The Dedeacon's Tale

Thursday, November 11, 2010

We Are Gearing It Back Up





Have You Noticed?

Are you not getting what you paid for or find things and products just not the same. Two of my staples of nourishment on the campaign trail were M&M Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. With consistency..I found that with the new packaging for Cracker Jacks..most of the caramel has cracked off the kernel of popcorn and ends up with a big pile of it along with the peanuts at the bottom of the bag...while you have nothing but puff corn to eat. I'm sure it has something to do with the bag the product is put in and the shipping and handling. Its not what it used to be and I'm tired of collecting nothing but removal tattoos for prize inside. Bring back the unique little toys!! Toddlers are not eating Cracker Jacks anymore.

As for M&M Peanuts... very few have full peanuts inside the candy anymore. I found many of the candies lacked a peanut at all. Many of the ones that had something in it was usually just a broken piece of peanut. Don't ever buy a bag from a convenience store...most are now run by folks who don't care if a product has an expiration date on it. A stale M&M peanut is like eating an old dried up Krystal hamburger. (Not what we seek from the Krytal..We want the mushy steamed bun)

FAIR AND BALANCED? OH GIVE ME A BREAK!!
This was the only picture that the mainstream Nashville media posted of me and mentioned our campaign during the nearly past two years. The only other exception would be a couple of stories that Mindy Tate and the Williamson Herald ran. This picture was used in a well-written story by Bonnie Burch and appeared in the Brentwood Journal portion of the Tennessean.

You would have thought that the local guy would have generated more interest from the Nashville papers and the Television and Radio Stations. On numerous attempts we tried to get them to publish our announcement of the run, we sent several Press Releases on Campaign positions and at last resort we tried to send Letters to the Editors...But nothing!! When we tried to reach out personally with emails to columnists, they shot back comments..."we determine what we cover and who we cover!" The three major stations in Nashville, WSMV, WTVF, and WKRN all failed to cover any aspect of our campaign and what we stood for. Credit Fox 17 for giving me 12 seconds of air time back this summer. They were the only one in Nashville. I know for a fact that each station got email can calls from folks asking them to include us in the conversation, which they totally ignored. They eventually quit responding to email from us, most notably the Channel 5 News Director. I even bought ads on Channel 5 and Channel 2. No one would give us a reason why? For our campaign to have some success and to be able to springboard into other areas of the State, I needed exposure from the media in Nashville and that didn't happen. What the papers and the TV and Radio Stations were doing was no public service to the audience. They didn't care to let you know that there were other options in attracting new jobs to Tennessee or that we proposed additional ideas in Education reform. They determined that you the voter only needed 2 options. However, they were interested in selling ads to us. The two major talk radio stations in Nashville were as arrogant as well in determining what you should know as a voter. However, one morning host did invite me to call in and I did appreciate that opportunity as well..and he pitched our website as well.

You can throw into that mix, the League of Women Voters who are supposed to be a non-partisan group looking to inform the voters by hosting events including the debates. You should have heard the excuses they gave me and some of the other Independent Candidates of why they were not going to include me in the debates. The Next addition of this blog will share that information with you.

Credit the Knoxville Media, all three areas: TV, Radio, and print. They gave me and some of the other candidates more exposure than the rest of the State combined. It was surprising that it came from Governor-elect Haslam's hometown. It looks like I have picked at the Nashville market in particular...I have...its my hometown. The Memphis Paper did post a voter's guide which included me, The FreePress in Chattanooga did announce my candidacy. The Johnson City paper also included me in on a story, along with the McMinnville Standard. Other small papers had bits and pieces along the way.

There were two radio hosts that were bold enough to include me on their shows and issued their support to our campaign. Carl Boyd, Jr of WTST Radio in Nashville (major internet programming) and John Hester of the Average American show on KWAM in Memphis. Blake Farmer did a NPR/WPLN report which included us. The Hallerin Hilton Hill show on WOKI in Knoxville did a 15 minute interview with me. The News Talk station in Chattanooga also did an interview as well. I also appeared on John Gaessler's Internet Radio show in Murfreesboro and another internet show originating from Memphis.

I truly believe that the Tennessee Voters deserved a little better than what was served up to them by the media. I even had one Memphis TV station that told me to take money somewhere else when we tried to buy air time....and Shame on the League of Women Voters. Hopefully they will wake up next time.

Hope you will check back for future updates as we will deal with all kinds of stuff..not just political stuff...share this blog with your friends. We will post update notices on my Facebook page.

Until next time...I am the Dedeacon. (Its good to be back!)



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