Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Oh, we can feel it in the air – the WLOSers are priming the pump for November sweeps. You can just see them salivating…
Trick-or-treat for sex offenders
Michelle Boudin hit the skids again Thursday night with a totally sick report on how parents and grandparents everywhere should be scared to take their sweet little innocents out trick-or-treating because there could be a sex offender lurking in the neighborhood.
This is the kind of baseless, over-hyped, crap reporting that fuels my disdain for you WLOSers.
So there’s Michelle, dramatically walking out the front door of some house (probably in Biltmore Park, just outside the WLOS studios) holding one of those plastic, orange pumpkin baskets kids collect candy in. And she’s telling us something like – we may never know what kind of sexual perv might be handing our kid a Twix. (btw Michelle, you’ve eaten enough candy. drop the pumpkin bucket now and back away, slowly…)
Then Michelle tells us that out in Texas, police are inviting pervs to come down to the station house on Halloween and watch some instructional videos on how not to lust after children. And by God, police right here in Western North Carolina are just as concerned.
Then Michelle goes out to the WLOS tried-and-true sexual perv experts at the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department and has Sheriff Erwin show us, for the millionth time, some registered sex offender web site that maps out where every twisted mother-effer lives. This is so you won’t mistakenly knock on their door Monday night and accidently push little Johnny into the crotch of some freak luring children inside with the sounds of a Michael Jackson CD and the promise of some Jesus juice.
Michelle and your WLOS cohorts, thanks for that. Really. Thanks. That’s really responsible, helpful journalism, that right there. I mean really. Thank you.
Robbie Benson, back
Thursday night, it was Jon “Punnyman” Le’s turn to bask in the low-wattage, dim bulb glow of actor-turned-Boone resident Robbie Benson. Le covered the opening gala event of the Ashvegas Film Festival. And what a festival it must be, if Robbie by-god Benson is the star and Michelle Big-un is the emcee (she was). Oh, and Andie MacDowell was there. Or at least the back of her head was there, because that was all the WLOSer camera man managed to shoot.
But back to Le, who during the 6 o’clock got his own face time Robbie, though not before Scottie2Hottie, feeling totally jealous, tried not to horn in. You see, Scottie tossed the story to the Punnyman with this really weird happy talk about a red carpet, then made this Dr. Evil face or something that was just effed-up. The Punnyman ignored Scottie, though, and starting asking Robbie about how great Ashvegas was for a movie-making destination and shouldn’t more movies be made here and all. And Robbie said yeah, “you’ve got the city and you’ve got the mountains and you’ve got the ocean, just like LA” – hold up, Robbie – Ashvegas has an ocean?!? No shit!?!
Oh well. We’re hearing that the Ashvegas Film Festival is so disorganized this year that it’s going to be a total failure.
Oh yeah, then Le interviewed some British guy, Ken Russell, who obviously had had a couple of snorts and was receiving the festival’s “lifetime achievement award” for directing “Altered States” and a bunch of other crap. Although Russell didn’t seem to want to accept the fact that his life was over at 72 or whatever. I loved Altered States, as corny as it seems now. But is that a lifetime achievement?
WLOSer Halloween costume of the day
Sheraldo is going as McGruff.
You know, I don’t really know why you all bitch so much about there not being “real news” out there. If anything, you should be lucky that WLOS leads with stories about Halloween Safety and Snow on the Parkway. Sure as hell makes me feel a lot safer to live here in Asheville. Go to New York or Washington DC sometime, and you will get your “real news.” It will be something along the lines of “the maimed corpse of the 11th victim of a serial killer is found.” Yeah, watching stories about Halloween Safety isn’t as thrilling as watching an episode of CSI, but it is comforting knowing that the only danger I have to worry about is driving on icy roads, not eating too much candy, and ancient people (cause they are scary drivers around here).
ok weaverville woman and syntax – maybe i’ll reconsider ken russell’s award.
Chad and EM – go get ’em!
I’ve been making that argument for the last five years. It’s the typical paradox of American Justice: where the convicts have all the rights, not the victims; punishments never fit the crime, either over or under-punished; and all the government can do is offer up window dressing to placate the masses and keep the soccer moms from going beserk.
imho, anyone, such as ken russell, who has the foresight to get ann-margret to writhe around in chocolate pudding, soap bubbles and heinz baked beans doesn’t just deserve a lifetime acheivement award from the asheville film festival – he deserves the presidential medal of freedom!
mmm… ann-margret in chocolate pudding…
i have to gently disagree with you, ash, on ken russell.
not that he’d obviously had a snort or two just before being interviewed, but that he produced ‘the rock opera, tommy’ and that was definately a big deal at the time (20-something years ago).
it started MTV and music videos, of which i’m not a big fan, but they exist to this day and have made, and continue to make, tons of money for musicians.
I agree, what’s with the fear mongering? Isn’t there more interesting, real NEWS out there to cover? As a mother of two young children, I would like all of you out there to stop fear mongering, telling me how to protect my kids, and treating me like an idiot. My god…
You hit the nail on the head on Thursday’s lead story. That’s the kind of crap that should have been buried in the national roundup at 5:00 or somewhere it could be properly reported as “can you believe what these idiots in Texas are doing this Halloween?” — not as something that actually might be legitimate. I -was- pleasantly surprised to see Sheriff Erwin say something along those lines, that these sex offenders have served their time and he didn’t think the Constitution would allow him to require them to come to the sheriff’s office for a video screening. Of course, he didn’t address the bigger question of how they can be required to register with the sex offender registry. Which sets me off on another rant:
If they’ve served their time, they should be free. If the amount of time wasn’t sufficient to rehabilitate them, then extend the sentence, but don’t say, “You’ve served your time; you’re free to go; oh, by the way, you’re not really free — be sure to sign up with your local sheriff on the sex offender registry.” What about the shoplifting registry, or the selling drugs registry, or the manslaughter registry? If the recidivism (sp?) rate is such an issue that sex offenders can’t be trusted back out in the free world, then extend the sentence. But don’t require them to publicize the crime –for which they’ve served their time– for the rest of their lives.
And, no, I’m not defending sex offenders. I would make the same argument against another ??pick the crime?? registry. The basic concept is just ludicrous.