Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

First, my thanks to those of you who answered my poll question about your willingness to send an annual contribution to keep OTR going. I plan to keep OTR free to everyone. I will try to make money through ads, and a voluntary annul subscription fee. So, if you are a regular reader, I would appreciate a Ten Dollar yearly contribution. Someone suggested that I could charge much more. But here is how I look at it....if you like OTR and you can afford to send more than 10 dollars, please do. (I keep hoping Bill Gates is a reader). On the other hand, if you don't have any money to send, that's okay. I want you to keep reading OTR, guilt-free. I'm not going to make this like a PBS pledge drive.

I will make the PO Box where you can send a check a permanent part of the site. And, to take a page out of Don Barrett's LARadio.com, I'll be glad to list those of you who're good enough to help out. I should also add that if you want to contribute but do NOT want your name listed, just put a note with the check, or maybe put a note on the check which says something like "not for public." I can appreciate that some bosses in some newsroom would not be pleased to know that some of their people are supporting this web site.

So...to contribute to OTR, you can send a check to Ron Fineman PO Box 42364, Bakersfield, CA 93384. Thanks!

On "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", this would be a 100 dollar question. What verb do newscasters use when describing a person's ambulance trip to the hospital, when they don't say "transported"? a) driven b) taken c) zipped d) rushed. Yes, the answer is D. It must be an unwritten rule in some newsrooms, "remember, if people are put in an ambulance, you must say they were rushed to the hospital."

But is that always accurate? Of course not. Last week a football player for the Tampa Bay Bucs had some sort of health problem on the practice field, and so an ambulance was called. The video I saw on KCAL showed paramedics slowly bringing him to the ambulance. The player was sitting up and he was chatting with the paramedics. It looked very much like a precautionary trip. Yet, anchor Dave Gonzales read that the player was "rushed" to the hospital. They were in a hurry about as much as 'rush hour' traffic rushes on LA freeways. Yet, I suppose those knee-jerk cliches are too much from some news writers to resist.

As I watched the new CNN Headline News last week, a live reporter did a story which included a poll that said independents like Al Gore as the leader of the Democratic Party. When she finished her story, the anchor said that maybe he'd missed it, but he wanted to know who the independents liked. Much to my amazement, the reporter told the anchor "no you didn't miss it," and then went on to repeat the info. I think the anchor did well by acknowledging that he may've missed something he wanted to know about. It happens. But for the reporter to pretend he hadn't missed it, not only insults the audience, but also makes her look like she doesn't even know what she's saying.

ANOTHER FLAG FLAP

The US Post Office is going to dump brochures showing the flag of Vietnam, because of protests from a group in San Jose. The pamphlets are in various languages, using flags to connect the language. But because this group of Vietnamese refugees doesn't like Communist Vietnam, the Post Office is knuckling under and printing new ones without a flag.

A few years ago, there were constant protests in Orange County because a video store owner chose to display the Vietnamese flag in his store. I was really taken by the irony of people who claimed they support 'freedom', except of course when that 'freedom' represented something they didn't like. The protests even got violent on occasion.

We should also remember they had the chance to fight off the North. More than 58 thousand Americans died trying to help them, and they still couldn't do it. I think they need to understand they lost the war.

Should the Post Office also not display a flag of China because it offends the Taiwanese? How about a flag of Israel, which may offend Palestinians? The list of intolerance could go on and on if we let it.

Those who came here from South Vietnam should be glad they're in a free country; yet I think they still have trouble grasping what it means to be an American.

You've got to like this one which Chuck Henry said recently on a KNBC newscast. "Authorities say they discovered a man allegedly in custody was a serial rapist, the one they had been looking for." I've heard of alleged killers and alleged robbers, but this is the first time I've heard of an alleged inmate.

I still don't know if this alleged six dollar hamburger makes sense from an advertising perspective. When I first saw it advertised, I thought they were actually selling a six dollar hamburger. Yet, you've got to give them credit for their attempt at manipulation. How can we get the public to go for a four dollar hamburger? I know, we'll just tell them it's a six dollar hamburger, and then they'll feel like they're getting a good deal! Even better, we'll charge $3.95...under four dollars!

The part I do like about their TV commercial is the awful birthday song their waitresses sing to the customer at the six dollar hamburger restaurant. I've long been annoyed by the restaurants who sing their little birthday songs. I'm happy to say that people around me know that, and so they've never stuck me with one of those situations on my birthday. It just seems so embarrassing to me.

Sometimes, a local station will run a story from elsewhere in the country, and if the lockout on the story says "Joe Blow for KXYZ news", the local station will naturally cut that out. In place of the normal lockout, you'll hear the anchor say "that was Joe Blow reporting." Recently, on the KNBC weekend news, apparently a news writer thought that was the situation, but it wasn't. So after a reporter named Victoria Campbell ended a story by giving her name, anchor Diane Diaz said "that was Victoria Campbell who says....". I guess what I'm wondering is, after Campbell said her name, why did Diaz bother to repeat it? Okay, it's a pretty small mistake compared to most of what we talk about here, but it does make a newscast look a little sloppy.

I find it especially interesting that readers who work in TV and those who don't feel the same way about her. Once the novelty wears off, I imagine her ratings, which I understand were very good the first week, will drop.

I'm wondering if you think Gary Condit should resign. Now that The Modesto Bee has called for it, that would seem to ratchet up the heat. I don't think he will, and I think the best thing is for him to run again, and then let the voters decide. If you want Condit to get the message that he's made some serious mistakes, I would think the voice of the voters throwing him out of office would speak the loudest. Of course you already know that if that happens, he is guaranteed to blame it on the media. Right?

Wonder what Condit will say when he finally addresses all of this? As I said once before, I believe he will explain his lying about the affair as a way of protecting his good friend Chandra. He was just protecting her privacy. Couldn't you see that?

I've uploaded the letters some of you wrote me about this on the Letters page.

Across the bottom of the screen recently had the words "Creative Sentece". Hey, they only forgot one letter!

They are always welcome. You can reach me at BRUIN74@aol.com. Unless you say otherwise, I will assume your comments are for publication.

As this web site evolves, it seemed like a good idea to offer my services for speaking engagements at colleges, service clubs or anyone else interested in the OTR gospel. Of course one of the great advantage to speaking in person is that you get far few typos. If you check the OTR On the Road page on the menu (Netscape users CAN now access it too), you can see learn more. You can also read what some well known OTR readers have to say about this web site. If you are interested, you can email to OTROnTheRoad@aol.com.

Ron's disclaimer: Like all reporters I have opinions. I do the best I can to make sure that nothing I say here has any effect on my objectivity in covering stories.

OTR's main page IS PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY. Letters are added Tuesday - Friday.