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BLOG: Todd Ellis
Phoenix TV Media Personalities: Whatever Happened to Morals and Ethics?
Posted May 30, 2008
You know, sometimes you run across something that is so disgusting and illustrative of our disintegrating society that you want to scream: Enough! This particular sickening example is right here at home in the Valley.
Along with other concerned locals, I have blogged in the past about ABC-15 (KNXV) news anchor Katie Raml’s professionally unethical behavior regarding her public support and fundraising activities for liberal and pro-abortion organizations and political candidates. It got so bad that the Columbia Journalism Review had to strongly reprimand her in one of their issues for “using her professional credentials to support her personal politics.” Regardless of your political affiliation, you have to be concerned with someone who so wantonly flaunts the established ethics of her profession. Let’s face it, the Columbia Review is hardly a conservative publication!
Another alarming side of newscaster Katie Raml is her increasing visibility as one of the major players in Scottsdale ’s seamy club scene. Recently she had a Birthday Bash thrown for her by her “friends” in the local club and bar crowd. I assume her station must have been fully supportive of the event since their logo is prominently displayed on the flyer.
Let me introduce you to some of Raml’s “friends.” The guy who is hosting her party is named Brian Durkee, aka “Party Monster.” Here’s a quote from Mr. Durkee’s profile taken from his personal MySpace web page:
“I somehow stumbled across Arizona State University where my Business management degree helped fine tune my skills in the field of adult beverage consumption. Throughout the last six years I've have had many great opportunities that have enabled me to create some of the best parties Arizona has to offer. Through everyone’s continuous support, good spirit, and ability to consume inhuman quantities of alcohol night after night, we’ve been able to create the valleys most exciting, unique and most talked about nights in Arizona.”
Sounds like a swell orgy in the making. Maybe party-boy Matt Leinart will show up too. For what it’s worth a number of bloggers have linked Raml with various sports celebs (of course) such as Phoenix Suns team members. To make sure all her sleazy Scottsdale friends showed up at the party, Raml’s photo invitation was posted on a number of pornography websites, such as Scottsdale’s own porn movie queen Jenna Jameson’s, and other MySpace websites of various soft-core and X-rated “models.” One site advertising her party belonged to Jessica (aka “Damaged Goods”) who evidently was in something called “Rock of Love 2” which some research uncovered is a reality/game show about a number of Playboy models, porn stars (some bisexual), etc., who compete to jump in bed with a rock star. Fine educational fare. Or how about the MySpace website of TV news anchor Katie Raml's apparent good friend "Li'l B?" Li'l B is a self -described Scottsdale "model" (clothing optional) and if you saw her website you probably have a good idea what she intends the "B" in her name to stand for. I had intended to include the link, but frankly the website is far too objectionable. Raml's large photo appears on the website twice, just so her other bosom buddies don't miss it. Besides a glimpse of Scottsdale’s underbelly of clubs, porn industry, and alcohol/ drug culture , you may ask what’s the big deal here? The big deal is that Katie Raml has been promoted by her station ABC-15 (and by ASU's Cronkite School for that matter) for years as some sort of wholesome, family-oriented, “role-model” for our youth. Right. She’s a role model alright -- for all of the qualities that decent parents want their children to shun. She appears to lack both ethics and morals. The perfect poster child for today’s rapidly disintegrating American culture that unfortunately many are anxious to see happen.
Recently, Saguaro High School in Scottsdale announced that they were developing a “Wall of Fame” to honor various illustrious graduates. You would expect the plaques to represent successful graduates who represent the pillars of our American society – teachers, men and women of the armed forces, health care workers, etc. Nope! At least not in any real sense. The prominent graduates will be (former) TV celebrity David Spade and the ethically-challenged newsreader and party-girl Katie Raml. In fact, the Saguaro PTO and Scottsdale ISD evidently consider Raml such a great role model that they plan to have her unveil the Wall of Fame and host the inauguration. Is this a unbelievable mistake or is it intentional on someone's part?
I doubt there are too many parents out there (I hope) that want their children to grow up to follow in Paris Hilton-wannabe Katie Raml’s footsteps. Isn’t it time we put a stop to all this very damaging “celebrity” worshiping, particularly when the individual exhibits such a sleazy professional and personal life? A Report Card for ASU’s Michael Crow Posted by Todd Ellis | Dec. 18, 2007 Well, it’s that time of the year when Arizona State University students receive their report cards. I thought perhaps it only fair that President Michael Crow receive one too. After all, Crow has been the leader and chief architect of “The New American University” for five years now. We Arizona taxpayers should expect to see some improved results for the largest university in the state and one of the largest in the nation. If not – it’s off to the woodshed.
No more easy, party school reputation. ASU widely respected as one of the top academic and research institutions in the nation. Isn’t that what we were promised when Crow was inaugurated in 2002? Surely the report card will show some evidence that this is all coming to pass, and the nation’s best and brightest are flocking to the home of the Sun Devils.
Of course we're painfully aware that Crow knows how to spend money to build buildings. (Build it and they will come?) There’s ample evidence for that over the past 5 years. We also know how Crow can influence the state Board of Regents to hike tuition. A 14-percent hike next year with more to follow. We also know that the lefty thought police are alive and well on campus. Good luck to you if you want to have an open forum on campus to discuss Conservative thought or the evils of abortion. Anyone taken a course at ASU recently which objectively discusses and contrasts the theory of evolution with that of Creationism? ...I didn’t think so.
But how do we actually grade President Crow’s 5-year performance at ASU? I guess one could look at the U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 rankings which places ASU at 124th in the nation among national universities. That’s slightly up from 130th last year and behind such academic “giants” as fellow Pac-10er Washington State University and Colorado State University. Hmmm, not too great for The New American University of the desert and one of the U.S.’s largest universities.
However, there are those who believe the U.S. News rankings are flawed and perhaps don’t really represent the strengths of public universities as opposed to private institutions. Okay, how about a measure of the academic strength of the student populations of these schools? Especially incoming freshmen who made the decision to attend that school over all others. Looking at GPA’s is no good since grade “inflation” at high schools has taken over and just about everyone has a decent graduating GPA these days.
But we still have the good old Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) that almost all freshman applicants take. In fact, now the College Board has assured us, after some tweaking, that they are better predictors of college academic success than ever. The College Board, that administers the tests, publishes the average or median SAT’s for students applying to various colleges. Also, many publications and the schools themselves release this information yearly as part of the incoming student profile of the schools.
So, if King Crow has made a difference in ASU and its national academic reputation we should see an improvement in the SAT scores for incoming freshman and they should compare well with their peer universities. In other words, after 5 years of heavy spending and PR spinning the nation’s “best and brightest” will be starting to see the light (in this case, bright solar light) and signing on the dotted line to be a Sun Devil.
Here are the results. ASU’s 2007 freshmen had median combined SAT scores for Critical Reading and Mathematics of 1095. When one looks at previous years’ SAT combined scores going back to year 2000, there has been essentially no change.
How do these combined scores compare to other schools? Well, the University of Arizona was slightly better at 1110. When comparing ASU’s 2007 freshmen median scores with some of the California Pac-10 schools the news gets worse. We have UCLA at 1295 and UC Berkeley at 1325 – 21 percent higher than ASU. If we look at private USC it really gets ugly. USC’s entering freshmen scored a combined 1370!
What if we compare some of the big, national mega-universities with ASU? Maybe it’s harder for these big schools to attract top students? Guess again. The 2007 University of Texas freshmen had scores of 1225, Ohio State came in with a 1200, and University of Michigan at a whopping 1315, almost as high as UC Berkeley. All this in contrast to ASU’s combined score in these critical areas of reading and math of 1095. Again, this abysmal rank for ASU is essentially the same as it was in 2002 and earlier.
We may have new buildings, more debt, and a lot more ego on campus since President Crow began his reign in 2002, but the academic quality of students applying to and attending ASU is unchanged and low-ranking. I guess the best and brightest are still avoiding The New American University. Well, gotta go. I hear there’s a great party going on in Tempe!
I give President Michael Crow
an overall D+ for his five years. It would have been lower, but I
gave him extra credit for being a fairly natty dresser.
Phoenix Media Continue Support for
Liberal Causes
Posted by
Todd Ellis | July 17,
2007
In a recent article on notable Arizonans contributing to their favorite presidential candidates, the Phoenix Business Journal reported that KTVK Channel 3 meteorologist Royal Norman is one of John Edward's Phoenix financial supporters.
Last month, an MSNBC
investigation named
143 journalists over the past three years who, according to public
records, gave money to candidates or political causes, and some
also had photos taken with candidates and openly endorsed
them. Open political involvement and financial contributions are
supposed to be a violation of the Society of Professional
Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics. It was noted by MSNBC that
nearly 90 percent of the media contributions they uncovered were
made to Democrats or liberal causes.
One of the "journalists" on that list was TV reporter Steve Bodinet, also of KTVK, who contributed $400 to the Kerry campaign during the last major election.
The Arizona Conservative has noted in a number
of articles and editorials the outrageous liberal
political activities of KNXV ABC-15's news anchor Katie Raml, who
has led fundraisers and political pep rallies, posed for publicity
photos with candidates and contributed money to the local
pro-abortion organization, The WISH List. Key members of the WISH
List are State Sen. Carolyn Allen and State Rep. Michele
Reagan, both from Raml's own home Scottsdale District 8. Both
lawmakers are often subjects of news stories covered by Raml and
her station. The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) in 2004 ripped Raml's
unethical partying with her liberal politician friends, and KNXV
claimed that they would "tighten" their rules on their
newscasters' outside activities.
Oh really? KNXV's former "political reporter" Holiday Moore is
another documented financial contributor to the liberal WISH List
while she worked with Raml at the station.
When will this unethical media activity stop? It's hard to believe
that it takes New York-based groups like Columbia University and
MSNBC (hardly right-wing institutions) to ferret out these
unethical local Phoenix "journalists" who, as the CJR put it in
the case of Raml, use their professional credentials to support
their personal politics. The MSNBC story further clarifies that
as "90 percent-of-the-time liberal" personal politics.
Yes, I know some of you will say that Royal Norman's situation is
different since he's a TV weatherman and isn't likely to cover
stories related to politics or politicians. I'm not sure that's
true when it comes to issues like global warming, which are easily
tilted and framed by political conviction and possible gain. But
also -- don't Norman, Raml, Bodinet and other named newscasters
and reporters represent their stations, too? You have to wonder
why the TV stations are willing to allow, and even encourage, this
unethical activity and risk alienating viewers with differing
political viewpoints in such a competitive environment. Counting
the Spanish stations, there are now seven TV stations in Phoenix
offering some sort of local news.
In addition, "conservative" KFYI Radio has already begun airing "veiled" advertisements during newscasts of The Susan G. Komen Foundation's October 2007 "Race for the Cure" in Phoenix. Komen gives race proceeds-generated grants to Planned Parenthood, which defeats the purpose of breast cancer research because medical studies show abortion significantly raises women's chances of contracting breast cancer. Several Komen officials are or have been active in Planned Parenthood organizations around the nation. No doubt KFYI will be found on the list of sponsors for this year's "Race AGAINST the Cure" -- setting journalistic ethics back yet another decade.
Evidently the drive to support their liberal ideology at all costs
outweighs any of the "news" stations' business concerns. No wonder
the Internet is rapidly killing off both print and broadcast news.
Euro Animal Rights Activists Vow to Make a Chimp a Legal 'Person' Posted by Todd Ellis | May 12, 2007
In a potential precedent-setting
legal challenge, an Austrian animal rights group is seeking to
have their country declare that a 26-year-old male chimpanzee is a
"person" with basic legal rights. The chief executive of Animal
Defenders International states, "it will be the first time the
species barrier will have been crossed for legal personhood.'' The
Austrian activists vow to take the case to the European Court of
Human Rights if necessary.
The supposed basis for this legal action on behalf of the chimp is
to allow it to have the right to own property (financial
contributions) and to have a guardian (I assume a human) appointed
as legal trustee.
One can only shudder to think about the next steps to be taken by
these animal rights groups if they're successful in this
unbelievable absurdity.
Legal marriage between chimps and humans? Heck, why not legal
marriages also between consenting chimps and dolphins?
Perhaps voting rights for chimps? How about social security
benefits too?
Of course, the animal "defender" kooks always pull out the
ridiculous claim that, "chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA
with humans." That exaggerated nonsense comes from an old study
that only looked at small segments of the human and chimpanzee
genomes where the similarities would be the
greatest. Cherry-picking the results, if you will. Scientific
studies looking at the complete genomes have just begun, but the
most recent comparison studies published in Nature and
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show
a degree of similarity between humans and chimps at more like 85
to 90 percent.
Does that still sound impressive? Well, the Mouse Genome study
back in 2002 showed that gene-to-gene comparisons for humans and
mice reveal roughly an 80 percent sequence similarity between the
two. For that matter, humans and daffodils possess a 35 percent
genetic similarity!
The point is, there is more than genes and genetic similarity that
defines biological organisms, and MUCH more -- spiritual and
physical -- that differentiates humans. Most scientists are now
focusing on the myriad of gene expression patterns that are
unique to humans. Human DNA comparisons to other species are
meaningless and signify nothing.
So, how will all of these chimp-rights legal fights in Austria
affect us here in the good ol' U.S.A. ? Well, I would say that
it's only a matter of time.
The next thing you know, they'll be running a chimpanzee for
governor in California.
Hey, wait just a minute...wasn't Schwarzenegger originally from
Austria?
Arizona's Hand in Media's 'Grief Pornography' at Virginia Tech
Posted by
Todd Ellis | April 23,
2007
Congratulations to the student body at Virginia Tech for setting a
deadline for the media to clear off of their campus. Too bad it
wasn't done days ago. Thousands of these "journalist" ghouls
have descended upon the Blacksburg campus over the past week to revel
in what one writer termed "grief pornography."
You may believe that I'm referring only to the national media's
endless harassment of Va Tech's students, faculty, and nearby
community members but, believe it or not, Phoenix's ABC TV affiliate
KNXV (ABC15) sent one of their morning news anchors, Steve
Irvin, along with a camera crew over 2,000 miles to join in this vile
media orgy. Why would an Arizona TV station go out of their way to
stoop to such a crass and tasteless stunt, not to mention adding to
the potential psychological harm of the VA Tech community?
Well...it's ABC15, that's why. The anything-for-a-Nielsen-rating-point
Phoenix TV station with a history of ethical problems and home
of tasteless, tabloid "journalism." ABC15, the same station that
protected and supported their pro-abortion news anchor Katie Raml when
she was out campaigning for and financially supporting her favorite
lefty candidates during the last presidential election, even
after national professional journalist organizations had condemned her
actions.
No, trolling for tears 2,000 miles away at the expense of
shell-shocked students in another part of the country, and asking the
same morbid questions over and over, is nothing out of the ordinary
for our ABC15.
But, it is an embarrassment for Phoenix, Arizona.
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