The Alderdice household is a big fan of Jeff “Action” Woods, sportscaster extraordinaire, good pal, and just a generally great guy.

Jeff isn’t a fan of the fact that I’ve nicknamed him “Action” and petitioned him on several occasions to adopt the moniker on air.  Friends and gentle readers, I believe we can make that and more happen for old Jeffrey.

I sent myself an email reminder exactly one year ago so I wouldn’t forget about this. Nominations have begun for the 2010 Best of Bowling Green.  The contest recognizes favorite restaurants, stores, and individuals in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Most of all, I want to see Jeff “Action” Woods as a finalist for Category #104 — Best Local TV Personality.

Do you know who won this category last year?  Radar the Weather Dog.  I’m not even kidding.  A dog beat out a real-life human being for best local tv personality.  Had Jeff been nominated, this would not have happened.

Never again.

Here’s why I’m asking you to do this: Jeff has been one of my dearest friends since he helped me move into my dorm room sophomore year–when I didn’t even know him.  He was my roommate in college and suffered all manner of degradation at my hand.  For some reason, he even agreed to be a groomsman in my wedding.  He’s one of the nicest guys in the world, honestly.

I am asking all of my friends to participate in the nomination process.  There are lots of categories; however,you need only vote for 104. BEST LOCAL TV PERSONALITY. Please enter Jeff “Action” Woods in field number 104. You will have to cycle through a few pages to get to the page with this category.  It’s kind of annoying, I know, but there is no direct link for the page.

It’s that simple.  Please vote early and often.  To make the final voting round, Jeff must be one of the three vote-getters during the nomination phase.

Look how happy the little fella is in the photo below.  Imagine how happy he’ll be if he wins.

Like all good memes, Dodson quickly became a product line.[twitter

Ah, the local news.  As mainstream, national journalism gives way to the power of the internet and the blogosphere, it seems as though local media is the only traditional avenue that maintains some form of relevancy.  After all, local media know their audience, stories, and needs in a way that a national media outlet is simply unable to provide.

Granted, there are numerous professionals working in television and print in newsrooms across the country who are consummate professionals.  Every now and then, though, you have a Chris Allen fondling a breast cancer graphic on camera.  Media professionals make bad decisions all the time.  Even after serving as the Dean of the White House Press Corps, Helen Thomas found herself forcibly retired after inflammatory comments.

Thanks to the internet, a highly local story can become global internet fodder in a matter of hours.  Take the story of Antoine Dodson, the latest example of a local news story gone viral.  When an intruder allegedly broke into his sister’s apartment and attempted to sexually assault her, Antoine helped scare off the attacker.  A story such as this meets the “smell test” for local news: it’s timely, it’s interesting, and there’s a human angle.

Here’s the problem.

Consider you are the reporter, editor, or producer of the nightly news.  What should you do in this instance?  To the best of our knowledge, the story was not made up.  Second, they interviewed the parties directly involved in the event.  Given the fact that an attacker could be on the loose in a local neighborhood, the station has a responsibility to inform their audience of any potential danger.  The question I have to ask, though, is should they have aired the story as is?

Checking out the comments section of the original video, it comes as no surprise there is a large African-American audience and native Huntsville audience who feel as though the video casts their populations in a less-than-positive light.  It’s understandable.  Think about those times where a tornado rips through a local community.  Why is it that nine times out of ten that it goes through a trailer park?  Why is it always a trailer park?

The station could have simply reported the story as part of a block of news.  They could have used clips solely from the young woman who was attacked.  There are any number of ways the station could have covered the story; however, they went with the one that would have the most bang.  While I do believe it falls into a gray area, the station reported the story, with the major players, and in a timely manner.  Dodson was obviously and understandably upset.  The statements were his feelings and opinions in the moment.  He was, perhaps, neither sensible or eloquent.  That’s the risk you run when you talk on camera, though.  Perhaps you simply chalk it up to a lesson in awkward.

That doesn’t mean you go back to the buffet for a second helping.  After Dodson’s comments (and the station’s video) went viral, the station did a second interview with him.  This second time, the story focused on his newfound internet stardom.  Check it out.

Props to Antoine for cleaning up and portraying himself in a more positive light.  Shame on the station for doing a story about their story.  At this point, the station’s actions become self-serving and promotional.  The almost self-righteous tone of the reporter as she explains the justification is more than off-putting.  It’s as if to say, “we probably shouldn’t do another story on this but, forget it, let’s go ahead.”  She plantively justifies the station’s follow-up story despite objections from the community: “To that I say, censoring people like Antoine is far worse.”

Maybe, but exploiting people like Antoine is far, far worse.

You know how sometimes TV Guide will put out a week’s issue with a series of 4 different covers with different cast-mates of [Current T.V. show]. On the inside – it’s the same T.V. Guide. Same times. Same shows. It’s just the cover that’s different. With a comic book variant – there will be something sparkly and super duper special about a cover that is different from the one that’s in mass production. So say – out of 10 issues of T.V. Guide – 9 of them have Hurley on them, and only one has Sawyer. Sawyer is the variant. Got it? Easy peasy. Comic book with an insert about Spiderman saving Obama at the inauguration. Easy. Right?

Wrong. SO wrong. Because the one variant is invariably worth more than the regular issues.

But the thing about this variant: it was an [Edit: Super special screwy] incentive plan for Marvel. Marvel tells the comic book shop, “Say you ordered x-number of Spiderman issues last time. For every, say, 20 extra issues you order, we’ll give you a variant.” Not a big deal for your gigantic comic book stores, they can easily order more, somewhat difficult for your lower sized chains. There’s the first print ultra-limited edition with a blue background, that’s the one that came out today. So folks were lining up all over the place today to get their hands on the Obama variant of Spiderman.  Here’s how I spent the most terrifying morning of 2009.

So – my resident comic book geek hubs – has been feverishly asking me to go pick up a copy of the variant for like, the past week. There’s only one comic book store in town and it opens at 10 a.m.

Hubs: “You have to get there early. Get there before 10.”

Moi: “Yeahyeahyeahwhatever.”

Hubs: “No. I’m being serious. You really need to get there early.”

Moi: “Mmmkay.”

So I get there at 9:55 and there are three middle aged men, god bless ‘em, standing in line outside the door. Part of me wanted to say, “If there are only three of you – you probably don’t need to be in a line.” But this was the Whopper Virgin in me coming out because, as I learned, fewer people does not mean less insanity.

Strolling like rockstars clad in olive colored trenchcoats and weathered Magic the Gathering tournament t-shirts, the comic book store employees unlock the store. I follow behind the three line guys who obviously were in the know because why else would grown men be lined up outside the comic book store at 10 in the morning. We pass by the back wall with all of the new issues out there. No Obama variant.

Employee 1: We have the Obama variants up here behind the counter. One per customer.

We get up there. There are only five copies. I’m number four in line.

So as I stand in line, a couple comes in asking where the Spiderman Obama comics are located. Employee 1 tells them they’re in the back. They look, and its the regular Spiderman issue. The Hurley, if you will. They return to the front saying that they were there yesterday and reserved a copy.

Now – with these variants, the store doesn’t reserve copies. It’s a first come – first serve basis. And with lil ole me standing number four in line, there was only one left. I think they were saving the last copy to put on display or mark-up for later. But as the couple proceeds to grow increasingly angry – the manager tells them,

Manager: The distributors only gave us five. This is the last one we have – but it’s yours.

Now – another customer comes in saying that they called to reserve the special Obama cover. Same story – you can’t reserve the variant, it’s a first come first serve basis. Only this time – all the issues are sold out. And it’s like, 10:05 a.m. So – say you set your clocks 5 or 10 minutes slow…you just screwed out of your book. Now – I can understand a lot of people’s frustrations. If you didn’t know how limited they were – you would think it would be like getting jeans at the Gap or asking Barnes and Noble to set aside a book for you, wouldn’t there be more in the back?

Angry customer:”What do you mean you only had five? I called and asked to have some reserved yesterday!”

At this point it seems as though some hapless employee was answering the phone all day yesterday and telling folks, “Yeah, we have the Spiderman/Obama book in stock” when what folks were asking for was the variant cover that’s been all over the news. Now – you just opened your store and will be spending the entire day dealing with pissed off people who got there at 10:07 a.m. only to have it sold out. Well – at least you weren’t in NYC or another major metropolitan area…where folks lined up outside for hours.

As I left, I told them, “Hope your day gets better.”

Later – the hubs and I did a good deed and bought a small Spiderman cake to take to the comic book store folks. He’s been a regular customer for years and wanted to be nice. He went inside and told them that I was the one in the pink hoodie that was there earlier to get the variant. They were pretty excited about getting the cake.

So – they got their cake. Hubs got his comic book. Everyone was happy.