Grumpy Editor

For some J-students, ‘change major,’ advises Fox’s Ailes

“Change your major,” was Fox News CEO Roger Ailes’s advice to college students pursuing journalism as a vehicle to change or save the world, notes Grumpy Editor. 

“If you want to bring world peace or save starving children --- both very noble goals --- the way to affect that as a journalist is to investigate why the United Nations is so ineffective at doing either of those even though they get 22 percent of their budget from the American taxpayers,” illustrated Ailes who addressed students at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications last Thursday. 

Ailes added the U.N. seems “to have trouble bringing peace, and they seem to have trouble feeding people, so we need to question that.” 

He also mentioned something that many print and journalists seem to have forgotten:  “Journalism has to act as a watchdog. Not a lap dog, not an attack dog, but as a watchdog.”

Durham’s Herald-Sun writer Melody Guyton Butts mentioned Ailes defended Fox News, “often a target of criticism for what some see as a conservative bent, countering that while many of the talk shows that appear on the channel feature conservative-minded hosts, the ‘hard journalism’ is unbiased.”

(Underscoring its “fair and balanced” motto, Fox News this month hired Chicago-based Santita Jackson, Jesse Jackson’s eldest daughter, as an on-air contributor, pleasing those on the left, observes Grumpy Editor.) 

Butts added that Ailes claimed that in the 15 years since Fox News was launched, the channel has never had to retract a story for inaccuracies and it’s the only news organization that hasn’t laid off employees for financial reasons.

 

Grumpy Editor taking an Easter break, returns April 16

 

Grumpy Editor is taking an Easter break and will be back in this space on April 16. 

In the meantime, if  something observed in print/broadcast or on the Web gets you mumbling (or worse), send details to GrumpyEditor@cox.net.

 

N.Y. school officials revoke ‘sensitive’ words list

After getting much static, New York City school officials have shelved the idea (reported here on March 29) of banning “sensitive” words such as birthdays, dinosaurs, poverty, dancing, terrorism and Halloween, applauds Grumpy Editor. 

Also targeted to be scrubbed were references to “creatures from outer space,” divorces, diseases, celebrities, and homes with swimming pools and computers. 

The unmentionables, among 50 words and terms frowned on, were disclosed in a request for proposals to companies competing in providing various tests designed to measure student progress.

The N.Y. Education Department document pointed out the subjects were listed because they “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.” 

The nutty action was revealed late last month by Yoav Gonen, New York Post education reporter, who called it “a bizarre case of political correctness.” 

At that time, an Education Department spokeswoman, insisting the routine is not censorship, declared, “This is standard language that has been used by test publishers for many years and allows our students to complete practice exams without distraction.” 

This week, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the New York City’s chief academic officer, said: 

“After reconsidering our message to test publishers and the reaction from parents, we will revise our guidance and eliminate the list of words to avoid on tests.

“We will continue to advise companies to be sensitive to student backgrounds and avoid unnecessary distractions that could invalidate test scores and give an inaccurate assessment of how students are doing.”

 

Publicist’s nightmare: Ex-Sen. Specter barks at KTCN host

What makes a day rough for a book publicist is for a book-plugging author to get nasty during a live radio interview in which the host is called “absolutely insulting,” as was the case Monday when former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter appeared on a Twin Cities station, finds Grumpy Editor.

Specter, making the rounds promoting “Life Among the Cannibals” published by Thomas Dunne Books at St. Martin’s Press, made it to Jason Lewis, a conservative talk show host at KTCN (a Clear Channel Communications station in Minneapolis that prefers to be identified as News/Talk 1130), when he let loose with an outburst near the close of an interview.

“I have one final comment,” said Specter who turned Democrat from Republican in April 2009. “I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I’ve listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve been in a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting.”

Lewis fired back with:  “Good God. This is not public radio. I don’t have a government grant. We’ve got to pay the bills.  They’re called commercials. Capitalism.”

Replied Specter:  “I’m talking about someone who’s civilized. I told you the last time around I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to your commercials, and I didn’t want to hang up on you. This is no way for anybody to run an interview. I’m as experienced as you are, if not more so.”

The call wrapped up with Specter saying, “That’s all I have to tell you, so goodbye.”

Lewis countered, “Good Lord, senator, no wonder you got beat.” 

 

Photo with Best Buy story skips electronics atmosphere

Looking at art that ran with a Best Buy Co., Inc., story reminded Grumpy Editor that some photos being used these days to accompany newsworthy events would have been tossed in prior years when sharp-eyed photo editors demanded top-notch, appropriate illustrations alongside texts. 

With announcement that Best Buy will shutter 50 big-box stores and open 100 smaller ones, an Associated Press photo Friday used to illustrated one of the consumer electronics company’s stores gave no indication it was a Best Buy site --- or an electronics showroom. 

Dominant on the page, the photo measured five inches by eight and one-half inches.  It showed a woman, perhaps a cashier, pointing out something to a customer.  But he is undistinguishable because her arm blocks one third of his face. 

The caption identified the store as being in Mountain View, Calif.  on Sept. 12. 

At first glance the photo looked like it might be geared for a remodeling job. 

The two people in the photo take up a small portion at the bottom of the shot which aimed at the rafters, four support columns to the Erector-set-type ceiling and the backside of a ceiling-mounted monitor. 

There was no indication (other than a blue top the cashier was wearing) that the scene was in a Best Buy store.

Founded in 1966, now with 1,450 U.S. stores and 2,900 worldwide, imagine the number of interior photos snapped over the years showing customers examining merchandise or standing in checkout lines. 

To that, add the number of exterior shots showing Best Buy “big boxes” identified by big splashes of blue and its name. 

An example of properly capturing the atmosphere tied to the same story: USA Today’s art, another AP photo, with the text showed shoppers looking at a wall of television monitors at a Best Buy store in Brentwood, Tenn.

 

Editors miss First Lady in Vegas; $100 million to Tunisia

Two interesting stories --- especially to taxpayers finishing up income tax returns and wondering how their money will be spent --- somehow escaped most print and broadcast editors’ attention late last week:  First Lady Michelle Obama, with her two daughters, visited Las Vegas one week after President Barack Obama made it to Sin City, and the United States plans to give $100 million in cash to Tunisia, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Mrs. Obama’s trip, not announced to media, came to light following a Las Vegas reporter’s query on a special closure at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport. 

Her Wednesday-Thursday visit with daughters Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10, was noteworthy because the president shot arrows at Las Vegas twice in recent years, scaring off tourist and convention activity.  

In February, 2009, aiming at business gatherings, he declared:  “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.” 

Then a year later, he warned:  “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” 

A sour economy followed, resulting in thousands of casino workers’ jobs lost plus Las Vegas rising to first place in the U.S. with home foreclosures. 

Last year’s  unemployment in Las Vegas, at 13.3 percent, was among the highest in the nation. 

Meanwhile, most editors also missed Thursday’s announcement from the Obama administration that $100 million, subject to congressional approval, will go to Tunisia for short-term fiscal relief --- to help improve its economy. 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the funds would allow Tunisia to “use this money for its priority programs, accelerating economic growth and job creation.” 

In addition, the U.S. is negotiating a separate package that would offer loan guarantees to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Tunisia.