Grumpy Editor

Make no bones about it, skull sparks controversy

Since this is Halloween, bones and skulls share the day with witches and ghosts.  Nothing to get too excited about, unless one is a young child.  However, pictures in Germany's Bild newspaper showing German soldiers posing with a skull in Afghanistan have evolved into what Germany calls a scandal with six suspects under investigation.

Grumpy Editor reviewed three of the photos and notes if it happened in the U.S., it would be classified as a prank, just some guys engaging in mischievousness.  One photo showed a sitting soldier posing with a skeleton on the ground.  His gloved hand was perched atop the skull.  Photo No. 2 captured four skulls on the ground sandwiched between the letters CSR at the top and TEAM on the bottom.  Photo No. 3 showed what looks like a military hat placed atop a portion of skull that appears to be in two pieces with the mid-section missing.

The skulls, according to reports, are of unknown source and vintage although Bild says the photos date to early 2003.  Nevertheless, German prosecutors opened the investigation for possible charges of disturbing the peace of the dead.

While this is going on, the Fox Network is seeking to attract interest in its "Bones" TV show with a promo showing the program's key actors tossing a skull, much like a football, to each other.

While Guantanamo prisoners play, some still fret

The Pentagon's new Southern Command chief tours the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo, where enemy combatants are housed, and declares conditions are compatible with the Geneva Conventions.  That summarizes the visit of Navy Admiral James Stavridis.  Or does it?

It took Miami Herald writer Carol Rosenberg 18 paragraphs to wrap that up in a story that was fed by McClatchy Newspapers to other publications around the country for yesterday's (Sunday) editions.

Injecting a bit of "mystery" into the material was mention of the "high-value terrorism suspects who had recently been moved there from secret CIA custody."  Grumpy Editor points out everything the CIA does is hush-hush.  That's how the agency operates.  Thus, the word secret does not have to precede CIA.  Adding to "secretive doings" at the base, the writer was rightly nixed by the admiral in giving "specifics on where the latest arrivals are being kept and under what circumstances."

The writer may have found the answer to pinpointing the locations of the terrorism suspects in her own text.  The admiral, calling them "very, very dangerous terrorists," observed they are "playing soccer and exercising individually," adding he found them to be "a hearty bunch."

All this under a pleasant Caribbean sky where the Guantanamo temperature today (Monday) is expected to reach a delightful 90 degrees.

Global warming experts mum again as blizzard strikes

As Colorado today digs out of a pre-Halloween blizzard that dumped up to three feet of the white stuff in parts of the state, it presented another opportunity for major media --- from The New York Times to CBS News --- to be "fair and balanced" by contacting global warming "experts" to elicit their thoughts on the unusual early-season frosty storms that have hit both sides of the U.S. this month.  But apparently none did.

This week's snowfall follows a wintery blast that smacked Buffalo, N.Y. and beyond with two feet of snow 10 days earlier.  Global warming authorities were absent from news accounts at that time, too.

The Colorado storm choked interstate highways around Denver with some of the most extensive closures in recent memory, according to the Denver Post.  At least 25,000 power company customers were without electricity.

Looking for hurricane news, AP recaps 2005 action

While acknowledging no hurricane has hit the U.S. this year, Associated Press --- in search of hurricane news when there is none --- this afternoon (Oct. 26) put on its wires a recap of the five hurricanes that struck the country between July and October last year.

Its story listed landfall, deaths and estimated damage of each.

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(Note earlier today's hurricane item, below.)

Constant flow of hurricane reports overblown

On the heels of destructive Hurricane Katrina last year, print and broadcast editors since spring have been scanning the horizon for another big wind.  All such storms this year have fizzled before getting close to the U.S.  So when a tropical storm developed west of Mexico last week, excitement swept through news rooms.

For the past week, daily reports on the storm, which briefly built up to Hurricane Paul in the Pacific Ocean south of Baja California, were gobbled up by newspapers and national radio/TV.  But Paul has fizzled, too.  The closest it got to the U.S. southern border was 600 miles.  It's just a rainstorm now.

Such print and airtime --- tight and limited these days --- could have been put to better use with other news.  No hurricane reached U.S. shores this year, despite predictions of several.  Most recent outlook was issued on Oct. 3.  The adjusted report called for a below-average hurricane season with a total of six hurricanes and 11 named storms.

The hurricane season ends in five days.  But there's always next year.

Some federal PR folks need course on responding

It's getting tougher to get PR people at federal agencies to respond promptly to easy questions.  But that's the way things go, especially in Washington, D.C.

An example:  Grumpy Editor left voice-mail messages for two away-from-desks communications department members at the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a Treasury Department bureau, plus e-mails to others at the agency.  They remain unanswered after two weeks.

The simple question sought verification on the proper classification of a major financial institution.  Financial circles describe it as a savings and loan holding company.  But the institution itself sprinkles the word bank all over its Web site.  Even The Wall Street Journal family is confused on the company's category.  Online-WSJ brands it as a savings and loan holding company.  But a box accompanying a recent WSJ article puts it among the nation's 10 largest bank holding companies.  (There is a difference between thrifts, including savings banks and savings and loans, and commercial banks.)

For those keeping a scorecard, OTS is the primary regulator of all federal and many state-chartered thrift institutions, which include savings banks and savings and loan associations.  The Comptroller of the Currency charters, regulates and supervises all national banks.  The Federal Reserve Board has responsibility for bank holding companies, financial holding companies, their nonbank subsidiaries, and their foreign subsidiaries plus state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System (state member banks) and their foreign branches and subsidiaries.  Got that?

Sure, the OTS PR folks may be very busy.  But that agency's Web site shows only three news releases issued so far this month (to Oct. 25).  Perhaps it's the internal meetings that swamp the staff.

Fox's cameras zoom in on World Series of nostrils

With tonight's World Series game 3 in St. Louis between the Cardinals and Detroit Tigers, here's a tip to Fox Sports and Ed Goren, its president and executive producer:  Cut down (better yet, cut out) those extended close-up "nostril shots."  That's when cameras focus tightly, chin to forehead, on pitchers and batters.

Grumpy Editor asks:  What's the purpose, other than to show players need shaves or hairs plucked from noses?  Replace that with other on-field action such as runners' leads off bases, positioning of left fielder and whether the shortstop is on dirt or back on grass.

Audience reaction shots are good.  But somehow the chatterboxes in the booth, often engrossed with past baseball happenings, seldom comment on on-screen fans --- unless they happen to be personalities from Fox shows.  In contrast, Vin Scully, long-time Dodgers broadcaster who often handles (solo) some Fox Sports telecasts of the Los Angeles team, does a sparkling job in giving players' backgrounds and other pertinent information.  He makes a dull game interesting.  And when the camera focuses on subjects in the stands, Scully comments about what is captured on the screen, especially when children are reacting.

CNN's enemy snipers footage triggers complaints

Despite cries of disapproval --- from talk show hosts to congressmen --- over CNN's Wednesday night airing of 10 enemy sniper attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq via insurgents-supplied video, the cable network repeated the footage through the weekend.  The goal, said CNN Executive Producer David Doss, was "to present the unvarnished truth" --- through graphic scenes supplied by the Islamic Army of Iraq.

Among the first to condemn CNN transmitting the disturbing material was talk show host Michael Savage on his Thursday broadcast through 400 radio stations.  Associated Press's David Bauder's story on the CNN footage moved on AP wires 21 minutes before the end of Savage's three-hour program that day.  Other talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, commented on the video the next day.

The CNN intro for Anderson Cooper's Oct. 18 program (also aired on CNN International to a worldwide audience) touted "an exclusive look through the gun sights of an insurgent sniper team"  A few moments later, Cooper told viewers, "So, tonight, you will see how some Americans in Iraq are getting killed."

The Grumpy Editor notes things would have hit the fan during World War II if newsreels in theaters showed German-supplied film of Nazis picking off GIs one by one at the front.  And imagine what would happen to U.S. television networks and sponsors if Red Chinese (as they were labeled at the time) footage was made available to them during the Korean War showing Marines being gunned down on a North Korea hillside or Viet Cong-furnished tape during the Vietnam War showing U.S. servicemen in gun sights followed by muzzle blasts.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) branded CNN "publicist for an enemy propaganda film" and called for the Pentagon to oust any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq.  Rep. Brian Bilbray (R., Calif.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) joined Hunter in dispatching a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in calling the video "nothing short of a terrorist snuff film."

The Pentagon was silent in commenting on the broadcast.

Chicago, N.Y., L.A. claim 300 millionth U.S. newcomer

While no one was crowned officially as No. 300 million as the U.S. population reached that level this week, several newspapers gave that title to locals --- all babies.  Heaviest coverage came from the Chicago Sun-Times.  It slapped a large picture of just-born Alyzandra Marcella Ruiz on the front page and proclaimed:  Here she is!

Meanwhile, New York also claimed the 300 millionth.  Queens Elmhurst Hospital announced Emmanuel Plata was born precisely at 7:46 a.m., the time pinpointed by the Census Bureau for the big number.  So sure was the hospital that it had T-shirts and blankets made for the baby and its mother with (not quite correct) "300 Millionth American Baby" imprinted.  In Los Angeles, Anareli Meza entered the world 24 minutes later but still made a feature piece in the Los Angeles Times.

Other than Census Bureau staffers celebrating with cake and punch, the milestone was reached without official fanfare that accompanied the 200 millionth in 1967.  At that time, President Lyndon Johnson held a news conference  at the Commerce Department to hail America's past and talk about challenges ahead.  Life magazine got into the act, too.  It dispatched photographers around the country, settling on Robert Ken Woo, Jr., born in Atlanta (and now an attorney in that city).

Grumpy Editor figures a key reason for Washington's muted observance this week is that the 300 millionth newcomer probably crossed the southern border months ago.

ABC News PR silent as Fred Thompson airs news

Fred Thompson is a versatile guy.  The film and TV actor, former U.S. senator and prosecutor, adds network radio news to his long list of achievements.  He's filling in for Paul Harvey News carried on 1,200 radio stations and 400 Armed Forces Network outlets.  And he does an excellent job.

But other than regular listeners (estimated at 22 million a week) to Paul Harvey and his daily broadcasts on ABC, few are aware of Thompson's fill-in job which concludes tomorrow.  ABC News Web sites make no mention of Thompson's two-week substitution for veteran broadcaster Harvey, on vacation.

Could be that the PR people at ABC Radio Networks didn't want to publicize someone seen in the long-running series, Law and Order, over at competitor NBC-TV.  Or maybe the ABC folks hand their hands full promoting the North Korea visit this week of Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America co-anchor.