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.

 

San Diego Union-Tribune name change triggers confusion

With the San Diego Union-Tribune changing its name to U-T San Diego this week, some confusion has popped up, especially outside of Southern California, finds Grumpy Editor.

Seems that the abbreviated title --- UT --- has a collegiate flavor since it also stands for:

University of Texas

University of Toledo

University of Tennessee

University of Tampa 

Hotel owner Doug Manchester, who acquired the newspaper late last year, declares, “This change marks a new era in our company’s history.”

The change also affects everything from the newspaper’s business cards to its website. 

Manchester purchased the Union-Tribune from Platinum Equity, an investment firm, which acquired it in May, 2009 from long-time owner Copley Press Inc. 

(During the acquisition process, Manchester said, “Taking ownership of a 143-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization comes with great responsibility. We believe San Diego is the finest city in America and pledge to be strong advocates for the city’s interests and conscientious caretakers of the Union-Tribune and its legacy.”)

The name change is being accompanied by a requested new look of staffers.

In an area noted for casual California lifestyle and far from New York’s Madison Ave., management is asking employees to dress in “sharp business attire.”

Of course, the new “dapper look” will cause problems when reporters cover such events as sooty brush fires, high surf action at beaches and aftereffects of downpours.

But they will be among the best dressed at ribbon-cuttings. 

 

College journalism students nabbed for carrying guns

College journalism classes usually are rather serious in learning how to apply the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and one H (how) as key elements in news coverage, notes Grumpy Editor.

But packing weapons --- unless, perhaps, someone is gearing up for front-line reporting in a battle zone --- isn’t in curriculums.

So it is sad to note that two students, on leaving a journalism class Monday at Laney College, Oakland, are arrested after guns are found in their backpacks.

Police say one male student, 20, was packing a loaded .40-caliber pistol, the other, 21, possessed an unloaded TEC-9.

The two, police add, are alleged members of an East Oakland gang and one is on probation/parole for gun and robbery convictions, the other is on probation for robbery.

Laney College, named after Joseph C. Laney who was a journalist, among other positions, lists 44 types of associate degrees.

Its journalism department, which “offers practical newspaper experience and academic preparation,” places emphasis on new technologies and preparation for media jobs in a computer-oriented society.

Looks like some attention now also will be placed on the police beat.