inthenews

Flower Man

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/2088557

I was planning on going to help out on this project. Would have been fun. Damned Flu.

-b

Sept. 8, 2003, 9:21PM
Artistic ‘Flower Man’ gets new house, paint job, too
By ANDREW GUY JR.
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Paint cans sit on the ground, tops popped off, brushes dipping in and out. Sledge hammers lift and fall, crushing the dilapidated columns on the porch and the tile floors in the entrance. Workers scatter, lifting, squatting, brushing, sweeping.

“Yeah!” the Flower Man answers.

The door is painted.

Bright yellow.

“This is the only yellow that will bring out the life of this dead house,” the Flower Man says. “And it brightens up this corner.”

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20740 Gulf Freeway

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So, we were down in Clear Lake salvaging some sinks, toilets, mirrors, handycap rails, et al to use in the new bar (next to the Continental).  Pete knows the guy that owns this place.  It was the old giant Fiesta that went up at I-45 & NASA 1 a little over a decade ago.   … Read more

Bush Admin – Simplistic Points

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On Bush’s press conference yesterday, his 9th (his father had 61 up to this point), a New York Times Editorial said “The president and his advisers obviously still believe that the constant repetition of several simplistic points will hypnotize the American people into forgetting the original question.” Rich. -b

George Will gone wacky?

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What’s up with George Will’s attack on Vermont? There are many issues we need to be addressing and many which aren’t getting air time. He’s usually good about finding those topics and talking about them (even if I don’t often agree with him). This week on Meet the Press, he just attacked Vermont. “[Its] most … Read more

You know the economy’s bad when…

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…the trash companies are laying off people.


June 30, 2003, 9:43AM
Waste Management to cut 800 jobsAssociated Press

Houston-based Waste Management Inc. said today it will reduce its work force by 600 and eliminate 200 contract positions as part of a plan to reduce its markets and streamline costs.

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Open Letter – sloppy media

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Open letter to Associated Press, Martin Reynolds of the Gartner Group, and the Houston Chronicle.


James T. Campbell, Houston Chronicle Reader Representative, readerrep@chron.com
Scott Clark, Assistant Managing Editor, Business, edtgsc@chron.com
Conrad Bibens, Wire Editor – Business, conrad.bibens@chron.com
Martin Reynolds, (VP ?) Gartner Group, martin.reynolds@gartner.com
in lieu of an ombudsman contact on the AP web site…
Managing Editors, Associated Press, apme@ap.org
Edward Jones, President, Associated Press Managing Editors, edjones@freelancestar.com
Stuart Wilk, Vice President, Associated Press Managing Editors, swilk@dallasnews.com
General Contact Address, Associated Press, info@ap.org

There seems to be an unbalanced bias between two articles that ran in the Houston Chronicle’s business section this week and both of which came via the Associated Press.

They were both very small, wire articles and could have been shoved in to fill the gap of a few column inches. One was on Apple Computer, the other on Microsoft – certainly could be viewed as balancing the coverage. But they show signs of subtle bias and laziness in our media; small signs in small articles that reflect upon the whole. They reflect the media as a mouthpiece of the corporations. One has a partial quote that seems to be placed for maximum emotional effect. (Is there a need to keep the readers of a three inch column entertained in the last paragraph?)

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