Columbia, ABC Fixed A Problem

In my post Columbia, We Have A Problem on March 19, 2013, I did like we bloggers do when we can't get information or answers via regular channels: we take to our respective soapboxen and start making a lot of noise on the internet. Like Jerry Orbach said to Patrick Swayze in the Emile Ardolino magnum opus Dirty Dancing, if I'm wrong I say I'm wrong. My loud-mouthiness aside, let me tell you what I know to be actual evidence-based reality: ABC Columbia listened. ABC Columbia stepped up, fixed a problem, and in doing so they made important information available again. Not to mention they warmed my cold and blackened heart.

Fussbudgets, I am so happy to report to you that the previously identified problem has been resolved. ABC's interview with Emma Davidson of Tell Them and New Morning Foundation has been re-posted on YouTube (thus, the direct url has changed), and WOLO updated all of their various social media channels to reflect it:

ABC Columbia on Facebook
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook
@abc_columbia on Twitter

Watch the interview:

Thank you, ABC. You did a good thing today.

Screenshots:
YouTube: http://flic.kr/p/e53tHJ
ABC Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rx1
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rxh
@abc_columbia on Twitter: http://flic.kr/p/e53rDN

Columbia, We Have A Problem

About a month ago, my friend Emma sat for an interview with our local ABC affiliate, WOLO, for their "Corner of Main and Gervais" segment. Emma is Manager of Strategic Mobilization at New Morning Foundation, and she was there to discuss the billboards which Tell Them - a program of the New Morning Foundation - had scattered throughout town, as well as the forum to be held that night at Tapp's Art Center. The interview was broadcast and added to their youtube channel, like the rest of what they do. Lots of us involved with Tell Them shared the interview, and really appreciated ABC's awesomeness in broadcasting Emma's righteous baddassery.

Cool, right? Not so much. Read on:

I shared the video link on 2/21/13, its original air date. Today I went back to re-watch it, and found it was gone. Then, I attempted to share the link again, and found that while the video is "unavailable", its associated information still shows up. Moreover, I've since learned that the interview was taken down the very next day without explanation, and that several calls to the station to ask why have not been returned. My tweet to @abc_columbia on the topic has yet to be answered, but that tweet is only about 4 hours old as of this writing.

This might not sound like a problem to you, but it sure sounds like one to me. Tell Them is an important nonpartisan, mainstream voice of reason with more than 10,000 members across the state of South Carolina. Their billboard campaign and the message it is sending is a call to standardize reproductive health care in our state and ensure that those teaching the subject are themselves properly educated. So what's with hiding that information after the broadcast fact? At best it's poor Internet practice to delete news they've already shared, and at worst it's actively dishonest.

I would like an answer. Wouldn't you?

Screenshot of my original share and reshare attempt: http://flic.kr/p/e4wUN3
Screenshot of Emma's Interview YouTube URL as of 3/19: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rtcITxF15s
Screenshot of ABC Columbia's tweet: http://flic.kr/p/e4uh2x
Screenshot of ABC Columbia's YouTube channel, where February 21, 2013 no longer seems to have happened: http://flic.kr/p/e4A62L

Cheetos To You!

Eme presenting to me the
Tell Them "Cheetos to you!" Award

Internet Nation, I accidentally got myself a catch phrase.

I make no secret about who I am, what I do, and the things I enjoy. I talk, you know? When I like things, I like to share that information with my friends so that maybe they will spend some of their hard-earned moneydollars on those things, too. Sometimes it happens in the other direction, although I try not to be a Cranky Cathy if I can help it. I'm curmudgeonly; I'm not rude. Usually. So it's pretty common knowledge that I like Tell Them, the organization and the women who run it. I advocate on their behalf, I contribute to their blog, and I participate in their online events. Internet, It Is Known. (It is known)

It's the online part which brings us here today. Like Vikings punter and glimmering sparklepony Chris Kluwe, my writing career was primarily born from the gaming communities (he's referred to such communities as "a seething pit of ignoramuses, born of misspoken children on the internet"), where, as he said, "if you go after someone, you'd better make sure you've got your ducks in a row or they're going to come right back at you". I'm in complete agreement with Mr. Kluwe: If I'm going to call you out, "the only way to do so without being ignored is to craft a completely logical argument that has a hook."

Which brings us to how I intervened in a fingerquote discussion fingerquote on Tell Them's facebook page. You can read the entire thread for yourself, if you want. It doesn't matter what you're saying or how reasonable your argument may be. If you start with hate, the rest of your argument, however logical it may be, is automatically a pile of poop. So, I replied, and then declared to friends "BABAM! They just got JBeebled!". And so #jbeebled you can now get, and it is a thing you can be, and be careful because it is typically contagious.

I was henceforth crowned Queen Bee of the World and a motion was carried to replace the word "kudos" with "cheetos". You might not even believe me if I told you how many women were saying "CHEETOS TO YOU!" yesterday. Heh. The thing is, Internet Nation: DON'T HATE. EDUCATE. And CHEETOS TO YOU, from the Tell Them "Cheetos to You" Award recipient and Queen Bee of the World, March 2013.

BABAM! You just got JBEEBLED!