 31 bullets. If I understand how this weapon works, if you load this clip, you can fire it as fast as you can squeeze the trigger.
I have a simple question: Why are these types of weapons available? What hunter needs this? If you feel the need for a weapon for personal protection and you need a gun that fires 31 shots in under 30 seconds, somebody in that army you will be facing will get you before you can empty your weapon.
If you suggest that these weapons should be banned, some folks in the NRA will cry that if you take away our automatic weapons, next you will want to take our shotguns. Excuse me, but this is a bunch of bull! They would have you believe that this was apparently an act of a mentally deranged individual who would have accomplished his task even if he didn't have a weapon of this type. But if he had been armed with something with a lot fewer bullets, especially with the heroes that helped subdue him, there's no way he could have hit 20 people.
The shooting of even one person is terrible. The killing of six and the wounding of 14 others in less than 30 seconds should make all of us call for some sanity in gun possession. If somebody knows why we need the kind of weapon used in this incident, please let me know. In the meantime, let's not be quick to point fingers of blame to one political faction or another and spend our energy bringing some sanity to gun possession in this country.

Random ramblings at year's end

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy New Year.
I got a late Christmas present last night with Iowa's stunning victory over Missouri in the Insight Bowl. Hawk fans needed that to give us hope for next season.
Topic switch: Have you noticed all of the crazy TV ads for prescription drugs? I can remember a time when the only time you might see an ad for a drug company might be in a magazine in the doctor's waiting room. Now it seems that they think we all need to know about the latest pill to pop to cure whatever may be ailing us. Of course, the aim of these usually slickly produced spots is to get us to ask your doctor to prescribe the particular pill and if he says you don't need it, insist on it.
What's really interesting is that when the drug pushers got into the advertising game, their legal departments got into the act and warned them that they had to list the disclaimers of how the particular drug might affect certain people in a bad way. One sleep aid may cause some people to eat, walk or even drive without remembering it the next day. Sounds to me that the best way to take that drug would be only if you handcuffed yourself to your bed!
There's another drug that warns that it has caused thoughts or attempts of suicide in some patients. You are advised that if this occurs, you should stop taking the drug and call your doctor. Of course, if the suicide is successful, I guess you don't need to call the doctor...
Some people are seeking an enhanced love life and look for a pill to help them. One of the warnings with one of these drugs is it could cause a certain body part in men to malfunction for four hours or more. How would you like to be the one walking into the emergency room with that problem? The final scene on one of these ads shows a man and woman, side by side in matching bathtubs. I'll admit it's been a few years since I had any sex education classes, but I don't remember any suggestion about bathing separately in bathtubs as being a real turn-on.
These ads can be aggravating and are probably unnecessary. In fact, I wouldn't blame a doctor if he doubled his office call fee for anybody who asked him to prescribe a particular drug, based on what they saw in a magazine or on TV. I'm still a media person and I realize that all of these legalities, as well as the ads themselves, provide a lot of income for TV and the print media. But you have to wonder how much could be saved in prescription drug costs if patients left it up to the doctor to determine the proper treatment.
On to a more serious, personal topic: I learned this week of the death of my cousin Marvin. Although we had not been very close in the past several years as he was a bit older and lived about 200 miles away, the news of his death brought back some memories of happier times. Marvin lived in a small central Illinois town, but he had an accent like he lived in Kentucky. He was often moody, but then would surprise you with a quick smile or smirk. It always seemed like there was more going on in his mind than he would say.
Unfortunately, that may have led to his eventual downfall. Several years ago, he was involved in a love triangle. In a fit of jealousy, he allegedly walked into a diner in his hometown, spotted the guy who he thought was responsible for his failed marriage and shot him to death in front of the breakfast crowd. He was convicted of murder and sent to the state pen. He was still serving his sentence when he died this week.
I've never known a murderer. But I've also never known a personality like my cousin Marvin as he was years ago. I certainly don't condone what he did and I grieve for his victim's family. But I can still remember that ready smile he flashed many years ago. Marvin, I hope you have finally made peace with your demons.

Finding the true meaning of Christmas

By Jeff Orvis

Thanks for the kind comments on my first try at writing a blog. I hope in the weeks to come, I will be more diligent in updating this site more often.

A few days ago, Tony Jones, a friend from Belle Plaine, put forth the question on his Facebook page dealing with his friends' views of the true meaning of Christmas. Facebook is a wonderful way to keep up with those who we may not see very often. It is also sometimes allows you to spend a few idle moments jotting down the first thing that comes to mind.

Tony's question got me thinking. Last year at this time, I was wondering how I would get out of town to buy whatever Christmas presents I couldn't find in Belle Plaine. Then I wondered if I would get home for the holidays. As it turned out, the weather was pretty rotten last Christmas and after remembering a previous Christmas driving during a freezing rainstorm on Interstate 80, I decided not to chance it last year.

This year is a bit different. I have relocated closer to a lot of my relatives and live within a mile of some of the best shopping in the Quad-Cities. Anyone who is concerned about the prosperity of retail businesses should get a look at the Sunday newspapers in this area. Apparently there's enough business that dozens of stores can afford glossy advertising inserts in the papers every week.

For the folks who have experienced severe financial difficulties this past year, there are several sources of help in this area. It seems that each night there is a news report on a holiday dinner for those needing a little cheer or a toy drive to give Santa a helping hand to some of the area's needy children. In front of many of those aforementioned stores, Salvation Army kettles are manned by bell ringing volunteers who are braving the elements to help the cause.

Sunday morning I had every intention of attending church. But when I went out to start the van, it was covered with a hard-to-scrape coating of frost and ice. After about 15 minutes of trying, I gave up. My mom had asked if I would go with her and other members of her church to do some Christmas caroling Sunday afternoon. I'll admit the idea wasn't that exciting at first. After all, this was Sunday afternoon she was talking about - NFL Sunday afternoon. But after missing church in the morning, I made up my mind to turn off the TV and go caroling.

Our first stop convinced me I had made the right decision. We had 25-30 folks in our group and we sang a half-dozen carols for the residents of the Davenport Lutheran Home. Mom's pastor also serves as the chaplain at the home and at least several of the residents were members of her church. Most of them would not be leaving the facility for Christmas. Some of them would probably not be visited by friends or relatives on this most festive of days. We only stayed about a half-hour. But our visit may have made a positive impact on the lives of many of those who heard us.

We made several other stops that afternoon at a couple of retirement homes and at private homes of shut-ins. Then we returned to the church for soup and hot chocolate. It was just one Sunday afternoon. It was one way of experiencing the true meaning of Christmas - sharing our voices and the good news of the birth of Jesus to others. The soup and fellowship at the church was good. One of the other guys there had one of those fancy cell phones that gave him access to the internet and he updated us on the football scores for the afternoon. Besides, I knew the Bears weren't playing until Monday night, so all was well.

One of the traditions of Christmas in recent years has been the showing of the TV movie "A Charley Brown Christmas," featuring the Peanuts gang attempting to present a Christmas play. The kids are shown scurrying about, trying to find a nice tree for the stage, selecting proper holiday music, figuring out who would play which part in the play, etc. Just when all appears to be lost, Linus steps to center stage and begins quietly reciting the story of the birth of Jesus from the second chapter of the book of Luke in the Bible. And in those last few moments, the true meaning of Christmas comes through loud and clear.

The point of this whole story is it's probably okay to be a bit stressed this time of the year. Shopping for gifts, planning trips to visit relatives and planning and preparing the right treats for the big day can be fun. But it seems that the whole experience can be even more special, regardless of your current economic condition, if you stop for a few moments and consider what it must have been like some 2,000 years ago in a barn in the Middle Eastern town of Bethlehem and what that little baby, born of a virgin, would accomplish in his all-too-short, but vital life here on earth.

May you and your family enjoy this time of year and discover and remember why we celebrate.

Merry Christmas!

A new media adventure begins

By Jeff Orvis
They say "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," but I with this posting, I am attempting to disprove that saying.

I've definitely come a long way since that fateful morning more than 35 years ago when I walked into a weekly newspaper office to begin my career and at the same time, they were removing the lead letters that had been used to set type for many years at the newspaper out the back door as we converted to offset printing. Those of you familiar with newspaper production know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, it would be interesting to Google "history of newspaper production" and see how the industry evolved.

With this first posting, I am entering a new realm of communication and I hope you will join me for the ride. By way of a brief introduction, I was born and raised in the Quad-City region along the Mississippi River. I graduated from Pleasant Valley High School (GO SPARTANS!), attended Central College in the beautiful Dutch-influenced town of Pella, IA for a year, before financial circumstances sent me back to the home region, where I attended St. Ambrose College (now university) for two years.

While in high school and then while attending St. Ambrose, I had been a part-time reporter for the weekly Bettendorf News, where I gained much valuable training from the publisher and his wife. When I decided to end my college career, I was offered a full-time reporting job at the News for the princely sum of $75 per week.

After a couple of years there, I was ready to "leave the nest" and was hired at the Independence Bulletin-Journal in Buchanan County, IA. My association with that organization lasted about 19 years, including several publishers, several more editors and at least two owners. After that, my wife and I published our own weekly newspaper in that town for a year before financial reality hit. We then moved to the Benton County, IA town of Belle Plaine, where I edited the Belle Plaine Union for about 11 years before that paper merged with a neighboring publication and my position was cut.

My media career took another turn at that point, when I was asked to edit a community news web site in Belle Plaine, which was owned by the local community development corporation. A year later, financial reality hit again and the corporation board decided it could no longer support a full-time editor for the site and once again my position was eliminated. Several months later, I relocated to Davenport, where my mom generously agreed to allow me to live with her in her beautiful condo as I began my work search here.

As I continue my search, I was prompted to try my hand at writing a blog. I have always enjoyed writing a column for the various newspapers and the web site I've worked on. I write on a wide range of topics. I am very opinionated, which might please some and anger others. At times I enjoy and at other times I am frustrated by politics. I am passionate about sports, especially the Iowa Hawkeyes, along with the Northern Iowa Panthers and Iowa State Cyclones, as well as the Chicago Cubs and Bears. I was more interested in the Bulls when Michael Jordan was playing and was happy to see the Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup.

With this blog, I intend to keep my writing skills sharp, while venting a bit. I truly valued my time living in a city of just under 6,000 residents and later in a city of just under 3,000. I tell my friends that I really didn't live in Iowa until I moved to Independence. Before that, I lived on the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities. We had little interest in what was happening in places like Quasqueton, Rowley, Blairstown or Van Horne. I not only learned where those places are, but also learned that this state has a lot of good people living very comfortable, easy-going lives in those small towns and I hope to bring that message to a wider readership.

Thanks for checking out this blog. I hope to have the discipline to update it often and I hope you will find some things worth reading. My thanks to all my friends and relatives who have helped me get this far in life. My particular thanks goes out to Garrison Reekers, Belle Plaine city councilman, Benton County Sheriff's deputy and all-around good guy, who told me about blogspot. Check out his blog at

http://reekersresearch.blogspot.com/

More to come...