Flash Backtime: Waco On The Way

It's kind of a glorious morning in Waco. The above picture was taken from the 11th floor of perhaps the tallest building in the city.

The trip to Waco jump starts a very ambitious road trip, but it was a trip I made here several years ago that was the culmination of one. In fact, that's when I sat down a started this little pocket of the internet.

Three hundred and fifty posts ago, Backtime's first entry was titled Waco On The Way. 

February 1, 2009

When you’re on a long stretch on the road like I am, the Super Mario-like obstacles that impede your progress become less annoying and more comic.

Some years ago, I stopped complaining about the “now” and focused on the “next” – the only problem about problem-solving is my mind often races in 5th gear when my body is in neutral.

It all started earlier this week when my 2-day business trip got extended to 9 days thanks to the Oklahoma ice storms. The “now” was I wasn’t going to get home for a while. The “next” was a shopping spree at the JC Penney in Coralville, Iowa. I had three more games to produce and I didn’t feel right going to work in sweats.

After 4 days barnstorming in Iowa (I can now identify in some measure with the presidential hopefuls), I headed for the final outpost between the road and home: Waco, Texas.

On my half-filled commuter flight from DFW, some cowboy moved to the empty seat in front of me right before takeoff, then reclined his seat back all the way back as soon as we were in the air. This was a breach of frequent-flying etiquette and I pondered how to let him know.

If it were longer than a 20-minute flight I probably would have kicked his chair or unfolded my newspaper in such a way that he’d be wearing it as a hat. But I let it go.

It reminded me of the best revenge I ever got on a fellow traveler – it was many years ago. This husky 300+ pound guy sat next to me, dominated the armrest, fell asleep immediately and snored in my face for over 2 hours. When the flight was over, he had no clue where his shoes were. That was pretty mean, but it felt so good.

So I landed in Waco about 8:45 on a Saturday night and got to the Hertz counter. But there was no agent. In fact, there was no agent at any counter. But I had a reservation. There was nobody to cry to, so I collected my mountain of baggage and found an airport policeman outside. It was a helpful conversation.

EP: Excuse me officer, I have a reservation at Hertz, but there’s nobody there.

COP: Yeah, she goes home about 6 on Saturdays.

EP: Can I call a cab?

COP: Might take about a half-hour. Waco’s only got one cab company and they’re clear across town.

EP: Who do you have to be to get help around here, George W. Bush?

COP: Well he’s just John Q. Citizen now. If his helicopter lands at this airfield at this time on a Saturday night, he’s SOL. He’ll just have to call his wife to pick him up like everyone else.

I thanked him. I was just as helpless as before, but at least I was smiling. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the American flight crew piling into a hotel shuttle. I jumped in with them even though it wasn’t my hotel. I humped my gear a couple of clicks up to my hotel and got on line to check in. When it was finally my turn, an old woman in wheelchair cut me off – she nearly ran over my foot - and started asking the guy at the front desk a bunch of inane questions.

What was I going to do? Tell off the rude old lady in a wheelchair? The front desk guy took pity and told her “let me check this gentleman in first.” My first victory in Waco. Not even the ATF could take it away from me.

If you’ve never been to Waco, this is a very Christian town. The hotel doesn’t offer laundry service on Sundays. So here I am, at a coin-operated laundromat for the first time since I was an NYC bachelor. Oh, and I had to walk since I don’t have a car.

But the trip will get better. We’re looking forward to enjoying the Super Bowl at Cricket’s. My man Bubba was in Vegas for last night’s big UFC battle and he threw down some scratch for me. Big Monday is at Baylor for the first time in 8 years and it should be a great scene.

And I will be home in 48 hours. But got to finish the job in Waco on the way.

Flash Backtime: It's A Wonderful Life (This Week Anyway)

It's that time of year again. Time to celebrate the holiday season, the spirit of giving and unselfishness. When we all live in Bedford Falls.

But would George Bailey's story play today? In this economic and divisive political climate?

An conservative cohort once admitted his incongruous love affair with It's A Wonderful Life, "Isn't it clear that George Bailey is a socialist community organizer?"

The Backtime archives on Barack Obama's first week in office:

January 23, 2009

I was on a plane during inauguration, so it took me a few days to get up to speed. It unfolded like a Capra film - there was Mr. Obama going to Washington to bring conscience to the DC consortium. And the masses braved the cold to see the man who came from nowhere to be the ultimate example for everyone's dreams. 

Just like George Bailey, Barack Obama is driven by a responsibility to others. His self-expression has to take a back seat while he tries to bail out the US Savings & Loan. And the supporting cast was right there to fill out the party. 

Ted Kennedy's moment of the week was something Uncle Billy easily could have pulled at the big gala. Caroline Kennedy was Violet Bick, outcast through a web of unspecific innuendo. And who was Clarence the angel? The good-natured oddball dimwit who showed President Obama how important he is to the world? I'm going with George W. Bush. And tell me Dick Cheney in the wheelchair didn't conjure up thoughts of the warped, frustrated Mr. Potter. Fortunately Potter's reign is over and Bedford Falls can thrive across America. 

If only this were a black and white film.

Paper Backtime: Rather's Journey in Journalism

I saw Tom Brokaw in an elevator once. I was carrying a copy of Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals. He mumbled, "good book." I instantly felt more intelligent.

I informally met Peter Jennings several times while I was at ABC Sports. I would edit college football teases in the basement and he would occasionally go down there to sneak a smoke.

I had always thought of Dan Rather as the stodgiest of the Big 3 of my generation. He was the dry anchor at the old, white guy network. I never thought of him as a progressive crusader, the way the right wing painted him in 2004 when Bush 43 was running for reelection.

The report on George W. Bush's missing time from his National Guard service in 1972 and 1973 created a political firestorm that ultimately led to his ouster from CBS. Rather admits that he learned after the fact that a source was tainted, and the chain of evidence of the notorious Killian documents couldn't be completely accounted for.

But he stands by the story that ran as factually correct. And no evidence has been presented to dispute it. And he goes to great lengths detailing his lawsuit vs CBS (which was thrown out by The Court of Appeals before the first suit was ever tried), and about the political pressure that super-corporation Viacom was under not to allow CBS News to cast the President in a negative light in an election year.

But "George Bush and the Texas Air National Guard" is only Chapter 2; Chapter 1 is titled "Abu Grahib," after CBS News first broke the pictures and report from the infamous Iraq prison. The pushback Rather received from his superiors was his first indicator that the network's brand (he often refers to the CBS eye figuratively tattooed on his ass) was compromised.

It had been the network of Murrow and Cronkite. Now it was a "nit on the nut of a gnat" in Viacom world. CBS News was expected not to upset the corporate business with the FCC or any other branch of government.

After the first two chapters, Rather then tells the story of his life from his humble beginnings in the depression-era and the "poorest white neighborhood in Houston" and the remarkable journey to a network anchor chair.

His time at CBS is really a map of the history of network news as we know (knew?) it. He draws a line from Civil Rights to the Kennedy Assassination to Vietnam to Watergate, and he's right in the middle of it all.

Rather credits the pictures provided by television news to the advancement of Civil Rights. He was on the ground in Oxford, Mississippi and Albany, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama. And people knew who he was, so he frequently had to switch hotels and hotel rooms from night to night, while Civil Rights leaders kept updating their plan as well.

They needed to get their story out - visually. And perhaps most of all, they needed to find a police chief that was so filled with racial hatred, and was such a dumbass that he didn't care what the pictures looked like.

That was Birmingham's Bull Connor, who ordered that the high-pressure fire hoses be turned on children. The pictures live to this day.

On the Kennedy Assassination, Rather was the Dallas bureau chief. He was covering the President's visit, and wound up being on the air around the clock for days.

He rotated out of his position as London correspondent to spend the better part of a year on the ground in Vietnam, with a crew getting the real action.

And Rather (down the list from other CBS newsmen) made Nixon's Enemies List amid the Watergate hearings. While newspapermen broke the story, America was introduced to the cast of CREEPy characters through TV coverage of live hearings.

Ultimately Rather is in a good place now with HDNet's Dan Rather Reports, and is still going strong at age 80. The book's epilogue is titled "Corporatization, Politicization, and Trivialization of the News."

In 1823 Thomas Jefferson put it succinctly: "The only security of all is in a free press." Alas, when you have a press that has become compliant to politicians, owned by corporations and staffed by people who only want to entertain and obey their corporate masters, the plan fails. The "free press" is no longer a check on power. It has instead become part of the power apparatus itself.

It's (sort of) the mission of HBO's The Newsroom, a show Rather has endorsed, if you take away the cringe-inducing romance and endless monologuing.

My one critique of the book is as he describes 60 Minutes producer Jeff Fager, now CBS News honcho who Rather greatly respects, despite how it ended:

He's not a great writer - often the mark of a really good producer

What the hell does that mean? A "hard news" man like yourself probably wouldn't title his book something so pithy as Rather Outspoken. 

Would You, Rather?

Waco on the Way

When you’re on a long stretch on the road like I am, the Super Mario-like obstacles that impede your progress become less annoying and more comic.

Some years ago, I stopped complaining about the “now” and focused on the “next” – the only problem about problem-solving is my mind often races in 5th gear when my body is in neutral.

It all started earlier this week when my 2-day business trip got extended to 9 days thanks to the Oklahoma ice storms. The “now” was I wasn’t going to get home for a while. The “next” was a shopping spree at the JC Penney in Coralville, Iowa. I had three more games to produce and I didn’t feel right going to work in sweats.

After 4 days barnstorming in Iowa (I can now identify in some measure with the presidential hopefuls), I headed for the final outpost between the road and home: Waco, Texas.

On my half-filled commuter flight from DFW, some cowboy moved to the empty seat in front of me right before takeoff, then reclined his seat back all the way back as soon as we were in the air. This was a breach of frequent-flying etiquette and I pondered how to let him know.

If it were longer than a 20-minute flight I probably would have kicked his chair or unfolded my newspaper in such a way that he’d be wearing it as a hat. But I let it go.

It reminded me of the best revenge I ever got on a fellow traveler – it was many years ago. This husky 300+ pound guy sat next to me, dominated the armrest, fell asleep immediately and snored in my face for over 2 hours. When the flight was over, he had no clue where his shoes were. That was pretty mean, but it felt so good.

So I landed in Waco about 8:45 on a Saturday night and got to the Hertz counter. But there was no agent. In fact, there was no agent at any counter. But I had a reservation. There was nobody to cry to, so I collected my mountain of baggage and found an airport policeman outside. It was a helpful conversation.

EP: Excuse me officer, I have a reservation at Hertz, but there’s nobody there.

COP: Yeah, she goes home about 6 on Saturdays.

EP: Can I call a cab?

COP: Might take about a half-hour. Waco’s only got one cab company and they’re clear across town.

EP: Who do you have to be to get help around here, George W. Bush?

COP: Well he’s just John Q. Citizen now. If his helicopter lands at this airfield at this time on a Saturday night, he’s SOL. He’ll just have to call his wife to pick him up like everyone else.

I thanked him. I was just as helpless as before, but at least I was smiling. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the American flight crew piling into a hotel shuttle. I jumped in with them even though it wasn’t my hotel. I humped my gear a couple of clicks up to my hotel and got on line to check in. When it was finally my turn, an old woman in wheelchair cut me off – she nearly ran over my foot - and started asking the guy at the front desk a bunch of inane questions.

What was I going to do? Tell off the rude old lady in a wheelchair? The front desk guy took pity and told her “let me check this gentleman in first.” My first victory in Waco. Not even the ATF could take it away from me.

If you’ve never been to Waco, this is a very Christian town. The hotel doesn’t offer laundry service on Sundays. So here I am, at a coin-operated laundromat for the first time since I was an NYC bachelor. Oh, and I had to walk since I don’t have a car.

But the trip will get better. We’re looking forward to enjoying the Super Bowl at Cricket’s. My man Bubba was in Vegas for last night’s big UFC battle and he threw down some scratch for me. Big Monday is at Baylor for the first time in 8 years and it should be a great scene.

And I will be home in 48 hours. But got to finish the job in Waco on the way.