The website Latino Rebels has an emailed response from Michael Hicks regarding his extremely embarrassing appearance on last night's episode of The Daily Show. A note for Mr. Hicks: if you didn't want to have your idiotic, ill-informed comments amplified to a national audience, don't do an interview with The Daily Show.

I would actually argue that they did "inform" rather than "amuse," because just the line where you said you preferred to get your information from hearsay instead of actually visiting the classes says everything anyone needs to know about your leadership on the school board. In fact, I've been somewhat sympathetic to the position that John Huppenthal and Tom Horne put the TUSD School Board in by seemingly forcing their hand economically. This segment basically changed my mind.

I realize we generally get what we pay for with school board members, but it would be nice to have someone who cares enough about his job to actually investigate a situation for himself before running his mouth off with baseless opinions. Clearly, we're not getting that from Michael Hicks.

With all due respect, the Daily Show is a money making satirical show. It is not a news show. They do not present the complete remarks of their guests. They slice and dice footage to serve their need to entertain.

I went on this show to talk about the Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes. I was mislead by the "reporter" and was told that they were interested in a real interview. It was nothing of the sort.

It is unfortunate that the Daily Show opted to amuse rather than inform.

And for the record, you can see where they spliced my comments in several areas during this segment. I can assure you that my statements were taken out of context Many of my answers were altered to suit their agenda.

What I find more troubling is that there are those who will believe that what they saw on the Daily Show is accurate and complete news.

These individuals will then most likely base their judgments on inaccurate information designed specifically to support the view of Daily Show producers.

Real children were being exploited, and the producers of the Daily Show chose to ignore that.

Michael Hicks did himself no favors whatsoever last night on The Daily Show. I don't know if he realizes that basing your ideas and theories on "hearsay" is generally considered a bad thing. I'm personally so glad this guy partially oversees my son's education.

• Russell Pearce and his former pal, JT Ready

Full disclosure: I work for an alt-weekly, and I occasionally write for the Phoenix New Times, so I'm generally predisposed to root for my independent media brethren. However, I feel relatively safe saying that I would have thought Russell Pearce's attempt to hurt the New Times by boycotting their advertisers will go nowhere fast, especially since I imagine most of the movie-going public filling Harkins Theaters every weekend aren't all that concerned about a squabble between a former legislator and a weekly newspaper. However, that didn't stop blogger-turned-Regent Greg Patterson from speculating:

First, New Times itself has changed. We think of New Times as liberal, but it's really more anti-authoritarian. The paper was certainly a pain in Napolitano's backside. Now that the state has a Conservative Governor and Legislature, New Times' anti-authoritarian outlook is also a hard left outlook. The paper has also become a one note tune that's anti Arpaio all the time.

These changes will not be lost on advertisers. After all, Arpaio/Pearce supporters can go to, say, Dan Harkins and rightly say that New Times is trying to destroy them personally. We can debate how much popular support Arpaio/Pearce enjoy, but the number is not small. If Arpaio/Pearce supporters simply stop attending Harkins theaters, that would be noticed. If they start demonstrating in front of Harkins Theaters that would be huge. Harkins would be foolish to risk even one protest for whatever benefit he gets from New Times ads.

Which leads to the second point. New Times has picked up some "respectable" advertisers. Nothing against car alarms, breast augmentation and tatoo removal but those industries are unlikely to care about Russell Pearce's views on anything. Car dealers, restaurants, movie theaters and yes, breast augmentation surgeons however, will be sensitive to large pro-Arpaio crowds in their parking lots. Pearce is smart enough to use the Alinsky rules and will target, freeze personalize and polarize individual advertisers—and not just in Mesa. Shutting down the Harkins megaplex at Scottsdale and the 101 on the opening night of each summer Blockbuster would be a powerful message.

I'm pretty sure that if advertisers are OK with what's in the back of the book each week in the New Times, they'll be OK with swipes at Arpaio and Pearce, but I suppose time will tell. I wasn't really too much into the Limbaugh boycott (who really cares what that guy says anymore or who tries to make money advertising to his listeners?) and I imagine this attempt at action will be far less impactful, even on a regional level.

While anyone who has been around this city for awhile might instantly have a sour taste in their mouth when the words "promotional film for Tucson" get kicked around, the Downtown Tucson Partnership has a new video directed by John Sears online that really puts the area in a great light, between the entertainment, culture, events, food and nightlife shown to the sounds of Calexico (of course). It's a nice reminder of some of what I really do love about this city.

Then again, my car might disappear in one of the potholes on South Country Club on my way home, but for now, hooray for downtown Tucson!

Apparently, Jessica Simpson's homage to Demi Moore on the cover of ELLE magazine was slightly too scandalous for the manager of the Safeway at Tanque Verde and Catalina Highway, so they put a poorly crafted cardboard blockade to deter young, easily impressionable eyes. Then, since everyone loves to kick a state while it's down, someone sent the above photo to female-centric snark blog Jezebel. Super.

We spoke with spokeswoman for Safeway who said that this particular store made the decision to cover the magazine after it received multiple complaints from mothers with young children. She also said that other Safeway locations in the area had not received any complaints. She said the company tries to be sensitive to the complaints of their customers but does not have an official corporate policy on blocking magazine covers. Instead, those decisions are left up to the discretion of store managers.

STLToday.com doesn't mention the Arizona Daily Star specifically, but their article discussing Lee Enterprises and their desire to put up paywalls on "most" their newspapers' websites would likely include our local daily.

Lee introduced paywalls at six newspapers in August in Montana and Wyoming that were successful, according to the company. There was not an adverse effect on digital advertising revenue at those newspapers, and page views at those six websites remain strong, Lee's chairman and executive officer Mary Junck said at Lee's annual meeting of stockholders this morning in Davenport, according to a summary of her remarks released by Lee.

At the Montana and Wyoming newspapers, readers are able to access between 15 and 20 free online story views a month. After they reach the set amount, they must pay to access a story on the paper's website. At the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana, for example, annual digital subscriptions cost $69.50 and $19.50 annually for print subscribers, according a list of rates on its website.

Lee will introduce digital subscriptions in more Lee markets over the next three months.

While I might dispute if there are more than fifteen stories actually worth reading on the Star's site any given month (especially following the departure of Rhonda Bodfield and since I'm not generally the sort that needs to read every story about U of A sports), the really dastardly move on Lee's part would be to charge print subscribers for online access to a paper they already pay for. At least with the New York Times (which recently announced it was cutting the number of free articles available to cheapskates to ten a month), home delivery comes with online access and the use of their smartphone and tablet apps. A paywall might convince me to actually subscribe to the paper, true, but I certainly won't subscribe, pay extra for online access, then be ok with dealing with the drop-down, takeover, and pop-up ads on the Star's site.

Moveable Type is a portable printing press contained entirely inside of a 1982 Chevy step van and it's coming to Tucson this Sunday for an event with local food truck Foodie Fleet at Conrad Wilde Gallery.

Here's the poster from the event. There's more on Foodie Fleet - which makes amazing sandwiches and waffles - over here.

Oh, this should be fascinating radio. From our own Mari Herreras' Facebook page:

On Bill Buckmaster Show today, 12 Noon, KVOI AM 1030 interviewing Tucson Unified School District Superintendent John Pedicone, followed by the Reporters' Roundtable. Tune-in.

The show streams at KVOI.com or you can listen to it later at BuckmasterShow.com.

Thanks to the Arizona Daily Star (it burns to even type that) for posting the surveillance footage of Martha Vazquez's afternoon shopping trip to the Tucson Mall on February 11th.

Below the cut, two additional clips:

Is there some sort of filter I can apply to the internet so I won't have to see SXSW related content this week? That would really help me out until I somehow acquire the ability to happy for other people having fun.

[HT: The Awl]