FOX NEWS ZIP TRIP TO PORTSMOUTH, NH (Continued)

A couple of minutes before air time I was settled into a tall deck chair next to Doug VB Goudie. I hadn’t heard of him and he hadn’t heard of me. According to his Fox News bio, VB – as he likes to be called – hosts a segment entitled “Let It Rip” where “his daily opinions push the boundaries of regular news.” His strong opinions on hot-button issues, the Web site says, may make you want to scream at your television set. I guess that’s why I watch PBS.

He didn’t seem that scary to me as we chatted. Nice guy. There was no prep, no make-up, no pep talk. Somebody just handed me a wireless microphone with instructions to turn the Fox25 logo toward the camera. At the cue from the producer, VB amped up to three times his previous energy level, plugged in his broadcaster voice, and had at me.

The questions were actually pretty tough, but apparently I managed not to disgrace myself. You can see the whole thing on the FOX25  Web site. I was presented with a free tote bag full of convenience store items from Tedeschi Food Shops. Then I posed for PR shots with VB and the Tedeschi reps. Next up was philanthropist Jameson French who did a great job telling “the Portsmouth story.” Jameson got a plaque for being a local hero.

I was home by just after 8am. On TV, VB was doing a live interview with Chris Wallace in Washington, DC from his deck chair at Strawbery Banke. Very impressive technology. They were talking about the trial of presidential candidate John Edwards who had just been acquitted of mishandling secret campaign funds to keep his wife, who was dying of cancer, from finding out that he had fathered a child during an illicit love affair. Those Democrats, they’re all the same! There was news about a car crash, a murder, a robbery, then a harangue on the evils of Obama – same-old same-old.

I guess it was a good thing – all that technology coming to town. I hope a few new people who watch Fox learned about Portsmouth for the first time. I hope they get in their cars and come up here to share the town we’ve built. I hope our town makes them happy. And I still don’t understand why people live anywhere else.

© 2012 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved by SeacaostNH.com

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