Here was my draft lead for this post, pre-5:00am today:
I’ll say this: John Hamilton is running hard, real hard.
After reading the blockbuster IDS exclusive story at that early hour, I edited the lead to read:
John Hamilton can take a four and a half week vacation with his family and come back on May 8th safely ensconced as the re-elected mayor of the city of Bloomington.
Whew. Where to begin? Some quick first impressions:
- When first saw the hed I was immediately angry at the person who conveyed it to me. You know, kill the messenger and all that.
- As I delved into the article, I thought, That damned Hamilton! He paid this guy off to slander his opponent! You know, misdirected anger and all that.
- I read the thing six times, looking for flaws, for weaknesses, for chinks in its armor. I found none.
- At 6:00am, I was mad as hell at Amanda Barge.
She allegedly committed three cardinal sins:
- Sexual harassment (at least morally, if not federally defined)
- Getting intimately involved with a county contractor
- Preying on someone who suffers from the very malady she’s been trained to deal with and should know not to fuck with
We might add a venial sin:
- Don’t commit to emails or texts evidence that’ll kill your political career
Damn. Damn. Damn it all. First the Mueller report and now this? What are these people trying to do, turn me off to the whole goddamned system?
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Microgreens
BTW: Impression # 5: the IDS scoop is further evidence the Herald Times is fast becoming an afterthought in this town. I’ve got to guess Brendan Drake took his tale to the HT and found no takers. It was a college newspaper that grabbed the story and held it by the neck for more than two months.
That, my friends, is journalism.
The lead story in the Herald Times online today? The restaurant La Vie en Rose Cafe has new hours. Oh, and the Hive restaurant has some tasty new menu items including a Baja Bowl, with “a base of dressed field greens topped with chicken breast, bacon, Sartori cheddar cheese, marinated red onion, pico de gallo, avocado salsa and microgreens.”
Suddenly, I’m not so down on Indiana University’s Media School.
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