Grumpy Editor

Confusion surrounds Circuit City layoffs, closings

Circuit City’s cost-cutting announcement that it is laying off 3,400 “overpaid” store workers immediately and replacing them with lower-paid hires also brought other confusion, finds Grumpy Editor.

A New York TV station, for example, on its Web site mentioned the electronics retailer is closing 600 stores (actually, seven out of 655 in the U.S. will be shuttered) and Circuit City’s own Web pages, in seeking talent at a time when its layoffs are grabbing air time and print space, are glowing with why it’s a great place.

While laying off 8 percent of its work force, the company’s Web site, under “Want Unlimited Opportunities,” touts:  Circuit City is a place where you can put your talents and abilities to the test daily in one of our many diverse departments. A place where you will use your creativity, skills and abilities to complete important projects by working independently and as a team.”

If that inspires the fired workers, the company says they can reapply for their former jobs --- at less pay --- after a 10-week delay.

If aiming at Richmond, Virginia, corporate headquarters, the Web site describes, “with business casual dress…outdoor volleyball courts and a softball field, intramural sports and an annual picnic, we know how to have fun. For your convenience, we have several on-site ATMs, dry cleaning, our own cafeteria services offering great dining options and convenience store products.”

Investors and other companies will be watching Circuit City developments to see if the two-tier pay plan backfires while morale sinks.

Fiber-rich output points to fresh paper source

It’s something tree huggers should welcome.  And with the increasing cost of newsprint, some publications may find it ideal for special sections or inserts.

Grumpy Editor cautions it is not quite ready for prime time, but in the works is a new source of paper: panda poop.  In a newsroom setting, it will bring a whole new meaning when a staffer inquires about the latest poop. It just may be in the press run.

Enterprising researchers at a giant panda reserve in southern China are planning to produce environmentally-friendly paper from two tons of daily droppings produced by bamboo-fed pandas.  The panda base is in talks with several paper mills to process the fiber-rich output into high-quality paper, they add.

That process is novel.  Researchers explain it involves cleaning the raw material, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine, drying it under the sun, then perhaps topping it off with a bamboo scent.

House stiffens border-crossing law --- for roosters

Grabbing Grumpy Editor’s attention yesterday was news that the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that toughens laws against transporting illegals across international borders.

Wow, out of nowhere!  Gutsy House members, was the initial thought.

Then, reading on, the busy House, just days before a two-week spring break, passed (368 to 39) a measure that beefs up penalties on activities associated with (gulp!) cockfighting.  The bill makes it a felony to transport fighting animals, including dogs and specially-trained roosters used in cockfights, across state or international lines and outlaws sale of cockfighting weapons.

Supporters of the bill, that now awaits action on the Senate floor, hope felony penalties will encourage more aggressive enforcement.

Cheaper source from China linked to tainted pet food

While print and broadcast media, a week after a massive recall, heralded the discovery of rat poison found in pet food sold under 95 labels by Menu Foods, it was ABC News that went a step further, noting the rodenticide --- illegal to use in the U.S. --- was on contaminated wheat gluten imported from China.

Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.

More companies are going to that communist nation as a source for cheaper supplies.

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports Veterinarians Information Network  members had reported 471 cases of kidney failure --- including 104 deaths --- in the 10 days since the tainted pet food recall.

Grumpy Editor says when it was found that particular type of rat poison was illegal to use in the U.S., that’s when enterprising reporters should have picked up the phones, especially when complaints coincided with a new supplier --- which pet food maker Menu Foods, still does not identify.

Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration said the investigation into pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food, adding the gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated.

A prior supplier of wheat gluten to Menu Foods is MGP Ingredients, Atchison, Kansas.  A news release to Grumpy Editor pointed out MGPI’s last shipment of wheat gluten to Menu Foods was more than a year and a half ago.  "We have gone through periods in recent times where we have been forced to curtail our production and sales of wheat gluten due to economic and trade factors that have not allowed us to compete effectively with lower cost gluten imports," said Tim Newkirk, president and chief operating officer of the company that has produced gluten for about half a century.

U.S. attorneys’ firings bring yawns outside of D.C.

Sunday’s talk shows and newspapers were heavy on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration.  Grumpy Editor heard Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), declare on NBC’s Meet the Press, “There’s great public concern here” while over at CBS’ Face the Nation, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) growled, “The American people want to know what happened here.”

Both are wrong --- although the “here,” uttered by both senators, undoubtedly refers to Washington, D.C., where the attorneys’ saga is the talk of the town.  But for the rest of the country, where there are other concerns, it’s a big yawn.

The Pew Research Center said the attorney firings’ story “is not attracting strong public interest in spite of intense media coverage” and “the news media’s coverage…outstripped public interest.”

Overall, Pew continued, 8 percent of the public said it was the single news story followed more closely than any other while “the news media devoted 16 percent of its coverage overall to the firings.”

Charles Krauthammer, in his syndicated column in Sunday newspapers, reminded that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and Janet Reno (in the Clinton administration) fired all 93 U.S. attorneys in March, 1993, giving them 10 days to clear out.

Sleepy travel media overlook new passport rules

Importance of obtaining new or renewed passports was overlooked by most travel magazines and newspaper travel sections leading up to new rules imposed on Jan. 23 that require Americans to carry the documents for air travel to Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.

Many travelers were unaware passports are now required to those areas.  Previously, other identification, such as birth certificates, was acceptable for travel to those destinations.

Result:  A flood of passport requests to the strained National Passport Information Center.  Because of unusually high demand, especially in the current traditionally busy February to April period, it now takes about 10 weeks to receive routine-service passports, compared with the former six weeks.  Expedited service, at extra charge, now takes three to four weeks and possibly longer, up from two weeks.

Grumpy Editor says look for the same problem --- perhaps more severe ---  to recur next year around this time when the passport requirement for U.S. citizens is extended to include land and sea travel to Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.

Despite fears, U.S. winter temperature near normal

With spring’s arrival, coupled with Al Gore’s dire warnings on global warming before Congress yesterday, Grumpy Editor cites an example of how some media can twist, or omit, information from an authoritative news release on winter temperature to make it appear conditions are heating up.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last Thursday issued a news release headlined:  NOAA says U.S. winter temperature near average.  Reuters went way down to the 14th paragraph of that release under “Global Highlights” to focus on:  Winter has been warmest on record.  Associated Press topped its version with:  El nino, global warming contribute to warmest winter on record.  AP’s ninth paragraph (in an 11-paragraph piece) mentioned, “For the United States, meanwhile, the winter temperature was near average.”

The Reuters story, used by CNN (including its Web site) plus other broadcast and print outlets, completely omitted the U.S. weather component. 

NOAA noted winter temperatures for the contiguous U.S. was 33.6 degrees, compared to a 20th century average of 33 degrees, even with the 11th warmest December on record.  But then last month was 1.8 degrees below the 20th century average of 34.7 degrees --- placing it in the top third coldest Februarys in the 113-year record for the contiguous U.S.

All this was before late season heavy snows earlier this month, along with an unusual icy storm last week end that affected U.S. airlines with wholesale flight cancellations.

Obama gets headline treatment but Hunter is 'buried'

Headlines yesterday over a McClatchy Newspapers story, fed to other publications around the country, were based on the lead that spotlighted the most liberal candidate running for the 2008 presidential nomination.  But those who read far deeper in the piece by Steven Thomma, McClatchy’s Washington-based chief political correspondent, also noted the candidate considered most conservative.

Thus, Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, judged the most liberal, got the headline treatment.  But overlooked by headline writers was Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California, who grabbed top spot on the conservative side.  Tallies were based on a National Journal study.

Grumpy Editor feels the name of the top conservative should have been up high in the story, not two-thirds down, to balance mention of the top liberal.
 
Rankings were based on analysis of "lifetime" voting records.  Highest possible score for both liberals and conservatives was 99.

The lineups:

DEMOCRATS

Obama, 84.3
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, 79.4
Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, 79.2
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 78.8
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, 76.8

REPUBLICANS

Hunter, 82.5
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 81
Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, 75.9
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, 71.8
Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, 71.5
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 51.7

Cover photo fakery doesn't disturb Time editors

Time magazine's cover photo showing President Ronald Reagan with a doctored large tear running from his right eye surprisingly hasn’t brought too many squawks, other than from some bloggers.  Biggest outcry came from his son, talk show host Michael Reagan, who declared his father would never cry.

Photo District News online sums up the distortion in one line:  “The cover, a photo illustration of Ronald Reagan shedding a tear, has already promoted some criticism on blogs but is not a radical departure from other Time covers -- including one last week showing Dick Cheney under a cloud.”

Small type on Time’s cover gives credit to the photographer and the illustrator who applied the fake tear to illustrate Karen Tumulty’s lengthy story, "How the Right Went Wrong,” to underscore “gloomy and uncertain days for conservatives, who — except for the eight-year Clinton interregnum — have dominated political power and thought in this country since Reagan rode in from the West.”

Grumpy Editor, wondering why such photo tampering in a top U.S. news magazine is being accepted, recalls Reuters seven months ago suspended a photographer, apologized to editors and withdrew an image of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut after an Israeli attack when “blatant evidence of manipulation” was discovered.  Photo editing software was improperly used to include more smoke and damage, added Reuters.

CBS' 60 Minutes grills Marine prior to court martial

After seeing CBS’ 60 Minutes last night in which correspondent Scott Pelley interviewed (make that grilled) Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich about killings in Haditha, Iraq, a hot-bed home to many insurgents, Grumpy Editor feels the only thing missing was a giant tear streaming down the right cheek of Pelley, much like this week’s doctored Time magazine cover photo showing President Ronald Reagan with a similar salty drop.

Wuterich and three other Marines are charged with murder.  Yet, after viewing 60 Minutes one gets the feeling that CBS is leaning toward conviction of the men in uniform during a war.  On the program, as related on the CBS News Web site, introduction of the segment uses terms such as “apparently innocent civilians” along with “rampage” and “slaughtering people.”

Then CBS asks, “Was it murder? Was Haditha a massacre? A military jury will decide.”  Indeed, the very last thing Pelley mentions in the segment extending past the half hour mark:  The court martial of Frank Wuterich, is expected later this year.

But on a March 18 airing, well before later this year, Pelley zeroes in on Wuterich, 25, and a Marine for more than seven years, with, "the accusation is made that your men went berserk that you got hit by an IED, one of the favorite guys in the squad was cut in half and lying in the road and your guys went nuts. You dropped the five guys next to the car because they happened to be there and then you went to the closest house and then you went down the hallway throwing grenades and shooting and you just killed everybody you could find."

Responds Wuterich, married with three young daughters, "That’s absolutely untrue.  My emotion was pushed back. My training came to play… but going completely crazy and acting wild, I don’t know who came up with that, but it’s false."

Neil Puckett, one of Wuterich’s civilian attorneys, then explains, "In an insurgency situation, Marines don't get a second chance If they aren't able to fire first, they die."  He added, “They're within the law because they were not done without legal justification or excuse.  They were done in a combat environment, in a tactical situation, in order to protect the lives of the remaining Marines who survived the IED that day. And that makes them lawful."

Deftly sandwiched in the segment was a quick mention by Pelley that when Wuterich’s superior, Lt. William Kallop arrived on the scene, the officer gave his okay to assault the house.

Those who were in the military know that when a higher rank issues an order, it has to be followed.