news and record

Chris Knight's avatar

Margaret Moffett is a journalist’s journalist, and I would say that even if I had not known her for quite many years now.  She has brought her enormous talent to bear wherever she has gone, whether it was at The Reidsville Review (when we first met) or at the Greensboro News & Record, where she was reporter and editor of a number of sections.  She has earned my respect many times over.

So when her essay “Below the Fold” was published a few weeks ago, about the decline of what was at one time North Carolina’s third largest newspaper, I was more than intrigued.  Having watched the fall from grace of the News & Record during the past decade or so, I wanted to see what a firsthand witness to what transpired had to say about it.

To be brief: it was heartbreaking to read.

Moffett chronicles a series ...

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Okay, to be fair, there has not been any formal notification of exile.  But having attempted to make comments with five different browsers and automatically being directed to a Facebook “blue screen of banishment” with each one, it’s safe to say at this point that I am now persona non grata from adding to reader commentary on the News & Record website.  It was discovered two days ago and no correspondence has been returned from their staff about it so, looks like I’ve been dispatched to the hinterlands… or at least those where Greensboro, North Carolina’s “newspaper of record” is concerned.

As for why the banning has taken place: if it was in violation of terms of service, I can’t find a single example.  And I went back through the past few months, from around late spring when I began leaving comments on their published letters, editorials, and some ...

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One of the front-page stories of today’s edition of the (Greensboro, North Carolina) News & Record is about DC Comics delaying publication of science-fiction writer Orson Scott Card’s story for the upcoming first issue of DC Comics’ Adventures of Superman anthology.  Chris Sprouse, the artist assigned to illustrate the story, is refusing to work on grounds that the “controversy” about Card’s publicly-stated beliefs that homosexuality is wrong.  Especially his opposition to “gay marriage” during the lead-up to last year’s amendment to North Carolina’s constitution affirming that legal marriage is between one man and one woman.

You won’t find it in the story posted on the News & Record‘s website, but the article’s synopsis in the print edition reads thusly: “An uproar over author Orson Scott Card’s homophobic views leads illustrator to withdraw.”

“Homophobic”  As in, literally, “Orson Scott Card is in fear of homosexuals”.  The implication being that ...

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The News & Record in Greensboro – the region’s largest newspaper – has a story on the front page of today’s edition about last night’s resolution by the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners to restore the Confederate Soldiers Monument in downtown Reidsville (see earlier post here).

For some reason or another Joe Gamm – the reporter who wrote the story – chose to include the following in his article…

“After a court approved replacing the monument, vandals spray-painted the words ‘Monument is coming back’ on an auto body shop run by an African American businessman who outspokenly opposed returning the statue to its original spot.”

Could somebody please explain to me: What does the above reference by Mr. Gamm have anything… anything at all… to do with what happened to the Confederate monument from the time of the accident in 2011 up ’til today?

Because I can’t find ...

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There’s a very fascinating article in today’s News & Record about what Greensboro went through in April 1865, as the American Civil War drew to a close. Upon reading the story, one would easily get the impression that the spring of that year was the moment that forever defined Greensboro, as a relatively small town became a crossroads of military and political activity. Greensboro is where Jefferson Davis and his remaining cabinet fled to after abandoning the last officially recognized Confederate capital in Danville, and it was here that Davis received word that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse. Thousands of soldiers filled makeshift hospitals throughout the town (including First Presbyterian Church, shown in the photo). The town also suffered an immense amount of looting and rioting as resources became scarce. Well worth reading if you’re into Civil War or local history....

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“Leaders at all levels seek power ahead of justice”.

I won’t quote the entire letter here but this part of it warrants special mention:

I live in Rockingham County. For months I’ve watched elected officials in my own backyard trample on the Constitution: from a school board member suing citizens for practicing the right to petition, to a city council banning new churches.

I’ll give you three guesses who is being referred to here 😛...

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Here’s the link to my latest letter to the editor of the News & Record. I had a wonderful conversation with Becky Layton in the editorial department a few days ago when she called to verify that I wrote this (standard procedure for letters to be published) and I said then that I’m very serious about this suggestion. The News & Record staff had a great idea when they started encouraging blogging and commenting on op-ed pieces. Now here’s a chance to take it way on past the next level: ban all political labels, like “Democrat” and “Republican”, “conservative” and “liberal”, “right wing/left wing” etc.

Some will say that this will drastically limit the amount of material for the op-ed pages. No doubt that’s true. But it will encourage serious, engaging and even polite debate about real ideas, instead of the partisan bickering that has become so anemic. And there ...

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Gerald Witt has a write-up in today’s News & Record about the lawsuit that Ron Price has filed against Richard Moore (click here for more info on that). At the beginning of his story Witt makes mention of something that’s currently on Moore’s website and I couldn’t resist posting it here either for sake of posterity…

Political sniping going to court

By Gerald Witt
Staff Writer

WENTWORTH — Ronbo — a mash-up of Rambo and Rockingham County school board member Ron Price — greets visitors to Richard Moore’s Web site.

Moore, a local political pot-stirrer, independent publisher and unsuccessful 2006 school board candidate, doesn’t seem rattled by a slander and libel lawsuit Price filed against him last month claiming $140,000 in damages.

A copy of the complaint is on Moore’s site, next to the Ronbo photo: Price’s face on the body of John Rambo , a long-haired, tank-topped Vietnam

...
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From what I’m hearing, the calls to those who made it to the second tier of the On The Lot competition have already gone out. I won’t be going any further with this season’s contest, ‘cuz The Call(tm) hasn’t come here. But it was fun to have at least tried… and to have put together a movie like this so fast.

Anyway, the News & Record, which is the big newspaper around here, ran a story about my entry Schrodinger’s Bedroom in the Rockingham section of the paper. It’s not up on their website so I transcribed it here:

A couple, a room, a hopeful director

– Chris Knight hopes his short film gets him chosen to be on a reality TV show.

BY GERALD WITT
Staff Writer

REIDSVILLE – Dead cats, quantum physics and newlyweds thread into a short film that was shot, written and directed here as ...

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