Grumpy Editor

Grumpy Editor, observing the holidays, returns Jan. 3

 

Grumpy Editor is taking time off to celebrate Christmas and welcome year 2012.

He --- and his grumpiness --- will return on Jan. 3.

 

Casey Anthony trial tops Bing’s 2011 most searched list

Already, one month before year’s end, and a Bing top 10 list of most searched news stories for 2011 is the first out of the chute, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Search engine Bing, from Microsoft Corp., tallied news items on high profile trials of Casey Anthony (tops on the list) and Michael Jackson/Dr. Conrad Murray (No. 7) as among those getting the most attention. 

Also sought by inquisitive minds were natural disasters Hurricane Irene (No. 3), Japan’s earthquake and tsunami (No. 4) and the Joplin tornado (No. 6). 

Remembrances ranking high included the 9/11 10-year anniversary (No. 8) and the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake (No. 10). 

How they stacked up for Bing searchers: 

• Casey Anthony trial
• Osama bin Laden death
• Hurricane Irene
• Japan earthquake/tsunami
• Amy Winehouse death
• Joplin tornado
• Michael Jackson/Dr. Conrad Murray trial
• 9/11 10-year anniversary
• Republican candidates Herman Cain, Rick Perry
• Haiti anniversary 

Interestingly, nothing connected to Congress, jobs, taxes, economy or unusual stock market gyrations made the top 10.

 

AP mixes earthquakes, wildfires with global warming

With an unusual amount of extreme weather this year --- including hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, blizzards, heat and drought --- it wasn’t a surprise to see an Associated Press story on nature’s fury appear over the weekend that suggested recent meteorological events were linked to global warming, notes Grumpy Editor. 

And to complete nature’s action so far in 2011, writer Seth Borenstein worked into the story’s second paragraph non-meteorological-related recent Virginia, Colorado and Alaska earthquakes plus record wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico. 

The story cited Germany-based insurance company Munich Re tallied 98 natural disasters in the U.S. in this year’s first half, “about double the average in the 1990s” --- without indicating how many were related to weather. 

Nevertheless, recent “weather catastrophes” gave the writer an opportunity to compose this Las Vegas-style line: 

“Man-made global warming is increasing the odds of getting a bad roll of the dice." 

In summarizing what climate scientists said, toward the end of the text the writer mentioned, “Individual weather disasters so far can’t be directly attributed to global warming, but”… 

Thus, the global warming saga continues.

 

As TV news eyes ratings, Hurricane Irene’s eye fizzles

In going with wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Irene over the weekend, television cable news channels --- encouraged by forecasts --- on Friday night initially figured a monster storm would raise havoc on the East Coast and their on-scene reporters would give an historic play by play, notes Grumpy Editor.  ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN all had their top talent on camera during the weekend.

Wind-blown reporters standing (by tradition) in the rain, often with crashing surf as backdrops, did their jobs.  But fizzling Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching New York, let them down.

With no catastrophe to report, especially in the New York City area --- where authorities shut down airports and transit operations ahead of the storm --- the main focus became flooded streets, power outages and downed trees.

Disappointment in the tone of reporting came Sunday morning, as one network reporter tried to keep news directors’ spirits up (and viewers glued to TV sets) by cautioning, “There still is concern here.”

One TV meteorologist, mid-day Sunday, confessed Irene would be remembered “not as a wind storm, but as a flooding storm.”

An early indication of possible doom came five days earlier when an Associated Press story warned, “Forecasters say the hurricane could grow to a monstrous Category 4 storm with winds of more than 131 m.p.h. before it’s predicted to come ashore this weekend on the U.S. mainland.”

After Irene reached the eastern fringes of North Carolina, a parade of state and federal officials issued dire warnings and told residents to evacuate.  President Barack Obama made two appearances on national television.

“Breaking news” banners peppered TV screens.

Grumpy Editor noticed several TV appearances of Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  That contrasted with virtually no media mention of FEMA earlier this year when extensive floods for days smacked the U.S. along the Mississippi River.

With Irene fading and sunshine appearing yesterday morning, a TV newsman went into detailed coverage of a Long Island hotel parking lot under 18 inches of water.

The headline on Howard Kurtz’s media blog for The Daily Beast yesterday summed up the meteorological event with:  A Hurricane of Hype.

Across the Atlantic in London, a Daily Telegraph headline over a comprehensive storm story read:  Perfect Storm of Hype:  Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was.

 

Look for another ‘Big One’ quake story to appear soon

In the wake of three major earthquakes in the news since Monday night, don’t be surprised to soon see another in a series (with Associated Press the best candidate) pointing to an upcoming “Big One” in California, figures Grumpy Editor. 

Inspiration comes from a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that rattled the Colorado-New Mexico border Monday night, a 5.8 shaker than rumbled along the East Coast on Tuesday and a 6.9 temblor that hit northern Peru’s jungle region yesterday. 

Of the trio, the East Coast quake that sent people into the streets in Washington, D.C., and New York City, stirred up the most action, grabbing hefty national air time and newspaper space Tuesday, yesterday and into today. 

Periodically, AP reminds print and broadcast media --- so they can shake up readers/viewers --- that the “Big One” is coming. 

Grumpy Editor feels another reminder is in the works. 

One alarming example from a past AP story:  “California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037.” 

For that outlook, AP cited a seismic forecast by scientists that pointed to a magnitude 6.7 quake (equal to the 1994 Northridge jolt) or larger within 26 years. 

Another past AP “shake ‘em up” story stemmed from a hypothetical model, worked up by scientists, that indicated a mighty 7.8 magnitude earthquake would “see Los Angeles and its suburbs shake like a bowl of jelly” in less than two minutes and 50,000 people would be injured in Southern California. 

That would exceed the estimated 7.7 magnitude quake that rattled the lower section of the San Andreas Fault in Southern California 321 years ago and a 7.8 earth mover 154 years ago in Central California.

However, further earthquake coverage will take a back seat as strengthening Hurricane Irene moves up along the East Coast, affecting some of the same areas hit by Tuesday's shaker.

Weather and related developments such as power outages and flooding will be the focus of news coverage over the next few days and into the weekend.  

 

 

Tropical storms again grab attention of news editors

Extreme tropical winds, especially with the hurricane season running through Nov. 30, grab the attention of both print and broadcast news editors even when the disturbances are far from U.S. shores, notes Grumpy Editor.

Print editors, for example, are inclined to yank a story about Boy Scouts performing good deeds in favor of an article on swirling winds, complete with photos of swaying palm trees, heading westward across the Atlantic Ocean or moving northward along the eastern Pacific. 

Editors this week are focusing on three windy tropical storms. 

Biggest one, Hurricane Dora, a lengthy 1,400 miles southeast of San Diego, is churning eastern Pacific seas offshore from the central coast of Mexico.  It’s moving northwest at about 13 m.p.h. but (sadly for some in newsrooms) is expected to weaken today. 

In the Atlantic, tropical storm Cindy, in the news for several days, poses no threat to land as it moves eastward in the north Atlantic, southeast of Newfoundland. 

Tropical storm Bret grows weaker as it heads northeast, away from the Bahamas.

Many print and broadcast news editors remain disappointed from last year.

Despite National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predictions that eight to 14 named Atlantic storms would reach hurricane force in 2010, not one made in to the U.S.