March 20, 2005
Something Smells Fishy About Local Television
Guess Who's Coming To Portland's WB?
Well, now, look what's listed over here. Wait, it's also listed over there. Here we've been prodding former City Council candidate Nick Fish to start a blog in order to keep his voice included in the discussion of local issues, and he's gone off and gotten himself a local public affairs show called Outlook Portland instead.
Of course, we didn't just happen to find these listings accidentally. Rather, we looked for them after email from Fish himself arrived this evening, which opened with his response to our blog-proddings (a term which sounds vaguely uncomfortable): "I'm ready to take the plunge, with a twist."
"The time is right for a thoughtful discussion of the issues on television," Fish said. "I learned during my campaign for Portland City Council that Portland broadcasters do not spend enough time covering local issues, including political races. We hope to fill that void."
Back in October of last year, in fact, we published an entry accusing the local television stations of an "abject failure" when it came to public affairs programming.
Unrelatedly, slightly beforehand, KGW had launched a public affairs show called Viewpoint. Is it still on? We don't know, because we keep forgetting to get up at 6:30 AM on Saturday mornings -- a time which, while better than, say, three hours earlier, still constitutes part of the public affairs ghetto in terms of timeslots.
Fish's new show (airing on Portland's WB, of all things) will also have a 6:30 AM timeslot, but on Sunday mornings. Think of it as a lead-in to Oregon Crossfire over on Newsradio 750 KXL, hosted by Randy Leonard and Larry George, which gets underway at 7:00 AM on Sunday mornings.
Speaking of which, just who has Fish chosen to help him launch this little public affairs endeavor? Yes, that's right, that selfsame Randy Leonard, who is quickly becoming the mediawhore of the City Council. Don't get us wrong, one of our longest-running friends has been a self-described mediawhore. And we're clearly a bit of one ourselves (the papers, OPB, KBOO, horning in on Leonard's radio show... it's exhausting, really), so it's hardly some sort of inherent insult.
But wait, there's more. Leonard isn't the only one of Fish's first guests. Right off the bat, Fish puts the local blogosphere front and center where of course we, uh, all believe it should be. His other first guest, unsurprisingly, is Jack Bogdanski, who from certain angles and in certain lighting, perhaps with a little bit of squinting, has always seem to us somewhat to resemble Fish. Hopefully their respective names will be printed on-screen just to keep the confusion down.
Oh, but we said earlier that this show was Fish taking the plunge into the local blogopshere, "with a twist". You've seen the twist, so where's the blog?
Apparently, Portland's WB will be setting up a blog to solicit comments about the program and questions for the guests. As for just how "bloggy" it will be, we will have to wait and see. When it's launched, we will of course pass that along here.
(And, of course, at some point there also will be something to announce about the allegedly-forthcoming Sam Adams blog, although we've gotten seemingly contradictory information as to whether or not the Bureau of Technology Services is causing the hold-up there.)
As for Fish's new project: "I look forward to re-joining the conversation about our community," he said, "and hope to give your readers a reason to get up early on Sunday mornings!"
Comments (8)
allehseya on 20 Mar 2005
heh.
Jack, eh? tsk, tsk - It should've been b!X ... however -- since it is Jack maybe he can get Nick to have a discussion regarding one of his earlier comments in the Palace of the PDC thread "I like the guy, but he took an awful lot of campaign money from the Same Half Dozen Developers who get all the PDC pork. Somebody like ...(edited out)... They've got vision, smarts and guts, and they aren't politicians."
The One True b!X on 20 Mar 2005
No, it should be Jack. He probably kills on television. TV makes me nauseous.
allehseya on 20 Mar 2005
TV makes me nauseous.
tsk, tsk....some 'media whore' you turned out to be ; )
In any event, as much I respect both Randy Leonard and Nick Fish (I knew he wouldnt give up on the city issues). . . I am rather miffed that my Sunday's are beginning so damn early now . . .
The One True b!X on 20 Mar 2005
Yes, well, I did a cable access thing back during my Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee days and I hated it.
Jack Bog on 20 Mar 2005
Tivo, baby!
The One True b!X on 20 Mar 2005
Heh.
I should say, by the way, on the subject of KGW's Saturday morning public affairs program, that I'd be much more likely to remember to watch (or record) it if KGW's website (1) mentioned the show anywhere, and (2) included an email alert each week announcing what the subject was that week.
So there's my advice for Portland's WB. Obivously, whatever bloggy thing they will have is a very good move. But put up an email alert system for each week's show, too.
The One True b!X on 20 Mar 2005
One other thing I shouldn't forget: Proper kudos to Portland's WB -- which doesn't even have a news program -- for up and plunging into public affairs programming.
With KGW's show, and now this one, it's time for KATU to bring back Town Hall as something more than a very intermittent thing.
I'd encourage KOIN to get in on the act as well, but in the past I've slammed KOIN pretty hard for their newscast being subpar to the point of sometimes apparently just lying about stories. So I'm not sure I'd trust them to run a public affairs program anyway.
Now if we could just get Seven Days back onto OPB.
M on 22 Mar 2005
Maybe one day our local news shows could even mention what our government is up to. Maybe a one-minute news break in between all the crime, fluff, sports and weather.