Grumpy Editor

Most media miss flap over carrier’s Hong Kong visit

When a foreign nation --- host of the 2008 summer Olympics and one that manufactures a mushrooming number of goods gobbled up in the U.S. --- does an unexpected about face and refuses entry of several U.S. Navy ships to one of its often-visited ports, that should trigger front-page coverage.  However, most U.S. media were snoozing during the prolonged incident over the past week involving China, Hong Kong and U.S. Navy brass, observes Grumpy Editor.

It started while the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was steaming toward Hong Kong where several hundred friends and family members of sailors and Marines on board were to mark the Thanksgiving holiday.  Plans were made.  Airline tickets were bought.  Hong Kong hotel rooms were booked. 

The Kitty Hawk’s visit earlier had been cleared with the Chinese.

With the aircraft carrier enroute for the port call, the Chinese surprisingly turned away the vessel, offering no explanation.  Then the Chinese, just as mysteriously, later granted permission for the visit.  By then, however, the Kitty Hawk was returning to its home port in Yokosuka, Japan.

The Pentagon lodged a formal protest over the incident, calling it “baffling and regrettable.”  Sailors and Marines on board used other, saltier words.

Around the same time, Navy admirals also were angry over China nixing U.S. minesweepers Patriot and Guardian that were seeking refuge in Hong Kong from a major storm.  The ships also sought to refuel in that port rather than on rough high seas.

While overseas media, including Reuters, AFP and Kyodo news agencies and especially The Financial Times of London, covered the nautical tiff, most U.S. media, with exceptions, ignored the event.

Also silent:  The White House.

A week later, China’s foreign minister reportedly told President Bush the refusal of U.S. Navy ships to enter Hong Kong was a “misunderstanding.”

Among the few U.S. media covering the story in detail was The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk.  Washington staffer Dale Eisman reported details yesterday.  Also with a comprehensive report yesterday was the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes, with a story by staffer Chris Fowler from Yokosuka, where the Kitty Hawk docked “under a storm of controversy over China’s decision.”  The New York Times reported on the situation Tuesday.

BusinessWeek unearths phrase linked to Errol Flynn

It’s rare these days that one gets a chuckle when reading a business publication.  Many serious happenings.

Yet, media-observing Grumpy Editor got a rare hearty laugh from the lead item in “The Business Week” front-of-book section in the Nov. 26 issue of BusinessWeek. 

The section, edited by Harry Maurer and Cristina Lindblad, led off with an item headlined “Shocker on the Street” dealing with selection of a new CEO at Merrill Lynch.  The short opened with, “Practically everyone assumed Larry Fink was in like Flynn.”

In like Flynn?

Grumpy Editor hasn’t heard that phrase in some time.  Once widely used, now it continues into the 21st century.

Obviously, that item’s writer has much gray hair --- or recently watched the History Channel.

The “in like Flynn” term made the rounds during World War II.  It came out after a February, 1943 Los Angeles trial in which movies’ swashbuckling action hero, actor Errol Flynn --- known for his romantic exploits ---was acquitted in a statutory rape case involving a teenage girl.  (It was Flynn’s belief that the district attorney made him a scapegoat in order to discipline the Hollywood motion picture community.)

In the BW item, by the way, Wall Street rumbles had Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc., an investment firm, succeeding ousted Stanley O’Neal at Merrill Lynch.  Instead, the job went to John Thain, head of the New York Stock Exchange. 

L.A. Times opens up for Web questions from readers

With feedback or story ideas in mind, some readers of newspapers and magazines find it is difficult to contact editors or other staffers by e-mail or phone.  So it’s a plus that the Los Angeles Times is expanding communications with readers, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Times yesterday announced it is launching a blog (www.latimes.com/readersrep) aimed at bringing the public deeper into the process of how editorial decisions are made.

Hosted by a readers’ representative and an assistant readers’ representative, it addresses queries and observations.

A current example from that site deals with what “he said” really means:  “After a recent story, a source called to complain about the language ‘he said’ at the end of a quotation, noting that he had never actually talked to the writer of the story but had communicated only by e-mail. Do the words ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ imply a face-to-face meeting, a telephone conversation or an exchange of e-mails? Is there a difference?”

Another topic was spurred by readers who asked why an undercover Los Angeles police narcotics officer, seriously injured when he was run over by a suspected drug dealer, was identified in a Nov. 21 story.  They felt publishing his name compromises the officer's undercover status.

“We’re further opening the lines of communication with our readers and using new ways to make the newsroom more accessible,” said Times Editor James O’Shea.

Front-page WSJ ‘R’ word sends shivers to investors

Two in-depth stories on the front page of The Wall Street Journal yesterday contributed to the Dow Jones industrials dropping 237.44 points to 12743.44, much of it in the (now usual) last half hour of trading, observes Grumpy Editor.

Immediately after the market close yesterday, WSJ Online summed up market action with:  “Stocks tumbled as credit-market troubles and recession fears outweighed reports of decent Black Friday sales.”

The two fears cited were amply played on the opening page of yesterday’s WSJ.

Monday morning readers, including already fidgety investors and nervous Wall Street inhabitants, were greeted with the dreaded “R” word on the front page.  Under the headline, “Recession Fears Weigh Heavily on the Markets,” the lead read:  “Battered stock and bond markets are sending an increasingly ominous signal that a U.S. recession could be near.”

The story by Peter A. McKay and Kelly Evans came up with a “but” four paragraphs later.  It pointed out the Fed’s policy makers expect economic growth to pick up, growing 1.8 percent to 2.5 percent next year.

But that didn't matter.  What caught readers’ eyes was the now greatly feared “R” word.

Also giving investors the shakes was an adjoining comprehensive WSJ article by Laurie P. Cohen on the mushrooming problems, triggered by subprime loans, at Citigroup Inc.

Citigroup stock at the close yesterday fell $1 or 3.15 percent to $30.70, its lowest point in almost five years, on heavy volume with 110,745,271 shares traded.

Harry Reid again leads group to warmer areas

With the House and Senate in Thanksgiving recess, tradition with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) now is to head for balmy climates during chilly months --- while some other members of Congress are at cold overseas points visiting U.S. troops.

Reid left Washington quietly and without media fanfare yesterday, leading a group that includes his wife and several aides plus five other senators on a paid vacation --- oops! --- or rather a week-long “fact-finding trip” to Guatemala, Columbia, Paraguay and Mexico.

A Reid spokesman said the senators will discuss “trade, counter-narcotics and national security.”

Grumpy Editor notices it all sounds like a repeat of last year’s Christmas break when Reid led a group that included the same number of fellow senators for a week-long trip to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru for similar talks about “security, counter-narcotics, trade, economic and social development.”

Of course, again there will be sightseeing, including a visit this week to Iguazu Falls, nearly twice as high as Niagara Falls, on the Brazil-Argentina border.

As for further trip details, Reid’s spokesman put a lid on them, citing "security."

Turkey-minded Grumpy Editor is taking time off

Marking Thanksgiving, Grumpy Editor is away from his cluttered desk to feast on turkey dinner today and turkey sandwiches on Friday.

He will return to this site, a few pounds heavier, on Monday.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Woman on nabbed driver’s lap remains mystery

Picture this:  A former Congressman is pulled over on a main highway by a New York state trooper shortly after midnight after he is observed driving erratically with a woman positioned on his lap, according to authorities.

Now, in Hollywood that would be front-page news with photos and names of those involved along with a shot of the car --- a 2004 BMW sedan, notes Grumpy Editor.

With the Albany Times Union, however, the 24-year-old woman who was in the car with former Republican U.S. Rep. John Sweeney remains unidentified.

Sweeney, a former executive director of the state GOP, faces charges of driving while intoxicated and aggravated DWI.

Times Union editor Rex Smith says his newspaper knows the name of the female passenger who was in the car pulled over in Clifton Park, about 12 miles north of Albany, but isn’t naming her.

Thus, while the model year and manufacturer of the vehicle in the incident made it into print, the mystery woman on the driver’s lap was not, contributing to an incomplete story that is frowned on in Police Beat 101.

California fire alert sounds alarm --- for arsonists

A strange warning in radio news reports greeted motorists, especially alarming to those in Southern California, on the way to work on Monday.

Those listening to ABC Network news on the hour, for example, heard lines such as:

“Authorities in Southern California are sounding the alert for more fires this week.”

“Look out Southern California, more fires possible.”

Meanwhile, Los Angeles TV station KTLA sent a field reporter to warn of "high winds and dry conditions" as old footage of blazing brush and aircraft water drops flashed on the screen   --- to remind viewers with short memories of what happens with wildfires. 

Suggesting another potential upcoming crisis, it’s the first time Grumpy Editor heard what could be termed “public service announcements” to alert firebugs --- informing arsonists of “ripe” days this week to strike matches.

It comes at a time when some fire setters still are being hunted from blazes last month in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties.  Those fires consumed 780 square miles and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.

The radio and TV alerts were traced to an Associated Press story by Jacob Adelman with a Los Angeles dateline.  It dealt with “deploying firefighting crews and equipment…as meteorologists predicted a return of the dry winds that stoked last month’s devastating wildfires.”

It’s nice to know that firefighting crews are on standby.  But they always are with Santa Ana winds --- common during late fall and winter months --- predicted to whip through Southern California. 

Tail end of the AP story mentions a National Weather Service meteorologist expects sustained winds, starting tonight, are expected to hit 30 m.p.h.

That’s at the low end of Santa Ana conditions.

‘Lions for Lambs” sinks in its second weekend

As a follow up to Actors’ political leanings influence box office results (see Grumpy Editor, Nov. 13) ---

Past weekend’s ticket sales for the film, Lions for Lambs, was a dismal $2.9 million, dropping 57 percent from the prior weekend, putting it in eighth place.

MGM/UA targeted the movie for an “older, thinking-person’s audience.”

As Grumpy Editor pointed out last Tuesday:  “Movie actors’ political opinions, picked up by eager media (often with the same leanings), are having an effect on ticket sales of motion pictures in which the big vocal names star.”

After the first weekend’s poor showing in fourth place, Clark Woods, MGM head of distribution, declared, “Older audiences don’t necessarily come out the first weekend, so we’re looking to get a very solid run all the way through the Thanksgiving holiday.”

Better get that crystal ball off his desk.

Newspaper editorial cartoonists become fading breed

A fading staffer of many daily newspapers is the editorial cartoonist.  Blame it on lower newsroom budgets.

Grumpy Editor spotted a recent piece in the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, by staff editorial cartoonist David Fitzsimmons relating that nearly 2,000 cartoonists were on board at U.S. newspapers a century ago.  Today, he reveals, there are less than 80 “interpreting events, zinging their targets, challenging the perspectives of their readers and making their editors uneasy.”

With the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists marking its 50th year, “cartoonists, right and left, are being erased from newsroom budgets,” points out Fitzsimmons, Star editorial cartoonist since 1986.  “Kenneling and feeding a rabid local cartoonist seems like a poor bargain when benign drawings scrawled in distant newsrooms about distant topics are available for peanuts.”

He mentions that the New York Times has no staff editorial cartoonist “because it views cartoons as a grotesque, low art form that oversimplifies and distorts the truth to convey an opinion.”

Fitzsimmons explains that “a good cartoon condemns and executes on the spot.  Evoking a quick and intense reaction with an extreme and often absurd image, the cartoonist traffics in a unique persuasive art.”

As Fitzsimmons notes:  “The ferruginous pygmy owl of the newsroom, the American cartoonist is a cranky and endangered critter.”