Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer
Iowa Scribe
  • About
  • Blog
  • Plays
  • Poetry And Prose
  • Columns
  • FAQ, Etc.

Carson King reporter wrote the wrong article

9/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Charles City Press, 9-26-19

Social media giveth, and social media taketh away.

Carson King said it himself. “Social media … has the power to bring people together for the common good. It also can make your life very public.”

King’s the guy who turned a joke about needing money for more Busch Light into a million dollar fundraiser for the Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City. He became an overnight sensation, and for a few hours there, he may have been the most popular guy in the state of Iowa. Maybe he still is. I love the guy.

And the whole thing is a lot like when you fall in love at first sight. You’re infatuated with the girl (or guy). You believe with all your heart that she’s perfect for you.

Then, you get to know her. 

You find out some things that crush you. Maybe she’s an idiot. Maybe she hates Star Wars movies. Maybe she has intolerable body odor. Maybe she’s already happily married to some guy who now wants to beat the heck out of you. 

Whatever it is, you realize that your one and only true love is not perfect for you — and might be far from it.

Your heart is broken, and you’re angry. You look for someone or something to blame, and you lash out.

That’s what a lot of people are doing right now — they are lashing out at the Des Moines Register, and lashing out at the reporter who looked into King’s background for an article.

The article, taken as a whole, is a very positive portrayal of King and his life leading up to the last week or so, when he became a fundraising phenomenon. King himself said that the Des Moines Register treated him fairly.

Dropped into the article, near the very end, are some things that crushed us.

Apparently, when King was 16 years old, he tweeted some racist and offensive things. I thank the Good Lord daily that there was no such thing as social media when I was 16 years old. Man, did I say and do some stupid things when I was that age. I definitely would have been dumb enough to put those stupid things on social media. I would be doomed.

In King’s case, these revelations resulted in Anheuser-Busch cutting off its ties with him, although it will still honor its agreement to match the charitable contributions raised to this point.

As a reporter, editor and media guy for the last 35 years, I question the Des Moines Register’s editorial judgment here. There was no need for that kind of scrutiny in this case. King is not running for public office, he’s raising money to help sick children. Who cares if he repeated some racist jokes when he was 16? That was then, this is now, he’s changed as a person. It doesn’t seem relevant to the article.

But, at the same time, the Des Moines Register wasn’t really going out of its way to dig up dirt here. It’s not at all unusual to check the social media background of anyone a reporter is writing about. When you’re writing a profile feature like this one, you look up everything you can. Writers research things, it’s why they’re writers.

The tweets were still available for all to see on social media. There was no need to dig. Sooner or later, someone else would have found them and smeared King with them, it just so happens that the Register saw it first. I don’t like it, but I understand a reporter and an editor not wanting to ignore it. 

Let me put something out there, though. What if that reporter had taken a different angle? Rather than just drop that negative information in there for our consideration, how about writing a story about how a person can change for the better? 

King said stupid and terrible things when he was a kid. Now, he’s changed, and he’s doing clever and wonderful things. He’s raised a million dollars to help kids with cancer, and he’s still going strong.

That could be a great story, something of a morality tale, with lessons to enlighten the readers. I would have loved to have gotten the chance to write that article, and so would most of the reporters I know. That’s pure gold.

Of course, writing a story like that also takes a little more hard work and a little more talent. 

And hard work and talent appear to be in short supply right now in the Des Moines Register newsroom.

0 Comments

One fine day, we’ll see women as equal

9/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Charles City Press, 9-5-19

One of the people I follow on Twitter raised a question this week, and I was dumb enough to Tweet an answer.

There was some routine online ugliness that followed, but for the most part, the whole experience was kind of fun.

The question?

Who is the greatest American songwriter of all time?

I didn’t have to hesitate. The answer was obvious, in my mind.

Carole King.

There were literally thousands of other responses, but from what I could see, I was the only one who said that.

The list of songwriting names covered a surprisingly wide range of musical genres. It included Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Prince, Hank Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, Billy Joel, Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, Tom Petty, Cole Porter, Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen, Richard Rodgers, Buddy Holly, Jim Steinman, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, George Gershwin and many more.

You could make an argument for any one of those artists, and you wouldn’t be wrong. After all, this is not a science. This is a matter of opinion.

When it comes to music, you either like a song or you don’t. My thing is not necessarily your thing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Personally, I like songs by each and every one on that list of American songwriters, but Carole King was the first person to pop into my mind.

I typically have facts and numbers to back up my opinions, so here you go.

One-hundred and eighteen songs (that’s right — 118 songs) written or co-written by Carole King hit Billboard’s top 100 chart. More than 400 Carole King songs have been recorded by over 1,000 artists. Among dozens of others, King wrote hit songs for the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Bobby Vee, the Drifters, Dusty Springfield, the Everly Brothers, the Monkees, the Byrds and Grand Funk Railroad.

If you listen to a music playlist with songs written after 1960, there is a very good chance that there’s a song written by Carole King on that list — and you probably don’t realize it.

And I like most of those songs. My favorite, if I have to choose one, is probably “One Fine Day,” originally a hit for the Chiffons in 1963. King recorded her own version years later, and it’s priceless. The piano riff that opens the song is both beautiful and remarkable. I’m no dancer, and it makes me want to dance.

My Tweet was rudely challenged on Twitter by some others who seemingly couldn’t stand the fact that I chose a songwriter who wasn’t their favorite songwriter, but I didn’t engage the argument. I pretty much just told them to leave me alone, because it’s a silly thing to argue about, as far as I’m concerned.

If my favorite food was prime rib, and your favorite was lobster, what good would it do to argue about it? You’re never going to convince me that lobster tastes better than prime rib, and I’m never going to convince you that prime rib tastes better than lobster, so further discussion would be a waste of time.

The same rule applies to musical taste. It doesn’t bother me if you don’t like something I do.

Something else did bother me, however. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why I was the only person among thousands to mention Carole King as one of the great American songwriters.

Look at the numbers again — 118 hits, over 400 songs recorded by over 1,000 singers. No one else on the list even comes close to that.

Now look at all the other songwriters who were mentioned. A diverse and talented group, covering many genres — but what do they all have in common?

Think about it a minute, then take a guess.
You’re right. They’re all men. Not a female songwriter among them.

In fairness, there were a handful of people on Twitter who mentioned Dolly Parton — and it’s really hard to not like Dolly Parton. She’s an American treasure. Loretta Lynn was also mentioned, by just one person.

Other than that, it’s all men. No mention of Lucinda Williams, Joni Mitchell, Dorothy Fields, Billie Holiday, Grace Slick, Taylor Swift, Joan Jett, Lady Gaga, Valerie Simpson, Christine McVie or any of the hundreds of American women who successfully penned songs over the years.

That’s just wrong, and it’s indicative of a misogyny embedded into our consciousness.

As the father of two adult daughters who are trying to carve their place in the world, as the son of a mother who already has, as the brother of a sister who can do anything as well as I can, and as the husband of a wife who can do it even better than me, it makes me a little angry.

Yes, women can write songs. They can write books and opinion columns, too. They can also run companies, drive trucks, read the news, coach a football game, fight fires, carve meat, pilot airships, combat our nation’s enemies and solve complex problems.

And judging from the high number of them currently running for president, it’s not a stretch to think they could run the country — possibly better than it’s ever been run.

One fine day, we’ll find that out for sure.

0 Comments

    IowaScribe

    Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer. Playwrighting, poetry, journalism, sports, hunting, fishing, rock music, movies, good food and
    progressive politics, among hundreds of other things.  
    Contact Iowa Scribe.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    May 2011

    RSS Feed

    Picture