RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

People at the paper finally got around to reporting this morning that the rest of Veishea [the 2014 version] has been told to take a hike. Canceled, I mean. Called off. Hopefully, not just 2014, but permanently. The horrible thing has outworn its welcome. For about 20 years, Veishea has turned into a public relations nightmare for Iowa State. Can you imagine what the parents of some kid who plans to enroll at the school next fall are thinking when they see the video of cops throwing students to the ground in little ol' Ames? One too many cars has been turned over by drunken students. This week, a few too many students have been wrestled to the street and pinned to it by cops. Yeah, the paper finally caught wind of what was going on and sent somebody to Ames to report on that mess. More than 24 hours after everybody from Facebook, Twitter, Juno, G-mail, Linkedin and whatever TV station you like to watch reported on it, of course. If you're thinking the paper is trying to put out a front page with no ink in the well and with the reporters wearing handcuffs, you're correct. Actually, I feel sorry for the veterans at the paper, if there actually are any veterans left. The paper's 20-Year Club vanished quite a whlie ago because nobody was allowed to stay that long in the newsroom. They were escorted to the side door by security people after their 19 years, or 19 days, were up. Either that or Gannett. Co. management no longer wanted to pay for the wrist-watches that were supposed to go to people when they made it to the 20-Year Club. The reason there wasn't a word in yesterday's paper about the crime scene in Ames was because it took place at 11 o'clock the night before, and nobody in the newsroom knew'about it or couldn't do anything about it if they did. The paper's deadlines are so early now that Babe Ruth could die again at 11 p.m., and there'd be no story about it for 24 hours or more. The same thing happened with the fire in the Younkers building. It happened in the early-morning hours, and there was nothing in the paper for more than 24 hours. Yet, the paper's house ads [those are the advertisements begging you to subscribe to the paper for a You-Buy-It-for-a-Month-and-We'll-Give-You-11-Months-Free deal] keep saying, "We reported it first." The editors are lying to themselves and to everyone else. They don't get anything to you first anymore unless it's your subscription statement. Back to the mess at Veishea for a minute. I hope that woman whose picture was taken while she was crying because Veishea was canceled wasn't one of the people who was turning over cars the night before.

     Photo courtesy of Iowa State Daily and Google.