Music
Good evening, dear Hardson. Welcome to the show. I'm Norman Johnson, and by now you probably know my co-host, Lil Mays Johnson. I always have to get that middle name in there. That's the way it's done these days.
You know what it's like to get choked five seconds before you go on? I wonder if the guys in the other room could start it over so I could, you know, run out and cough real big and come back in.
I don't think so. I think if you need to cough, you better go into it now. I am looking forward to the show tonight. First of all, I'm looking forward to having my guest on Glenn McCutcheon, who is the publisher of the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel.
And Glenn and I always enjoy visiting together. I know you do. You know, when a newspaper journalist and a broadcast journalist get together, you know, it's fun. We're going to be talking about newspapering and maybe some local things going on and all that sort of thing.
And we have got a great prize in the great Nacogdoches giveaway. CG has come through again.
You kept us in suspense this time.
I know. I did not know until this afternoon what we were going to give away. So I couldn't even mention it on the show this morning.
But Chris at Starving Fabulous Artists Presents has given us this beautiful wall hanging. Can we get a shot of that? I guess we could if I'd get out of the way, couldn't we?
Isn't that nice? I like that. That is beautiful. It was created locally by Lisa Gatti. And we are going to give it to someone tonight, courtesy of Starving Fabulous Artists Presents Presents.
And by the way, they have expanded their store hours. The exposure being on this show has just been so great that they are now open until Monday through Saturday.
And also, something else that is new at Benita Cleaners, which is adjacent there, they are now an officially sanctioned outlet for tickets to all SFA football games.
So now you can just zoom in off of North Street and get your tickets. And while you are there, they have got SFA pom-poms to give away.
So before too long, it will be like a vast supermarket. You will be able to buy everything there.
Now, of course, the way this works, when we tell you to start calling, and not before then, all you have to do is call in during the show and let us register your name.
And at the end of the show, we will have a drawing and we will give away the wall hanging to someone.
Thanks to Chris and Lisa Getty for making this possible. We want to tell them quickly about the country supper.
Yes, this will be the 15th annual Pilots Club Country Supper and Country Store. And this is Friday night, this coming Friday night, September 3rd, 5-730 at the TJR cafeteria.
The tickets are $5 for adults and $2.50 for children 12 and under.
Sponsored by the Pilot Club.
By the Pilot Club. And this is good food.
Yes, we will be there Friday night. Is Ken Woods going to be auctioneering again?
Well, Ken actually purchased something last year.
Oh, did he?
Yes.
Alright.
I'm sure he will be there.
Now, give us about one minute from the time the first commercial message starts and you can start calling us at 564-8386 and we will do that for about 15-20 minutes.
And you could win this beautiful wall hanging and we'll be right back after this word from some of the folks that make the show possible.
People working closely together in the office become a team and finding qualified replacements can really be time consuming.
When one of our staff had a long term illness, Fredonia Temporaries took care of everything, saving us valuable time. Fredonia Temporaries sent someone who fit right in. They handled payroll costs like workers' compensation and unemployment insurance also.
I really recommend Fredonia Temporaries to anyone who's thinking of hiring office help.
I'm Stephen with Adam and Steeve's Carpets on South Street. We've been in business here in Nacodotas for over 20 years having local folks with all their floor covering needs.
If you have a new home or would simply like to give your old home a whole new look, come shop with us at Adam and Steeve's.
If you're in the market for carpet, no wax vinyls, ceramic towel, hardwood floors, wallpaper or mini blinds, we'll see to it that you find just the products you need at a price that won't break your budget.
So come on in to see us at 1622 South Street and shop with folks who'll give you the kind of service you used to expect from all merchants.
Attention, Nacodotas. Nacodotas pride needs your support. Sometimes take the time to complete the membership application you received in the mail.
While a non-profit group made up of dedicated volunteers that promote recycling and dedication projects in Nacodotas County, a membership in Nacodotas pride means you take pride in your community.
So please return your completed membership application today and make Nacodotas proud.
It's SFA the University. Not this time. SFA stands for Starving Fabulous Artist. Starving, no. Fabulous, yes.
Artist most definitely presents presents that are unique and the lowest priced in town.
So everyone in town come and see all the unique crafts from SFA PP.
Starving Fabulous Artist presents presents located on North Street next to Griffith Hall. It's like a whole new world.
Okay, you can begin calling right now. 5-6-4-8-3-8-6. And that's all you have to do is just call in and get your name on the list.
And we'll have a drawing just before we go off the air and someone will win this beautiful wall hanging from Starving Fabulous Artist presents presents.
Glenn McCutcheon is my guest. Glenn is publisher of the Nacodotas Daily Sentinel.
And we decided we could have fun just taking these little things off and just chucking them at people, couldn't we?
Sure. Or is there a phone around somewhere at Norman where I can call in and get my name on the list?
Yeah, but somebody bring Glenn a phone.
It's not fair that I can't phone in, I don't think.
When is your wife watching tonight? She could call in.
Well, perhaps. I mean, unless Sean Connery is on television, she's such a Sean Connery freak.
She would watch him over me, a bald head.
Yeah, that's true. And mine's working on it someday.
Now, it's fortunately about everybody in my family was gray. I don't know which is worse to be no hair or gray hair, but I'm working on it.
I'd prefer it to turn gray than to turn loose, I'll tell you the truth.
You're getting there.
Yes, mine has turned a little bit.
Just since you've been in Nacodotas, it'll do until you want it.
I'll have a fast life.
How did you get into the newspaper business?
I'm always curious how people go into their chosen profession.
Oh, I got fascinated with taking pictures.
I got fascinated primarily with taking pictures at sporting events.
Thought that I wanted to become a photographer.
Went off looking for a school where I could major in photography.
Quickly discovered that the photography major was in fine arts, that is taking pictures of still life or dew dropping off the pebbles of a rose.
And that's not what I was interested in.
I was interested in shooting a half back running through a line of scrimmage or something.
And changed my major to journalism because I found out that I enjoyed writing also.
And that's how I got into it.
How long have you been with Cox Newspapers?
Oh, going on 27 years now.
You're about to get to hang of it.
Almost a career.
You'll have the key to the washroom before you do that.
We're not quite like doctors and lawyers.
We don't practice.
We go out and do it and everybody gets to see it.
I mean, they're still practicing.
We have to do it.
But maybe someday I'll get to hang of it.
Every time I go to the doctor, I know why they call it medical practice.
They practice on me, you know.
And you've been in Nacodotas now for four years?
Three years.
I came here in August of 1990 or I think actually my family arrived here.
I had been here a couple of weeks before, but I think that my family arrived right around Labor Day in 1990.
Now you were with the Atlanta Constitution, right?
Yes, I was executive editor.
The flagship paper.
Well, it's the largest Cox paper if that's what flags it means.
What did you think when they said, Glenn, we want you to go to Nacodotas Texas?
Well, it wasn't quite like that.
I had expressed an interest in doing something else.
And basically in an annual review with the publisher in Atlanta, he asked me what I wanted to do.
And I told him I wouldn't mind having his job, which may not have been the most diplomatic thing that I've ever done on him.
But is that conversation well known?
I mean, there were several alternatives.
And this played itself out over a year and a half or so.
But the best alternative to me, for me, I thought was to come to Nacodotas where I would have the whole newspaper,
rather than going to a newspaper or going to another department in Atlanta and being an assistant department head of circulation or advertising.
I thought that the best choice for me would be to come to Nacodotas where I had the whole newspaper.
And that's how I got here.
In the short length of time that you've been here, you've been very, very active in community affairs.
I know that every meeting I go to there's Glenn, you know.
I keep thinking of there's only about 10 or 15 of us in town that go to all the same meetings.
You do see some of the same people at some of the same meetings.
In fact, you and I serve on two boards together.
We serve on the Adult Learning Center board and the Red Cross board together.
And I got a call today about another one.
Every time I say I'm going to trim these things down, they seem to increase.
I don't know, maybe we're just suckers for these things.
It hasn't occurred to me to trim things down.
It has occurred to me that it's miraculous that some of these organizations are still operating with you and I on the board.
Some of them operate on the edge, you know.
But nonetheless, what is, what was the biggest difference you found in coming to a small,
what I would call, semi-rural newspaper and community from a big metropolitan community?
You told me something one time, I'm going to quote you on this.
One of the first times we ever talked, you said in Atlanta you were considered ultra conservative
and you came to Nacogdoches and all of a sudden they thought you were a liberal.
Well, I may have overstated that.
I'm sure that I was a moderate in Atlanta and I got to Nacogdoches and I was a flaming liberal.
I, you know, and I'm not sure what happened in the 800 miles between.
The biggest difference, I think, between Nacogdoches or Atlanta or between small town and metropolitan journalism
is that it's much more personal in a small town.
And when I say much more personal, people come to the newspaper and visit with you
and tell you exactly whether they even come to your house.
I mean, there is no anonymity in a small town, you can't hide.
I mean, if you're in a city of three million people, nobody knows who you are
or much less cares who you are, frankly.
But in a small town, there is not, you can't hide.
I mean, you're there and the journalism is much more personal in a small town.
And the person in charge, it's just like at a radio station, that person becomes very personal to them.
You know, if they take a stand against something or force something that the other person is opposed to,
it becomes you personally doing it, isn't it?
Yes, very much so.
And I don't, you know, I guess the strangest phenomenon that I have had to deal with
is that people have insisted that we sign editorials in the Daily Sentinel.
And I have no idea where that comes from or why it comes.
And I keep looking at other Texas papers.
I mean, I look at the Houston Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News.
I don't see anybody signing editorials in Texas.
And I'm not quite sure I understand why people ask that we be different, but they do.
And that one comes around every now and then and it sort of surprises me.
Well, see, that way then they can say that you are personally responsible for this.
Well, you know, I have never ducked that.
I have told everybody, look, I'm the editor to publish the paper.
If you don't like the editorial, I'm responsible for it.
I may not have written it, but you got to believe that I knew what it was saying
before we put it in the paper.
And I did, and I approved it, and I write some of them, a bunch of them,
some of them I don't write, but I approve all of them.
And if you have a problem, you have it with me.
But the unsigned editorial is the institutional voice of the newspaper,
and you just sort of have to accept that.
There are certain things, you know, and I felt for a long time
there was a lot of people that would like to just do the Constitution.
People who become so patriotic would like to do away with certain things.
And Freedom of the Press is one of those things, I think.
It's scary.
A law school poll at Emory University of the Freshman class a couple of years ago
showed that about 70% of the incoming freshman law students
did not believe in Freedom of the Press, and that's absolutely terrifying.
But bit by bit, we are giving up our constitutional freedoms,
and we're giving it up in a way that is frightening.
For example, Norman, you can leave here, go get in your blue Chrysler car,
or Dodge car, you can get in your blue car, pull out on South Street.
The police can say that they have probable cause to suspect that you're dealing
in illegal substances.
Stop, you seize your car, and sell it at auction before you ever go to trial.
And never give it back.
I mean, that is funny.
You've got to take a break.
564-8386, call quickly.
You've just got about 10 more minutes to call if you want to win the wall hanging,
and we'll be right back.
I'm Stephen with Adam and Steve's Carpets on South Street.
We've been in business here in Nacodotus for over 20 years
helping local folks with all their floor covering needs.
If you have a new home or would simply like to give your old home a whole new look,
come shop with us at Adam and Steve's.
If you're in the market for carpet, no wax vinyls, ceramic tile,
hardwood floors, wallpaper, or mini blinds,
we'll see to it that you find just the products you need at a price that won't break your budget.
So come on in to see us at 1622 South Street,
and shop with folks who'll give you the kind of service you used to expect from all merchants.
What I would give on hiring office workers is to let Fredonia Temporaries handle it.
They can place people on a temporary basis or full-time,
and if someone doesn't fit in, there's no firing or rehiring.
Just call Fredonia Temporaries for a replacement,
and paying a weekly bill is a lot easier than handling all those payroll requirements.
Fredonia Temporaries does that for you,
and all other people are pre-screened and tested,
so that saves time and money.
I think calling Fredonia Temporaries just makes good business sense.
Attention, Nacodotus.
Nacodotus Proud needs your support,
so please take the time to complete the membership application you received in the mail.
We are a nonprofit group made up of dedicated volunteers that promote recycling
and beautification projects in Nacodotus County.
A membership in Nacodotus Proud means you take pride in your community,
so please return your completed membership application today,
and make Nacodotus Proud.
It's SFA The University.
Not this time, SFA stands for Starving Fabulous Artist.
Starving, no. Fabulous, yes.
Artist, most definitely, presents presents that are unique and the lowest priced in town.
So everyone in town come and see all the unique crafts from SFAPP.
Starving Fabulous Artist presents presents,
located on North Street next to Griffith Hall.
It's like a whole new world.
The great Nacodotus giveaway continues.
Call 5-6-4-8-3-8-6.
Get your name on the list,
and we'll give away the wall hanging just for it again.
I wonder if we could expand the show tonight to about two or three hours.
We just need more time.
We're talking about certain freedoms that are being taken away.
You mentioned guns.
Well, I think every school in the county now has been declared a gun and drug-free zone.
There is a federal law that says that if you go within 200 feet or 300 feet,
some very short distance of a school with illegal substances or a gun,
then you have committed a felony.
The only way you can do that is if you have your gun in a locked case.
Now, we live in an area where hunting is the most popular activity around, frankly.
And I don't think that the people of this community realize that they put their 30-30 rifle
to go head to the deer stand in the car and drive down North Street by SFA.
They're committing a felony.
They may not get arrested for it, but they could get arrested for it.
And in those people who live on Mound Street, opposite TJR,
if they have guns in their homes, they may conceivably be committing a felony.
I mean, to me, it's really something to think about.
The laws that we are passing and the laws that we're okaying that we may someday regret,
I think that we're doing it without giving it a lot of thought, Frank.
Well, yeah, we're getting kind of carried away.
And I think it's really a lack of information to the public,
and that's sort of our responsibility to try to present every side of the issue,
the whole issue of censorship that we talked about.
Like I said, you ran into a little problem when the Commissioner's Court.
That was interesting.
A group well-meaning, I'm sure, went before the Commissioner's Court and said,
we need a resolution from you to keep a television program.
And I think I can mention it, if you want, I think NYPD Blue or something like that.
We don't want that broadcast in Nacodotus, and we need a resolution for you to keep it out of Nacodotus County.
I wrote an editorial saying, you know, this is one decision that we shouldn't invite government to make.
We ought to make it ourselves.
I mean, if the Rotary Club objects, we ought to let the network know.
The Kiwanis Club objects, they ought to let the sponsors know.
But we should not invite government at any level into that decision-making process.
They're growing big enough already, isn't it?
Yeah, but I surely don't think that we want the Commissioner's Court in Nacodotus County
deciding what we can read, what we can watch on television, what we can hear on the radio.
And that's exactly what we have done.
We have invited them to become, as a government body, a part of that process.
And if you invite them to keep something out, you have de facto given them the right to tell you what to watch.
The same principle could work.
For example, this particular television channel on cable, I think, renders such a good service to the community.
And since I've been affiliated with it and have gotten to know in more detail what it does,
number one, I've found out how many people watch it and enjoy the local programming and all that sort of thing.
And it would be tragic if government should say to us, hey, this is a religiously oriented channel.
We've got to take it off.
Well, you know, aside from that, there is a move in Congress to reestablish the Fairness Doctrine.
The Fairness Doctrine does not affect newspapers at all, as far as I can tell.
You know what the Fairness Doctrine is.
I mean, there's some thought that it is aimed at right-wing talk shows.
There's some talk that the reestablishment of the Fairness Doctrine is aimed squarely at Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh and I don't agree on many things, but we agree on one thing.
And that is we don't need the Fairness Doctrine.
The solution to abusive talk radio is more talk, not less talk, not government control.
And if you don't like Mr. Limbaugh's ideas, it is incumbent upon you to express your own and express them eloquently enough that they're heard much as his are heard.
But we do not need government intervening or government establishing what can and cannot be broadcast anymore.
That went on for 30, 40 years.
You're probably a better acquainted woman with the history of that than I am.
And it went away by law, law passed, and now it's about to be reintroduced again.
I think more talk is a solution to that and not less talk.
I think that sometimes the people who would like to curtail certain programming are the people who don't agree with it,
but they're not willing, number one, to either purchase time to get their viewpoint across or to even publicly expose their viewpoint.
Sure, sure, but inherent in the process is that if you can silence Mr. Limbaugh, you can also silence Mr. Johnson.
And I don't think that people realize that.
Or maybe the people who are passing along, maybe they do realize that.
I don't know if the public realizes that.
I hope that if the public does realize it, I hope that there will be protests, letter writing campaigns,
that when they meet their politicians, that they will speak to them face to face about that issue.
I just don't think that we need the Fairness Doctrine.
We institute the Fairness Doctrine.
They may decide that Ted Turner has to broadcast as many Yankee games as he does Atlanta Braves game.
That's going to make me really angry if you really want to know the truth.
Well, it just bothers me.
I find the government and that big, whatever the government is, whether it be at the city level, the county level, the federal level, the state level,
more and more taking away my individual freedoms.
And I deeply resent that.
I've got to ask you, think back now to the editorials you've written.
What is the editorial that you've written that you really believed in strongly that you really dreaded putting into paper?
You just knew when that editorial comes out, they're going to be zapping glam.
Well, I mean, the one about NYPD Blue and the county commissioners, I knew that they were going to come after.
But you know every time you put the word gun control or that there needs to be some limits to the acquisition of guns or the spreading of guns in society,
you know that you're really going to get it.
The phones are going to ring.
You know that people are going to call you in the middle of the night when you answer the phone that there's not going to be anybody at the end of the phone,
which is a favorite trick.
I wish I had something to counter it.
Maybe I allowed a whistle or something.
There are a couple of issues.
If you mentioned taxes in this community, people salivate.
If you mentioned gun control, people come out of the woodwork.
They generally ignore the fact that guns are controlled in this society.
I mean, they act like that there is no control at all.
But frankly, you can't own a cruise missile.
It's against the law and that's just a gun.
The abortion issue, if mentioned in the paper, will draw strong responses from both sides.
There are several issues that you know that you're going to get strong responses.
I know that in Talk Radio, unlike my program and other programs like it, you can get into issues that you really are concerned about, the budget deficit and all of this sort of thing, environment.
Nobody calls, nobody responds.
You don't get any response at all.
But if you really want to rile people up, you know, some morning I'm sitting there, I want to see if they're really listening.
I mentioned gun control and zap, you know.
It goes all the time.
We've only got about a minute left to do this in.
Like I say, we were going to touch on local issues.
Can you come back in about a month, something like that?
Sure.
You work cheap, don't you?
Yeah, I mean, I'm here for the minimum right now.
Whatever the minimum is, Norman.
That's what I'm here for.
When the World Series is on at the time, whether the Braves are in.
When does the World Series come on?
When you schedule my appearance around the World Series, it would be appreciated.
We did ugly up this show when we kicked Lille off.
Why don't we get her back out?
We are about to have, how much time do we have left?
I've been missing my cues here.
I've gotten so involved in this, oh, we've got to go, huh?
Oh, okay, we've got a couple of minutes then.
But I've got to get the drawing in.
We've got any folks in there?
A few.
All right.
Okay, Glenn, you, so you realize it's kind of like writing in an editorial.
If you don't draw a certain person's name, then they're going to be mad at you.
Oh, okay.
My cutcher and I knew he wouldn't draw my name.
I draw the name and read it out loud.
It's Ms. Scriven.
Myrna Armstead.
Myrna Armstead.
That's her husband won last week.
Mom.
Well, that's not fair.
Let's throw it away and draw something else.
Well, now you've lost Myrna.
I apologize, Myrna.
You're the kind of guy that would slug Dale Carney.
No, no, no.
Do you like to write an editorial?
Sure.
I mean, writing is why I went into the business, and I do enjoy it.
I sure do.
It's trying to develop your thoughts, express them logically, and to allow the reader in
on how you came to the conclusion you came to.
I enjoy that.
I enjoy that.
You're making an effort, I think, to make the paper, and I think all of us are doing
this, like at the station, newspaper, to make it really, really more focused on local news.
Is that a conscious effort?
Sure.
Well, yeah, we can define local news, but we would like for the paper to, we would like
to have as many of those events or things in the paper that really affect people's lives,
that have some effect on what they do, how their quality of life or whatever those issues
may be, and we make a conscious effort to cover those.
All right.
What's tomorrow's editorial about?
Tomorrow's editorial is not controversial at all.
It's about the sweat equity day at SFA, and it encourages everybody to go out and donate
what is 830 to 1130, about three hours of work at SFA to make the campus more beautiful,
spiff it up some, to make a sweat investment in Stephen F. Austin.
It's a very worthwhile cause and one that I hope the whole town will turn out for.
Thanks for being with us.
I'll be there.
I've enjoyed it.
Thank you.
Looking forward to it.
Lil, we got to go.
We got to go.
Say goodbye to the folks.
Goodbye, folks.
And we'll see you tomorrow morning at 6.30 on 8.60 KSFA.
And back here next Wednesday at 8.30.
Until then, bless your house, dear heart.
Thank you.
