eChaser: June 2008 / p3

NEW MEMBERS

PRSA ... Liesl Logan, Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller, LLP ... Sasha Denman, Weaver and Tidwell ... Kristy Emory, Weaver and Tidwell ... Lauren Fernandez, American Mensa

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Laura Van Hoosier, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Here it is almost summertime, and I have amassed a gigantic stack of books I hope to read, ideally by some beach or pool. The Memorial Day weekend provided a nice opportunity to finish two I’d recommend to everyone: “The Shack” by William P. Young and Maria Shriver’s “Just Who Will You Be?” Originally written for graduates, Maria’s book suggests that the time is always right to chase your dreams.

Almost a dozen GFW PRSA members have committed to starting the APR exam process. APR chair Kim Speairs, APR, and I are fired up about the excitement in this group. These PR professionals want the APR for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it’s a goal — a professional dream.

My daughters had their dance recital Mother’s Day weekend, and the theme was “Wishes, Dreams and Imagination.” In advance of the big day, every dancer completed a flyer that went on display at the entryway along with her photo. Each sheet began with “My wish” or “I imagine” or “My dream is.” Nine-year-old Bryn Van Hoosier completed her message with: “My wish is to get a trained horse that I can ride all the time and groom it sparkly clean.” Pie in the sky, right?

How could we have known that two weeks later she would spend Memorial Day weekend at her grandparents’ farm in Weatherford caring for and riding horses her grandfather got for his four granddaughters. As” luck” would have it, a family friend moved and had two older, trained horses for the taking. They just needed a new home.

You can only imagine Bryn’s joy. Her smile that weekend will stay with us for a long, long time. There’s joy in Mary and Joe Dulle’s family, too, as their granddaughter, Clara Smith, age 6, returned home from the hospital after being kicked in the head by a horse at her parents’ ranch in Canadian, Texas, near Amarillo. “It´s wonderful,” Mary writes, “what the power of prayer, good thoughts and energy can do.”

Sadly, little Juliette Brown’s story had a different ending. The 9-year-old Haltom City girl died after being dragged a mile and a half by a horse near Benbrook Stables. The story touched many, including the Van Hoosier girls. Our sympathies are with the family.

Life is fragile, life is grand. Here’s to your dreams. It’s never too late — or early — to start living them.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth

IABC has provided me a wealth of information and professional contacts that make my job easier. Please consider renewing your IABC membership to continue networking with peers and sharing great ideas. IABC members have been very busy the past year. Among the highlights:

• IABC Fort Worth membership continues to expand. We currently have 50 active members, 10 percent of whom are accredited.

• We recently hosted two successful after-hours networking events.

• The Summer Seminar Series is off to a robust start.

• Three board members attended Leadership Institute in February.

• We co-hosted the joint communicators holiday party with SPJ in December.

• IABC Fort Worth is financially sound.

• Our Bronze Quill awards continue to recognize the best and most creative work across the region.

Many thanks to the board members who have propelled us through another strong year. Your insight, wisdom and hard work have been invaluable.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

Registration is now open for the 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in Atlanta. Check out the growing list of professional development programs, where you can find everything from photojournalism for reporters to tips for covering Latinos. And don’t forget the half-day training workshops. ...

In his new book, E&P editor Greg Mitchell offers a stinging indictment of the media’s complicity with Washington’s war-marketing machine. Essays in ”So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed on Iraq” date from just before the Iraq war started in 2003. Be skeptical, Mitchell urges, and the rule applies “whether you are probing a local school board scandal or the preparation for an invasion of another country.” ...

Seven thousand two hundred forty-four reasons for a shield law. That’s how many subpoenas U.S. daily newspapers and network television news operations are estimated to have received in 2006, according to a new study. The study, funded by a grant from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, based that number on a survey of editors and news directors. It comes out to 0.9 subpoenas for each newspaper and 10.2 for each TV news operation. A similar 2001 Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press study found 0.7 subpoenas for each newspaper and 7.7 for each TV news outlet. Visit SPJ’s shield law page to learn more about proposed legislation. ...

Nine days after The New York Times reported on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, ABC, CBS and NBC still had not mentioned the report. But during their April 28 evening news shows, all three networks reported on the Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus’ naked back.

Closing words: “I was not aware that we had quarreled.” — Henry David Thoreau to his aunt, who asked him, on his deathbed, if he was at peace with God ... “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

Closing words II, special George W. Bush you can’t make this stuff up entry: “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.” — the president on deciding to quit playing golf after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights. Alas, the noble vow lasted not all that long. But for heaven’s sake, how much sacrifice can one man make?

Closing Words III, culpable media division: “The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings. And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives ... to put on positive stories about the president. ... They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience.” — CNN’s Jessica Yellin talking on air May 28 to Anderson Cooper about Scott McClellan’s tell-all memoir and agreeing with the former press secretary that White House reporters dropped the ball during the run-up to the Iraq war; Yellin, who then was an MSNBC segment producer, overnight anchor and field reporter, the next day tried to modify her statement: “No, senior corporate leadership never asked me to take out a line in a script or rewrite an anchor intro. I did not mean to leave the impression that corporate executives were interfering in my daily work; my interaction was with senior producers. What was clear to me is that many people running the broadcasts wanted coverage that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the country at the time.”