I’m going to put the politics completely aside on this one. I discussed this a bit on today’s DDD (found at dannydoesduluth.com by the way) but what I find really strange is the severe lack of real coverage locally of this billboard. It’s getting quite a bit of major national media attention, but very little locally. With how close to us this sign is, and with the right connections (friends of friends, etc.) why are no local reporters doing any investigative reporting on this and making a bit of a name for themselves here by figuring out who is behind the billboard? It’s like a nice break is being handed to local media and they are all ignoring it so they can focus on snow that may or may not be coming and some guy who changed his name to reflect his love of Herb.
It was a good concept. It was assured to get people talking, but what about and who is a different story.
For whatever that cost I sure hope the publicity made it worth it. Read the New York Times and you’ll see people buying whole pages to say all sorts of really cool or stupid shit. I’d love to see that more. Can you imagine the DNT as 1/3 bought pages. A thin line around the material and a small ‘This page is paid advertising’.
What with all the other insane billboards down that stretch, I can see how nobody local cared too much about it, while others find it an interesting political statement.
Danny G, it isn’t being reported locally because there are no local reporters who are interested in getting their fat butts out of their desk chairs. If it doesn’t come across the AP directly onto their computer screen, it is just too hard.
This, of course, is just my opinion of the Duluth News Tribune state of affairs.
Yawn. I can’t believe they would put up that silly of a picture of him.
I am glad that billboard is there to remind me just how bad it was and I can remember the fact that while things aren’t great now, at least they are not like they use to be.
This is such a lame, uninteresting thing that it annoys me to comment at all, but the criticism of local media for not covering it needs to be bitchslapped.
It’s not a local story. Nothing about it matters at all. It’s not that local reporters never found out about it, it’s that they didn’t care, because they shouldn’t.
This was written about by Bob Collins on his Newscut blog To this moment it has 57 comments and will likely get many more
Clearly it is an interesting story for HIS statewide beat (quirky, undercovered stories, and news analysis). It is not local TV news fare and probably nothing more than a “wire story” in the DNT. I know a number of local journalists and none of them are lazy. Overworked and fallible? Sure, sometimes. Lazy, no.
Danny is right. Our newspaper and television reporters here should drop everything, drive the 122 miles to Wyoming, and do that investigative reporting that he wants to see done. This is big news damn it! It’s a billboard! I can’t believe how our liberal Darwinist mainstream media has been ignoring billboards. Not anymore!
In the middle of driving down the highway, Homer skids to a halt in
front of a billboard.
Homer: [gasps] It must be the first of the month: new billboard day!
[a car-carrying truck stops behind him]
[a bunch of cars drive onto it accidentally]
Driver: Heh heh heh…finders keepers. [drives off]
Homer: [reading] “This year, give her English muffins.” Whatever you
say, Mr. Billboard! [skids off]
[stops suddenly at another billboard for barbeque sauce]
[cars collide behind him and explode]
Homer: [reading] “Best in the West.” Heh heh heh, that rhymes!
[looking at the next one] “Clown college”? You can’t eat that.
-- Homer’s billboard-judging criteria, “Homer the Clown”
I’m still waiting for the answer to this question: If the local media are supposed to be covering this “story,” what’s the angle? Do we really need to know the identity of these clever conservative folks who pooled their money together and put a political billboard, and what exactly drove them to take this shocking action? I agree that local, state and national media cover silly topics on a daily basis, but I, for one, think it’s silly to criticize the media for covering a laundry list of the prosaic, then suggest that they are not doing their job for covering yet another non-story. Let the billboard speak for itself.
I’m actually not saying that they aren’t doing their job here. I’m just pointing out that it might be a good career move for them to not only cover this, but to get to the bottom of it as well. Also, when you compare the other local/national stuff that does get coverage it does make me wonder why exactly this is being ignored.
And no…I don’t think it’s some big political conspiracy or anything. Nor do I think the billboard itself is a great, wonderful “in your face” towards those who voted for Barry. I just think it’s strange that it’s being ignored around here.
Even though I voted for Obama…I think that the billboard is awesome and quite funny. The irony is that nobody misses GWB, but in hind sight we would be better off with him now that we have seen what “New Guy” has accomplished in his first year.
I think the only news angle here is what people are willing spend their money on in times of crisis.
Give money to Haiti? Hell No! They made a pact with the devil! They got what they deserved!
Spend my money on a really annoying and irrelevant billboard?
Hell Yes!
I was listening to MPR this morning and the commentator and someone else were talking about how clever the billboard is — you don’t know if it’s pro-Bush or not. The question could be, now that Bush is gone and we see who have replacing him, do you miss Bush? OR, even with the problems of the Obama presidency, do you remember the last guy, who was a total disaster?
I have to admit, having seen the billboard, the photo of Bush on there makes him look like a doofus. I laughed when I saw the photo and thought, yep, I miss that doofus, hope the door didn’t hit him on the way out.
I just read through all the comments and the only feeling I get from the posts is “so what” with a little “damn reporters not doing their job” thrown in by Danny.
It’s a fricken billboard some distance from Duluth. Do I care about it? No.
Once again, “Damn reporters not doing their job” was totally not the opinion I was trying to convey here. I just thought it was a little weird that none of the local journalists are trying to get ahead a bit by taking this opportunity.
Hey Danny, I have an idea! Why don’t you do a podcast and read all the comments on this thread you don’t like in different very angry, high-pitched voices? i am sure your listeners would get such a kick out of you making fun of us for not giving a shit that someone put up a provocative billboard in Wyoming, Minn. that has a silly pic of President Bush on it.
Calk, did you write “listeners”? I am not alone? I would love to find Danny’s other listener. Please have them contact me through Danny’s website. Thanks!
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “It was put up by a group of small business owners — who want to stay anonymous --because they felt Washington wasn’t listening,”
Sounds like the work of goofballs like U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann.
A.K.A. “idiot”.
You can’t miss it, if your driving south bound into Minneapolis / St. Paul.
That billboard is 5 minutes from my house, and we’ve been driving by it for months down here. Apparently people in other states find it more interesting. Funny.
There you go. Another liberal who prides themselves as being “tolerant” and open-minded UNLESS you disagree with them. Then watch out, because the insults start flying! How dare ANYONE have an opinion that you don’t agree with, right? If you feel so strongly against said billboards, spend your own money and advertise what you believe in.
Right On! Typical Left Wing anger solved with violence. At least the billboard is not as stupid as all the sore LOSERS that still display Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers…or better yet Wellstone stickers.
Stanley Fish should stick to writing self-important columns about the demise of higher education in America that include absolutely zero awareness of his own impressive contributions to same.
Maybe they finally took it down? I think the reason it didn’t get any local news coverage is because we’ve become so numb to all the right-wing propaganda on the way down to the cities.
When I first saw the billboard, I read it as sarcastic for a moment, due to the goofy photograph.
to answer the question:
“no, and tell dick cheney to die already.”
Sigh. Aaaaand the tedious, four-paragraph rants begin in 3 … 2 …
I’m going to put the politics completely aside on this one. I discussed this a bit on today’s DDD (found at dannydoesduluth.com by the way) but what I find really strange is the severe lack of real coverage locally of this billboard. It’s getting quite a bit of major national media attention, but very little locally. With how close to us this sign is, and with the right connections (friends of friends, etc.) why are no local reporters doing any investigative reporting on this and making a bit of a name for themselves here by figuring out who is behind the billboard? It’s like a nice break is being handed to local media and they are all ignoring it so they can focus on snow that may or may not be coming and some guy who changed his name to reflect his love of Herb.
Is it in Duluth? I miss the connection.
It’s in fucking Wyoming, Minn for god’s sakes, I saw it 4 weeks ago when I was driving down to the Cities. So what.
It was a good concept. It was assured to get people talking, but what about and who is a different story.
For whatever that cost I sure hope the publicity made it worth it. Read the New York Times and you’ll see people buying whole pages to say all sorts of really cool or stupid shit. I’d love to see that more. Can you imagine the DNT as 1/3 bought pages. A thin line around the material and a small ‘This page is paid advertising’.
BILLBORED.
What with all the other insane billboards down that stretch, I can see how nobody local cared too much about it, while others find it an interesting political statement.
Do I miss Junior Bush?
Let’s see:
Bin Laden determined to strike in US -- Aug 6, 2001
No
That is also a bumper sticker for sale at Cafe Press, along with all sorts of Tea Bagger crap.
http://www.cafepress.com/+bush_miss_me_yet_sticker_oval,417710819
“It’s in fucking Wyoming, Minn for god’s sakes, I saw it 4 weeks ago when I was driving down to the Cities. So what.”
Um, what? What’s with the tantrum?
Danny G, it isn’t being reported locally because there are no local reporters who are interested in getting their fat butts out of their desk chairs. If it doesn’t come across the AP directly onto their computer screen, it is just too hard.
This, of course, is just my opinion of the Duluth News Tribune state of affairs.
So who wants to take a spraypaint field trip?
Yawn. I can’t believe they would put up that silly of a picture of him.
I am glad that billboard is there to remind me just how bad it was and I can remember the fact that while things aren’t great now, at least they are not like they use to be.
This is such a lame, uninteresting thing that it annoys me to comment at all, but the criticism of local media for not covering it needs to be bitchslapped.
It’s not a local story. Nothing about it matters at all. It’s not that local reporters never found out about it, it’s that they didn’t care, because they shouldn’t.
This sign has been up for months. The only reason this is “news” is because Bob Collins snapped a pic and tweeted it.
And no, I don’t miss that malevolent assclown.
Yeah. It really needed to be bitchslapped. Man, this sure is an angry thread.
This was written about by Bob Collins on his Newscut blog To this moment it has 57 comments and will likely get many more
Clearly it is an interesting story for HIS statewide beat (quirky, undercovered stories, and news analysis). It is not local TV news fare and probably nothing more than a “wire story” in the DNT. I know a number of local journalists and none of them are lazy. Overworked and fallible? Sure, sometimes. Lazy, no.
But a guy changing his last name to
“Bergson” is a major story that needs to be covered as much as it has been, huh?
I wish there was a billboard with a picture of Danny G and the same quote.
TimK,
Winner.
Danny is right. Our newspaper and television reporters here should drop everything, drive the 122 miles to Wyoming, and do that investigative reporting that he wants to see done. This is big news damn it! It’s a billboard! I can’t believe how our liberal Darwinist mainstream media has been ignoring billboards. Not anymore!
Recent local stories that have somehow deserved lots of local coverage because they got national attention:
-Ball-Slasher
-Deer F’er
-DUI in a chair
-Jay Leno joking about Don Donny’s streetlight fee
This reminds me of the “Homer the Clown episode” of the Simpsons.
In the middle of driving down the highway, Homer skids to a halt in
front of a billboard.
Homer: [gasps] It must be the first of the month: new billboard day!
[a car-carrying truck stops behind him]
[a bunch of cars drive onto it accidentally]
Driver: Heh heh heh…finders keepers. [drives off]
Homer: [reading] “This year, give her English muffins.” Whatever you
say, Mr. Billboard! [skids off]
[stops suddenly at another billboard for barbeque sauce]
[cars collide behind him and explode]
Homer: [reading] “Best in the West.” Heh heh heh, that rhymes!
[looking at the next one] “Clown college”? You can’t eat that.
-- Homer’s billboard-judging criteria, “Homer the Clown”
Uh oh, look who showed up: Big Iron. Looks like the trolls are swarming all over this thread.
I’m still waiting for the answer to this question: If the local media are supposed to be covering this “story,” what’s the angle? Do we really need to know the identity of these clever conservative folks who pooled their money together and put a political billboard, and what exactly drove them to take this shocking action? I agree that local, state and national media cover silly topics on a daily basis, but I, for one, think it’s silly to criticize the media for covering a laundry list of the prosaic, then suggest that they are not doing their job for covering yet another non-story. Let the billboard speak for itself.
I’m actually not saying that they aren’t doing their job here. I’m just pointing out that it might be a good career move for them to not only cover this, but to get to the bottom of it as well. Also, when you compare the other local/national stuff that does get coverage it does make me wonder why exactly this is being ignored.
And no…I don’t think it’s some big political conspiracy or anything. Nor do I think the billboard itself is a great, wonderful “in your face” towards those who voted for Barry. I just think it’s strange that it’s being ignored around here.
Even though I voted for Obama…I think that the billboard is awesome and quite funny. The irony is that nobody misses GWB, but in hind sight we would be better off with him now that we have seen what “New Guy” has accomplished in his first year.
I think the only news angle here is what people are willing spend their money on in times of crisis.
Give money to Haiti? Hell No! They made a pact with the devil! They got what they deserved!
Spend my money on a really annoying and irrelevant billboard?
Hell Yes!
I was listening to MPR this morning and the commentator and someone else were talking about how clever the billboard is — you don’t know if it’s pro-Bush or not. The question could be, now that Bush is gone and we see who have replacing him, do you miss Bush? OR, even with the problems of the Obama presidency, do you remember the last guy, who was a total disaster?
I have to admit, having seen the billboard, the photo of Bush on there makes him look like a doofus. I laughed when I saw the photo and thought, yep, I miss that doofus, hope the door didn’t hit him on the way out.
“this sure is an angry thread” says Danny…
I just read through all the comments and the only feeling I get from the posts is “so what” with a little “damn reporters not doing their job” thrown in by Danny.
It’s a fricken billboard some distance from Duluth. Do I care about it? No.
If anyone is angry and not very good at hiding it, it’s Danny and his trolling friends. Scary dudes, all three of them.
Once again, “Damn reporters not doing their job” was totally not the opinion I was trying to convey here. I just thought it was a little weird that none of the local journalists are trying to get ahead a bit by taking this opportunity.
Sheesh.
Danny G,
Weiner.
Hey Danny, I have an idea! Why don’t you do a podcast and read all the comments on this thread you don’t like in different very angry, high-pitched voices? i am sure your listeners would get such a kick out of you making fun of us for not giving a shit that someone put up a provocative billboard in Wyoming, Minn. that has a silly pic of President Bush on it.
Calk…that is your 3rd comment here about something you don’t give a shit about.
Calk, did you write “listeners”? I am not alone? I would love to find Danny’s other listener. Please have them contact me through Danny’s website. Thanks!
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “It was put up by a group of small business owners — who want to stay anonymous --because they felt Washington wasn’t listening,”
Sounds like the work of goofballs like U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann.
A.K.A. “idiot”.
You can’t miss it, if your driving south bound into Minneapolis / St. Paul.
Hai, I am UMD newz studnt—
Cant figure out how to use round device to open door and report things. Please send email to my chair about newz. Kthxby.
That billboard is 5 minutes from my house, and we’ve been driving by it for months down here. Apparently people in other states find it more interesting. Funny.
I have no idea why this is national news.
I listen to Danny’s podcasts frequently. Pretty funny stuff.
What’s also funny is someone calling someone else an idiot, and then uses ‘your’ when they mean to say “you’re”
And using the term “Teabaggers” for the Tea Party people isn’t funny, it’s just plain stupid.
So good to see PDD come back alive with the crazy goodness.
Actually “teabaggers” is about the funniest political spin-job I can remember.
From the opposite side of the political aisle “Sore Loserman” from the 2000 election was also pretty funny. Even though it ignored the issues. More: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/04/stickers.election/index.html
Alternative billboard slogans: http://www.citypages.com/slideshow/view/29277997
“So who wants to take a spraypaint field trip?”
I do! Can we please also deface all of those Life Begins at Conception billboards?
There you go. Another liberal who prides themselves as being “tolerant” and open-minded UNLESS you disagree with them. Then watch out, because the insults start flying! How dare ANYONE have an opinion that you don’t agree with, right? If you feel so strongly against said billboards, spend your own money and advertise what you believe in.
Right On! Typical Left Wing anger solved with violence. At least the billboard is not as stupid as all the sore LOSERS that still display Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers…or better yet Wellstone stickers.
Homerun TimK!
Stanley Fish uses the billboard as a centerpiece for his post at the New York Times: Do You Miss Him Yet?
Stanley Fish should stick to writing self-important columns about the demise of higher education in America that include absolutely zero awareness of his own impressive contributions to same.
I didn’t see the billboard when I was driving down last, 10 days ago or so.
Maybe they finally took it down? I think the reason it didn’t get any local news coverage is because we’ve become so numb to all the right-wing propaganda on the way down to the cities.
I can confirm it is still up, saw it going down to the Twinkies on Weds 3/10