"A lot of people moving from areas like Taylor into Hooper have been complaining about the farms,” Davis said. “(But) you don’t want to tick off a redneck with a backhoe — that’s just not a good idea.”
Standard-Examiner
Hooper farmer’s car fence attracting global attention
August 6, 2008
We were pretty sure the Standard-Examiner had stumbled upon a highly entertaining and newsworthy story on Monday, and so we said in our own WCF post that very afternoon. Little did we realize however, how truly "big" the Rhett Davis "Redneck Stonehenge" story would become. The Std-Ex carries a followup story this morning, reporting that the story has grown beyond a matter of purely local interest, and has now become the focus of intense international attention. We incorporate a few of Greg Boyle's key paragraphs below:
HOOPER — Rhett Davis and his self-proclaimed Redneck Stonehenge have received attention from California to Austria, and Davis isn’t done yet.Just how much interest did this story provoke? This morning's google search currently registers 46,600 hits.
On Monday, the Standard-Examiner ran a story about Davis and the ad-hoc fence he erected in his backyard by digging large holes with a backhoe and planting three old demolition derby cars nose-first.
The idea came to Davis after new neighbors who purchased a home behind his farm complained his animals attract too many bugs and his tractor kicks up too much dust. “A lot of people moving from areas like Taylor into Hooper have been complaining about the farms,” Davis said. “(But) you don’t want to tick off a redneck with a backhoe — that’s just not a good idea.”
Within hours after the story was first published, Davis received calls from almost 20 news outlets, including radio stations and newspapers from across the country.
The Standard-Examiner’s story was picked up by news wire services and Web sites, so it was available around the world.
How important was this story? Important enough to provoke a Std-Ex editorial this morning -- AND a danged fine Grondahl cartoon.
Weber County Forum Tips O' the Hat go out all around this morning: First to besieged Hooper farmer Rhett Davis (who got the ball rolling,) and secondly to the Std-Ex staff, who disseminated the word via the Std-Ex website and newswires.
We hope Mr. Davis can continue to milk this story for all it's worth. We haven't seen anything this good since, well, this....
4 comments:
This story and the momentum it has generated illustrates the way news is now developed in the media saturated world of today. In the past a small local story would be reported by a local journalist and, if significant for wider consumption, would be spit out to UPI or AP. Today the story gets reported locally and hungry-for-anything media outlets around the globe now dispatch their own intern-alists (journalist/intern*)to get more comment or generate their own twist on an aging story.
*intern-alist - noun - a guy with a pencil who writes already reported stories under the guise of journalism. He may or may not have an intern at his disposal to clean up after continuous self-gratification. On the press room totem pole this guy rates the lowest yet retains the position of reporter/journalist to keep him from hurt feelings.
Tec:
Back in the day, it used to be writing obituaries. Now that the obits are actually paid ads, I guess this is the entry point.
In related news, I see the S-E is still looking for someone with "grammar" skills (they corrected that in today's ad, at least). What they really need is someone who can spell "defendant" and "separate" such as in the headline on p. 4B. At least they're consistent. Maybe there is now a city tax on the letter "a" and they're trying to conserve.
I actually noticed the story ont he front page of CNN's website last night...with photo. Not there today though.
I'll commend this guy for responding to his freshly encamped suburban pioneer neighbors.
Many farms are less than tidy. Old machinery leaking fuel and lube parked out in the middle at some random intersection of fenced pastures, some have feedlots reeking of urine and manure, there's always the issue of chemical drift and the farmer rarely gives a rat's ass about which way the wind blows on the day when he has to plow or spray. Most of today's "farms" are usually pasture and feed production. Since the adoption of a bovine flesh heavy diet the easy way to farming is simply letting the animals fatten up for slaughter. Vegetable and fruit farming is far more intensive and activity and requires a lot of hand labor. Diversified vegetable farming does not get subsidies after the meat lobbies have stacked all the government help in their corner. Government subsidies encourage the centralization of food production and monopolization of food production resources. Equation result...higher food prices, dependent population, weakened national security.
That's my farm rant for today. Now to mow my back 40 and harvest some apricots.
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