Betting on firefighters the safest bet you’ll make tomorrow night in Osprey!
Too gorgeous!
Lots of brave (and beautiful!) women are out there fighting fires, too!
Tribute to Pelican Press, Readers and a few words from Matt Walsh
For 40 years, the weekly Pelican Press newspaper has been a must-read for year-round key residents, tourists, and snowbirds alike. At its core, it was a Siesta Key paper, but with its robust reporting on city and county goings-on, it certainly enjoyed a sizable following off the island as well.
Week in, week out, with a small crew and probably an even smaller budget, the editors and office staff cranked out spot-on investigative pieces and local government reporting from a cadre of shoe-leather reporters like the inimitable Bob Ardren, Jack Gurney, and Stan Zimmerman to name a few. Strong editorial pages, witty cartoons, book reviews, and freelance contributions from arts, social, wine, and film columnists, all lent a sophisticated note to this weekly paper that managed, at the same time, to create a bond with its readers by celebrating the natural beauty of the key and featuring stories on local people, businesses, and churches – right down to including occasional photographs and reports of the elusive family of bobcats that had taken up residence on the island.
The paper always had its share of politically and socially conservative readers and advertisers, but for many, perhaps most, the Pelican Press was a welcome reflection of open-minded perspective. Its letters to the editor section, which often filled an entire page, was always lively with well-informed and cogent debate from readers on both sides of the political aisle.
To the surprise of many, over the past month, the Pelican Press was sold off by its owner – the Milwaukee-based publishing company that had owned it since 1998 after acquiring the paper from founder John Davidson. Nearly all of the full-time and freelance contributors – including erstwhile editor Anne Johnson who nurtured the paper and its content contributors to scores of Florida Press Awards over her 30-some-odd-year career there – have lost their jobs and columns as a result of the change in ownership. The new publisher, the Sarasota-based Observer Group, has promised a shift in editorial direction to reflect the philosophy of its existing stable of newspapers, which embrace the “principles of individual freedom and capitalism and Austrian economics, and the founding principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.”
One of the most compelling aspects of the Pelican Press has always been its relationship with its readers, and this editorial shift, along with the loss of well-liked editors, staff, and reporters, has caused a fair degree of teeth-gnashing among longstanding and loyal readers. Because I wrote the “Reality Chick” column for that paper several years ago, I’ve lately been hearing from many of those readers who, very fond of the “old” Pelican Press, find these new circumstances to be an unwelcome changing of the guard.
Matt Walsh, CEO of the Observer Group which has purchased the Pelican Press, also editor and co-publisher of the Observer papers I believe, commented this morning on Stan Zimmerman’s recent guest blog post, and responded point by point to many readers’ complaints about the transition of ownership (read his full comments by clicking here). Mr. Walsh says that his newspaper group has “the desire, will and determination to continue building on the Pelican Press’ original roots and respected past.”
The heartening takeaway from all this sturm und drang is that it is thrilling to hear that so many people in our community — readers, writers, editors, newspaper owners — still care so passionately about content and editorial perspectives and opinions — and are still so personally invested in reading and publishing newspapers.
The challenge then for those of us in the business of researching, writing, reporting, opining about and publishing the news of the day — especially in light of the News of the World debacle – is to diligently strive to earn our readers’ loyalty anew, each and every day, by delivering news unfettered by bias or advertisers’ influence, opinion that is diverse, a platform for earnest debate, and the rigorous application of truth, accuracy and fairness to the printed word.
And the challenge for those of us in the personal business of reading is to strive equally diligently to be as fair in our reading as we want our newspapers to be in their reporting. And, while one may not like what one reads on every op/ed page of every newspaper, I think Voltaire said it best: “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” — Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770
Unspoken truths … articulated by Christopher Hitchens
photo courtesy of vanityfair.com
You can read “Unspoken Truths” by clicking here. It’s a fabulous piece of writing, but far more than just that.
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
—T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Dating do’s and don’ts
I could write a book on bad dates, dud dates, and my own many faux pas made on dates … there’s just a sampling of the many do’s and don’ts that can make or break a first date .. in my Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Pelican Press Sign-Off from Stan Zimmerman (guest commentary)
M.C.,
I want to thank you and your readers for your outpouring of concern about the fate of the Pelican Press and its stable of writers. An entire chorus of voices was silenced with one swoop of the axe. Only time will tell if this storied community newspaper will retain the affection of its readership of 40 years. Or maintain its journalistic excellence – its awards from the Florida Press Association literally cover the walls. If there was a huge award for excellence in every conceivable category (even agricultural writing!) the Pelican would qualify several times over.
Rachel Hackney is the only survivor, she’s staying on as the Managing Editor, and I know she carries a heavy weight of local expectations on her shoulders. But her scope of action now is limited, and she should not carry the brunt of reader disappointment. So many times she’s said to me, “That’s a great story. We’ll make room for it.” Or “We need that in the paper. We’ll extend the deadline to get it in.” Those decisions are no longer hers. She’s a pro with all that implies.
As editors at the Pelican, Anne Johnson, and then Rachel Hackney, maintained a tradition of “bound volumes” – keeping every Pelican from Volume One, Number One, intact in huge books. Row upon row upon row of them, the first drafts of Siesta Key’s history, from 1971 to now. My very first newspaper story is in there, datelined Dec.16, 1982, a financial story: “County debts could quadruple by 1984 if bond issues okayed.” (They were, and they did and then some over the next quarter-century). And it’s all there between the covers.
It is passé in this electronic age to keep “bound volumes,” and I’m sure Matt Walsh will eschew this tradition. But it was this same tradition that kept the paper going through ups and downs, through pay cuts and staff reductions, because we were standing in a long line of distinguished and talented people who believed our readers had a right to know. And to know in detail.
I wish Matt and his Observer Group good luck and good fortune is a struggling industry. Dead-tree journalism could soon be an anachronism, and I’ve said so in front of both Walsh and the SHT”s executive editor Mike Connelly at a chamber round-table. All we can offer is trust, and I hope the new Pelican will maintain the paper’s 40-year pact with its readers for fairness, accuracy and honesty.
This “pelican” was lucky enough to find a new “nest” at SarasotaPatch.com, a “hyper-local” news site similarly dedicated. Its editor and I won an award from the Florida Press Association earlier this month for our investigative journalism at the Pelican. To my other friends and colleagues at the Pelican, I send my support and appreciation for their accomplishments as fellow “ink-stained wretches.” It is no sin to reach for the stars.
I send a special bouquet to Anne Johnson, who isn’t exactly the founding editor of the Pelican but certainly is the woman who crafted, molded and created the paper we knew and loved. She too was lopped off, after 38 years, without even a good-bye to the two generations of readers she slaved for.
That’s my only real regret – and it would have been such a touch of class, such a handoff – Matt’s refusal to allow the old Pelican hands to say goodbye and welcome the new hands. It was, for staff, the ultimate hostile takeover. “Mine now, you’re gone.” The old Pelican gave you the opportunity to say goodbye when the previous corporate owners canned you for writing truth-to-power. You know well, M.C., how that catharsis eased the pain for you and readers alike.
I guess this is really my “goodbye.” I wish it could reach all my readers, but M.C.’s circle will have to do.
We tried very hard – every one of us pelicans – to do the best we knew how to do. Because we knew the standards were high, the expectations higher. And we did our best on deadline every week to capture the importance, the essence, the heart of what we thought Siesta Key wanted to know.
Goodbye, Pelican Press. Hello, Pelican Press.
Stan Zimmerman
Bloodbath at Pelican Press … 18 names missing from new masthead
In addition to the firing of Stan Zimmerman which I reported on last week, the Observer Group has ousted nearly every writer associated with the Pelican Press. Looks like Paul Roat is gone; Diana Colson who did the Social Notes column — gone. Anne Johnson, who’d been a mainstay at the newspaper — as editor — for many, many years … gone, without even a note of farewell. Film critic Frank Tucciarone, gone. Kathie Moon,, gone. Thrza Jacobs, Robert Frederickson, Jay Davis — think they’re all gone. Don’t know what happened to Rebecca Wild Baxter or Ric Miracle or John Riley the cartoonist. Am assuming they’re gone as well. Am probably missing some names here, but all told, it looks as if about 18 names that were listed in the old Pelican Press masthead as contributors or staff, are gone this week.
It looks like Rachel Brown Hackney is still on board as a managing editor and the Observer seems to have held on to the old Pelican advertising staff for the most part.
In today’s Pelican Press, the sidebar to editor Matt Walsh’s letter from the editor, says, “The opinion page is shifting its politico-economic philosophy to that of The Observer Group’s newspapers, embracing the principals of individual freedom and capitalism and Austrian economics; and the founding principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.”
Swimming at sunset
Tonight, like a dream. Swimming in the pool at the house I’m watching over for the summer … a man was out fishing in the low tide. He’d rowed up to the sandbar on a small kayak. He threw cast after cast but I never saw him catch anything. I swam. Under the wide open sky, no cage overhead to stop the pine needles from the nearby Australian pines from floating down every now and again.
Nothing between me and sky and clouds and … my lovely osprey. How can a human be so in love? With a bird? But I am. I coo to him (or her) en francais, not caring what the neighbors think. I say, “Bonjour, ma petite. Ne cri pas. My honeybunch.” I’m like a looney-tune. I swim.
Remnants of something — a crab? — left off the side of the pool, where many crane-like, stork-like birds come to scout lizards or perhaps drink the water, one, crazily, even when I was swimming, ventured close.
Pelicans, seagulls, waterfowl of every kind, winging their way back to nests. The pool seems to be directly under their nightly flight path.
Luxuriating in the water. Watching the clouds and loving those moments when the osprey fly in so close over the pool that I feel I could reach them (and I pray they don’t drop any, um, thing … notably that fish in their talons). Every now and again, Mr. (or is it Ms.?) Osprey turns his head to look at me. “I’m not dinner,” I remind him. Their diet is 95% fish, you know. I looked it up.
It’s magic here. On the Intracoastal. Which I’d choose any day over a place on the beach.
I think a woman could find her best self here. Recall the woman she might have left behind while off searching for love and fortune. Recall the woman who isn’t afraid of never being married again. Who doesn’t mind, really, the uncertain future.
Recall the woman who doesn’t give a damn about anything else but the feeling of a light wind coming from the west wrapping around her bare skin as she steps out of the dreamy, warm, water. The air almost cool. The sun, now setting. The fisherman moving back toward his kayak.
It’s easy to do here: remembering who you were, liking who you are, and looking forward to who you yet will be. That’s the magic of this place.
Happy Bastille Day — something for Sarasota Francophiles!
In honor of Bastille Day, I wrote about petanque in today’s Sense and the City column — out today in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET (next to last page!). Or you can read it online at Playing Petanque a Simple Pleasure for Sarasota Francophiles.
Pelican Press Stan “the Man” Zimmerman Ousted by Observer Group
If you haven't seen Citizen Kane ... maybe now's a good time to check it out.
Highly respected and gazillion-award-winning shoe-leather newspaperman Stan Zimmerman was let go by the Observer Group on Thursday of last week.
Zimmerman had just nabbed a 2010 second-place award from the Florida Press Association for his investigative reporting on the FBI’s investigation into former Sarasota County School District employees involved in the purchase of classroom ActivBoards. He collaborated on that piece with another former Pelican reporter William Mansell.
Zimmerman holds an MA in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University, Washington, DC, and is the author of “A History of Smuggling in Florida;” The History Press, 2006. The guy is widely known and respected for his straight reporting and pull-no-punches news-gathering. I know I’m not the only one in Sarasota who will sorely miss seeing his columns and articles in print.
But … good news: Stan let me know that he’s “moving his pen” over to SarasotaPatch.com, where I believe he’ll continue to cover Sarasota County people, government, shenanigans, places, hoopla, and news of import. In fact, I notice he’s got a story up there today — check it out by clicking this link http://sarasota.patch.com/government, and I notice you can do an RSS subscribe to his county coverage so you can count on continuing to receive his excellent reporting.
Good luck, Stan!
Transformation Magazine
Have you ever heard of Transformation Magazine? I hadn’t … until a woman who heard me speak this past spring at the Democratic Club of Sarasota Wine & Cheese Lecture Series, sent me a link to an article she’d written.
You might want to check out the magazine’s site and this article: Gathering at the Choice Point.