Broken Record and Fliergate – I wonder
By Brian Kirwin | Sunday, December 14th, 2008 | Catch-AllSaturday, news sources from the Virginian-Pilot to Vivian Paige are reporting two separate stories – WVEC canceling Joel Rubin’s “On the Record” tv program and a special prosecutor being named in the flier-without-a-disclaimer case with Will Sessoms’ successful election campaign.
There are some pretty astute folks in Virginia Beach who are wondering if the two stories are so separate.
Joel’s been pretty vocal about the fliers. His WVEC blog which just started this election season (not exactly a sign that the show is going away, by the way) shared Joel’s thoughts on the flier, which advocated voting for Obama and Sessoms as “change.” Joel fired three posts off about the fliers, and Joel wasn’t exactly hiding his opinion.
“It is curious to me why the mainstream media is not more curious about how this happened. If a violent criminal was loose in the city, the cops would be looking for him.”
“Virginia Beach Mayoral candidate Will Sessoms and his campaign have some explaining to do”
“The fliers did not just appear out of nowhere. Someone wrote them, designed them, printed them, paid for them and then delivered them to designated precincts. Someone recruited people to hand them out.”
“Political people will always wonder whether Oberndorf could have won a fifth term if she had staged a more vigorous campaign, or if those controversial fliers linking Sessoms and Barack Obama had not been distributed at certain precincts with high African American populations.”
“Regardless, 38.5% is not much of a mandate” (culled from several of Rubin’s blog posts)
Pretty fired up about it, I’d say.
Virginia Beach’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant (Republican) investigated the flier controversy, and he’s turned it over to Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley (Republican). At issue is a lack of a campaign disclaimer, but activists are screaming about more than that. They think Obama voters voted for Republican Sessoms and that swung the election. They think the flier was misleading.
But the two stories in the same newspaper on the same day made some light bulbs shine.
One well-placed source opined this over a cup of overly-strong coffee: “Doesn’t Joel have election winners on his show after election day? He had Glenn Nye on first chance he could. You’d think the only person to defeat Meyera Oberndorf in her entire 32-year career would get a spot.”
I don’t know if Joel invited Will or not. And I don’t think there’s any real connection between flier investigations and the canceling of the only local political talk show outside of public broadcasting.
I’m as curious as those who seem quite sure there is some connection. I will say this much, though.
If “On the Record” was losing money, I doubt it’s a recent phenomenon. WVEC’s constant shuffling of its timeslot is evidence enough of that, and its current slot of noon is insane. It has “Panthers Huddle” as a lead-in at 11:30. Are Carolina Panthers fans are just chomping at the bit to watch Virginia Politics after their North Carolina football pre-game show?
WVEC has a second station (LNC 5) to do nothing but rerun the WVEC news so at 4 pm Sunday, you can watch what the weather and traffic was like at 6 am.
In past years, I’ve bought ads on Joel’s show. You can’t tell me WVEC lives or dies from the amount of revenue spent or generated by Joel’s half hour. If it does, it’s in worse shape than GM.
So the cynical Brian thinks there’s got to be more to the end of “On the Record” than economics. I just don’t know if I think I’m cynical enough to believe that the coincidental stories are more than curious timing.
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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10 Responses to "Broken Record and Fliergate – I wonder"
Good article. Everything is controlled by credit, so I would suggest looking into which bank(s) WVEC has lines of credit or outstanding loans with…
[...] between Fliergate and OTR cancellation? Perhaps. This entry was written by vjp and posted on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 11:12 am and filed [...]
There is no connection. My show was cancelled because of an unwillingness of Channel 13 to seek out a way to make the show “profitable”, even though that had never been a stated intention to me until 2 weeks ago. Management could have saved it but didn’t lift a finger. If there’s a conspiracy here, I don’t see it. Panic over ad losses for other shows was the problem.
I dont know but its sure is funny lots of Democrat media outlets are closing up shop. OTR and Raising Krap ( I mean Kane… ). Maybe its a lot of Dems feeling their job is done. I’m sure the local PBS affiliate would pick up OTR if the issue was pursued.
Now as far as the Sessoms flier… If there is ANYTHING done about this I will be the first to kiss Kirwin’s behind in Macy’s front window. Election law is hardly ever enforced in Virginia. Look at the voter registration fraud this cycle. I’ve filed campaign finance complaints on both Dems and Republicans and nothing was ever done.
I thought Sessoms was a democrat myself, but of course thats another disturbing trend to write a thread about.
Joel,
With all due respect, it makes no sense to me that you would complain about the “main stream media” on a blog that is hosted by The Main Stream media… of which you are employed by.
It reminds me of when Sony Music started and ‘independent alternative’ label.
But one question remains, did you extend the invitation? Of course, you have done some paid work for Oberndorf, or am I wrong about this?
SW – you gotta read the whole thing in context. First, here is the direct link to the VP story. At $400 a week, that almost doesn’t qualify as “employment.” (And I won’t be surprised if his blog goes away, too.)
Second, Rubin has been upfront on his past work on behalf of Oberndorf. You really should head over and watch the video of the mayor’s candidates debate.
Over $20,000 a year doesn’t qualify as employment?
Wait, does this mean Rubin was only getting paid $400 a week and that is it? The show cost $400 to produce? Are you serious? They canceled the only political talk show for a measly 400 a week? He makes less than double me…
If the network had some balls they would have upped the level of discussion on his show to real issues people want to hear about and they could have had a huge audience. It would have been so simple and easy to market that show to viewers.
This really shows our local media is too scared to ever challenge the government.
Max Shapiro,
Surely you know better. If the host of the show only gets $400 that is not the limit of the broadcasters expenses.
The question was raised regarding whether I invited Will Sessoms onto my show I did right after the election. The answer is no. I don’t remember why but I recall that there was a question out there as to whether his victory would hold up because of the 27,000 absentee ballots that had yet to be counted. I had to book guests in advance so I couldn’t wait. It certainly had nothing to do with my previous work for Meyera. Of course if On the Record would continue, I would certainly have asked Will to come on in January after he’s sworn in, but alas, Channel 13 is canceling the show as of the end of this year because it does not fit into their “financial model” according to what they are telling viewers who have complained to them.
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