Grumpy Editor

Cleveland casino debut grabs coverage by barring press

Veteran PR people have learned one way to grab heavy print/broadcast coverage for a client that is unveiling a product or facility:  bar reporters from the premises, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Latest example of that maneuver was at the opening of Ohio’s first casino. 

Sure enough. 

Associated Press worked up 16 paragraphs --- one of multiple stories --- from an outside view on the unveiling of Horseshoe Casino Cleveland last week. 

The story, plus AP art, included essential details on the $350 million project, 20 percent owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp., Las Vegas. 

AP writer Thomas J. Sheeran even worked in the line, “The media was (sic) barred from inside the casino.” 

From streetside, mentions were made of a “glitzy music video instead of the traditional ribbon cutting” projected on the casino’s facade, Las Vegas-style showgirls on scene, and, of course, about 2,100 slot machines and 63 table games awaiting gamblers inside.

But the media weren't able to check out the VIP lounge.

 

L.A. Times aims to hire 5 reporters for specialized beats

While the Los Angeles Times periodically trims its newsroom staff, now it’s looking to hire five reporters for specialized beats that editor Davan Maharaj calls “great news” that will bolster coverage of subjects vitally important to readers, notes Grumpy Editor. 

It comes after yesterday’s announcement of a $1 million, two-year grant from the Ford Foundation. 

But the upcoming hires won’t be snooping around as investigative reporters, checking out closed-door sessions involving politicians or uncovering the latest scientific developments. 

The Times is looking for reporters to focus on the Vietnamese, Korean and other immigrant communities, the California prison system, the border region and --- Brazil. 

Maharaj says that although The Times already covered those beats, journalists who also had other responsibilities typically did the reporting. 

The five new reporters will provide more robust coverage of those topics, he adds. 

“These are vital coverage areas that have been affected by our need to make tough choices in the past decade,” Maharaj informed staffers via email. “Although the grant is for two years, we intend to continue with these beats beyond that period.  We will immediately start our search for reporters.” 

Ford Foundation and Times editors say the money comes with no strings attached and the newspaper will have complete editorial control over the new reporters and their coverage.

 

Confusion continues on inflation: trending up or down?

So which way is inflation headed --- up or down?  With release of the consumer price index for April, confusion still reigns, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The headline on a May 15 news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics read:

CPI all items unchanged in April as decline in energy index offsets other increases

Working off the BLS data, a Wall Street Journal story followed that with its own headline:

Inflation Eases as Gasoline Prices Fall 

The BLS lead spelled out, “On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers was unchanged in April after increasing 0.3 percent in March.  The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in April, the same increase as in March." 

That’s where the confusion starts with words unchanged and rose in the same paragraph. 

As the WSJ pointed out, the CPI “measures what Americans pay for everything from breakfast cereal to doctor visits.” 

So that was heralded as unchanged, according to the BLS, from March to April. 

But then “core” prices entered the picture. 

The BLS news release indicated, “The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in April, the same increase as in March.  Increases in the indexes for shelter, used cars and trucks, medical care, airline fares, new vehicles and apparel all contributed significantly to the April increase.” 

With that, the WSJ story added core prices “were up 2.3 percent from a year ago --- matching the biggest 12-month increase in this category since September 2008.” 

Now are you briefed on which way inflation is going.

 

Teeth-yanking Polish dentist story turns out to be hoax

The print/broadcast headline-grabbing story making the rounds earlier this month about a jilted Polish dentist yanking all the teeth from her 45-year-old ex-boyfriend turns out to be a hoax, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The fabricated report, complete with quotes attributed to names of those involved, apparently originated with London’s Daily Mail. 

Strangely, the Daily Mail writer behind the story is fuzzy on the origination of the details --- and the story has been yanked from the newspaper's Website. 

But, figuring it was a legitimate item, the unusual event was odd enough that print/broadcast editors thought it had enough bite to give it major treatment. 

So it made headlines with MSNBC, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, ABC News, Fox News, Yahoo! News and many other news outlets in the U.S. and around the world. 

Polish police are not investigating the incident --- because they say there is no such case. 

A Polish medical association reports there is no such dentist’s name as reported in the story. 

Thus, Polish news outlets did not report the teeth-pulling story. 

Bottom line:  since the story has no teeth, it’s more of a case of someone pulling the leg of a news writer. 

 

Lead ABC Radio news story focuses on --- sunshine

Imagine you are watching preparation for a mid-day, on-the-hour ABC Radio news report and these headlines cross the desk on a busy day.  Grumpy Editor asks to guess which is selected to lead the brief newscast: 

• Yemen air strikes kill 17 al-Qaeda militants. 

• Suspicious activity observed at Iranian military site. 

• Russian jet crash kills 45 on board. 

• Tornado warnings issued in Texas. 

• Obama campaign tries to capitalize on marriage issue.

• Washington state health officers declare whooping cough epidemic.

• Double suicide car bombings kill 55 in Damascus. 

“But look,” a staffer, holding a coffee mug, mentions, “here’s an Associated Press story, based on a two-year-old survey, about the evils of too much sun.”

“Let’s run with that,” says the boss.

And so in yesterday’s 1 p.m. (Eastern) ABC News, as sunbathers absorb rays on beaches from Wollaston, Mass., to Pismo Beach, Calif., listeners hear: 

“Half of U.S. adults under 30 say they have had a sunburn at least once in the previous year --- about the same as a decade ago, according to a government survey released Thursday. In fact, the modest progress reported five years ago has been wiped out.

“Not only that, but women in their 20s are going to tanning salons almost twice a month on average.”

The AP story mentions a 2010 survey of about 5,000 U.S. adults ages 18 to 29, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, finds the share of those who said they had a sunburn in the preceding year dropped from about 51 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2005, then went back up to 50 percent in 2010.

More news in a moment…

 

Calif., N.Y. papers join ‘community newsroom’ trend

Two daily newspapers, on opposite ends of the country, announce they are going the community newsroom route as editors see it as a way to engage and involve locals, observes Grumpy Editor. 

The Pasadena (Calif.) Star-News is doing it “to be more transparent,” says Frank Girardot, editor.  In Kingston, N.Y., The Daily Freeman, led by Ivan Lajara, features editor, will soon launch a new community newsroom project designed to engage local readers.

Veteran editors, however, wonder how allowing the public into newsrooms is going to improve coverage --- and circulation --- in growing competitive times rather than adding some sharp journalists, including tough investigate reporters and strong political beat-savvy writers to staffs.

In a folksy message to readers, the Star-News editor points out his newspaper, first “to break this ground” in California, “is a part of your community --- just like your neighborhood grocery store, your favorite coffee shop or the place where you and your family worship.”

Girardot, adds, “We'll do it by creating a community space (by August) where readers and residents can drop in to pitch stories, ask questions or make use of public blogging stations with free wi-fi access.”

Meanwhile, The Freeman beams it will offer public classes to the community and open its conference room on selected days, providing wi-fi and computers for public use, along with tutorials on using the newsroom’s archives and microfilm readers.

This movement should make copy editors --- especially those with gray hair --- eyeing their months to go before retirement. 

 

Dual job: Turn in Money copy, then book boss’s flight

Money magazine has a job opening that should keep an aggressive multi-tasking reporter busy without too much time to check an iPad, notes Grumpy Editor who spotted the “help wanted” call in a TalkingBizNews.com Friday item.

The personal finance publication, in the Time Inc. family, is seeking a full-time contract reporter (with previous financial journalism experience a plus) who can handle various tasks --- including a chunk of time required for non-writing undertakings that, in prior days, were assigned to several staffers who never attended journalism school. 

Multi-tasks on the editorial side include writing beat stories and front-of-book articles, finding real people anecdotes for features, creating data visualizations, helping senior writers and fact checking.

But the position requires 20 percent of the job --- that’s equivalent to one day a week --- assisting Money’s managing editor with administrative tasks, such as answering phones, making travel arrangements, coordinating the M.E.’s schedule, submitting expense reports and helping with presentations.

The only things missing:  fetching coffee and fresh doughnuts.

 

About 1 out of 5 readers finds newspaper reporting fuzzy

Print editors won’t like what a new poll uncovered:  Almost one out of five Americans said reporting is not reliable in local newspapers, notes Grumpy Editor. 

That’s the word from a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 1,000 adults conducted April 27 and 28. 

In results released yesterday, in answer to the question, “How reliable is the reporting from your local newspaper,” 18 percent said reporting was unreliable. 

On the other hand, about one out of four (26 percent) said reporting in their local newspaper was “very reliable.” 

What may put smiles on editors faces is that 76 percent of those quizzed considered reporting in their local newspapers as “at least somewhat reliable.”

 

Bennington (Vt.) Banner columnist marks 86 years writing

 

We don’t stop writing when we get old…

We get old when we stop writing.

That variation of a George Bernard Shaw line comes to mind with word that Bennington (Vt.) Banner columnist Harriette Leidich, who celebrated her 100^th birthday last week, continues to produce copy --- via typewriter --- for “Senior Moments,” notes Grumpy Editor. 

Recognized as the oldest active newspaper columnist in the U.S., she started her writing career at 14 with her father’s Iowa newspaper. 

Over the years she knew her way around newspaper production, too, including operating a Linotype that set type from hot lead.  It was an important back-shop machine from the late 1800s before fading in use during the 1970s. 

Leidich has been writing her column, a collection of mostly small town matters, since 1995 in the Bennington Banner one of MediaNews Group’s 57 daily newspapers in the U.S. 

Her July 17, 2006 column explained the background for her column. 

“Sometimes one needs to step back and take a closer look at what they write for publication,” she pointed out.

“This has been the case with my Senior Moments columns. Seems that as I grow older and as the world changes its many patterns and modes of living, one gets a bit jaded. When friends called to inquire if I had passed on, I decided to tell you that I am quite alive and always interested in what is going on in this world.”

 

L.A. Times defies military with GIs, dead bombers photos

Grumpy Editor notes after the Defense Department asked the Los Angeles Times NOT to run the images, the newspaper goes ahead and publishes two photos showing American troops, members of the 82^nd Airborne Division, posing with the remains of suicide bombers in Afghanistan in February, 2010.

Then in a follow-up story last Wednesday, the L.A. Times --- without blushing --- explains: “The Pentagon, the White House and top commanders and diplomats in Afghanistan have condemned the action by the soldiers and have launched investigations.”

Condemning action by the soldiers?

Some folks say publishing the pictures is another anti-military step by major media to trash U.S. troops --- even to incite violence against U.S. military personnel.

One can imagine how the L.A. Times, with some current staffers, would have handled advance hush-hush preparations, including activities of the same 82^nd Airborne Division --- with absolutely no leaks by media to warn the enemy --- for D-Day in World War II.

The L.A. Times says it “acquired 18 gruesome images” showing Army soldiers with dead suicide bombers and decided to run two shots.

L.A. Times reporter David Zucchino declares he “verified the authenticity of the photos through interviews with the soldier who provided the photos, with Pentagon officials and with commanders from the unit.”

That was followed by L.A. Times editor Davan Maharaj stating: “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops.”

Some subscribers may raise eyebrows with the phrase “our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially.”