Tag: st. pete times
It’s odd to remember “The Daily Show” having to be defended
I searched site traffic this morning to see popular blog posts here on Johnny Fonts.. Someone ventured to an old blog post I did in 2006 where I ranted in defense or The Daily Show. I also got reminded by way of that post that I had written a letter-to-the-editor at in defense of The Daily Show.
Seeing the St. Pete Times (now Tampa Bay Times) archives are no longer public, I’m going to quote my letter in full. Mind you, I can’t link to the Op-Ed that drew my reaction. It is likely online, but where? I’m not sure:
‘Daily Show’ is not a detriment
Letter to the Editor, St. Pete Times
Re: Is “The Daily Show” bad for democracy?
What’s this now? Jon Stewart and his crew of reporters are turning off youth with their irony, cynicism and sarcasm concerning the antics of our elected officials?
I find it hilarious that the article in question thinks so little of the youth of America. We’re a generation of people whom elected officials tend to ignore and brush off. We’re a generation of Americans who have grown up through scandal after scandal (Iran-Contra, the S&L fallout, Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, 9/11 failings, Valerie Plame, etc.) and the article in question thinks that a TV show with a humorous take on the sorry state of affairs in this country is detrimental to democracy?
No, sir. What’s detrimental to democracy is how little the older generations – especially the one in control – inspire the rest of us. It’s detrimental that the Daily Show, which bills itself as “fake news,” has been more biting and investigative than the mainstream media for the past six years.
— John Fontana, Palm Harbor
Published June 28, 2006
In my opinion, there’s a lot more I should have said. More accountability was pointed toward government by the humor of Jon Stewar5, Stephen Colvert, Samantha Bee, and others ton the show. It seems funny — and stupid — a show with the intellectual weight that Stewart pulled off would draw criticism like the non-preference-linked column pulled off.
Stewart and crew didn’t dissuade. If they had, this blogger never would have written anything of a politically driven piece.
Did you know…? Tampa Bay Lightning stars once were extras in a comic book movie?
This past summer I asked friends on Facebook to name a movie that was filmed in their area. Those who responded cited flicks fitting to the region they live in, there was a good variation because…hey! I have friends all over.
One of the respondents was one of my long-time contact who I’ve known specifically by way of our talking Tampa Bay Lightning hockey on forums way back in the past. Her response startled me because of how I’d forgotten the fact:
She cited The Punisher and reminded me how Lightning players had been n set for filming.
Regarding “Missing piece of history — Jim Morrison in Clearwater”
In 2005, I penned a blog post that was inspired by the then-St. Petersburg Times had written an epic feature regarding the days of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, had spent living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Being a Morrison fan and living only a handful of miles away from locations mentioned in the piece, I was blown away. I had known about Morrison having been born in south Florida but I didn’t know about this.
Part of what inspired the blog post was the fact social media wasn’t then what it is today. Not that writing a blog post was going to necessarily draw eyeballs. Yet to this day, Missing piece of history – Jim Morrison in Clearwater still draws web traffic because of Morrison’s romantic interest (and song inspiration) Mary Werbelow.
At any rate, to get to the point, the now- Tampa Bay Times has basically failed with how they treat their archives online, which now hides the articles on a for-profit site (…unless the Times plans to fix their “Page Not Found” issues on archival articles). Between this and my old blog post failure in being more direct and obvious on the link to the feature section from September 25, 2005, finding the feature reading is next to impossible.
Well, was.
