Is this an FSU student protest or study hall?

This generation is so lame.

I mean really.

FSU students are going to march on the Capitol this morning and stage a “read in.”

With respect, students, that’s not a protest. That’s more like an outdoor study hall.

Back in the 1970s, we took over the administration building at my college for, well, I don’t remember the reason. The why is not important. Besides, it was a long time ago. But I’ll tell you what: Whatever the cause, it was probably something important.

I do remember students sitting down in the hallway and along the steps, blocking the entrance.

And we had a band. I sure remember the band. It was a loud band with lots of metallic sounds. It sure was loud.

We wanted to change the world. Make a difference. Seek justice. The band helped get everyone’s attention. Got the juices flowing. Gave me a headache, quite frankly. Did I mention that it was loud?

This generation wants to make the Dean’s List.

Changing the world and making the Dean’s List are both noble ambitions but are absolutely not to be mixed. Never, never, never study and protest at the same time. You see, these are completely different things. Important, yes. Together, no.

Sure, I know, exams are coming up. We had them, too.

But isn’t that just another way of the man putting us down?

Don’t you think lawmakers waited until exam week on purpose so students would be too busy to notice the deep cuts to their universities?

I mean, you have got to have a band to get people fired up. A loud one.

And somebody’s got to burn something.

Somebody did at my school. I think it was a multi-colored T-shirt, some country’s flag or, most likely, a bra.

Somebody was always burning one of those, back before Victoria Secret’s Pink line. Bras today probably don’t burn; they probably just melt. And they are way too expensive to burn.
See the full blog on this link.
You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:11 AM 0 comments

Monday, April 27, 2009

Fla. Legislature needs to rethink its rethinking

Don’t let anybody fool you.
What is happening in over the budget in the state Legislature is not simply about bringing revenues and expenses into balance.
Our lawmakers and political leaders are rethinking government, retooling it and re-engineering.
I’m not sure exactly what that means – except that perhaps it means that raising taxes on the cancer-causing cigarettes that place a burden on our health-care system is bad and cutting funding for our centers of research known as universities is good.
Anyway, whatever they mean exactly, those terms keep coming up in my conversations with people in government and those who know them best: lobbyists.
The problem is there needs to be a bigger conversation first, before we re-engineer. That way everyone, including the people to whom the government is supposed to belong, gets a say in the outcome.
Let’s take higher education as an example.
If the Legislature wants to rethink, retool and re-engineer what it looks like by putting fewer public dollars into it, then it needs to rethink, retool and re-engineer its own control of it. Meaning, the state needs to give up its say over tuition and fees and the programs the colleges and universities offer.
If you want public education and government to work as businesses, by all means, but then get out of the way.
Otherwise, with all due respect to the rethinkers, retoolers and re-engineerers, all you are doing is dismantling.
And you are being deceitful in the process.
See the full blog on this link.
You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook. Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:57 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Holocaust Remembrance: Learning to civilize man

You can see the photographs from the month-long Holocaust Remembrance project on Tallahassee.com/holocaust, and I hope you will. But that is not enough.

Watch the videos of the survivors, listen to their words and read more about their history on the site, too. It is all so very powerful.

But that is not enough, either.

Get in your car, drive around town to the places pinpointed on our interactive map and view the poster-sized photographs.

And then talk about the Holocaust, the extermination of 6 million Jews during the Nazi regime in Germany. You can do that on our forums and within your families. That is two of every three European Jews who were living at the start of Adolph Hitler’s rule in 1933.

These are things that the human mind can barely comprehend.

Others were targeted for destruction, too, of course: gays, Gypsies, the disabled. But it was the Jew who was blamed for Germany’s worst failings and thus the Jew who Hitler loathed the most.

How much the rest of the world knew and when it knew it has been a matter of scholarly debate. But we know it now, and though this horror can never be undone, it cannot be allowed to simply fade into ancient history.

Man has long been the worst of human beings’ natural predators.

Thus, it is not just the killing of 6 million people that must be remembered, nor even the brutality of the methods of the murders. We must ask why and how, of course; but we must also ask how we can continue to see genocide throughout the world and what we can do to civilize man.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.



Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:57 AM 0 comments

Monday, April 13, 2009

Extreme thanks to Tallahassee and EMHE’s Kadzis family

It was something watching Tallahassee on national TV during “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Sunday night. Dozens of my Facebook friends posted their emotions during the show, all speaking pretty much as one in being proud of this community and in awe of the courage of the Kadzis family.

In this one case, our community came together to support this family. What an incredible story of strength and values, by this family and our community.

George and Barbara Kadzis’ story is now well known in our community. They had seven children, including 16-year-old Chris and six adopted from Asia; five children had special needs.

They wanted a home that met their children’s needs, both for health and safety reasons. For a gallery of photos of the home click here.

George, who had worked as a dentist for the Department of Corrections, died of cancer three days after the house was completed.

It was all very moving. My wife, who knows what it is like to raise a large family (five children, including our special-needs child), said of Barbara Kadzis: “I don’t know how she does it.”

A few posters on our story chats and forums have said the same thing. Others have questioned why. Why adopt so many children. Why adopt from China. Why this and why that. Some have even disparaged George and Barbara, as if their private family decisions were a matter for public debate and agreement.

More than 700 people of this community volunteered in one way or another for this build. They did so because they wanted to. No one compelled them. No one begged them. They did it because they understand the Kadzis family’s love.

Many businesses supported the project, especially MyddletonParker Builders, which risked the most in tough financial times.

They understand the love, too.

In many ways, this community owes that family the greater thanks.

They allowed us to see their spirit, their love and their courage. They allowed us to make a gift to them that provided greater rewards for us. They provided an inspirational moment at a time when we all need greater inspiration.

They reminded us of who we are and what we stand for and that we cannot be defined by balance sheets or stock prices.

Rest in peace, George Kadzis. We’ve got it from here.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 11:54 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 10, 2009

Monster Truck Tix winner announced

Our ticket-winning Tweeter is a hero.

ReignOfTheTec: I want the monster truck tickets so that me and my heroic friends can block flying debris from women and children.

I’ve just Tweeted a direct message to him to let him know of the win. Anyway, I think he is a male based on his photo.

These were the finalists, as selected by the judges (me and Julia Thompson):

Second Place: You would get the tickets if for some reason ReignOfTheTec doesn’t pick them up:

eye1der: I need those monster truck tickets. I am trying to punish my 2 fighting teenage sons by forcing them to do something fun together

Other finalists:

lockmomma: I am sending this tweet because it would be oh so sweet to get 4 tickets to the monster truck show. Please tweetmaster.

ASE2006: My nine year old daughter will kill me if I don’t come home with these tickets.

Umm. Sorry ASE. Good luck, though.

We had lots of great Tweets, including poetic Tweeters and creative-writing Tweets.

But alas, we had to pick only one, and I’ve always been a sucker for a hero.

ReignOfTheTec gets four VIP tickets to the Monster Truck Show Sunday, April 26, at the North Florida Fairgrounds. Included in that package is the following:

Admission to the show

Preferred seating

Pre-show pit party

A chance to meeting the drivers and get autographs

A chance to take pictures of the trucks

A chance to meet Batman Dark Knight and get a free Batman toy.

Thanks for playing and for your Tweets everyone.

Here’s how to follow this blog:

Twitter on this link.

Blogger.com on this link.

Tumblr.com on this link.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 10:03 AM 0 comments

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Note to Google: It takes money to create our news content

Earlier this week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors became paperless. Members voted to change its name to the American Society of News Editors.

That’s the same move the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors made earlier this year.

I’m a member of both groups and on the board of FSNE.

I support the change, and voted in favor during the FSNE roll call, but am not in love with it.

Surprised?

The editor who has been writing a blog for nearly three year, who has pushed the use of social networks as reporting tools and who can Tweet with the best of them, cast a “yes” vote on the FSNE move with reluctance.

The reason is simple: The medium doesn’t matter; ink on paper or digital, who cares?

What matters is the quality of the journalism. That’s the bottom line.

And there is still a fundamental difference in the type of journalism done by newspaper organizations and others on the Web. And the reason for that has nothing to do with the medium and everything to do with money.

We’re certainly willing to fight for space on the Internet. Just yesterday, we moved our monthly Business Matters news magazine to an online-only publication and now have an extensive list of digital products.

But for most of the last hundred years or so, printed newspapers have provided a business model to support quality journalism. Right now, only the great search-engine companies and a few aggregators of other people’s content create that kind of revenue.

That’s what makes the remarks by Eric Schmidt, CEO and chairman of Google, at least suspect, if not ironic.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 5:41 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tweet dreams of Monster Truck Show

Someone said what I’m about to do is a shameless promotion of my blog.

And her point was what?

Some of you have been reading this blog since it started in September 2006. You already know I don’t mind bribing you if that’s what it takes to expand our digital networking. My motto, as you well know, is whatever it takes.

OK, let’s get down to business. I have FOUR tickets to the Monster Truck Show at the North Florida Fairgrounds Sunday, April 26. Not just any tickets. I have four VIP tickets, which gets you insider access. I’ll give you more details should you win.

These are (according to the tickets) the Baddest Trucks on the Planet. Now the editor in me must tell you there is no such word, technically, as baddest; it is slang for great and tough, as in “Bad, bad Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole damn town.”

Loved that Jim Croce, if not his grammar.

Nonetheless, I’m willing to give you all four tickets. All you have to do to get the tickets is follow me on Twitter.

If you just said “what?” let me explain what you need to do.

Go to Twitter.com and sign up.

Then go to Twitter.com/bgabordi and click “Follow.”

Then send a message (called a Tweet) starting with “@bgabordi” to reply to me explaining why you want the tickets. Remember, Tweets are no more than 140 characters.

“But Bob,” you ask, “what if I’m already following you on Twitter? Can I still get those great tickets?”

Yes, you are eligible. You simply must send that Tweet explaining why you want them.

Two final steps whether you are a Twitter veteran or newbie:

Cut and paste your Tweet and come back here and post it in the comments section.

It would be nice if you would also send a Tweet to all of your followers saying follow Bob at @bgabordi, but it’s not necessary to win. You just have to have the best Tweet.

The DEADLINE to submit your Tweet is midnight tomorrow, April 8.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

FL Legislature needs to rethink its rethinking

Don’t let anybody fool you.
What is happening in over the budget in the state Legislature is not simply about bringing revenues and expenses into balance.
Our lawmakers and political leaders are rethinking government, retooling it and re-engineering.
I’m not sure exactly what that means – except that perhaps it means that raising taxes on the cancer-causing cigarettes that place a burden on our health-care system is bad and cutting funding for our centers of research known as universities is good.
Anyway, whatever they mean exactly, those terms keep coming up in my conversations with people in government and those who know them best: lobbyists.
The problem is there needs to be a bigger conversation first, before we re-engineer. That way everyone, including the people to whom the government is supposed to belong, gets a say in the outcome.
Let’s take higher education as an example.
If the Legislature wants to rethink, retool and re-engineer what it looks like by putting fewer public dollars into it, then it needs to rethink, retool and re-engineer its own control of it. Meaning, the state needs to give up its say over tuition and fees and the programs the colleges and universities offer.
If you want public education and government to work as businesses, by all means, but then get out of the way.
Otherwise, with all due respect to the rethinkers, retoolers and re-engineerers, all you are doing is dismantling.
And you are being deceitful in the process.
See the full blog on this link.
You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Holocaust Remembrance: Learning to civilize man

You can see the photographs from the month-long Holocaust Remembrance project on Tallahassee.com/holocaust, and I hope you will. But that is not enough.

Watch the videos of the survivors, listen to their words and read more about their history on the site, too. It is all so very powerful.

But that is not enough, either.

Get in your car, drive around town to the places pinpointed on our interactive map and view the poster-sized photographs.

And then talk about the Holocaust, the extermination of 6 million Jews during the Nazi regime in Germany. You can do that on our forums and within your families. That is two of every three European Jews who were living at the start of Adolph Hitler’s rule in 1933.

These are things that the human mind can barely comprehend.

Others were targeted for destruction, too, of course: gays, Gypsies, the disabled. But it was the Jew who was blamed for Germany’s worst failings and thus the Jew who Hitler loathed the most.

How much the rest of the world knew and when it knew it has been a matter of scholarly debate. But we know it now, and though this horror can never be undone, it cannot be allowed to simply fade into ancient history.

Man has long been the worst of human beings’ natural predators.

Thus, it is not just the killing of 6 million people that must be remembered, nor even the brutality of the methods of the murders. We must ask why and how, of course; but we must also ask how we can continue to see genocide throughout the world and what we can do to civilize man.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Extreme thanks to EMHE’s Kazis family of Tallahassee

It was something watching Tallahassee on national TV during “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Sunday night. Dozens of my Facebook friends posted their emotions during the show, all speaking pretty much as one in being proud of this community and in awe of the courage of the Kadzis family.

In this one case, our community came together to support this family. What an incredible story of strength and values, by this family and our community.

George and Barbara Kadzis’ story is now well known in our community. They had seven children, including 16-year-old Chris and six adopted from Asia; five children had special needs.

They wanted a home that met their children’s needs, both for health and safety reasons. For a gallery of photos of the home click here.

George, who had worked as a dentist for the Department of Corrections, died of cancer three days after the house was completed.

It was all very moving. My wife, who knows what it is like to raise a large family (five children, including our special-needs child), said of Barbara Kadzis: “I don’t know how she does it.”

A few posters on our story chats and forums have said the same thing. Others have questioned why. Why adopt so many children. Why adopt from China. Why this and why that. Some have even disparaged George and Barbara, as if their private family decisions were a matter for public debate and agreement.

More than 700 people of this community volunteered in one way or another for this build. They did so because they wanted to. No one compelled them. No one begged them. They did it because they understand the Kadzis family’s love.

Many businesses supported the project, especially MyddletonParker Builders, which risked the most in tough financial times.

They understand the love, too.

In many ways, this community owes that family the greater thanks.

They allowed us to see their spirit, their love and their courage. They allowed us to make a gift to them that provided greater rewards for us. They provided an inspirational moment at a time when we all need greater inspiration.

They reminded us of who we are and what we stand for and that we cannot be defined by balance sheets or stock prices.

Rest in peace, George Kadzis. We’ve got it from here.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Monster Truck Show tix winner announced

Our ticket-winning Tweeter is a hero.

ReignOfTheTec: I want the monster truck tickets so that me and my heroic friends can block flying debris from women and children.

I’ve just Tweeted a direct message to him to let him know of the win. Anyway, I think he is a male based on his photo.

These were the finalists, as selected by the judges (me and Julia Thompson):

Second Place: You would get the tickets if for some reason ReignOfTheTec doesn’t pick them up:

eye1der: I need those monster truck tickets. I am trying to punish my 2 fighting teenage sons by forcing them to do something fun together

Other finalists:

lockmomma: I am sending this tweet because it would be oh so sweet to get 4 tickets to the monster truck show. Please tweetmaster.

ASE2006: My nine year old daughter will kill me if I don’t come home with these tickets.

Umm. Sorry ASE. Good luck, though.

We had lots of great Tweets, including poetic Tweeters and creative-writing Tweets.

But alas, we had to pick only one, and I’ve always been a sucker for a hero.

ReignOfTheTec gets four VIP tickets to the Monster Truck Show Sunday, April 26, at the North Florida Fairgrounds. Included in that package is the following:

Admission to the show

Preferred seating

Pre-show pit party

A chance to meeting the drivers and get autographs

A chance to take pictures of the trucks

A chance to meet Batman Dark Knight and get a free Batman toy.

Thanks for playing and for your Tweets everyone.

Here’s how to follow this blog:

Twitter on this link.

Blogger.com on this link.

Tumblr.com on this link.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Note to Google: It takes money to create our content

Earlier this week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors became paperless. Members voted to change its name to the American Society of News Editors.

That’s the same move the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors made earlier this year.

I’m a member of both groups and on the board of FSNE.

I support the change, and voted in favor during the FSNE roll call, but am not in love with it.

Surprised?

The editor who has been writing a blog for nearly three year, who has pushed the use of social networks as reporting tools and who can Tweet with the best of them, cast a “yes” vote on the FSNE move with reluctance.

The reason is simple: The medium doesn’t matter; ink on paper or digital, who cares?

What matters is the quality of the journalism. That’s the bottom line.

And there is still a fundamental difference in the type of journalism done by newspaper organizations and others on the Web. And the reason for that has nothing to do with the medium and everything to do with money.

We’re certainly willing to fight for space on the Internet. Just yesterday, we moved our monthly Business Matters news magazine to an online-only publication and now have an extensive list of digital products.

But for most of the last hundred years or so, printed newspapers have provided a business model to support quality journalism. Right now, only the great search-engine companies and a few aggregators of other people’s content create that kind of revenue.

That’s what makes the remarks by Eric Schmidt, CEO and chairman of Google, at least suspect, if not ironic.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Tweet dreams of Monster Truck Show

Someone said what I’m about to do is a shameless promotion of my blog.

And her point was what?

Some of you have been reading this blog since it started in September 2006. You already know I don’t mind bribing you if that’s what it takes to expand our digital networking. My motto, as you well know, is whatever it takes.

OK, let’s get down to business. I have FOUR tickets to the Monster Truck Show at the North Florida Fairgrounds Sunday, April 26. Not just any tickets. I have four VIP tickets, which gets you insider access. I’ll give you more details should you win.

These are (according to the tickets) the Baddest Trucks on the Planet. Now the editor in me must tell you there is no such word, technically, as baddest; it is slang for great and tough, as in “Bad, bad Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole damn town.”

Loved that Jim Croce, if not his grammar.

Nonetheless, I’m willing to give you all four tickets. All you have to do to get the tickets is follow me on Twitter.

If you just said “what?” let me explain what you need to do.

Go to Twitter.com and sign up.

Then go to Twitter.com/bgabordi and click “Follow.”

Then send a message (called a Tweet) starting with “@bgabordi” to reply to me explaining why you want the tickets. Remember, Tweets are no more than 140 characters.

“But Bob,” you ask, “what if I’m already following you on Twitter? Can I still get those great tickets?”

Yes, you are eligible. You simply must send that Tweet explaining why you want them.

Two final steps whether you are a Twitter veteran or newbie:

Cut and paste your Tweet and come back here and post it in the comments section.

It would be nice if you would also send a Tweet to all of your followers saying follow Bob at @bgabordi, but it’s not necessary to win. You just have to have the best Tweet.

The DEADLINE to submit your Tweet is midnight tomorrow, April 8.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Let’s out think violence, Tallahassee

If you were out of town last week, you missed a lot.

The Legislature continues to look at ways to cut the budget, including how to cut state workers’ pay. It rained and rained and rained some more, causing Fay-like floods in isolated areas of the region.

And we were hit with another outbreak of violence. This one resulted in one man being shot to death and six others wounded when people started shooting each other in a crowded parking lot. The man who was killed, 26-year-old Curtis Brown, a father, was not involved in the dispute that resulted in the shooting.

Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputies called Brown “an innocent bystander” to the gang-related violence. You can see photos of the shooting scene here.


Well, we can’t do anything about how much it rains, and the Legislature, like the Divinity, moves in mysterious ways.

But can we think – and write – our way to creating a safer and better community?

We think it is time to give a democratic approach – one in which everyone has a voice – a try.

We’re experimenting with a new social-media tool on Tallahassee.com called MixedInk, a collaborative writing tool. The topic we’ve chosen to start with is community violence.

The question is: Can we figure out a way, working together, to curb violence?

While the approach is a fresh and novel way to seek community agreement on an approach to combating violent behavior in our community, the concept is not, and it can be used on a number of topics.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Latest on finding my grandfather

About 9:30 last night, a message popped into my Facebook inbox telling me when and how my grandfather died.

“He was walking along Landis Avenue, and a car hit him. The man in the car was arrested, and he told police that a light from another car blinded his vision momentarily, and he heard a noise, and stopped, and went back and saw your grandfather on the street. He was rushed to the hospital, but he had a skull fracture.”

The date was Dec. 26, 1930, in Vineland, N.J. He and his 16-year-old bride had a 6-month-old baby boy at home, my father.

I’ve learned a lot about my family’s history since writing a blog about the mysterious death of my grandfather. There were several family versions of his death, and none of us had ever found his grave.

The message I got last night was from a Facebook friend. Her mother-in-law and I share a distant relative, a great aunt.

My friend works for the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. She was able to find a newspaper story about my grandfather’s death.

My friend ended her e-mail with this:

“I’m sorry you never got to meet him. :(”

I’m sorry, too.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Tallahassee violence is real

I’ll admit I know nothing – as a young staff member pointed out yesterday – about the night life on the streets of Tallahassee.

But I do know this: Curtis Brown, 26, died in the parking lot of McDonald’s/Circle K at 811 Lake Bradford Road Sunday morning.

And now his mother, Mary Brown, and other family members and friends are grieving for the man Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputies called “an innocent bystander.”

I know all of that and this, too:

Nothing good can come of 150 people, ages 15 to 34 – at least some of whom are apparently coming from an “after-hours club” and some of whom are carrying guns – congregating in a parking lot at 4:30 in the morning.

And nothing did.

I’ve seen the pictures of what came from it. They are on Tallahassee.com.

Controversial? You bet. We’ve gotten several phone calls calling us insensitive and uncaring. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Too many people are being shot in our community, and too many people’s lives end in text-only reporting. There is too much grieving that we never see. It is time to humanize the violence, to tell it in full color.

Headline: TPD arrests 19-year-old in shooting.

Headline: LCSO: Handyman fought intruder.

Headline: Madison Co. sheriff seeks two in homicide (of Leon County woman).

Headline: Woodville woman’s death now considered a homicide.

Headline: Three charged in Holton St. killing.

Those are just some of the headlines that have appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat in less than three months since the beginning of the year. These are real stories, not make believe on TV. All of them should make you cry.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 7:07 AM 0 comments

Monday, March 30, 2009

Yes, it IS my job to stir trouble

Sometime fairly recently, the question has changed. It no longer seems relevant to ask people how they prefer to consume news and information, that is, in printed newspapers or on digital sites.

Now what seems more important is how well sourced our news will be and, just as importantly, whether it will be vetted.

Let me give you an illustration from this weekend:

About 5:30 Sunday morning my cell phone rang. Leon County Sheriff Office deputies were on the scene of a shooting on Lake Bradford Road.

I woke Local News Editor Rebeccah Cantley, who headed to the scene while I posted breaking-news alerts and initial reports on Tallahassee.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com.

Let’s face it: As a trained journalist with 30-plus years in the business I simply did what you or any other citizen could have done on that first report or, for that matter, a deputy could have done himself on a government Web site.

But in a short while, Cantley was on the scene, and that’s when the paradigm changed. It was at that point the journalist used her training to ask and gather information that official sources may not have provided as readily. She called me often to add greater detail as I updated the story on the Web. That process has continued since that story broke, with other reporters, editors and photographers taking over.

When she arrived, Cantley found about 150 people on the scene of the shooting, most – if not all, these days – with the ability to post quickly to any of a myriad of Web sites the same information I had posted in my initial report. No doubt, some did.

During the course of our reporting on this story – and most others, for that matter – our reporting moved quickly away from reliance on official sources for all our information, asking ourselves what are we not being told, what is missing, what makes sense and what doesn’t.

At the same time, on Tallahassee.com, our readers – armed with our reporting – did the same thing with us, questioning and discussing our reporting.

But it didn’t have to be that way, did it? Is an independent, mass-audience news source such as Tallahasse.com that important anymore, what with everyone able to report local news these days?

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:07 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Judge infringes on free speech in Hoffman case

Statements made by Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey during a pre-trial hearing in a civil case brought by the parents of Rachel Hoffman against the city of Tallahassee drew an immediate and strong reaction from First Amendment advocates.

“We don’t see the justification for the gag order in this particular case,” said Adria Harper, director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation. “It seems too broad.”

The ACLU and the Tallahassee Democrat are considering a challenge to the order.

Davey not only prohibited parties in the case from talking to the media – and anyone else – about the civil case, but he also prohibited Hoffman’s parents from speaking publicly on legislation known as Rachel’s Law outside of legislative hearings.

Davey is an experienced judge, but this decision – so far there is no written order, only oral instructions on how the order should be written – is poorly done and not well researched.

How could it be otherwise? Davey said during the hearing he had only gotten the case a few hours before the hearing.

“But, you know, I try to sort of avoid things that I think might be mine. You know, if you’re a criminal judge, and there is a crime, you know that’s going to be your case probably. You’ve got a 50 percent chance of getting it,” Davey said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

He didn’t bother to hear arguments from either side before making his decision or consider whether the case meets any of the high standards the courts have imposed for issuing gag orders. There was no careful examination of the facts, maybe not any examination of the facts. The judge appears to have been acting on information he thought he knew from outside of the courtroom.

I say that because the judge said so.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:31 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Note to reader: Back off the mustache, pal

Maybe it’s the stock-market crash or the economic crisis. It seems one or the other is blamed for every malady coming down the pike these days.

It has to be something. Maybe something is in the air or the water. Or maybe somebody slipped Stupid Pills into the vitamin jar.

I mean what is wrong with some people?

Let me give you an example:

Last week, I wrote a blog in reaction to state law-enforcement officers protesting at the Capitol over possible state budget cuts. I said we have to be able to support the basics as a state, in particular our police agencies and schools. If we can’t do that, I asked, what is the point of government?

In reaction to that I got an angry e-mail from Ruth on Saturday when the blog appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. You could tell the anger by the use of all capital letters. The e-mail suggested LEO’s unions have gotten a grab bag of generous “goodies” for the officers and that LEOs are overpaid.

The e-mail then made fun of my mustache. “Have you ever considered getting rid of the hair under your nose?”

Swell. That really improves the quality of your argument. I don’t know what their mammas taught them about the rules of proper behavior, but I get e-mails from people all the time who make fun of my height, how I talk, the way I dress, where I grew up, my athletic ability, etc. Mustache comments are rare, I guess because there are so many other things to not like about me.

I get it. When you put yourself out there in public, you open yourself up to the whackos. So I sent a fairly standard response back.

“The job of being my wife is taken,” I wrote back. “But thanks for the suggestion.”

Ruth wrote back, and I’m now cutting-and-pasting directly from the e-mail because you won’t believe it otherwise.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 4:24 AM 0 comments

Monday, March 16, 2009

Remembering the Holocaust in the digital age

Barbara Spiegler Goldstein is particularly moved by photographs of train tracks that led to the camps where 6 million Jews and others were murdered.

The tracks show that the Nazi’s genocide was carefully planned. The builders of the tracks, the planners of the routes and others – all had to know.

The photographs overwhelm emotions, but also teach us important lessons from that horrible period of time, 1933 to 1945, and our own time as genocides occur around the globe.

This year, Yom Hashoah – or Holocaust Remembrance Day – is observed April 21. Candles will be lit around the globe in remembrance.

Locally, the Holocaust Education Resource Council is planning a series of educational opportunities from March to May not only to help us remember, but also to help the schools meet state mandates.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Act, which requires all school districts to incorporate lessons on the Holocaust as part of public school instruction, an unfunded – or barely funded – mandate.

To get the conversation started in the community, Goldstein has set up a HERC Facebook page.

HERC’s third annual Student Essay/Art Contest is being formally announced in the schools, in the Tallahassee Democrat and on the HERC Web site this week as part of the activities. The deadline for submissions is April 24.

A series of programs and speakers will take place around town as well. The first is the Afikim Exhibit at the LeRoy Collins Public Library from April 17-22 to honor liberators from World War II. The exhibit recognizes American soldiers who liberated concentration camp survivors and nurtured them back to life. A multimedia installation, it features photographs and interactive kiosks with oral histories.

And an awards ceremony is planned for May 17 at the Challenger Learning Center.

But the centerpiece of the HERC offerings will be photographs.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 8:14 AM 0 comments

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Happy birthday, Toney Douglas: Bring the ACC trophy home for your party

Tomorrow is Toney Douglas’ birthday. This one is his 23rd. None would be better than this one should he work his magic for the Florida State Seminoles one last time in the ACC Tournament.

Mr. Defense. Mr. Offense. Mr. Desire. Mr. Clutch.

Click here to see our special online-multimedia project on Douglas. It was begun weeks ago, before anyone dared dream FSU would be this close to history, before Douglas was named first-team All-ACC and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. You can see a 50-photo gallery on his FSU career by clicking here.

Douglas has taken this ’Noles team places none has gone before: to the ACC title game.

Sure, there are a bunch of great and very good players on the team. But ask them why they’ve accomplished so much more than expected this year. I’d bet they’d say T.D., taking nothing away from ACC Coach of the Year Leonard Hamilton, or Derwin Kitchen or any of the fabulous freshmen.

After shocking No. 1 ranked North Carolina in the semi-finals, probably costing UNC the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, but not much more, Douglas fell to his knees in the Georgia Dome. Afterwards, on national TV, the Georgia native said: “I’m so happy I’m about to cry.”

FSU’s opponent in the championship game is one of the teams always there: Duke, a team that is a media darling for a good reason. It is always THAT good.

Duke seems to own a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, a permanent spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter show.

FSU, on the other hand, was picked to finish 10th in the ACC. It came within a hair of beating Duke once in the regular season and took a whipping in the other game. The only time an FSU basketball player is on the cover of Sports Illustrated is when he needs extra cushioning for the bus ride.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:46 AM 0 comments

Friday, March 13, 2009

Jobs, jobs, jobs: You ideas can make them work

Home Cooking

Our Jobs ·Our Economy·Our Future

Real Ideas from Real People

CLICK HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEAS

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR IDEAS TO THE MAYOR

OK, so what do you have to lose by taking the Home Cooking campaign seriously?

Our community is facing a triple whammy: government jobs are being lost, the undersized private sector is losing jobs, and it’s harder to bring new jobs to this community than to find Osama bin Laden.

So a few people got together with Mayor John Marks to talk about how we – that is, the community – could change the last of those three things, or at least get a start at it.

All that is needed are your ideas for things the community can do to create jobs. Now.

Think about this: Tallahassee and Leon County governments; Leon County Schools; media outlets including WCTV, Fox49, WFSU, the Capital Outlook and the Tallahassee Democrat; Capital City Chamber of Commerce; Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce; and the Florida Retail Federation are all working together, collaboratively to generate ideas.

Has that ever happened before on ANYTHING?

All that is asked of you is your ideas.

The concept is this is a very smart and well-educated community (those are not always the same things, as you know). Working together – brainstorming, if you will – maybe something will bubble up and really happen. And so what if does?

See the full blog on this link.

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