Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

One of the bloggers at an unofficial Funky Winkerbean fan site that I like to hang out at has posted a link to a New York Times health blog, A Death in the Funny Pages Causes Controversy, that was written Oct. 12.

The article gives an introduction of what happened to the character Lisa Moore as she died of cancer, and includes a few of the clips. There’s a huge list of comments from readers across the country about their reaction to the story line.

by Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

If you’ve been following the Funky Winkerbean comic strip, written by Tom Batiuk, published Sundays in The Monroe Evening News and daily in many newspapers across the country, you know the past few months have been, well, not very funny. In today’s (Sunday Oct. 7) episode, you see a scene depicting calling hours at the funeral home for Lisa Moore with guest book signatures, memorial cards and a photo collage through the years.

Lisa emerged as one of the main characters of the strip in the late 1980s when she became pregnant after a date rape situation. Classmate Les Moore wasn’t the father, but he stayed friends after Lisa dropped out of school and attended Lamaze classes as her birthing partner.

Lisa gave up that son for adoption. Years later, Lisa and Les married and had a daughter of their own.

Fast-forward to the past few months: Lisa Moore, who successfully fought off breast cancer in 1999, learned her cancer returned and was terminal. Her death was drawn in the strip Thursday Oct. 4. Her last words, meant for her long-time friend and husband, were “I love you.”

I wrote a fictional obituary for Lisa Crawford Moore and posted it on this blog Thursday morning. The only detail I got wrong, because I had not seen the upcoming episodes, was where her memorial service took place. I also didn’t know there would be calling hours at the funeral home. But I’m sure there was a luncheon at Montoni’s Pizza!

Tom Batiuk worked out the details for this story several months ago. As you might have noticed with Friday and Saturday’s story line, Lisa’s death is leading up to another jump in the chronology of the comic strip.

In the meantime, Mr. Batiuk compiled the strips about Lisa’s struggle with cancer in his latest book, “Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe.”

The book launch and signing was held Saturday at Luigi’s Restaurant in Akron. I went, and talked my daughter, who was home this weekend from college, into coming along. (My daughter is not a Funky fan, but she was a good sport.) I also brought book orders on behalf of a co-worker and my mother.

The book “Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe” includes the story line for another few days past today’s episode. So you’ll want to keep reading the newspapers to learn about Les’s journey to Central Park in New York City.

Now, if you’re a fan, the book signing was a really neat event. It is well known in Akron that Luigi’s is the inspiration for Montoni’s Pizza restaurant in the Funky Winkerbean story line. That’s the restaurant co-owned by Tony Montoni and Funky Winkerbean, where many of the characters have worked at or hung out over the years, and where Lisa and Les got married in 1996.

Luigi’s closed for business Saturday afternoon so that Mr. Batiuk could have his book signing party. The clerks who rang up the books wore aprons decorated with Montoni’s Pizza logo, just like the ones worn by the staff in the comic strip. There also were temporary signs set up at the doors of the restaurant with Montoni’s Pizza logo. And there was a pizza buffet for book signing visitors, with donations requested to Lisa’s Legacy Fund.

When I walked inside the restaurant, I immediately recognized the layout, architecuture and decor that have been shown in the comic strip. The locals also showed me where the band box is on display. “Do you recognize that?” one woman asked me.

And do you remember the Sunday episode from awhile back where Montoni’s was listed in its local newspaper as winning the best pizza award? Funky yelled in celebration, “Dinner’s on the house!” as his business co-owner shuddered at the lost profits. That strip is autographed and hung in honor on the wall. If you look at the other memorabilia displayed on the walls, Luigi’s really has won a local best pizza award.

The book signing party started at 1. We arrived about 3:15 p.m. At that point, the staff had run out of hardback copies of “Lisa’s Story” with only paperback copies still in stock. But everyone I saw stayed in line anyway to get a book and meet the author.

I’ve volunteered at, and attended, enough autograph sessions to know Tom Batiuk must have been exhausted by the time we got to the front of the line (about 4:15 p.m.). But he was still smiling and gracious, signed books with either personalization or not as visitors needed, and posed for photos on request.

The pizza buffet was taken down while I got my pile of books signed. The staff was setting up for dinner customers, some of whom had been surprised to find the restaurant closed for a party. But the waitress offered to go to the kitchen and get some pizza slices for me and my daughter. So I did get to eat some “Montoni’s” Pizza.

And yes, it’s pretty good!

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Reporter’s note: Lisa Moore, one of the characters, in the comic strip Funky Winkerbean by Tom Batiuk, has died of breast cancer. (See my earlier post, Funky Winkerbean fans: yes Lisa Moore is in her last days.)

I have written many obituaries during my career as a newspaper reporter. So as a tribute to one of my favorite comic strips, here is her fictional obituary with as much biographical information as I could pin down or reasonably guess at from the story line. Although I had to take literary license on some details, there really is a Lisa’s Legacy Fund in Cleveland named for the character Lisa Moore.

If you missed some of the recent installments and want to catch up on what happened to Lisa, Tom Batiuk’s latest book, “Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe,” has been published by Kent State University Press and is available at amazon.com. The book release party will be Saturday Oct. 6 in Akron, Ohio. Details are posted at www.funkywinkerbean.com.

Lisa Crawford Moore

1970-2007

WESTVIEW, Ohio – Lisa Crawford Moore, 37, of Westview, died Thursday Oct. 4 at home while under the care of hospice.

Mrs. Moore had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. She went into remission, but the cancer returned in 2006.

Recently, she made national headlines by testifying in Washington, D.C., to Congress’s Health and Human Services Committee, on behalf of the One Voice Against Cancer campaign regarding the need for funding for cancer research.

Cremation has been held, per her request, under the arrangements of Tom Batiuk Funeral Home and Cremation Society. A memorial service and luncheon will be held Sunday at Montoni’s Pizza in Westview, where she had formerly been employed.

She was born in Akron, raised in Westview and attended Westview High School.

She lived in Seattle, Wash., for a time; and then worked as a tutor for American children in Martel, France.

She attended Westview County Community College. After earning her law degree from University of Akron, Mrs. Moore worked in the regional public defender’s office. Later, she ran a private law practice.

She was a fan of the Cleveland Browns football team. She also enjoyed reading superhero comic books and newspaper comics.

She was married in October 1996 in Westview to Leslie P. “Les” Moore.

Surviving are her husband; their daughter, Summer, at home; her son, Darin, who was adopted and raised by Fred and Ann (Randall) Fairgood; her parents; and many friends including Funky and Holly (Budd) Winkerbean.

Memorial contributions may be made to Lisa’s Legacy Fund at www.lisaslegacyfund.org or by mail to: Lisa’s Legacy Fund, University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center, PO Box 74947, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106.

On-line condolences may be made at www.funkywinkerbean.com

jacob espinoza Says:

1. September 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm edit“Then, with the aplomb of a prima balleriina, she pulled a silver dollar from her purse and set it spinning atop the beer-and-saliva-stained bar.
   “Gimme another, Sam!” she bellowed at the barkeep.
   The words still were hanging in the air when a sweaty long-neck was slammed down before her, catching the eye of a dry-mouthed, sweaty longshoreman who leered from across the room.
   Undaunted, she picked up the bottle and, in what seemed a single motion, removed the cap with her teeth and quaffed the contents without stopping.
   She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her kimono, smiled wryly and tottered off the stool.
   ‘Cuse me,” she said. “I have to go castrate some animals.”
   Everyone gave her a wide berth as she strode out the door.
   One she had disappeared into the night, someone had the guts to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Is that the gal that writes all that crap on The Evening News blog?”
   The silence spoke volumes.”

Aside from the bellowing and such, Mr. Espinoza brings up something – albeit a little differently than I was wanting to approach it – I’ve been thinking a bit about lately. (No, not a sweaty longneck or a leering longshoreman.)

The public and private life of a reporter. Tuesday morning when I was on my way to work I got a flat tire on the freeway. A bit of a fluke since I never take the freeway to work, but there I was, stranded since I couldn’t get the lug nuts off. A truck from Jim’s Towing came to assist and I wondered if when I turned over my card, he would recognize my name. (Anyone familiar with the forums a month or two ago will recall an extended discussion on Jim’s Towing and an alleged misdeed that was vehemently denied and subsequently never proven.) I don’t mean that in the celebrity kind of way, but in the oh, so that’s who she is, kind of way.

I also wonder about it when I’m out shopping in the community and hand over my debit card, particularly when I’m looking rather haggard. Or in instances like last week when a guy was riding around on a jet ski on the lake and it died. His dad was going up and down the street looking for anyone who may be able to help. He waited on the shared breakwall, while my neighbors and I looked through a scope, keeping his drifting son in sight. Once the Coast Guard was called, I had to tell the dad I worked for the newspaper and would have to ask him some questions.

Yesterday, a knock on the door was another neighbor, asking if he could put a political sign in my yard. No way, I told him. I hadn’t even considered if it was a candidate I would support, it just isn’t an option either way.

On the flip side, being a reporter lets me in places and allows me to ask people intimate questions I would never dream of asking without the press pass. Even at parties or social gatherings, if I come across someone interesting it probably ends up sounding more like an informal interview than small talk.

Good or bad, it just doesn’t turn off. That’s my perspective on it. But it makes me wonder – do other people think of this? If you were to meet me or another newspaper person whose name you see but not their face, in a non- professional setting, would it be like anything else? What if the person in the crowd you were talking to just happened to be a reporter?

Hello out there. In the world of “citizen journalism” I thought it might be helpful to post some information for people who want to become more involved in reporting on their community.

The first is an interactive list on citizen journalism brought to you by the International Journalists’ Network. The link is http://ijnet.org/interactive/blog_guide/1/module.html
or click here for a direct link.

This one is brought to you by the Knight Citizen News Network at www.kcnn.org/ or click here.

Or, if you’re interested, you can sign up to be part of News University at www.newsu.org or by clicking here. Once your signed up you can try out the “Be a reporter game” and other courses that use interactive teaching methods.
Disclaimer: While the game might have the overtones of what it’s like to be a reporter in the field and it’s kind of fun to play, it is highly unrealistic. There is no way on earth an ER doctor would hand over a list of kids who were brought from the school with suspected food poisoning. He or she may give some hints, but it would never be in the open, and, by the way, a reporter would not even be allowed on the floor unless it were special circumstances.
Also, good luck trying to get past any kind of school administrator/PR person to speak with a lunch lady. Not going to happen, unless you know how to finesse someone you have a long-standing relationship with (even then, probably not), sneak into the school through an open door or happen to be related to the person.
The reason this irks me so much is because it implies it’s easy to capture information when in real life we have to fight for every nugget we get. But it does provide an accurate idea of how many places we have to go and how many people we have to talk to, just to confirm the information we already have.

Is this something you are interested in? Let me know what you think.

By Paula Wethington

I grew up in a city where little girls didn’t typically dream of becoming Miss America. The preliminary contest in my hometown had an off and on production history, and I had only one friend who entered. And I had met Kaye Lani Rafko Wilson of Monroe, Miss America 1988, only once when I covered an event she spoke at in Ohio.

So the Miss America glitz and glamour were new to me when I moved to Monroe in early 2000.

I quickly learned the Miss Monroe County pageant was a big part of this community’s traditions and history – especially when I saw the reaction Mrs. Wilson got during an event I covered in Temperance.

One of my friends, Nancy Chorzempa, was a contestant for Miss Monroe 2000.

I told my daughter, “Come on, let’s go cheer for Nancy and see what this is all about.”

We bought our tickets, and a program so we could follow along. Someone gave us a noisemaker to cheer on our favorite contestant. My daughter and I did our own critiques of the talent routines and stage presentations.

But watching the pageant was like watching a sports game where I wasn’t familiar with the rules. When the finalists were announced, I knew there had to be more to picking the queen than what the contestants did on pageant night. What was it?

In recent years, I noticed that whomever served as Miss Monroe County attended an increasing number of charity events and autograph appearances. Dozens of girls were participating each year in the Little Miss Monroe County contest. And the teen division split off from Little Miss Monroe County in 2006 — so now there were three pageants.

I thought it was an appropriate time to do a story beyond the annual profiles of the candidates and queen.

But 2006 was too busy of a summer for me to take on a project. I waited until this spring to make the story pitch.

When I got asked, “What are you going to focus on?” I said, “I don’t know yet.”

My goal was to talk to as many people as possible and see what happened.

During the summer, I filled three reporter notebooks with notes from interviews and pageant rehearsals. The pageant board gave me two binders with pageant instructions and contestant profiles. And to get a feel for the local pageant’s history, I read through piles of clippings in our newsroom library.

The scene that I describe at the ending of the main story that will be printed in Sunday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News happened on technical rehearsal night.

While the contestants were in dress rehearsal, I was sitting at a computer, working on a story draft.

During the pageant production, I stayed back stage. I joked around with the stage crew and talked to the contestants as they prepped for stage appearances.

“Are you having fun?” several people asked me.

Yes, I had fun that night.

Then again, it wasn’t my daughter who stood on that stage, seeking a crown.

I was just waiting to get a quote for the newspaper.

Do you ever get to that point where your brain is just full and it’s kind of like that giant bingo drum where the ping pong balls are turned over and over and you’re trying to pull out a B12 but it’s just not working because you keep coming up with O64 or some such?

Yeah, well, the last week has been a little like that.

In between the fair, the bridge collapse in my old city, Minneapolis, and the truly interesting things going on in the community, the news business has been bustling. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. I love being in the thick of it. It’s just been a little jumbly.

I wanted to post an update of things to come:

* I got a copy of the city pension board expense reports for NCPERS, aka the Hawaii Conference, and hope to post the totals spent later today.
* A story on county and city expenses at that conference will be forthcoming.
* A deeper look at the issue between the Monroe Center and the Commission on Aging.
* A local guy in the Coast Guard, stationed in Alaska, recently helped search for Japanese soldier remains from WWII on a small island.
Let me know if there are any stories you would like to see in the paper or online.

By Paula Wethington

The Monroe Evening News participates in several promotional events throughout the year, including the Monroe County Fair. I usually volunteer to staff the booth at one or two of those events each year.
Well, I have to say that I’ve never seen a promotional give-a-way so popular as the lime green MonroeTalks backpack-style bags that our company is handing out at this year’s fair!

When Mike Fuson and I took over the booth at 6 p.m. Thursday, the outgoing crew told us that the bags were very popular but they saved some for our shift. Mike and I decided to keep our boxes behind the counter, and hand bags out on request.

Despite the “on request” distribution, in just under two hours, Mike and I run out of a supply of bags that was intended to last four hours. Several people said they’d stopped by repeatedly throughout the week, and kept missing out on a bag. Some of them finally got a bag, others came to the booth after we ran out.

Here’s a picture of me holding one of those elusive bags at our company’s booth. No, I didn’t take one home. That bag went to a fair visitor a few minutes later.

Hello there.
That headline was taken from the Onion. For awhile now I’ve been pushing for something similar in the MEN. Just a section or a story once a week – a spoof on actual news, either locally focused or not. Do you think there’s any room in a real newspaper for fake or mock news?

What would really be fun is to have one fake story a day and see if readers can pick out which one it is. Imagine the possibilities.

And, by the way, The Onion now has video on its web site, which is where the monkey story was filed. Hilarity will ensue.

Really, it’s what they do.

I was too wimpy to let one latch onto my palm, but I did stick one of my fingers into the lamprey’s sucker hole to see what the little ridges were like.

I just returned Saturday night from the Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute, run through the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. We went up to the University of Michigan Biological Station on the outskirts of Pellston in the north of the Lower Peninsula.

It was pretty informational and fantastic.

Aside from the lampreys, we learned about diatoms, biofuels, wind power, farming operations throughout the state, how the forest breathes, shore birds and global warming issues.

I’m sure as stories come up I’ll be sharing anecdotes or things I learned along the way. In the meantime, if anyone has questions about the environment and the Great Lakes, I can try to answer them or at least knowledgably point you to someone who can.

I’m kind of reluctant to comment on it, lest Paris Hilton get more press than she already has. But. I find this whole Paris in jail thing interesting from a press person point of view.

After seeing the police reports and arrest records of people in Monroe County, caught doing the things PH has been caught doing, I’m pretty sure they would have been taken downtown at least until bail could be posted. However, that’s not what surprises me.

What does strike me is the line between hard news (some may say ‘actual’ news) and celebrity enews is more blurred now than ever. It’s been a progression, but when you hear about Paris Hilton’s jail antics on NPR, some sort of shift has occurred. NBC recently stated they were too busy to cover Lindsay Lohan passed out in a car, seemingly taking a stance on celebrities out of control.

I’m curious. Are people sick of this kind of coverage in the news? Would you rather read this kind of story than what happened at the county board meeting? Are more information outlets covering these kinds of beats because it’s what readers want?

So my editor, Doug, comes over to my pod in the afternoon and sits all meet-the-press style across from me. He will be giving a presentation on one of our internal initiatives (saying it that way makes it sound covert and interesting…) later this week at a conference not in Hawaii.

It was strange. I was interviewed. I usually do the interviewing.

He began asking me several questions to which I promptly gave some babbling answer, afraid I wasn’t covering all the information, making it unclear, and/or misspeaking. I had to stop the questioning, gather my thoughts and then proceed. The process repeated itself several times as he asked more questions.

Afterward I was left feeling odd. I wanted to explain more. Did I mention that one thing that was really crucial to understanding everything else? Did I represent the information clearly? Did I sound like an idiot?

It really reversed the roles. I’ve been interviewed before, in particular about my job or some event. Having information, though, that someone else would be summarizing and presenting to a large audience was a little different. I’m always sympathetic about interviews, but doing something like this really was a reminder on the importance of being aware of the psychology behind being questioned.

And assuring the interviewee that they did not sound like an idiot.

An Evening News employee who works in another department happened to be in the newsroom Tuesday afternoon when the propane fire in Bedford Township was taking place. After watching the activity as the news staff was taking phone calls, updating the Internet and sorting through photographs, she had a really good question: Are media people allowed anywhere close to a scene like that?

It depends on the circumstances, I told her. Sometimes the emergency crews wave everybody away. Sometimes they’ll let the media stand by in a location where they can see what’s going on, but not get in the way of the rescue workers.

I forgot to tell her there also are times when reporters are sent on a wild goose chase – it’s pretty chaotic at a scene like that and accurate details aren’t always easy to pin down.

That’s one of the reasons “team coverage” is so helpful in a major news incident. No matter where you go or who you talk to, you’ll get just the perspective that is available at that time and location. But when editors, reporters and photographers team up, a detailed and accurate story is much easier to assemble.

Or maybe just temporarily maim it.

I just submitted a story about National Turn Off Your TV Week ending on Sunday. These are the kinds of stories I love and hate working on. It’s definitely interesting, but has certainly robbed my viewing of it’s guiltless innocence. I read all the statistics, I talked to parents, I spoke with a sociology/anthropology professor, but still, when I went home yesterday after doing all this, I turned on my TV. It’s not that I can’t live without it… I could if I needed to. It’s just that I’m a TV girl, living in a TV world.
For years in college, I didn’t have a television. When we did get one, it was old and got 1.5 channels somewhat clearly. When my roommate Chuck moved in he insisted on getting super cable. It was like having Vegas in our living room for about two weeks before the novelty wore off. When I would come home Chuck, who took pills that looked like lentils, would be sitting in the same spot, watching TV still or again. When he wasn’t there, an indent indicating his dedication remained. When he dropped out of school soon thereafter and moved out, we cut off the cable. That was the only time in 10 years that I actually had access to cable in my house.
When people flew planes into the World Trade Center, another roommate in a different apartment and I listened to it on the radio. We carted our neighbor’s tube over to try to see what was going on. Without cable we mostly got static mixed with a few alarmingly clear shots of the chaos in New York.
When I moved from Marquette to Minneapolis a month later, I had nothing. I was given a little TV by an aunt and uncle, one that had to be changed by the dials, and cable was still beyond my reach. At least there without hook up 7 or so channels would come in crisply. MTV2 would come in on the weekends just in time for Sucker Free Sundays. Most of the time it was Telemundo.
When I moved back to Michigan, and then tucked into a remote corner of Monroe County, cable was finally mine. It’s been about one year exactly since I moved to the county and got cable. It’s odd how quickly I slipped into watching or having the TV on most of the time when I’m home. And I’m a reader.
The concept of Turn Off Your TV week is great – the point of drawing a person more consciously into their habits is a strong one. But it’s more difficult than I initially thought now that I rest in the warm bosom of my TV and its wide array of opportunities. In some way I feel like I’ve stored up enough non-TV life to earn a free pass on watching Golden Girls reruns if I damn well please.

That said, I now have to take a more deliberate role in selecting to watch it rather than just defaulting and searching to find something, anything to entertain me.

I was a presenter yesterday at a local career day for elementary schools students.

Fellow reporter Ray Kisonas told me to get the kids involved right away otherwise they will not pay attention to anything I have to say.

So I asked all of them about reading and what kind of stories they like to read. I received typical responses from kids- stories about family, friends, animals and fantasy.

I thought, okay, this is going fairly well. So I asked them if they read the newspaper and every student said yes. I proceeded to ask them what they see in the newspaper.

They shouted: car accidents, fires, people getting arrested, drug busts, dead people. One girl even said the newspaper does not contain one positive article.

For a minute I think my mouth fell open and my mind went blank (probably because this was my first solo career day presentation and partly because I had no idea how to respond).

I told the students while all of the things they mentioned were featured in the news, there are a lot of positive stories about people doing good things.

Then one student said- Well my mom tells me all reporters lie, so you could just be lying to us right now.

Before I could say anymore, the office announced it was time for the students to move to their next session.

Do all children think there is nothing in the news but negative stories, do they not see the positive stories or are their parents influencing what news they hear?