The 6 After 6
The Editor-in-Chief goes in-depth on the most intriguing stories that shocked, moved, and informed our readers during Club Relaford's first six months.
By: C. Todd Williamson, III

6.) Air Diplomacy Author: C. Todd Williamson, III Issue: June 2007 Section: Relaford Renaissance
	I was originally going to compose this article with the illusion of covering the “Greatest Jetsetters of All Time,” but that was before I came to my senses and reminded myself that this is a policy driven publication. Writing this article felt like working on a major motion picture. It seemed like an epic. The toughest part was picking the top 10 diplomats of the early Cold War era. Already a specific genre, I had to fulfill the “air” part of the title, which required me to do research on the types of planes that each diplomat traveled in, and also where
they flew these planes during their diplomatic careers. I worked on the majority of the story during Memorial Day weekend at the house I grew up in near Atlanta and my father had a few suggestions, as usual, as to how to cover such a massive project. It was his idea to break up the article into two parts, five and five, and issue the two sections one update at a time “therefore it saves you the stress,” he said. I kept a tentative list on an orange posted note and it seemed to change daily till the point came when it was time to write the article, I couldn’t even read all of the changes. It was like trying to read the doodles of a bored 7 year old. In other words it was a nightmare. Nonetheless, “Air Diplomacy” became one of our more popular and informative stories.

This was a one-on-one interview composed over the airwaves of WHOV 88.1 FM at Hampton University through our sister brand The Yard radio show. Their host at the time was Kashmir Hyder and she did a wonderful job interviewing Farhan Haq. Many asked: What’s a Farhan Haq? Well, turns out he’s the deputy spokesman for the United Nations.

This interview came about with the help of the radio show’s executive producer Matthew Moses and an inside tip from one of the professors that I had for international affairs at Georgetown. Matthew called me on the phone and mentioned how we should start Relaford off with a bang and get the college based listeners from The Yard into the political fray as well. I had nothing for him during that conversation, but he called me back the next day and said, “What if we got Kofi Annan?!”

I scratched my head and thought, “Well he’s leaving office maybe he’ll have time to do more human interest interviews.” After meeting with the professor, I walked out feeling the opposite of earlier; “He’s about to leave office and once he leaves he’s going to be booked for more interviews than The Beatles after landing at JFK Airport in 1964. 

It was suggested to me that we should get a spokesman instead. They love to talk and our audience is young and vibrant, the type of audience a spokesman would love to talk to. Political institutions thrive off of our audience maybe because they feel if they can get to us now, then they wont have to convince us that public service is a noble cause later.

I found Haq’s name, Matthew made contact with his people; Kashmir gave a great interview, and the rest his Relaford history. 

This was the first article ever written for Club Relaford. By now as the reader it may seem that I’m a shameless self-promoter, but this story was part of the inspiration for Relaford. That and a meeting with friends and advisors in March 2005 at the Win Wok Buffet in Hampton, Virginia, where names for a future publication included Butterscotch, IT IS, The Statesman, Soiree, and Cabaret, just to name a few. Cabaret was the working title for what would be Relaford for the latter part of a year. I used 1000 Cubans as a prototype article to show to prospective writers and columnist for Relaford.

I first came across this story on Cigarenvy.com as it was told by Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s press secretary, and the man responsible for retrieving 1000 Cuban cigars in the span of 24 hours at the president’s request.  As the first article for the publication, it reads more like a blog entry rather than a piece for Esquire or early Playboy.

This column was Aidan’s third for Club Relaford and in his usual superstar fashion; he combined a catchy title to lure the reader’s in and then dropped some real knowledge onto the fan base. The great part of this column is that it was “on location” Aidan was actually in Laos when he wrote the column and he wrote it entirely on paper before typing it because

the cost to use the Internet was more than anyone should have to spend, therefore he submitted it a little late as he told me that he was still amidst his various travels in Southeast Asia at the time.

It reminds me of the Anderson Cooper 360 promo I saw for CNN in which he says that sometimes its good to get out and feel and see what you’re writing about. In this case that notion proved to be right. As an aspiring scholar of the Cold War, I had never heard of the Pathet Lao military group nor had I been aware that remnants of the U.S. military bombings of the 1970s are still present in much of Laos.

Brad’s column was timely as it coincided with former Senator George Allen’s “macaca” speech, which forever damaged his overall chances at the White House…for now. His column prophesized the power of YouTube and its ability to capture every second of any mess up in the world inside and outside of politics.

Aside of playing the role of Nostradamus, this column kept in the rhythm of covering an issue with a broad outlook that in turn, becomes a timeless story. In a sense Brad’s column opens up other dialogue, such as the relationship between media & politics. Radio brought about American presidential candidates with strong voices and great oratorical skills.

Television brought about the image conscience presidential candidate. Now the Internet, and to a greater extent YouTube has brought about a world in which candidates become so calculated that you forget why you bothered to watch them at all.

Since March, YouTube has seen the likes of  “Obama Girl,” Ms. Teen South Carolina’s “intelligent” answer to why U.S. citizens can’t find the U.S. on a map, the landmark “YouTube Presidential Debates,” and even reenacted versions of Sen. David Craig’s latest bathroom debacle. Now I’m not saying Brad’s a prophet, but his column is one that we will be able to refer to for months to come as the election season heats up further.

I first recruited Ben to Relaford as an intern to help me edit articles. By midway through July, he had become our summer managing editor. He not only has a good eye for grammar marks and punctuation, but he also brought great story ideas to the table as well. 

He took his position seriously and provided depth and coverage to areas t hat I usually commanded such as Relaford Renaissance and the Elections section. Ben actually pitched this story idea to me a month before we actually ran it. Originally he wanted to do a countdown set up similar to Air Diplomacy on the best political damage control scenarios in the last 50 years or so.

After thinking it over, I thought it was a good idea, an ambitious one, but a good one nonetheless.  I was still recovering from the arduous research required for Air Diplomacy to even think of the adventure that Ben was going to have for this one.  Yet two days later, as if he’d read my mind, he called me to tell me that he wanted to do something different.

Instead, he wanted to cover the “plumbers” in the Nixon administration. This was a story I knew all too well after viewing the Oliver Stone classic Nixon starring my favorite actor Anthony Hopkins. Viewing the film encouraged me to do a lot more research on the subject over the years.

Ben also informed me that he was going to tie in the CIA as well. What he turned into me, rough draft or otherwise was nothing less than spectacular. The details, the names, the places, backgrounds, the covert operations, the chronological order, and the balance is all there. Everything you need for a full story. To this day it’s the longest article ever written for Relaford reaching well over 2,200 words.      

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