729. Briefly, the media on the lam(b) here at home

This from a Facebook entry of Curtis Morrison, a fellow blogger at louisvillecourant.com and who I should point out is a friend of mine who I'm not supporting in his race for the state senate, recently offered the following statement in a status update:

"I accidentally just heard Bill Lamb share his point of view on Trayvon Martin. If my TV is on fire in the street in the new few minutes, it has nothing to do with basketball."

The reference to fiery TVs is an allusion to the activities eighty-eight miles up the road in response to the home team winning the 2012 National Collegiate Athletics Association Basketball Championship. There is also the reference to the unfortunate and unanswered death of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old from Florida, shot and killed by a local vigilante for a block watch group. And there is the reference to Bill Lamb, the general manager of WDRB-TV, a local television station, Channel 41 for us oldtimers who remember dials on the TV set to change the station, and which at one time was affiliated with the FOX network, and which used to start its day in the late afternoon with a clown named Presto. But, I digress.

Today's blog entry is my response to Curt's status update. Here it is:

Y'all should have all thrown your TVs out years ago even without Bill Lamb. But he helps my argument, no doubt. Being a Libra, though, I must offer that "on the other hand" argument. I've seen Mr. Lamb a few times and never agreed with him. But his editorials and 89.3 WFPL Louisville's news staff, along with Joe Sonka from LEO is about all that is left of the local news and editorial scene. The C-J is, like most larger newspapers, (not) enjoying a long slow death. Other local media offer talk shows with ideologues but little content. At least WDRB and Mr. Lamb are offering us something to think about, even if we constantly disagree. Louisville is no longer the news-town it was once. While most everyone who was around for the '37 flood is gone or going, there is little question that the C-J, WHAS, and WAVE played crucial roles in the lives of Louisvillians at that most unfortunate time. I'm old enough to remember Dick Gilbert in "Skywatch84" covering the tornado 38 years ago today. News outlets no longer want or seem to need to fill that role. So again, in that respect, there is something to be said for Mr. Lamb and his ill-reasoned editorials. And thanks be to God for WFPL and LEO.

Thoughts?