Saying goodbye to Steve Ellis

Bob Gabordi's blog Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

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Saying goodbye to Steve Ellis

Posted 11/23/2009 9:31 AM EST on tallahassee.com

When journalists don’t know what else to do, we write. That’s what I’m doing now: writing to help cope with the loss of our senior sports writer Steve Ellis, who died Thursday after suffering a heart attack.

It's my way of saying goodbye.

Don’t worry; I’m not going to get all gooey. That would not be fitting. Steve was as genuine a guy as you get. A classic sports writer in the Oscar Madison sense. It was his job, but it was also his passion.

But I thought I’d tell you my view on the man behind the byline, the person you have been reading for close to 30 years.

On a freezing day, Steve was the type of guy who’d insist you take his jacket.

I was not surprised to learn he was an Eagle Scout or that he counted that among his most important achievements.

One day soon after I got to town, Steve called me up and said to meet him down at Doak Campbell Stadium. He wanted to make sure I got properly indoctrinated. I soon found myself sitting across a desk from the legendary Bobby Bowden, just chatting and sharing stories about mutual friends from Huntington, W.Va.

Steve took me – and my baseball fanatic son, who was then 11 – for a tour of the baseball facilities, where we met Mike Martin and most of the players.

Coaches like Bobby Bowden and Mike Martin weren’t always happy with Steve because of what he would write, but they sure did respect him.

Bowden, when he learned of Steve’s death, said he was kind of like a son to him. The more I thought about that, the more right it seems. Steve was like the son who grows up with a mind of his own, and – while always respecting the old man – sometimes has to tell him things he doesn’t want to hear.

Like when he wrote that he thought it was time for Bowden to step down. It hurt Steve to write that. But he did because he felt it was the right thing to say, not because he wanted to, but because he believed it had to be said by him, the guy who has covered the program for nearly 30 years.

When Steve finally had to miss work because of his heart attack, he wanted us to put that in the newspaper so that the people who criticized him for writing that column on Bowden didn't think he had gotten fired for it. I told him someone would have to fire me before anyone could fire him.

The strangest thing now is picking up a copy of the newspaper and not seeing his byline. A colleague reminded me the other day that I once remarked that Steve had 57 bylined stories in a month in which FSU had only one game.

Anytime I asked him a question about something, he’d write a story on it. He figured if the boss had a question, readers might, too. He just couldn’t stop himself.

He was simply amazing. The story about him making his wife send in his last story via e-mail when he had the heart attack before he’d go the emergency room is true.

When I announced his death to our newsroom staff, I called everyone together. I couldn’t look at their faces. I said: “Steve didn’t make it.” Then after a long pause I said: “I’m sorry, I have no other words.”

That his powerful voice on FSU athletics is now silenced is the most stunning part of all.

He simply loved what he did and appreciated that a million guys would trade jobs with him in a second.

We’ll hire someone to cover his beat.

No one will ever take his place.

…

It seems so appropriate to announce – with deep gratitude to Florida State and the FSU Foundation – that a scholarship fund in Steve Ellis' name for the benefit of prospective sports journalists is being established at the FSU Foundation. The address for making contributions is:

Steve Ellis Memorial Scholarship Fund

Florida State University Foundation

2010 Levy Avenue

Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2739

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on my blog on Friendster.

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Boyd stuck in the middle with no one

Bob Gabordi's blog Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Report item as: (required) X Obscenity/vulgarity Hate speech Personal attack Advertising/Spam Copyright/Plagiarism Other Comment: (optional) Boyd stuck in the middle with no one Posted 11/16/2009 6:45 AM EST on tallahassee.com Congressman Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, likes to take his electronic voting card out of his wallet in situations like this and say it belongs to the people of the 2nd District. He did that at a meeting of the Tallahassee Democrat’s editorial board recently and again last week at a public forum he hosted on health-care reform. “It's your card,” he said. “You asked me to take it to Washington and use it in your interests.” But which “you” is he talking to? Not a simple question. The problem is that his district is huge and diverse. In approximate terms, it stretches from Live Oak in the east to Bay County in the west, from Cross City in the south to Marianna in the north. The largest population center is Tallahassee, arguably one of the most liberal Democrat communities in the state. Yet much of the rest of the district is a mix of conservative Democrats and conservative Republicans. The net result is Boyd tries to portray himself as a pragmatic middle-of-the-roader, a proud Blue Dog, a fiscally conservative Democrat. He’s not opposed to social programs, as long as he knows how we’re paying for it. The problem is the middle is nowhere anymore, not in politically polarized America. Politics is becoming more like football: You are either on the team, or you're the enemy. There is no middle. This is not to say he won’t win re-election, incumbency is still very powerful. But he’s a target for zealots on both sides. For some in his own party, Boyd is too conservative and hasn’t stood with President Obama enough. State Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, who is running against Boyd in the primary, says it is time to put a “real” Democrat in Congress from this area. Lawson has been running a quiet campaign, almost as if he’s allowing Boyd to wallow in his “middleness.”And he’s been doing just that, running around the district – he’s conducted 14 or so of these public hearings – only to get jeered, taunted and attacked. That’s in part because he’s not conservative enough for people like Diane Berryhill. She was at his last public forum in Tallahassee and taunted him for voting with his party on other initiatives of President Obama. “We gave you that card,” she said. “Are you going to represent us (on health care), or are you going to vote on the basis of some lobbyists, or your party or what Nancy Pelosi is twisting your arm to do?” But which “us” is she talking about? Berryhill certainly doesn’t speak for much of Leon County, where the forum was held. Leon voted 91,747 to 55,705 for Obama. Democrats far outnumber Republicans here. Florida overall voted for Obama, too. Boyd’s district was typically divided – the rural areas voting for McCain. So – again – who is the “us” that Berryhill was speaking for, that she demands that Boyd represent? Berryhill and those at the forum who interrupted Boyd while he answered questions, jeering and hooting at the congressman, represent the politics of the loudest voice, hoping to sound larger than they actually are. But that’s where Boyd has placed himself, trying to ride that middle rail between conservatives and liberals. Unfortunately for him, there are trains coming down the track his way from both directions. You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on my blog on Friendster. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

New feature gets answers to your questions

Bob Gabordi's blog Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

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New feature gets answers to your questions

Posted 11/12/2009 8:27 AM EST on tallahassee.com

Hey, did you hear the one about the national TV anchor who was fired because he tried to air a piece that was critical of the health-care bill?

Well, that rumor was untrue.

OK, what about the one that says the bill requires senior citizens to get counseling on euthanasia every five years?

That, too, was untrue.

What about the one about the suspected shooter at Fort Hood? Did you hear Nidal Hasan was a member of President Obama's Homeland Security transition team?

Once again, this is a false – but at least interesting – rumor.

According to About.com, Hasan did, in fact, participate in a project of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute that discussed the president’s homeland security transition team, but this was an academic exercise and not at all connected to the actual transition team.

The Internet and radio talk show air waves, it seems, are full of these kinds of rumors, most of which can be proven false or true relatively easily with a little research. With blogs, forums, message boards and e-mail to contend with, lots of stuff is flying around.

But who has the time to figure out what’s real or just to get an answer to a question about what’s in a particular piece of legislation?

We do.

A new feature planned for the Sunday newspaper can help get answers to your questions on events in the news, whether on local or national issues. It doesn’t have to be about a rumor. If you are just curious, for example, about a vote that happened in Congress or the Legislature or if you want more information about who supported what at the last commission meeting, just ask and we’ll try to find out.

We can’t answer every question, but we’ll get to as many as possible online, and each week we’ll feature one of the best questions in the newspaper. The topic for the upcoming week is health care, so we'll give preference to answering questions related to that topic.

To ask your question all you have to do is e-mail us at answers@tallahassee.com, post a question on the TallyAnswers blog on Tallahassee.com (click on link to go there now) or call (850) 599-2233.

Applause for Applause!

The good news is that people have lots of good news to share. Applause!, Zing!’s nicer sibling, is expanding to two days. While always available on Tallahassee.com, it now will publish in print on Wednesdays and Sundays.

By the way, Zing! and Applause! get along just fine, for those of you who have asked about that. They have a typical sibling rivalry relationship, of course, but so far, no major bumps or bruises to speak of.

You can also send your Applause! items to applause@tallahassee.com or go the TallyApplause page to send a private message. You have to become a friend of TallyApplause to do that.

Click on this link to go there now .

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on my blog on Friendster.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

TPD needs to fix information bottlenecks now

Bob Gabordi's blog Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

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TPD needs to fix information bottlenecks now

Posted 11/4/2009 8:14 AM EST on tallahassee.com

A 10-year-old boy was waiting for a ride home after football practice at Gilchrist Elementary School sometime between 6:30 and 7 Monday night when a man in a large white pickup truck pulled up and asked him if he needed a ride.

His coach walked up and the vehicle drove off. Tallahassee police were notified and they reached the coach later that evening, about 8:30, according to Chief Dennis Jones.

The boy, who Jones said was not interviewed by Tallahassee police until the next day, said the man was a stranger. More details, such as they are, are in our story in today’s edition of the Tallahassee Democrat and on Tallahassee.com.

Yesterday afternoon, I e-mailed Chief Jones to ask what took so long and why police failed to notify the public immediately. In fact, no one was told – not even school officials – until late morning the next day.

Meanwhile, of course, e-mails and Internet messages were flying, some – again, of course – contained wrong information. Most were angry at not having more official information.

I don’t know much about police work, but I do respect the work officers do. This much, though, is more than abundantly clear – by this case and others day after day – is Tallahassee police don’t know much about how, when or why to provide public information. The only difference is this case jumped up and bit them.

If not for the persistence of the child’s grandmother in making sure there was some public notice, who knows when police would have told the public about an incident the public needed to know about right away if not sooner.

In my conversation with Chief Jones, he took responsibility for delaying the release of information. Police, he said, didn’t want to put out bad information. For all they knew, he said, this could have been – and still could be – an innocent misunderstanding.

The problem with that is that it could just as likely have been a deliberate attempt to abduct a child, too. Strangers with good intentions simply don’t drive up to little boys and offer a ride home and then drive off quickly when an adult walks up. That’s just not how thing work, at not from this parent and coach’s perspective.

But police didn’t know all that because they reacted to the incident much too slowly. If they interviewed the coach at 8:30 p.m. why did it take until the next day to reach the little boy and his parents?

And in the ensuing 15 hours or so after the incident another child could have been taken or harmed. Meanwhile, the driver of the vehicle, described as a white male with spiked hair, escaped public notice.

It is good to see the chief step up and take responsibility for the delay in reporting the incident, but the problem is it is not an isolated case. It is the culture and how the department behaves routinely.

While a policy that seems so intent on controlling information that it sometimes cuts it off was never wise, these days it simply destine for failure. E-mails become blog posts and Tweets that wind up on message board on Tallahassee.com with links to Facebook.

The only question is whether police what grandma to tell the public what it needs to know or if they want to do so themselves. Misinformation is the result of the absence of real information. An informed public is not a panicked public, but an alert public.

And to not even inform school officials – let alone parents – of the incident immediately is beyond inexcusable; it is simply irresponsible.

It is well passed time for city officials to take a close look at how police operate in informing the public and take corrective steps before something much worse results.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on my blog on Friendster.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.