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Click to enlarge photos.By Brandon Wilson
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - Popular Atlanta-based talk show host Neal Boortz seemingly has no problem overloading listeners with information on controversial topics - nor does it appear he has any problem helping overload Web sites.
Marietta Daily Journal's Internet companion mdjonline.com was down for a little more than two hours Tuesday as a result of people linking to it from the nationally syndicated Neal Boortz Show.
"At about 9:15 this morning, our Web sites - mdjonline.com and cherokeetribune.com - were not responding," Web Master Brad Buttram said yesterday. "We let our provider know we were having trouble viewing the site. At about 10:15 (a.m.), our provider said the site was down because people were linking to it from a link on the Neal Boortz Show's Web site."
Buttram said it was the mass increase of viewers checking out a video on the Journal's Web site shot by videographer Randall Beasley of a Friday press conference by Cobb Commissioner Annette Kesting that caused the site to go down.
As of 2:00 p.m. yesterday, the Kesting video had received more than 4,000 hits. The video was already getting a number of views since it was posted Friday night, but it was the link to it that really sped up the clicker toll.
Buttram said Web site traffic was greatly increased yesterday due to people checking out the Kesting video.
"It's the first time we've had viewer demand shut down the site," Buttram said.
Boortz provided www.boortz.com viewers the opportunity to view comments made by Kesting and recorded by the Journal on Friday, stating on his Web site, "Last week we told you about Annette Kesting, the first black woman to be elected to the Cobb County (Georgia) Commission. Apparently she made a speech to a church group during which she talked about the evil white women she had to work with. Well, Ms. Kesting held a press conference last Friday. Just take a look…but be sitting down."
Boortz was referencing comments made by Kesting in February at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church - during which, she claimed co-workers in the county government are "not-Christian," and when she enters her office, she can feel "the evilness" surrounding her. She said she prays everyday with her enemies because she has "to go up on the third floor and work with white women"
Those comments triggered a stream of letters to the editor, as well as reaction by Cobb Chairman Sam Olens and other public officials.
Kesting, in return, held a press conference on the Marietta Square Friday, where she read a prepared, four-page speech claiming that she has "been bombarded with bad press" and the "distorted facts in the news stories appears to have one ultimate objective: to destroy my reputation as a duly elected commissioner the people chose to represent them."
The entire press conference, which also included comments from Gerald Rose, founder of the so-called human rights organization, New Order, was recorded by Beasley and posted on the Journal's Web site.
"She really got carried away in the last few minutes," Boortz told the Marietta Daily Journal yesterday.
Boortz said he did not mention Kesting or the link to mdjonline.com on the air.
"It never became a big issue on the air…All I did was make a reference to it on my daily program notes," he said.
Boortz added that he wants to obtain some of the sound bites from the video and play them on the air.
Buttram said the Web sites were back online and fully accessible by about noon.
He said the provider moved the Kesting video to a "safe part of the Web site" and that solved the problem around 11:30 a.m. The video remains available online and is still generating numerous hits. To find the video, go to mdjonline.com and click the Multimedia link.
bwilson@mdjonline.com