President Ford

In 1987, while I was working as a radio journalist in Oregon, Gerald Ford visited Linfield College, in McMinnville, to deliver a speech. A handful of local reporters was invited beforehand for a chance to sit down and interview the former president. So four or five of us were in a small room. It was quite informal, with all of us sitting on couches. There were only two Secret Service agents that I saw; one of them is behind me at the door.

Even so, it was surreal. I was sitting a few feet away from a man who had been at the epicenter of an historic event, perhaps even two: Watergate and the end of the Vietnam war. My overriding hope was that my tape recorder was working properly.

I don’t remember what we asked exactly, but there were questions about Watergate, and he gave the answers you’ve become familiar with again over the past few days since his death. I remember one of my questions, which happened to be the final one of the session: Given the post-Watergate political climate, what would you say to young people to get involved in politics? He answered in words to the effect that it was important to get involved in politics, to solve problems and to make things better for the nation.

And then it was over. Mr. Ford got up from his couch, and came to each of us. He shook my hand. I thanked him for his time and said what an honor it was to meet him. He nodded, turned away and shook more hands, and then he was gone.

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

Let’s Do Some Drifting!

More than a few drivers were at Aloha Stadium today to test out a new course for “drifting,” an automotive sport that originated in Japan, and then came to Hawai`i before spreading to the mainland. Organizers of the event held a dry run at the Aloha Stadium parking lot, where four drift events have been scheduled.

The organizers also allowed members of the media to ride along as a car made its way through the course. These are a few screen caps of images taken from a small camera mounted in the car. The first one shows me and photographer Rex Von Arnswaldt preparing the microphone I’ll wear in the car. The second is the final strap-in. The third is self-explanatory.

The point of drifting is to take a vehicle in a controlled slide through a slalom-like course. The sport started on some of the winding mountain roads of Japan. The cars aren’t moving at drag race speed; instead, drivers are busy shifting, braking, accelerating and steering their way through the course as quickly as possible, without crashing into anything. (A side note: I’m familiar with the sport, as one of my friends was once one of the state’s top 15 drifters before he dropped out of the sport, mainly because of the cost of tires. Drifting chews up a lot of tires.)

The first qualifying event take place Saturday, Jan. 6. Drivers from the mainland and around the world will come in for an international meet, also at the Aloha Stadium parking lot, Feb. 2 and 3. The event promises to be a big draw, since drift enthusiasts haven’t had a place to practice their sport since Hawai`i Raceway Park closed last April. The organizers also hope the new venue will serve as a safe place for drifters, and to keep illegal drifting off public streets.

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

A Sign of Winter

That’s Ka`ena Point off in the distance, but the sky and ocean seem to have been imported from Oregon.

Thousands went up to O`ahu’s North Shore to take a look at the first really big swell of winter. Big, sloppy, Victory at Sea stuff. Didn’t matter — it still drew tons of folks. Which is why this photo is taken from Ali`i Beach. It would’ve taken until sundown to make it to Waimea or Sunset.

Santa and the Choir

At this time of year, we get a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. We also have our annual visit from the Honolulu Boy Choir.

This year, we decided to mash the two events together.

If you were watching, the surprise on some of the boys’ faces wasn’t faked. We helped Santa and Mrs. Claus sneak into the newsroom without the boys knowing it. They were able to talk to the boys before sitting down for their annual interview.

Once again, thanks to the Clauses. And a big thanks to the Boy Choir, whose members came in at 4:30 am after performing at the Brothers Cazimero Christmas concert the night before (some of them came in on less than four hours’ sleep). We’ll see them again next year.

And on that note, the morning newscast crew will have sleeping in Monday. Please have a safe holiday weekend!

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

Exit…Stage Left

Producer Trisha Young (second from left) is leaving KITV and, most of all, Island Television News This Morning. For about the past year she’s worked the graveyard shift (yes, we do have a graveyard next door) and now she’s moving to greener pastures. Good Luck Trisha!

We’ll Miss You!

Clayton Wakida

Producer, Island Television News This Morning

cwakida@kitv.com

Evangeline Lilly/Barack Obama — Evil Media vs. Just doing our job

Wednesday must have been the celebrity news day. First it was Evangeline Lilly’s house burning down and then it was Barack Obama goes golfing during his vacation while he makes up his mind if he’ll run for prez.

The fire was obviously sad and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. In fact, my boss probably won’t be happy if I said this publicly, but I’m glad Evangeline Lilly didn’t show up at the home to check out the damage… at least while all the cameras were there. While the local media tends to be very respectful in these situations… the paparazzi that came around too are much more aggressive and were upseting the neighbors by crossing the yellow tape. I personally dislike covering these types of terrible incidents, but it’s part of the job. When I was in my 20’s… I was definitely a lot more aggressive in getting the interviews from victims. Now that I’m in my 30’s and I’ve seen more human tragedy, my views have changed slightly. I still have to ask the tough questions and see if victims are willing to talk, but I’m not typically going out of my way to get a victim who doesn’t want to be on tv.. on tv. Once Lilly’s boyfriend, Dominic Monaghan showed up to check out the damage, I knew he was understandly upset about everything including the media making his private tragedy public. Us local media types actually kept our distance and waited for him to walk by. We asked if he wanted to say anything. He said no. End of story for us.

As for Barack Obama… well… that’s a different story. You might not have been able to tell from the video, but he clearly was not happy about our presence during his golf game. I can certainly understand his frustration. He’s on vacation and is about to make one of the biggest decisions in his life… a decision that could possibly alter the course of history… oh yeah… and did I mention that he’s got local roots with family still here… and oh yeah… he’s a Punahou grad (I’m sure the Punahou PR department is smiling from ear to ear that we keep mentioning 2 Punahou grads… the other one is that multi-million dollar 16 year old golfer.)

However, that was one of those news tips that we just had to go on. I got a text message from a friend that Barack Obama had just teed off at Olomana and as soon as I read it, I literally shouted out the news to our newsroom. My heart was racing. While the local democratic party has requested that the media stay away to let him make up his decision, I felt we needed to get that shot and even see if he would talk to us. One of our reporters was sent out on the assignment and she found him on the course. Our reporter told me that she tried to keep her distance during his round to be respectful, but Obama was not happy about the camera at all. In fact, he drove up to her in his golf cart and said he was trying to having a vacation with his family and friends. Our reporter told Obama that she wasn’t at the course to ruin his day, just that KITV was there to get a picture of him golfing and see if he wanted to say anything. He said, “you already have (ruined my day).” Ouch. It’s another tough situation in our jobs. I feel bad for the guy, but on the other hand, if he decides to run for president, there is the possiblity he could have a significant impact in the history of our country. My husband questioned our decision to follow Obama. I leaned toward the side of we just had to pursue this story of a Punahou grad turned politician turned political rocked star turned possible presidential wanna be.

aloha,
Mahealani
mahea@kitv.com

Gotta Write Something

After a very busy November and first half of December for the Island Breakfast Blog, things have decidedly slowed down in the post department. Not to make excuses, but of course, Dan’s been on a well-deserved break, so that leaves one fewer of us to do things like, say, take photos of guests. Unfortunately, this was one of those mornings that I forgot to bring a good camera, as a small group of performers from Heartbeat was here. Fortunately, they have a Web site, so not all is lost. The full group will be performing at he Blasidell Concert Hall the next two weekends. They’re quite amazing.

Also, it’s the holidays, so our minds are elsewhere, as are many of our colleagues, who have taken some time off. So Mahealani and I have been doing a lot of field reporting lately.

Tomorrow, our annual Christmas Eve — or as close to it as we can get — visit from the Honolulu Boy Choir.

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

The Recliner Goes Home

Regular viewers know we had a nice, blue recliner, and that we were going to give it away to one of our four Viewers of the Week for November. And as you may know, Eric Daido was the winner.

What we envisioned was the recliner going to a lovely living room in a nice home. But something completely different — and much better — happened. The recliner is now the property of “Club 100,” the clubhouse for World War II veterans of the U.S. Army’s 100th Battalion. Daido is a member of the Hawai`i Air National Guard, and remembered that his uncle was a member of the famed “Go For Broke” unit. That’s the short story of how the chair ended up where it did.

Congratulations, Eric, and mahalo for your generosity!

Here are photos of the recliner leaving KITV and headed to Club 100, courtesy of Angela Elbern of the Hickam Air Force Base newspaper Kukini, who also wrote the full story here (scroll down to page three).

morningmail@thehawaiichannel.com

The Team You Know. The Team You Eat.

The photo — and the gingerbread cookies — courtesy of Daniel LaGarde, executive chef at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, who brought these in with the rest of the holiday entrees. It isn’t often that a news team is rendered in holiday cookie form. And I seem to have lost one of my contact lenses.

Ben.
ben@kitv.com

Kudos to the Runners

Big props go out to the members of the Island Television `ohana who ran in this morning’s Honolulu Marathon . Dan Meisenzahl finished with a respectable time of four hours, six minutes, 18 seconds, and was among the top 2,400 to finish. Morning photographer Kevin Matsumoto finished in 7:48:41.

KITV weekend assignment editor Shayne Enright ran a time of 3:54:13, good enough to finish 1,564th out of nearly 29,000 registered runners.

Congratulations (and a therapeutic massage) to the winners!