This Just In...

Stewart Cink Considers Himself a Native Georgian

East Lake Country Club and the neighborhood are special places for Cink.  The course is where his golf game began to mature when Cink played for Georgia Tech from 1991-95.  Back then, the East Lake Club course glistened, but the neighborhood did not.  The story of its resurrection, led by Atlanta developer icon Tom Cousins, is well told, and appreciated by Cink.  “I remember being there when nobody wanted to be there,” said Cink.

Next Wednesday, just a day before the championship begins, Cink will conduct another of what he calls his “little clinics” for kids.  These began years ago with “kids of the community, kids who didn’t have any place to go.”  Perhaps their parents were at work, or perhaps gone.  These were kids who needed someone to rescue them.  Golf would help.
“The real story of East Lake is these kids,” Cink said, “and what they’ve been able to do.  I’m still part of it.”

Cink’s British Open playoff victory over Watson is golf’s defining moment this season.  Watson’s missed short putt on 18 prevented him from winning a sixth Open and his first since 1983.  Cink swept Watson easily in the four-hole playoff, earning him the title “Shrek of the Links” in next morning British papers, which he considered just good-natured ribbing. “I don’t think I had anybody rooting against me, but they were all pulling for Tom Watson, their hero,” Cink said.

As for the Claret Jug that came home to Duluth from Turnberry, so far it has been filled with Guinness, Harp, Coca-Cola, water and champagne.  “It’s been dry now for a few weeks,” he said.  “Maybe it’s time to fill it up!”

The Atlanta Press Club thanks Coca-Cola as presenting sponsor along with the Georgia Link Public Affairs Group and Dewberry Capital as program sponsors. Their financial support made the luncheon possible.

The next Press Club luncheons are Thursday October 8 with Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Tuesday October 13 with CBS Correspondent Byron Pitts and Wednesday October 14 with Pulitzer Prize winning author Taylor Branch.  All three luncheons will begin at noon at The Commerce Club, 34 Broad Street in downtown Atlanta.

www.mikekleinonline.com

Steve Burns another guest of the Cink luncheon wrote about the golf pro:

http://humanclippingservice.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/golfer-cink-is-shrek-in-britain/

Lunch with Jerry Springer, a Man of Many Dimensions

Lunch with Jerry Springer is a fasten your seat belt whirlwind. You spend an hour feeling like you are a passenger on his extraordinary turbo-charged hot air balloon.  Springer cares passionately about many things, among them the tabloid television talker that bears his name.  “Our show doesn’t deal with any serious issues,” Springer told an Atlanta Press Club luncheon audience on Friday.  Now there’s a shocker.  Lately, Springer has been calling the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta home while he headlined the musical “Chicago” which closed its run this weekend at The Fox Theatre.

Springer is a man with a full portfolio:  Lawyer, city councilman, Cincinnati mayor, former Ohio gubernatorial candidate, television news program host and commentator, talk show survivor, Broadway stage player, political activist, Air America radio host.  Ask what he likes best, and he says, “Family.”  This is clearly a guy with many dimensions.  He’s just as comfortable with crazed TV talk show lovers in trysts as when discussing health care policy.

Luncheon guests who expected Hollywood gossip instead heard Springer speak passionately about his commitment to universal health care which he describes as a moral crusade. “We are a good and decent people.  We saw that in 9/11,” Springer said. “Where there is a cause there is nobody better than us.  If God forbid, somebody attacked the West Coast and we knew who did it, would somebody stand up and say, ‘Let’s not go after them.  It’s too expensive.  Let’s hold hearings.’  Some things ought to be guaranteed.  You ought to be able to get to a doctor.”

Springer has a fairly interesting theory about liberal vs. conservative.  He contends with conservatives largely in control of the agenda 40 years ago, liberals took to the streets to make their case.   Today he sees liberals largely in control and conservative radio as the political equivalent of taking to the streets.  “Talk radio has gone insane in some areas,” he says.  “It’s off the charts.”  But he disagrees with critics who target conservative radio .  “Rush LImbaugh has every right to bo on.  Let him preach.  Let him preach.  As conservative as they want to be, let them be.”  Springer’s Air America liberal radio show was heard nationally for about 18 months in 2005 and 2006.

Conversation with Springer flows rapidly through his political career — he was Cincinnati’s mayor before he ran for Ohio governor.  There was his television newsman career — ten years as a Cincinnati anchor and commentator, three shows per day.  Then the lucrative talk show career that made him a household name.   Phil Donahue was retiring and the station needed somebody; they took him to lunch and told him, now you’re also the new talk show guy.   This year Springer has been headlining the musical “Chicago” in London, New York and Atlanta while recording five “Jerry Springer Show” episodes per week, 180 episodes per year.  His television program airs three times per day on WATL in Atlanta.

Springer on television is a combination of boxing referee and carnival barker.  His job is to get the juices flowing, in some cases get the guests swinging, and then keep it going. He describes the program as a “normal talk show in the beginning” that evolved into a “talk show for a fraternity party. The decision was to go young.”  When Universal Studios bought his program,  “They called us in and said, you’re only allowed to go crazy.”  Today he describes his program as outrageous, adding “Why are people watching?  I wouldn’t watch!”  Some folks, he says, seem to expect programs like “Christmas with the Klan.” 

Jerry Springer is 65 years old, an age when most folks are slowing down rather than speeding up.  His gears seem remain in overdrive.  After “Chicago” plays in Philadelphia this month Springer will be off to Las Vegas for ten live weeks of “America’s Got Talent.”  After the Press Club luncheon on Friday he sat down for an interview with Mother Nature Network, the environmental news network co-founded by Rolling Stones guitarist Chuck Leavell.

 ”I’m at a point,” he says, “where I do things because I enjoy them.”

Written by Mike Klein

APC Board Member

If you would like to read more by Mike visit his blog http://mikekleinonline.com/

Creative Loafing Sold to Highest Bidder

Check out Atlanta Press Club board member Mara Shalhoup’s blog piece this afternoon about the sale of Creative Loafing’s parent company, headed by CEO Ben Eason, to Atalaya Capital Management in a bankruptcy auction. More information to come, according to local media sources following the story…

Don Hewitt, 60 Minutes creator, dies

Award-winning CBS television executive Don Hewitt, who was executive producer of “60 Minutes” for some 36 years, has died. He was 86 and had pancreatic cancer.

Hewitt started his career in newspapers but spent most of his journalism life working for CBS television, according to the CBS News obituary. He directed the first television network newscast on May 3, 1948, and produced and directed CBS luminaries such as Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Hewitt also directed coverage for the three networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) of the first televised presidential debate in 1960.

Hewitt was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1990. Visit this link for some fascinating video (including a clip of the debut of “60 Minutes” in 1968), photos and a timeline.

Robert Novak Dies

More than a year after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, conservative columnist Robert Novak has died.

Novak had been a commentator for CNN for 25 years, most often appearing as co-host of “Crossfire.”

According to CNN’s obituary of Novak, “In 2003, he found himself at the center of the scandal over the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, when he published a column revealing her CIA status days after her husband challenged a key Bush administration justification for the invasion of Iraq. The scandal ultimately led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators probing the leak.”

Novak was 78.

AJC Moves Blog

Well .. at least they don’t plan to call it the Metro Atlanta Journal & Constitution., or some such name!  That was my first reaction today after seeing that the Atlanta Journal & Constitution is saying good riddance to its aging edifice on Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta.  And isn’t that just what downtown Atlanta needs, another abandoned building.  But it’s true.  The newspaper will shut down its Atlanta address next spring, and move to a news address at 223 Perimeter Center Parkway.  The newspaper said this move “provides scalability to match the company’s current needs and future growth.”   The initial move goes into effect in the first quarter next year and Cox Enterprises says it will be completed over a period of months.

The AJC, like every other financially failing newspaper in the country, is trying to figure out how to remake itself in every definition of the word.  Printing and production was moved to Gwinnett County and the paper has been struggling to transition from a print edition dropped at your driveway into an internet product.  The easy part is putting up the website.  The hard part is how to structure declining revenue against increasing expenses, the all-too-often told story of the American economy today.

My personal message is Best Wishes to everyone who’s still there and let’s hope they can make their moves work.  We certainly do not want to become the largest metropolitan city in America without a major newspaper and until somebody else creates one, the AJC is the last and only chance.  It will be weird not having them downtown.  But downtown itself is kinda weird as it struggles to maintain relevance with Midtown and Buckhead constantly nipping at Downtown’s heels.  If you think about Downtown without State Government, Georgia State University and CNN, there really wouldn’t be too much left.   Except for Underground Atlanta .. but I almost apologize for mentioning that! 

Mike Klein

APC Board Member

Colleagues Pay Tribute to Cronkite

Walter Cronkite’s funeral was today. I’ve been really fascinated and moved as I’ve learned more about his life and amazing accomplishments. The service today — and all who spoke about him — was a testament to the inspiration he has been to ALL journalists, in some way. Mr. Cronkite’s passing is a symbol of the “end of an era” in serious journalism. May he rest in peace, and may journalists of today AND the future remember his life and work, and strive in some way to emulate them.

AJC Names New Publisher

Today, executives of Cox Media Group announced the promotion of Michael Joseph to publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Joseph has been with the AJC since April as president and general manager, and previously was president and CEO of Cox Ohio Publishing and publisher of the Dayton Daily News. He succeeds Doug Franklin, who will continue serving as executive vice president of Cox Media Group.

R.I.P. Atlanta writer Paul Hemphill

Atlanta author Paul Hemphill, a celebrated columnist for the Atlanta Journal and the author of a popular biography of Hank Williams, died today at the age of 73, from cancer that had spread from his mouth to his lungs.

According to his AJC obit:

As a columnist and author, Hemphill entranced readers chronicling the blue-collar South. He wrote about stock cars and country music, church burnings and church evangelists. His 15 books, including nonfiction work and novels, reverberated with all the twang and tears of a Hank Williams tune.

UPDATE: JKelly writes in the comments that Hemphill’s “memorial will be [held] at A.S. Turner & Sons in Decatur. Visitation is Tuesday July 14 from 6-8PM, and the service is Wednesday July 15 at Noon.”

In a 2005 profile of Hemphill, former Creative Loafing Senior Editor Doug Monroe opened with a moving anecdote of the talented writer:

Paul Hemphill lifts the chewed-up piece of Nicorette gum out of his mouth and sticks it in a paper napkin. This is a man who used to fire up 20 of those mean little nonfiltered Camels a day and now he chews pellets of doped-up gum. It is an indignity.

Hemphill is at Manuel’s Tavern on a Tuesday night — government-in-exile night — with Democratic politicos, cops and ex-newspapermen. He’s at a big round table with his wife, Susan Percy, and a circle of friends. They’re passing around an early copy of his new book, Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams. They’re all pulling for it to be a hit.

Hemphill is 69, recovering from a stroke, his face pale and gaunt. But you look at the book cover and then at him. You can see a bit of the late Hank Williams in his new biographer. The resemblance is uncanny: Two boys rising up out of blue-collar Alabama, born 13 years apart, both with big ears, both 6-1, 150 pounds, with a tendency to shrink into the 130s when the booze kicked in. And, boy, did the booze kick in. Continue reading the article by clicking here.

Written by Doug Monroe and the AJC

CNNRadio Reporter Ed McCarthy Dies

Longtime CNNRadio correspondent Ed McCarthy died yesterday after battling cancer.

Before joining CNNRadio in 1986 as a news and business anchor, McCarthy was news director and co-host of a morning show at a Fort Pierce, Fla., radio station. He also was a weather anchor at a TV station there, and also was news director at radio stations in Stuart, Fla., and West Palm Beach, Fla.

On CNNRadio’s web page, a short obituary states, “Ed was more than a co-worker, but a friend who always had a smile and a story to offer. He will be missed.”