The littlest earthwarrior

By Myles Murphy | Published: April 25, 2009 | 0 Comments

April 25, 2009

Earthday is here in Ashland. My 6-year-old wants to be in the earthday Trashion Show at scienceworks on Saturday. The good part: he’s using discarded items to make a costume to help show one of the many ways we can save mama earthball (as he refers to her majesty, Gaia, mother of us all). The better part: He’s making a costume of a bloodthirsty Spartan warrior. If all goes well, he’ll have a helmet with a crest, a spear and a shield. Too young to see the film “300” or even read the comic book it was based on, the boy has latched on the cool outfit and stories I and his grandfather have been telling him. Like the little Spartan boy who had a fox hidden under his shirt and wouldn’t admit he had it or show any discomfort when questioned by his elders, even as the fox clawed and bit at the boy’s belly. Real story. Look it up. “And that was just spartan kid, Dad!” boy said to me. “Spartan teenagers were even tougher!” My pop told me the same story when I was 6. I’m curious to see if anyone at earthday will appreciate the truthiness behind a little boy clothing himself in destruction and violence in the name of a better, greener world. It’s not such a stretch, really. Spartan mothers and wives encouraged conservation of resources. They’d tell their lads before a big fight: “Come home with your shield – or on it. Whatever you do, don’t just leave it lying around on the battlefield. That would be littering.”

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Homeless journalist Part II

By Myles Murphy | Published: February 17, 2009 | 0 Comments

Feb. 17, 2009

Our homeless journalist F.B. Drake III is no longer homeless. First, an Ashlander stepped up and offered Drake the use of a room in his home. A second person may have a permanent place for Drake. While his situation is far from ideal, he’s off the street and in a warm, safe place. He’s still looking for a job and writing for us on the side, but freelancing for a small newspaper will never bring in enough to pay the bills. That’s just reality. Drake has expressed amazement at the kindness shown to him by Ashlanders who were concerned after reading his pieces in the Tidings. I’ve witnessed that firsthand, as well. Just today, three people brought notes for Drake into the Tidings, and so far one other has called to check on him. At one point last week my desk was piled high with donated food, clothing and an extra sleeping bag, all left here by people for Drake. His first-person description of his situation really touched people, and it left a glow in the newsroom that I hope lasts a long time. Whenever anyone says “that’s sooooooo Ashland,” this experience will be the first thing I think of.

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Homeless journalist

By Myles Murphy | Published: February 10, 2009 | 0 Comments
We’re running this ongoing thing by F.B. Drake III (’Rusty’ to his friends around the newsroom) in the Tidings in which Drake tells simple, short stories about his experiences since becoming homeless. His “Street Stories” column is straight-forward, gritty, but not overblown. He’s just describing his situation. With his experience in journalism, he’s the perfect person to really tell how an average human can fall between the cracks. People are responding in typical Ashland responder fashion: some ignorant, some angry, some ugly, some understanging and some approaching angelic. I don’t respond to responses on stories. ever. So I might as well start now on some of the things people have commented on Drake’s first story:
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 01:55 PM, LMTEE said:
So…explain the “situation” that forced you to leave on short notice. My bet is that YOU did something stupid to cause it. Prove me wrong. Before you ask us to understand your hardships, tell us how they came about.
my response: Everybody does stupid things all the time. the homeless experience is not linked to doing stupid things, or we’d all be on the street. And nobody is asking you to understand drake’s hardships. that’s your own conscience tweeking you. try listening to it.
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 02:20 PM, Zak said:

A curiossity question to the DT. How much will F.B. receive for this article. Or does freelance translate into unpaid?
me: look up “freelance” in a dictionary.
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 02:36 PM, iamyou said:

I’ve been a homeless Tribune/Tidings employee. Their wage really didn’t help, but it kept me from starving. Eating the stale donuts and other empty calories in the office, I was able to save a few coins for a beer at the end of the day to drown out reality.
me: just weird. but honest. I like it, unless it’s a fiction, in which case I love it. good comment.
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 03:47 PM, wegngis said:

So the dude maintains his cell phone and uses his last nickels on a Coke. Wow, talk about priorities. He could have bought a taco at “the Bell” and gotten a little protein at least. Oh, and caffeine is a diuretic, that Coke most likely robbed you of water while falsely quenching your thirst.
me: Glass houses! Glass houses!
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 10:49 PM, PaulKay said:

It takes balls to write about hard reality, intimately so, knowing that you’ll be judged, cruelly so. Please keep writing, wherever your path may go. Thank you.
me: Yes. being homeless is not a source of pride. takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there like drake’s doing.
 
On Feb 9, 2009 at 11:09 PM, dandelion said:

The Ashland community must come together to help this productive yount man. With food, dough and a place to live. His situation touches us all in this shaky economy.
me: that would be great. But remember, he’s just the homeless guy in the public eye because he’s writing for us. Many others also are in need.
 
On Feb 10, 2009 at 07:50 AM, nontribal said:

If wholly true, F.B.’s account has a lot of potential to inform, dispel negative attitudes, and of course, to entertain. Hope we get to read installments on this reality-account. Life has a way of eating people’s lunch and we all can stand being reminded that we are not in total control.
me: this person gets it.
 
Drake’s words are clearly getting people to think, and that’s the important thing. The Tidings will continue to run his daily entries barring any unforseen changes. If he finds a place to live, that won’t be the end of the story, but it will likely be the end of Street Stories. I’m grateful for the chance to get a glimpse of his experience, but I hope it doesn’t drag on too long. I look forward to the final entry: Rusty comes home.
 

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Ashland’s meat and potatoes

By Myles Murphy | Published: February 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

Feb. 6, 2009

Wrestling with mouse clicks

A dozen kids on a wrestling mat going crazy sounds like pure gold for our internet site. Who wouldn’t want to spend hours clicking from picture to picture on our great photo gallery of wild little critters jumping all over each other doing cute kid things?

Just about everyone.

Though the story and photos of the children’s after school wrestling program in our sports section this week were exceptional, very few people checked out the photo gallery on the web. That’s too bad, and it had us scratching our heads. Cute kids are the meat and potatoes of your typical community newspaper.

What did go off the charts on the web was a photo gallery and video of Southern Oregon University junior Flamur Vehapi, who writes poetry about his experience in Kosovo. That was very popular.

Who knew?

Sure, it was topical, poetic, thought-provoking. Even inspiring. But more popular than wrestling kids?

I’m thinking maybe the meat and potatoes for the Ashland Daily Tidings is sometimes more along the lines of braised tofu and organic asparagus spears. Or maybe you can think of a better food analogy?

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The new Superjournalism

By Myles Murphy | Published: January 31, 2009 | 0 Comments

Jan. 31, 2009

Go team

The Tidings has a very small staff. We get a lot done in a limited amount of time working as a team. one entity. A many-armed multiple personality journalism juggernaut. Three writers, a couple of designers, a web guy and a one-person sports department. Sprinkle in a few stringers and photographers and that’s it. In the past week, we had nearly 70 local stories, columns and guest opinions in the paper, written by staff, local freelancers or submitted by members of the community. That’s not counting police reports, births, letters to the editor and community announcements. We filled in the cracks with barely 40 pieces taken from wire services. That’s a pretty typical week. I’m proud of the people here who make that all happen, and grateful to the residents who help out by letting us know what’s going on. That said, what if there really was just one superjournalist putting it all together? Wouldn’t that be great? At first I thought so, but then I imagined what that would look like. It’s a little scary, as you can see from the morphed photo of our entire staff, above. This came out of the experimental wing of the tidings where we try out new “out-of-the-box” concepts. One look and I knew this was a no-go idea. But hey, we were just spitballing. I’ll stick to our regular staff of superjournalists.

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Unofficial city officials meeting

By Myles Murphy | Published: January 28, 2009 | 0 Comments

Jan. 28, 2009

We have a story in today reporting that a recent informal meeting between the mayor, the entire city council, the city attorney, city administrator and the city recorder was not inappropriate – at least according to those who attended.

In the newsroom, we had a bit of a bee in our collective bonnet about the fact that all our city leaders were getting together with no public notice, shielded from the scrutiny of the people they are supposed to be serving. This, following the election of a mayor who promised, among other things, a more transparent city government.

All we have is the word of the mayor, several councilors, the city attorney, recorder and administrator that nothing official was discussed.

Do I believe them?

Yes. Benefit if the doubt, and all that. With three city officials, two hired and one elected, and a council with new members that seems to be a balanced group of differing views, it would be just plain silly to assume they would all agree to trick the people and try an end run around the public process. But still, as the local paper, we have to do our best to help them stay honest. I have big hopes for this new council, but the Tidings will be there – as it always has – to lend a helping hand if they stray.

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Obama inauguration

By Myles Murphy | Published: January 20, 2009 | 0 Comments

This morning, Tuesday, January 20, 2009, everyone in the tidings newsroom is working more feverously than normal to put out one of the most important editions in recent tidings history: the obama inauguration spectacular.
I’ve been temporarily kicked off my computer because of our stringers needs to write his story on deadline in the office. The live audio from new president’s innaugural address is running softly in the background, but other than that, there’s just the soft clicking of a dozen hands on keyboards. Being an afternoon paper (a dwindling breed), the tidings is one of the few publications around poised to have pertinant inauguration coverage the day of the event. On the web, everyone in the world is getting the news on the spot.
Of course, Obama is just human. He’ll have his ups and downs, as will the nation. But for those who had doubts about this country’s potential for greatness, Obama’s rise must come as a welcome eye-opener. This may never have been the country our teachers promised us in grade school, but today it’s closer than it’s ever been.

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shoe bush

By Myles Murphy | Published: January 9, 2009 | 0 Comments

Jan. 7, 2009

It was a rough week for the Ashland Gallery Association and, specifically, Art & Soul Gallery. On First Friday this month, Ashland City Councilor Eric Navickas held the grand opening of his new gallery MAda shell (pronounced by some as “mad as hell,” a clever turn of phrase I didn’t get until Tuesday).

At the event, people were invited to through shoes with wet paint on the soles at an image of the president. Navickas, bush, shoes, art, plaza – it had plenty of relevance so we wrote up a story, took some photos and a video, and slapped in paper and on the tidings web site.

Come Monday, the story had exploded all over the world on the web. No surprise there. The United Kingdom papers seemed particularly enchanted by the tale.

What was a surprise was the backlash against a completely unrelated gallery, Art & Soul.

The Associated Press, of which the Tidings is a member, picked up the story and ran it. Papers and web sites everywhere took the story, and lazy editors across the globe used the suggested headline invented and provided to all by the AP: Art and sole: “Patrons pitch shoes at Bush image.”

Some readers across the nation must not have read the story carefully. The phrase “art and sole” got mixed up with the gallery Art & Soul, which began to receive some very disturbing hate mail, mostly from outside Ashland.

For some of the owners, the unwelcome e-mails were the first time they got wind of the story, which led to some confusion about why the Tidings linked the controversial exhibit to an unrelated gallery. We didn’t, but the horse was already out of the barn. Most of the e-mail authors have been set straight on the non-relationship between Art & Soul and the shoe-tossing, and some have even apologized to the gallery. I even called the AP and requested they change their suggested headline. At the time of this writing, they have not. Even if they do, the “Art and Sole” is already thick on the Internet.

The lesson?

None, really. It was a well-written, strong, relevant story. An anonymous newswire editor somewhere in Portland or New York wrote a clever, catchy headline. That’s his or her job. Navickas and patrons at the event exercised their right to criticize the government in the best possible way: A non-violent action that still captured the attention of the world. Hopefully the old saw is true: There’s no such thing as bad publicity. The damage to the city by su

 

The fact that leaves me wondering is this: How can people who live and work and care about their small town not look first to the single news-gathering source that, year after year, has done its best to tell us what is happening here? It bugs me.

 

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