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- The Atlantic released a map of the most and least politically prejudicial counties in America. It's not about how one sided the county is (i.e. 89% Republican) but how "more or less politically forgiving" (or tolerant) the people are. I seriously question the findings. It has Wise County right in the middle in the 47th percentile, while Tarrant County is in the 96th (extremely intolerant), and Montague County in the 5th percent (very tolerant).
- I may be the only guy in the metroplex underwhelmed by WFAA's John McCaa's retirement. He was an anchorman. He read news. There are guys and gals who have busted their butts for years and years as reporters at the Morning News, Star-Telegram, and the local TV stations who won't get the time of day when they retire. They have tracked down the news in the trenches and not just read it off the teleprompter. (Hey, McCaa seems like a nice guy but, let's be honest, this isn't Woodward or Bernstein retiring.)
- Our governor continues to defend the acting Secretary of State for the fake voter fraud fiasco and continues to attack the head of DPS for being the source of the "list". This is really weird. You never see Abbott attack law enforcement like this. Uh, "despicable?"
- "COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina lottery says a single winner has stepped forward to claim the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot from a drawing last October . . . . The winner has chosen the cash option, a one-time payment of nearly $878,000,000."
- The Texas legislature resolutions are at full throttle. Messenger publisher Roy Eaton received one as well as the Decatur volleyball team.
- Our governor forgot that when you tweet a link to a news story that the photo that accompanies the link comes with it. A local TV station might do a funny or questionable bit with a photo, but the governor should not. (He quickly deleted it.)
- And concerning my continuous rant of a news/radio/TVsegments which are ads disguised as content, the Washington Post had a story yesterday dedicated to such concerns. It's against FCC regulations so long as they disclose it. (Narrator: They never disclose it.)
(This is not a Galaxy S10 ad disguised as content.)
- Along those lines, The Ticket dumped 45 seconds yesterday afternoon when the hosts began mentioning Southwest Airlines and fares to Hawaii in a segment. Why? Their boss directed the dump based upon the policy of Corporate Overlord Cumulus against mentioning any company which doesn't pay for an ad.
- I don't know if it was a "paid ad disguised as a story" yesterday, but the Star-Telegram also ran a piece on Southwest's airline fares to Hawaii. But what also got my attention was the bottom of the of web page which had computer generated content using an algorithm to search for past "related stories." It embedded a report of a Southwest plane's engine blowing up. If the fare story was a paid ad, that went horribly wrong.
- In 2016, Fox News killed the Stormy Daniels story, and CEO Roger Ailes tipped off Trump to debate questions. They are State TV.
- Thanks for this bit of trivia from a lawyer up at the courthouse yesterday: You certainly remember the case of the Affluenza teen, right? Well, in 1995 a high school football star from North Richland Hills killed his father. After the defense raised the mitigating defense of you're-gonna-be-a-football-star abuse by the father, the jury hung up on punishment. From there, a plea bargain was eventually struck for three years. The connection? The same lawyer was involved in both cases: Reagan Wynn. He helped Jeff Kearney in the NRH trial and took the lead in the Affluenza trial (if my info is correct.) A Texas Monthly story on the North Richland Hill's case by the great Skip Hollandworth is here. A probable copyright violation of the story that appeared in the Dallas Morning News at the time by Barry Horn is here.
- From the Update yesterday: "The First United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Decatur will both have Ash Wednesday services Wednesday. They will have a drive through imposition of ashes in the parking lot of the Methodist Church . . . . "
