Originally appeared 1/8/06

Sometimes silence is golden

I realized I haven't blogged since vacation, just getting back into the swing of everything here, which means fixing all that got broken in my absense.  That in and of itself can be a handful.

 

First off, I am still in awe of how bad the media dropped the ball on the trapped miners story this past week.  In an effort to be the first with the story, the networks  and journalists dropped the ball by getting the story completely wrong.  Numerous newspapers across the country ran with the story that the miners were found alive, almost all of which were front page above the fold stories.  The obvious problem being that in fact, the miners were dead.     In my own particular experience, I was up tinkering on the computer when I decided to see who was on Conan O'Brien, and instead of Conan, the station was running breaking news that the miners were found alive, which was some good news to go to bed with and it was quite a shock when I would get to work some three and a half hours later only to find that in fact they weren't alive at all.  What appears to have happened is that someone called the families after hearing a report from one of the rescue groups that the miners appeared to be alive.  Mind you, nobody had actually spoken to the miners, nor had the company or anyone else confirmed the status of those men that were trapped underground.  Nonetheless someone took it upon themselves to call one or more of the family members at the church and passed along the good but inaccurate news.  This led to family members streaming out of the church where they had been staying, waiting for word, and out into the night, where they ran up and starting hugging reporters and telling everyone of the good news that they had heard.  The church bell had even starting ringing with the sound of the news.  The problem being, other than this one phone call, there still was almost no sourcing of the story.  While  the governor would later go on to mention the good news when asked, by all appearances, he too was in the church and had the same (which was little) information that the families had.  Again, hardly a reliable source if the person you are asking is as out of the loop as the families were at that point.  While I can understand getting caught up in the euphoria of the moment, that isn't as a reporters job, and by and large it looks like they opted to pass on asking the important questions of the moment, in favor of just running with what they got and hoping it was correct, which it wasn't. 

 

Okay, enough of my opinionated blogging, at least on current events.  It's official, the Penguins suck.  After seeing them drop 2 to Atlanta this weekend, all I can say is bring on the draft.  There are some pieces on this roster to work with.  Rookies Crosby (roughly on pace for a pt per game) and Ouillet (10 goals last ten games) may be guys to build around as well as goaltender Fleury, but there is still some work to be done, especially on the defensive end, if this team is going to be competitive again.

The Steelers post season starts in about 4 hrs, with their game in Cincy against the Bengals.  Not sure what to make of it myself.  I would like to see them win, but I am not so much of a homer that I will be broken hearted if they lose.  And trust me, if they do lose, this town will be like a morgue tomorrow.  I guess in the grand scheme of things, I just have bigger fish to fry than what happens on a football field.

Christmas season came to a close yesterday with the radio station Christmas party at Dave & Busters.   Yes I know it is late for a Christmas party, but it was worth it, with free eats and and an open bar plus video games.  For those of you who have never been, Dave & Busters is like an adults arcade, with good food.   I had the chicken breast with mushroom gravy, steamed veggies, a nice salad and what seemed to be a banana nut bread type cake for dessert.  Yummy.  PLus we were all given cards with some money on them to play games in the large arcade area.  I played mostly the games where you win tickets (skeeball, hoops, football).  I left with about 140 tickets, which I will save for my next trip.  They also have all of the most recent video games in their arcade as well as crazy games like video horse racing that I watched but never got the hang of what you were supposed to do.  Anyway, it was a great time, and I plan on heading back there at some point, as it was my first visit there, and one of the few places on the Waterfront that I hadn't explored yet. 

 

The after party was good to, because I left with enough time to stop by Target on the way home and get the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on dvd.  It was something that was on my list, but it was one of those "too hip for the room" gifts, I am sure the people who read my list saw it and said "What the hell...."  and just moved further down the list. 

I still have to unpack most of my stuff from the jaunt home, I have been lazy in that regard.  I got the food put away, but the clothes I packed are another matter entirely.  I am home yet I am still living out of a suitcase. 

Well, that's a wrap on this blog, I still have some work here at the station, and I not getting it done by blathering here.  Take care all, it's good to be back.