WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're hitting the rewind button on this week's news from the great lady's front pages to the stories on the small screen and the reporting that went under the radar. It's a hyper local look at the news that was and wasn't. We'll be dropping in on online communities and alternative presses. For a look at the big stories from the small papers where today's neighborhood news becomes tomorrow's mainstream headlines. We'll top off the hour venturing from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with Greg time on tour of the tabloids and a round up of this week's pop culture. Up next on the callee Crossley Show from gumshoe reporting the gossip rags. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying the four remaining

Republican presidential contenders are vying for votes on this last full day of campaigning in South Carolina before tomorrow's primary will show former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney still in the lead but barely. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be gaining ground. Rick Perry dropped out yesterday and endorsed Gingrich. Polls show Ron Paul's support has dropped and former Senator Rick Santorum is still branding himself as the party's true conservative. He's trying to hold on to momentum from a surprise final tally of votes that showed him not Mitt Romney as the leader of Iowa's January 3rd caucuses but with votes from eight precincts missing there. Iowa has no declared winner. Rescue operations around the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Italian coast are again suspended after the vessel shifted slightly on its rocky perch. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports the weather is holding but there are concerns about the ship's stability sensors placed on the ship show it has shifted about an inch every two hours.

The boat's instability forced the deck salvage crew to delay the concrete. Half a million gallons of fuel out of the vessel's tanks. The ship wreck a week ago and its tales of apparent cowardice by the captain and the courage of many crewmembers and islanders has mesmerized the country. The grounded of the biggest passenger ship ever in the Tuscan Marine Sanctuary has also prompted calls that big cruise ships be banned from passing too close to islands at shorelines that would eliminate one of the key selling points of Mediterranean cruises. Close up views of the Italian coast from the Riviera to Capri and Amalfi from Sicily to Venice. Sylvia Poggioli NPR News Rome. Heavy rains and melting snow from a strong winter storm is causing widespread flooding and evacuations in western Oregon as Angela Helmar of member station KLCC tells us the governor has declared a state of emergency in four counties at least and anticipates adding more to that list. The governor's declaration ships disaster response to the Oregon military department and office of Emergency Management. The Red Cross has set up a number of shelters for hundreds

of residents forced to evacuate due to flooding. Many roads are closed by landslides and high water. Jean Evans is with the state's emergency coordination center. The biggest issue that we've seen is some serious accidents across the state with people trying to drive through water that's just too high to drive through. An 18 year old mother and her 1 year old son died when their car was swept out of a grocery store parking lot and into a culvert. Two other passengers including a 5 year old boy were rescued. The National Weather Service says the rains and strong winds are expected to continue into the weekend. For NPR News I'm Angela Kellner in Eugene Oregon. At last check on Wall Street Dow is up 62 points or about half a percentage twelve thousand six hundred eighty five Nasdaq down five twenty seven eighty three. This is NPR News. Well stocks are mixed after Microsoft and IBM posted strong earnings but Europe's financial troubles are weighing on the markets Greece is holding talks with creditors. The country has been

carrying out austerity measures and receiving international bailouts in its struggle to avoid default. In another sign of improvement in U.S. housing home sales picked up in December capping an otherwise rough year for the housing sector. The National Association of Realtors reports sales increase last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate. A 4.6 million units a cheating scandal in Atlanta has public schools will cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Joshua Stewart reports School officials have agreed to return the money. The Atlanta Public School District will repay more than three hundred sixty thousand dollars in federal money it won because of inflated test scores. A state investigation in July revealed widespread cheating on standardized tests in almost half of the district's 100 schools. The cheating dates back a decade. Georgia state school superintendent John barge says the state's placing five specialists in the 50000 student district and providing training for educators until

at least June. The investigation accused of nearly 180 teachers and principles of giving answers to students or changing answers once the test have been completed. District officials say they'll come into later today. For NPR News I'm Joshua Stewart in Atlanta. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's expected to postpone next week's test vote on a bill to counter online piracy. Members of Congress are facing a barrage of protests from Internet companies who argue the legislation will propel censorship on the web while failing to end piracy. I'm Laxmi Singh NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live healthy productive lives. At Gates Foundation dot org. Good afternoon I'm Cally Crossley. Today we're hitting the rewind button on the week's news. Looking at it through a regional lens. Joining us today are Paul Provo editor

of the Cape Cod Times. Robert Whitcomb the vice president and editorial page editor of The Providence Journal and radio and TV commentator Arnie Arnesen who's based in New Hampshire. Welcome back everybody. I got to start with you Paul. The new state appointed panel has said that wind turbines are not harmful. Boy this is really going to stir up what's an already ongoing controversy down your way tell us about it. It sure is and this is an issue that's been resonating from the Cape and frankly throughout Massachusetts and beyond. There have been a lot of momentum down here to build municipal wind turbines. Basically one or two wind turbines usually have a landfill or some other public spot that would defray the cost of electricity for the community. Everyone seem to like the idea it was reliable and cheap and green source of energy. And that's something people seem

to embrace. Well as they began to be planned. One of the first that went up in the town of Falmouth really created some controversy with the neighbors. A lot of people came out and complained that the noise from the turbine and the flicker effect basically light that reflects through the spinning blades was causing health problems and they complained so loudly that they got the town to actually shut down that turbine until they could figure out exactly what was going wrong. Meanwhile other proposals throughout the Cape and Massachusetts basically were all but stopped in their tracks as people said boy if their health problems related to this we don't want to do it. So along comes this report from the state saying that in fact there are no adverse health effects associated with spinning wind turbines and this as you say is sure to just simply through the debate that much more. I would think it would just irritate some people. I mean it's sort of a helpless and

just sort of irritate people's fanatically And so that as an emotional I suppose it is illogical isn't it. Well we should point out that go on I want to be for not one thing is that is that this is a review of existing scientific literature. So if people are wondering well where did you know when a state appointed panel come up. They went back over with a fine tooth comb comb all of the existing scientific literature and came out with these conclusions. OK I'm going to go on. Ron Paul I thought of something he may have read as he talked anyway. And they didn't actually interview the people that were making the complaint this was all done based on sort of an arm's length literature search across the country across the globe as to whether there is in fact a you know health consequence in wind turbines. But there wasn't actually any study done to the people who are actually making the complaint the micro and that's what's interesting to Arnie is that they didn't. You're absolutely right I mean this is sort of a review of existing documents out there and taking information from all sorts of sources. And they produced a pretty comprehensive report a

hundred sixty four pages to look at this issue. Now what they didn't do is as you said talk to the people and it was not science that they did as part of this report. What will be interesting though is that when they agreed to shut down the turbine in Falmouth they're going to take a look at those health effects in fact they have another turbine right next door that they've agreed to start spinning for a period of time and they're going to closely monitor what's happening and see if they can translate any actual health effects related to when the turbine has been kept and what is interesting to the people around the bulldozer interviewed people around them. And there's one just now. Quick question. I was looking I did some I did some like online research too just like the rip people who read the report and they said that there is something also called like a chronic sleepless syndrome and that they find it happening where you're near a busy street or the new construction of a new highway that produces lots of noise and traffic and things like that. And so it doesn't surprise me that

there is some sort of adverse reaction to the wind turbine because this is place very much in a residential neighborhood. There is no there's not if they're not two miles away not you know two kilometers away it's sort of right there. And yet I'm I'm curious as to whether the same kind of reaction happens when the new highway stars or whatever those kinds of things do. And do people go apoplectic. Do they decide to shut the highway down or do they put buffers in for sound. And is there an answer to this because it's not unique to turbine. It's unique to anything that happens in an urban area where there's an intensity of noise. Consider it. Yeah exactly. And I think you should add that you know this kind of medical analysis and that's the terminology that scientists would use when looking at this literature or may in fact take into account what you've said Arnie. But the question is if it could be irritating to some people but is it scientifically unhealthy. I mean that's what they're trying. That's the question they're trying to answer. And it could be wildly irritating. But if it's not scientifically unhealthy then it doesn't undermine

what the conclusions of this study came up with. So maybe they come up with something else if they actually interview the people we shall see. I do note sorry I was going say I do know that there is a there are three public meetings to be held in February to discuss these findings and I want to know from you Paul what happens after that. OK so they've come up with this. They've said it. So now are all systems go or will these public meetings have some impact what happens. Well that's a good question and it'll be interesting to see as the the reports just come out it'll be interesting to see if this is really affected public opinion at all was was this report persuasive. Are the first gut reaction was that it didn't move the needle on either side folks. Support the turbines that we've told you this all along. And those who were against it said that no this wasn't scientific enough and in fact they point to the fact that the Governor Patrick's administration has set a pretty aggressive agenda to create renewable energy initiatives and specifically wind

power in Massachusetts and so some wonder if it's sort of there were political things at play here. The folks who did the survey said absolutely not. I mean take a look at our work. You know we were not concerned about that in fact they probably knew that that could be an outcome so it was a little panchayath you can't say it was bad politics because the people who were complaining whenever part of the study they weren't talked to their help there was no HOW think examination and that's bad politics because in the end people do matter and it's almost like as if an arm's length study proves anything when you're looking at your kid and your kid is vomiting and you good students are vomiting till the winter by half and then you're beginning to say Well is there a cause and effect and I think from even. Political perspective it would have been wise to talk to the people that said there are suffering consequences. I just think that somehow when you when you disconnect from people how can you then buy into a study because you weren't part of the conversation. And maybe that's what'll come out of this comment period in February that people say

all right. So if even if we were to accept this analysis in the way that you looked at the scientific literature and now we are asking based on that you go talk to the people who have brought these complaints. Maybe that's what happens when you do you know there's an oil cooler are probably going to the hotel or whatever the hope of it's going to be that's actually going to have their say I don't care I don't know what has your asthma. Good point. All right moving on. Over to you Robert Whitcomb 20 Foxboro area religious leaders are have stated now formally their opposition to a billion dollar resort casino and that's the one that Robert Kraft and Steve Wynn are proposing down your way opposite the Gillette Stadium will be good for traveler going 95 on them. I think I think the interesting thing is there is that sort of that sort of the

old moral argument against casino gambling and gambling in general is sort of the old blue laws and taxes and stuff like that and I thought that was sort of interesting that that came back I hadn't seen that highly organized attack I could see you know gambling on a moral basis by religious leaders for a while and it was sort of charmingly retro. Next up next. And you know I suppose they're going to brothels too I mean just not sporting. But it was what it was like well they have. Yeah. Well the local morality I know those folks that are in the still in the midst of making a decision about it. Well I think you will have virtually no impact. I think this is all about revenue. I think the state state officials certainly the local people don't want to raise taxes. The Montreux in the United States is now

no higher taxes and I think that trumps everything else you know politically in the league the leadership is far more concerned about being accused of raising taxes than it being immoral. It's interesting that of course this petition with submitted on the back of a bingo card. Yeah. Which is true but. Well you know I don't know anybody. Yes please tell me. Yes OK Clay what are you going to get in there. But I think that while they did talk about the morality I think they were also talking about the health effects I mean I hate to bring this up again but they they were talking about people that have the addiction and lose their house. And what happens to their families what happens to their children and them. And these religious leaders are saying and we're going to be left picking up the pieces. You're dismantling government anyway you're getting rid of the safety net you're telling that the charities are supposed to step in. So now you're creating a health effect that you're not going to take care of that or they're going to become the responsibility of us and then we're going to have to deal with the families that are afraid and everything else. And I also think that they're a little apoplectic because we are beginning to embrace the Latin American model. You know only

too much America has learned that it didn't work. And so they have moved on and now we're going back to their kind of model which was you know a lot of very very rich people very very poor people and they said you know play the lottery or play the whatever it was that they were playing. And I think that's where people are beginning to say this this is this is sustainable answer to revenue need if all of us are doing it at the same time. And now it's three casino six casinos nine casinos. There aren't enough people to play and those that are left to play well end up you know being in disarray. Civic culture you know those kind of supporters of a culture that is they certainly got argument there and they have an argument looking around the country the places that have lots of these kids Senos aren't really doing very well there are a lot in the south on the rivers. President Reagan is. And they really did Lennox city is not exactly sure and into Greenwich Connecticut I think to a lot of examples out there with this does not help the local economy.

Were there that were I certainly it's of a culture to the question of whether this will change anything however really it's unlikely I mean this is an argument that was already been made in the interest of trying to stop casino gambling in Massachusetts and that was successful for a good decade before lawmakers finally buckled to the pressure and they passed the Sloss and now it is the law in Massachusetts and there going to be three casinos whether people like it or not where they go is absolutely a question of where we started that with the New Hampshire started a lottery when it was already back might have been running a nation to do it. We're going to college shouldn't you know that was it was I mean it's about 40 years old so when I was one of theirs and I wanted to say I actually was a sponsor. Gabbling So how do you make the argument against Bush you know is limited to what you know showing though. One more point though and that is Robert and that is is that they also target towns that are hungry. They also target towns that don't have a lot of experience and selectman and know what to do. So then the question becomes even if they get the casino are they going to get the best deal. I mean it's kind of like when you put the dirty industry you don't put the dirty industry and you

know Hollis New Hampshire or Brookline Massachusetts you put the dirty industry in some dumpy little town that's you know craving revenue on a job and that's part of the problem is is that yes everyone will benefit. But where do you put your addictive behavior in a place where you know nobody to Farrelly at the high end wants to live where the bankruptcies. Yeah I would have had in Brooklyn myself I know a little well OK I think you put it at the Country Club. Yes exactly. I will play. Doubt that and I've done a lot of conversations about the proposal for casino gambling and then after was passed and all of that and I get a lot of email and response from people saying that the social cost issues are not raised enough and it has degenerated. Or in their minds or devolved into just the conversation about the bottom line so that's one and the second thing I would say is that it's not that easy it seems to find the hungry town so to speak because a lot of communities even if they might benefit are saying no we don't want it. So I wonder if something like this where there is an organized

group of clergy whether or not you agree with him totally. Raising this issues does have some indirect impact as the town considers whether or not they want to invest in this way. Well if I was that clarity I would get together with the restaurant industry and the hotel industry because they're pretty ticked off too because they understand the cannibalization of what happens because as soon as you put in a casino and you put in the restaurant in the casino you put the hotel in the casino. Yeah there goes their restaurant. They're like their own heart like Wal-Mart Except you think cept the steak house to say yes. The state doesn't have to really say yes to Wal-Mart the way the state has to be invested in the casino and the reason they're invest in the casino is it's about cash on the barrelhead. I mean they may get some taxes from Wal-Mart but they're going to get a bundle from the casino and a bit of an end of it. Yeah yeah yeah. Well. It's interesting about this proposal though. This is Robert Kraft we're talking about this is not some person who doesn't know what he's doing. Clearly he knows what he's doing and in fact has already expanded his business

from the sports franchise we all know and love the Patriots to a shopping center right next door called Patriot Place which has been wildly successful and I think there are some skeptics at the time saying people are going to want to come there because they're considered an area everyone too congested whether or not there's a game. Well Rob craft proven wrong then and it's interesting that he believes if any there any business is going to be cannibalized you would think it would be his with the sports entertainment and he's going to he's going to be way too far. So when you gonna you know say you know you're going to get 20 percent off of this shopping center Come on honey I already know today you know the Republican caucus was going to be the largest city in Massachusetts. Yes all right. We are looking at regional news with my feisty panel Paul prone of all from Arnie Arnesen from New Hampshire and Robert Wood representing Rhode Island. More as we continue this is eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston Public Radio. The.

Fact that. This program is on WGBH thanks to you. And celebrity series of Boston presenting one Gary and Gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos with his wild and virtuosic band Friday January 20 7th 8:00 p.m. at Sanders Theater in Cambridge. Tickets at Celebrity Series dot org. And Simmons leadership conference on Thursday April 5th. Innovation and impact a day of leadership motivation and networking for women seeking to compete in today's changing business climate information at Simmons dot edu slash leadership. Just play. Rhythm and blues performers songwriter and producer Johnny Otis has died at the age of 90. On the next FRESH AIR we listen back to our

1999 interview with Ellis. He was a white performer who loved black culture and considered himself black by persuasion. Joining us. This afternoon to be on eighty nine point seven WGBH. Hello I'm John Abbott president of WGBH. The new year is always an exciting time. Especially when it coincides with an all new season of a show like Downton Abbey the British drama brought here to the states courtesy of WGBH his own Masterpiece Classic supporters keep an eye out for my letter about the next great series for masterpiece. And thanks for helping WGBH plan another incredible year. Of incredible progress. How did today's innovators plan to tackle America's greatest challenges. I'm Karen Miller. That's it we talk about each week on innovation hub tomorrow. Morning at 7:00 here on eighty nine point seven. WGBH.

Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're looking at the week's news regionally with Paul Provo editor of the Cape Cod Times. Robert Whitcomb the vice president and editorial page editor of The Providence Journal and Arnie Arneson a radio and TV commentator based in New Hampshire. Arnie I want to start with you. One there's a batch of stories looking at the the house's eventual voting to ban funds for Planned Parenthood and one of them says New Hampshire's 2012 legislative session has not been a good one for him. Women so far tell us about it. Well there's. It really does feel like an assault on women. I mean obviously we're seeing the whole idea of defunding Planned Parenthood happening everywhere I think if you watch the debate last night I think Newt Gingrich brought it up during the debate so we know that this is this is national in scope. But obviously it has to be targeted state by state by state. And

now with an overwhelming Republican majority in both the House and the Senate they're able to do the things that they've been sort of clamoring for in a long time which is to defund any institution that provides abortions even if they don't use federal or state funding for those abortions. It is a way to retaliate. But what's really scary Calley it wasn't just the abortion bills. But you have to see some of the other things that are being threaded together under that same kind of umbrella which feels like the assault on women. There was a bill heard yesterday a domestic violence bill and it set back the domestic violence laws in New Hampshire by 40 years. And here's. What it does you are called in a 9 1 1 call and a cop rushes in because this woman is saying I'm being abused by my husband. The cop shows up your bloody Your arm is broken. There are tufts of hair on the floor. If a cop does not see the man physically hit the woman then guess what. He can't arrest the abuser. He has to go back to the

station. He has to get a arrest warrant. He has to find the judge so he can then come back and arrest the abuser. That law was changed 40 years ago because we knew that during that interim somebody might die. The abuser might disappear or the beating would continue. They want to go back to the 1970s. This is just another example I mean people are like they're shocked because because history and we've changed. Changed as a society we really rushin know already which is the rational for doing it. I know it's the rhetoric was to run the red if you don't you know there's a group called Fathers for Justice. You know then and it when they bring you stuff I'm sure. Sure and it's kind of a continuation of you know that I'm the innocent here. How can you believe her. You know you gotta trust me. I don't get my fair day in court. It's a whole series of things where where it's kind of the victimization of men. And so as a result what they're doing is is that they now have an opportunity because they

have this group of very fanatical legislators that really see this as an opportunity to tell women it's time for you to go back to the bus to be barefoot and pregnant. And again we are paralleling what the conversation appears a lot on the presidential primary stage where there's even questions as to whether we should be having access to birth control and whether this right to privacy. So take that presidential dialogue and then make it actually happen and bills are being passed in the New Hampshire legislature that are terrified that are terrified and that what I do want ample. So that's the domestic violence bill it's that's pretty interesting I didn't know about that but I want to point out that in the story about the defunding of Planned Parenthood that Planned Parenthood of northern New England say that abortions make up only 3 percent of the services it offers and none of the public money it receives goes toward the procedure. So and that 3 percent is accurate. Again with the promise as soon as you get into numbers

you get into the slippery slope. Yes. Three percent of services but it might be 30 percent of revenue are might be this or it might be that the fact of the matter is it is the law. And it is legal. It is the law and it is legal and that's part of the problem. And everybody you know understands about the whole issue of funding but of course you hear the term fungible as soon as you hear funding. The problem is it is legal and women should have access to it including poor women. And the story of Planned Parenthood isn't the story of abortions as much as it is access for women who are underfunded when it comes to health care services. And just one more point Kelly there was a story on public radio yesterday where they did this sort of national international study about abortions and where were the most abortions occurring in the world in places where abortions are illegal are illegal. So I'm not sure we want to go back to that plea. Arnie what prospects of this passing.

Significant and the good news is is that you have a governor who will veto it and will have you know it will try and then the question is do they still have enough capacity to override and they just might. That's been what has been so problematic is that in a state that is known libertarian that you know doesn't believe in big government or big church that you know embrace is the concept of gay marriage. This legislature comes from another century and another place. They're not representative of the population at large but they right now aren't in power. You can do something in November of 2012 but the problem is you can't do anything until that. Well that to my point to a point I wanted to raise is that pretty much all of these people who are voting this way were clear about what their intentions were as they were running and people voted them in. So it was there some disconnect about believing them or was or does what they're doing now is what they're doing now.

Really we feel most of what you know how we count we have 400 legislators. Thank you. Paid a hundred dollars a year. Don't even have bumper stickers they don't campaign come on. I'm going to read about social issues but most are broader economic issues you know. Actually for Right exactly and where most people are even aware that they're going to do this push you know absolutely only not absent and that's out of a job right out of me. Yes and we nationalize the election because what John Sununu the father the governor was at the time party chairman and he nationalized the election. So the 2010 election with model election about the New Hampshire economy which is actually doing better than the rest of the country it wasn't really about social issues because it's never really about social issues because we're too libertarian. I mean with the second lowest church attending state in the country. So I understand we're not going to play you know bond with this if you say it so a bunch of people got swept in on this idea that they were going to defeat Brock Obama even though that wasn't even the question.

And then when you know we all woke up the next morning we suddenly started to realize you know who they wanted for their speaker of the house which is one of the founders of the Tea Party and what their agenda was. And I will tell you right now I think they 85 percent of the electorate had no idea had knowing well that sounds like a typical election. All right well let me go right to Robert Whitcomb the cynical and I got a question a little bit. OK a story that is breaking over there in your neck of the woods is that. Speaking of social issues young woman who fought to get a prayer banner at her high school removed some supporters wanted to send her some flowers and florists refused to send flowers take the order because they really threatened by their customers their angry customers so this has been a lot of Christian charity about this whole thing. There's a group of people pumped up by some of the talk show people. And

probably by some of our letter writers are just the Cmin against this young woman. I have a theory by the way it's actually I was there is it just all questions women and want to pull down the prayer banner is actually trying to get into Yale and this is sort of like a senior project. Did I mention she's 16 years old by the way. Yeah. So there's maybe but in any event she has to be commended for her courage and forthrightness and and her interest in civic affairs and she's. And some threats because of this and a lot of people don't want to be associated with or at the same time. But there's another pretty large group of you know by humanists and of Christians who think she's you know should be commended for you know for being right out there and who agree with her that the prayer banner doesn't belong there they put this prayer banner up in this high school in Cranston Rhode Island about 40 50 years ago and it's the

kind of the headline of it that our Heavenly Father. And it goes and then a sort of a litany of civic things you should be. So it's pretty it's pretty bland but there is definitely you know religious reference to it not much more than in God we trust or some of the signs you see in our courthouses and they would search certainly a valid issue she raised as a point of sort of civic commitment if you will. And now she's receiving a lot of apparently a lot of threats and certainly a lot of unpleasant. You know what is that. Because it spoke to just the real serious divison. Go ahead Paul. In the community around these issues I took the issue itself out for a second and just tried to think about this young girl 16 years old and if florists are refusing to deliver flowers to her health because they're concerned about what's happening to them you can only imagine the sort of heat that she's taking in the community and certainly within the school itself apparently reading Bob count there was a public hearing held and people were standing up and

threatening and it sounded like a real rabble rousing crowd and if I'm a 16 year old girl I'm thinking I want this all to go away. Should mommy but I got the answer I got to get you ready but yes YOU TO PARTY. So here's the answer. Instead let's have our heavenly Father say here we go. Our Heavenly ya way. Our Heavenly Allah I have a question mark I have a whatever and then you can take your choice. So instead it means that the problem the problem is it's the idea. We all know about separation of church and state although we don't listen we believe it we talk about it but we don't believe it. And I understand her sense of OK I need to see this every day. It sends a message to me that somehow I am less valid or less worthy. So you can either remove it which would be generic or you can then give people multiple choice and the question then becomes And but they don't want that either. See if you said OK let's put let's put ya way let's put some thinking or some you know what episode for example people would be equally Apple plastic because they want it their way. They don't want freedom. They don't want separation of church and state. They want their thing

and I think that's really what she brought up and the fact that it's been there for 40 or 50 years. Well they're what used to be. Whites only over the water bubbler to you know a number of years ago but we would leave that out because it had some sort of historic you know validation because it was part of it was it was put into the cement on the wall. I think that's where you have to call people bluff. It's almost like don't remove it. Put them all up there. And to me it's rather sort of a little kind of a disuse you know kind of a civic you know call. I probably wouldn't bother to take it. Just ignore it the same way we've got in God we trust you know on a money and it's all over the place. Having said that you have to admire this young woman and her family for taking your son because we've had you know amidst all the screaming and yelling we've had some very intelligent conversations about the First Amendment to you know about establishment of religion. And Roger Williams whose

name keeps cropping up and all this stuff is so I think overall it's been very useful she's done a real service. And I wonder Bobby if it's I'm sure part of it certainly a large part of it is about religion but then the other part of it is think about how funny people are about their school and even entering are not necessarily on point and I think about it years ago was all about the high school mascots that perhaps were absolutely everywhere that have people to want to cling to them because they're part of their school you know. Dollar I went to they had to believe it or not the Indian as a mascot the American Indian I mean that's in there the old logo I were just infuriated that the new administration didn't think this was a great setting for probation invited the Maine governor in because remember how you want to get a little or no you can't think where you're on a moment I'm not going to do this once in a while you're at it. So we got to sort of WPA projects already knows a credible get up that Robert was there any any

kickback against the florist that refused to deliver the flowers or the other way around. They get massive support. He got some heat and some heat for for not for not delivering the flowers but he also got some support I think it's about 50/50 I mean I I'm not keeping data here but I'm probably the root cause of Toria more back and forth anybody else around here. I sense it's about equal. OK. All right well we'll have to leave it there right now we could just talk with you three forever and ever but we will join you again on some point in the future. We've been talking regional news with Paul prone to VO editor of the Cape Cod Times New Hampshire based radio and TV commentator Arnie Arneson. And Robert Whitcomb the vice president and editorial page editor of The Providence Journal thank you all so much. Thank you. Coming up we're taking a turn from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with a tour of this week's tabloids. You're listening to WGBH Boston Public Radio.

WGBH programs exist because of you and the Harvard innovation lab a university wide center for innovation where entrepreneurs from Harvard the Austin Community Boston and beyond engage in teaching and learning about entrepreneurship. Information at I lab at Harvard dot edu. And Grogan and company fine art auctioneers assisting New England families with the sale of their fine art antiques silver and jewelry since 1988. Located in historic Dedham Massachusetts and at Grogan's CEO dot com. And masterpiece as other great houses crumble a diminished Downton Abbey struggles to prevail into a new era with its residents and its honor intact. Don't miss part

three of Downton Abbey Sunday night at 9:00 on WGBH too. Tourists traveled thousands of miles to reach this African nature preserve to see the buffalo elephants and hippos. With all the comforts swimming pool air conditioning all told to show us then something went wrong. You know everybody made mistakes. What went wrong at Longo. A visit to the African nation of gabble next time on the world. Coming up at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. Resolved to get the most out of your investment is this year by turning your unwanted car a truck into a 2012 tax deduction. All you have to do is donate that unwanted vehicle to WGBH your donation will. Day off on next year's tax return at the same time helping to pay for the NPR programs that you depend on right now. The vehicle donation program handles all of the paperwork and will even send someone out to pick up the unwanted vehicle. For more information call 8 6 6 400 9 4 2

for WGBH and eighty nine point seven. Want to ensure a diverse pool of candidates for all of our employment opportunities. Visit the Careers section of WGBH dot org to learn more about the exciting opportunities currently available throughout our organization. It's rag time. A few of the week's coverage in tabloids. It's an examination of the salacious the ridiculous and everything in between. But this being public radio we'll conduct our review with the help of some highbrow analysts. Thomas Connelly a professor of English at Suffolk University and Rachel Ruben chair of the department of American studies at UMass Boston. Welcome back you two. Well some sad news to start off our conversation today. We just learned that Etta James one of. The great songstress says if you will has died. And of

course she made popular I saw that just has lasted for ever and it's called appropriately. At last here's a little bit of it. Where man. Was this coming. That's Etta James with her very well known song At Last thoughts. Thomas It's interesting on YouTube you if you look for Etta James you can come up with a her record in about last and the old Glenn Miller version with Ray Everly and to me this is a fascinating snapshot of popular music in America in the in

the past 50 years. You know the homogenized sanitized suite you know big band sound from Glenn Miller and then as we just heard there wrenching artistry of Etta James his is really is so powerful and it really demonstrates what has happened to popular music in our demands on it and conversely the demands we put on our artists I mean Ed to James had quite a complicated life and what she put into her music is what we expect now and the. Strange controversy she had with Beyonce late in her career also brings up some of the ways that Etta James sums up what we expect and how our singers perform perform and live in more recent years that everything is out there and that certainly is is that is James and I think that's why people respond to her so viscerally. Rachel Etta James I I think I think well first of all I just think that she recorded what I think is the best soul song ever recorded and I'm not just being hyperbolic

hyperbolic. I love her song. I'd Rather Go Blind. You know what's really also sad adds an additional layer of sad here is that the R&B singer Johnny Otis the white R&B singer who. Discovered Etta James and produced her first album he also died this week. So it's sort of really does close a chapter. Etta James is a completely fascinating person and she had this whole sort of like biracial journey in her own life where she's said she saw the man she thought was her father who was white and he said oh maybe maybe you know didn't exactly go anywhere. But what's interesting is that she sort of in the tradition of many soul singers she recorded not too long ago a country album. And it's sort of this it's beautiful it's a beautiful music beautiful musical text but it's also a great story a statement on the artificiality and inherent racism in the recording industry that sort of seeks to make these divisions. And they didn't match up with her a sense of artistry and they didn't match up with her life either.

Well I loved her and I think it's too bad that toward the latter part of her career what she may also be remembered for is that little tiff with Well Beyonce really wasn't engaging in the TIFF. Etta James sort of you know if you don't the guy let the onset I think in front well and she was you know she was in the early stages of dementia now and it's really isn't fair I hold that. You know I just want to get clear for people that what happened was that Beyonce sang at last or was invited to sing At Last at President Obama's inauguration. And she get did it with great tribute to Etta James and Etta James to great offense to the fact that she was still alive and felt she should have been invited to sing our own song but there you have it but I certainly I thought Beyonce was gracious and all of that and and I also played at a Games and Cadillac Records. That's right in the movie. Yeah all right well we're sorry for her family and those who respected her and her career. Moving on big controversy on a Golden Globe winning show Modern Family. A lot of people may still have not discovered it but it's keeps winning all of the awards for its edginess. It's an ABC show and they

push the arms a lot further this week Rachel by deciding that the character on the show a child actor would use the F word except they don't have the kid actually say the F word the kid said Fudge and they bleeped it out. But it made it look as though the child was going to say it great controversy a lot of people commenting on in the blogosphere. What do you think. I know oddly layered isn't it. So they bleeped it to make us think she was saying a word she wasn't saying but then we couldn't hear her say it either. You know it's all very funny. It's what's interesting to me is that this is happening right as the courts are deciding whether the FCC will be able to go on regulating certain media but not others. And as things develop it does become increasingly strange that there are words you can't say on the radio and on some television stations but you can say them on cable and you can say them on the Internet you know so it's odd. I mean that the I think there needs to be some kind of evolution of that as far as the actual word goes. Again it's always sort of struck me I mean we all it

because we know what the child was the character that is was supposed to have been saying. It's sort of indicates what all historical linguists insist which is that the taboo about saying certain words goes back to the time when people believed that words had actual magical powers and if you uttered them outloud then something would happen. And there these two categories of them one that has to do with you know religion and one that has to do with bodily functions and this word obviously falls into the latter latter category. I mean what it says I think is that you know that it's still sort of matters who says what in front of whom you know there are all these studies like in mixed gender groups men Square more than women in single sex groups. Women swear a lot more than men. You know so it's all a question of like who says what where and in front of whom it's completely sort of contingent. Tom much ado about nothing. Yes and also I think it sums up the basic hollowness of modern modern family I mean all fudge that to me sums up the cutting edge nature of modern family. I mean really it's just

another conventional situation comedy. Wow she has two dads you know. Is there anybody who is really interested in that at this point as a cutting edge phenomenon. We've seen this on network television before and I think this is also a manufactured controversy on their part. And I think them pulling back by using the word fudge and then acting you know bleeping it out and a wink and a nudge it just to me the show has never been what they say that it is. To me it's just another quote unquote family sitcom where all the parents are idiots. I mean it's absolutely Naam as far as I'm Kids can channel sell you out that way though they will repeat what you say in my house it was Daddy said Oh fudge and opened the hood of the car so you have to hide yourself. That's right and that was the point of the show though. I think Tom's point is that they manufactured it to do a little bit more hype around it. Well a controversy that is not manufactured had to do with the queen of southern cooking herself Paula Deen. She of the Lady and Sons of many many recipes of Food Network shows

on and on. She announced this week that she has had diabetes for three years and that she was going to go into an arrangement with a drug manufacturer to treat it and got a lot of blowback from people unhappy with her so first here's Paula Deen talking about going public with her diabetes. I had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And when she had been diagnosed with diabetes it's not at deaths and Maries. I know that there will be criticism of me. I've had criticism since day one. And everyone is entitled to their opinion but I can't. Let someone you know take me down or discourage me. You know I have a mission and I'm going to see that mission through which time the criticism comes from the fact that you know the way she cooks with a lot of butter and everything seems to be opposite of what one's diet should be

if you have diabetes a. And that she only announced this when she decided to have a business deal with a drug manufacturer to treat diabetes. Yes. Martha Stewart is the Earth Mother compared to this Paula Deen woman. She's also a smoker. Anyone who could take the opinion on food cooking or taste from someone who smokes is obviously not interested in the real taste of food they're interested in presentation. And Paula Dean's you know deep fat fried everything and everything layered in sugar and fat in nothing. I mean cholesterol aside. The insidiousness of a woman setting up a deal to peddle a diabetes medication while promoting a diet that in fact encourages diabetes. It's just the mind reels at the corruption here not only of you know blocked arteries but blocked moral channels are blocked to good sense it's just it's astounding to me and the self-righteous clip that we just heard

just just magnifies the sense of outrage that people should be feeling whether they be vegans or carnivores this is just ridiculous. Rachel Well I mean good heavens like I'm always very very happy to have a discussion about the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry. I don't think blaming Paula Deen for her diabetes is helpful at all it's that the selling of it that's I'm not blaming her for an illness. OK but you know for these the selling of diabetes. It's just I mean why diabetes why now it's there has been a certain amount of cultural focus on it it's a generation ago diabetes was called the Jewish disease. Now diabetes we talk about as as the robin the call these wonderful plays in you know current play in Boston here sugar. Now we see diabetes disproportionately represented among African-Americans and I just feel like sort of hanging our discussion on it all of it on a person who is you know white and well-off sort of I think misses the

point and I don't think the recrimination really helps. Well I think this will put a button on this is that a lot of people are just think it's ethically just so wrong. I note that one of her chief critics Anthony Bourdain he himself a celebrity chef tweeted thinking of getting into the leg breaking business so I can profitably sell crutches later. So that was the connection of that I mean and Nobody's blaming her for her diabetes. But they're like you know come on be come clean about it and you've had it for three years you never told anybody and now when you come out you're doing the drug thing. I've always liked Paula Deen. I think this is a little weird but that's what happens in terms of her presentation was somebody that everybody likes. Betty White new show and has just turned 90. So first let's listen to a trailer for Betty White's new TV show called off their rockers. Welcome to all of their rockers. What I love is all our senior moments are funny and on purpose.

My boyfriend just sent me a text about things he wants to do instead and I don't know what any of them mean. Downtown Boston Tea Party. Going. Public on the front. Line. A good. One. I don't know. So Rachel Betty White making much of her you know age and also this sort of speaking a wink and a nod wink and that's right and the you know I asked her she does not to be contrarian but you know Thomas isn't filling that role so I'll have to jump into it why I am I don't. You said everyone likes I want to just sort of take a tiny step a baby step back from that. I'm a little bit tired. OK I'm a lot tired of the sexy grandma thing she does. You know suggestively eating hotdogs like it's supposed to be hilarious that an older person has a sexuality and in that little clip you played that was the joke right. It's only you know me because hahaha you know I'm an older woman is be you know is discussing sex. So I sort of feel to me that's getting a little bit old

and I don't you know I don't think it's getting old no pun intended no planning. I think not my favorite thing to joke about in the first place you know and so I'm ready to sort of take it. And it's funny about that Betty Betty White thing I sort of feel like this like bringing back of Betty White began as a semi ironic hipster thing and it got away from them and now it sort of operates in both at both registers at the same time. Time you agree. I think this there's more to it than this I found the the show to have a nastiness to it. It's not just you know look at the sexy grandmas and grandpas I mean there's actually a naked man running through a mall I mean it's there's a convenient line to censor it. But this isn't the sort of thing you see on network television and also the the the raunchiness is not strictly for its own sake. It's three it's. Pranking on the younger people and none of these things are benign I mean these. There's even a rather unpleasant moment making fun of a person taking on you know being blind. What

is a little conventional is Betty White's introductions and you have the huge glass of wine and you know rubbing frosting on some hunk. But I just want to mention Allen Funt and candid camera because this more than any more than America's Funniest Home Videos. This reminds me of Allen Funt groundbreaking Candid Camera which really has not received enough recognition for its groundbreaking place in video history that some of these sketches are stolen from you know shows that were on Candid Camera 40 50 years ago but nonetheless you know Betty White Marquesan she's untouchable Happy birthday to her. OK. Something that is apparently touchable. You'll recall or maybe listeners will recall that there is a group of actresses here who have been parroting the Real Housewives franchise by putting together something called The Real Housewives of South Boston. Turns out now there's going to be a real show but here's a clip from the parody of The Real Housewives of South Boston.

Because you ladies only knocking x cause then I mean come on he was elite X ring like three fucking times videos. I have wicked black eyes. One of my kids is Mikey my. Cousin's kid. I'm the steward of the bunch of the best snacks. I got Cheetos Fritos. Well that's a real house. OK that was from the parody of The Real Housewives of South Boston. Now there's going to be a real show and the people are putting it together a noid by that parody and say they were looking for people who are God fearing who represents South Boston a different way and with seconds to go Rachel and Tom weigh in. Well I guess you wonder if you're going to have to prove which side of the pull of God you were born on I mean they're asking for their asking for birth certificates all kinds of real you know genuine bona few days that you are from solved Boston. That's insane. It's all one big difficult ball for me it makes me really uncomfortable sort of walks the line between genuine humor and what I just think of as class minstrelsy both of them the parity and the real thing.

Will it sell. I don't know it's the people who are putting it together just on this. This casting call. They sound so self-righteous and serious even solemn. This is not going to fly. It's hard I think it's hard to tell it's hard to tell their sort of preempting criticism I think to some degree or or that they think they are. But it is interesting isn't the layers of real and not real reality shows that aren't real parodies that are fake reality shows real reality shows that are sort of like the areas of the faith you shall have to put forward their their birth certificates and the baptismal certificates. That's why we have you to deconstruct this time. Professor Thomas Connelly of Suffolk University Professor Roger Ruben of UMass Boston. Thank you for another edition of ragtime. You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash Kelly Crossley follow us on Twitter and become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook. Today's show was engineered by Jason Gambro and produced by Chelsea Merz will Rose live and Abbey Ruzicka the Calla Crossley Show is a production of

WGBH Boston Public Radio.