A (sometimes) tongue in cheek review of the news published this week regarding Wise County.
Normally posted every Sunday around 6:00 p.m.
For the week ending 8/5/00:
| The Story | A Christian based organization called "Oneighty" plans to raise $1.7 million for a 24,000 square foot "church-type" youth center in Decatur. Included in the building will be 20 Nintendo games, 20 Sega Playstations, a 658 seat auditorium, and a nursery. |
| News worthiness (on a scale of 0 to 5) | *** |
| The Spin | The Spin has cocked an eyebrow about this deal ever since it saw the billboard on highway 287 in Decatur. Even if $1.7 million could be raised, where's the money going to come from to simply maintain a facility of that magnitude? |
| The Story | The Messenger receives a positive Letter to the Editor supporting the paper's penchant for publishing photos of the aftermath of car accidents. "I like to think newspapers publish [those kind of photos] because they want readers to see the photograph and realize that it could be them laying there on the side of the road," the letter read. |
| News worthiness | * |
| The Spin | Or it could be that the public will always slow down, and pay 50 cents, to take a gander of a crash site. |
| The Story | Messenger reporter Mitch Word goes ga-ga over visiting Texas Stadium ("The Shrine") for a photo shoot. "I have never seen a more glorious sight concerning the sport of football" and "I would have enjoyed frolicking and running up and down the field . . . ." Accompanying the story is a photo of Word on his knees in a mock act of worship in the end zone of the stadium. |
| News worthiness | ** |
| The Spin | Oh, you mean the building where the common man gets to pay $10 to park a mile away and then fork over another $60 to watch a bunch of twenty something millionaires play a game about seventeen times a year and, once a player's career is over, watch him announce his retirement while wearing a yellow suit that a pimp wouldn't be caught dead in? The Spin gets teary eyed just thinking about it. |
| The Story | "The Families of Tommy and Adam", the two Paradise teenagers recently killed in a automobile accident, write a Letter to the Editor published in the Bridgeport Index that takes the First Baptist Church of Cottondale to task. According to the letter, the church retracted its offer to hold a joint funeral for the boys. |
| News worthiness | *** |
| The Spin | Excerpts: "The church did not want us." "[I]t was the men of the church that did not want us, not God". "I am so thankful that we believe in God . . . not some men who have the power to destroy the faith and lives of so many". |
| The Story | Gov. Bush signs a proclamation naming Wise County and 194 other counties as being in a "state of disaster" due to the lack of rain. |
| News worthiness | ** |
| The Spin | A "state of being really hot and really dry"? Yes. A "state of disaster"? Come on. |
| The Story | The Wise County unemployment rate rose from 2.4 percent in May to 3.3 percent in June. (Messenger, Saturday edition, p. 8A). |
| News worthiness | **** |
| The Spin | The Spin is no expert on the economy, but, with a Wise County work force that numbers 26,064, does anyone actually believe that 235 people lost their jobs in the last 30 days? |