The (Re)Birth of a Network

A new logo represents a new attitude at Current TV

As a news 'junkie', I am always seeking out new avenues to get my regular 'fixes'.  Print media, radio and television, and computer websites/smartphone apps are all acceptable to me and employed as their availability allows.  Having such a wide variety of choices stands in stark contrast to the days of the 'Big Three' television networks and having only the Associated Press and United Press International serving as the major 'news wires' for our daily newspapers (yes, I meant plural because, unlike today, there used to be more than one in every major town/city across the country for morning and evening consumption).

BTS: Obama, Cameron Visit Dayton

(NOTE: it's taken me a while to get this item ready to go online so it lacks the relevancy I originally wanted it to have.  Problems securing an interviewee for a school assignment and other lingering issues prevented me from posting this until today.  I hope it was worth the wait!) 

Air Force One sits on the apron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio on March 13th.

This is the second time that I've written a 'behind-the-scenes' feature and you might be wondering to yourself--where is the ORIGINAL post?  For the Santorum and Romney events earlier this month, I posted the stories first before I wrote up a summary of my personal experiences about the coverage.  I was hoping to do the same thing this time around but, if I can borrow a phrase from Broadway, "a funny thing happened on the way to the tarmac" and the 'BTS' postlude, in this instance, became the story.

BTS: Weekend Political Rallies

(NOTE:  This is another new feature that I am calling 'Behind the Scenes' where I will provide some of the 'background' that goes on  with my reporting experiences.  I wanted to do this for the Gingrich event last month but, as usual, other things superseded it.  I can go through my notes and photos to post on another day but I want to get these more recent events out before I lose the initiative.)

Some of the scenery outside the recent Santorum event in Blue Ash (left) and the Romeny town hall in Beavercreek (right).

March 3rd was sort of a 'milestone' day for me as a journalist-in-training.  Over the course of the past several months, I've been gradually getting out into my local community to cover real-world events to help hone my skills and to get myself acquainted with the local (and sometimes national) media.  However, all the ones before this past weekend were 'solo' events--I only scheduled one at a time or one per day.  With the 'Super Tuesday' presidential primary bearing down on Ohio voters, this was going to be a very good weekend to get closer to my goal of covering all of the major candidates in the 2012 election cycle.  Unfortunately, Texas congressman Ron Paul decided to skip Ohio and focus his campaign on states where he thought he might have a chance of winning (Washington state, Alaska) so I doubt that I will have an opportunity to attend one of his rallies.  To counter that bad news, I learned late last week that former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum had added a morning Cincinnati-area appearance to his other scheduled stops in the state that weekend.  I had already RSVP'd for the announced town hall meeting by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney here in the Dayton area for the afternoon so it would be my first 'double' coverage day.

A/V: Beavercreek Hosts GOP Front-Runner

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney answers a question during a town hall meeting event in Beavercreek, Ohio on Saturday.

Trying to make up ground in the closing days before this coming Tuesday's Ohio presidential primary election, current national front-runner Mitt Romney made a campaign stop in the Dayton area on Saturday afternoon.  Approximately 1,200 people attended a town hall meeting at the US Aeroteam facility in Beavercreek to rally support for the former Massachusetts governor who has been steadily climbing in the polls and, in several, has pulled into a statistical tie with his main rival, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, in pursuit of the state's 66 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention.

Guest Paper: Cincinnati Enquirer

I created this series last fall to document my random purchases and acquisitions of local and regional newspapers of interest but before I bought Saturday's edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer during my trip down to Blue Ash, none of those were what I would call 'keepers'--papers that I might store away for posterity due to its historical or personal significance

A/V: Santorum Stumps in Cincinnati Suburbs

(NOTE: this was the first of two events that I covered on March 3rd. Due to delays caused by this reporter being 'under the weather' from Saturday evening until today, I am now just finishing the early one and will post the later one as time and scheduling permits.)

Former US Senator Rick Santorum addresses an enthusiastic group of supporters at a rally Saturday morning in Blue Ash, Ohio.

In an attempt to shore up support in the remaining days leading up to next Tuesday's Ohio presidential primary, former US senator and current Republican candidate Rick Santorum attended a series of campaign events across the state yesterday to get his message out to his supporters as well as undecided voters.  Recent polling shows Santorum and his main rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in a very close race for winning the popular vote and a majority of Ohio's 66 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention.