Grumpy Editor

HGTV Magazine gets green light for additional issues

While many magazines are struggling to retain subscribers in a weak market, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.’s HGTV and Hearst Corp. this week launch HGTV Magazine focusing on gardening, food, home and other lifestyle themes reflecting the cable channel’s programming, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The magazine, one of four issues planned this year, goes on newsstands following two test issues. 

Hearst and Scripps have gone against the tide before when they started Food Network Magazine, the print version of the popular Food Network.  That publication has more than tripled its circulation to 1.4 million since its debut in 2009. 

Scripps Networks Interactive’s other brands include DIY Network, Travel Channel, Cooking Channel and country music network Great American Country. 

Recently named HGTV Magazine publisher is Dan Fuchs, formerly associate publisher of O, The Oprah Magazine. 

Sara Peterson, HGTV Magazine’s editor-in-chief, says, “We wanted to strike a chord with Americans looking for a fun, approachable magazine about how they live their lives at home.”

 

Ex-ABC News chief still defends 9/11 ‘no flag pin’ policy

Former ABC News president David Westin, in making the media rounds to plug his book, Exit Interview, revived the controversy on his post 9/11 decision that his network’s journalists not wear American flag pins in lapels, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Appearing Sunday on CNN’s Reliable Sources --- a day prior to Memorial Day --- Westin still defended his 2001 no-flag-pin declaration. 

Other networks, broadcast and cable, have had no problem with journalists wearing flag pins. 

CNN host Howard Kurtz asked Westin about his thinking on the issue. 

Westin, who left ABC News in December, 2010, explained that “we'd long had a policy at ABC News that we wouldn't let people wear any lapel pins of any sort, the theory being when you're reporting the news, you should be reporting the news, not taking a position. 

“And I said quickly, 'We're going to stick with our policy and stand by that.'  And I believe to this day that was the right decision.”

With his frowning on U.S. flag pins, don't look for Westin to be welcomed at any American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars gatherings any time soon.

 

Poll: Public ranks ‘high confidence’ in press near bottom

The press still has much work to do in elevating its near bottom “confidence” ranking with the American public, notes Grumpy Editor after reviewing a new Harris Poll. 

Utilizing its Harris Confidence Index, the poll --- of those saying “a great deal of confidence” --- gives the press an 11. 

That ranks slightly above Wall Street, with a 7, and Congress, at the bottom, with 6. 

Highest press ranking in the past decade: 16 in 2002. 

Television news, meanwhile, gets 17 in the poll conducted by Harris Interactive between April 9 and 17.  That rank compares with a high of 24, also in 2002. 

So which institutions rank highest in the latest poll of 2,060 adults? 

The military tops the list with 55. 

Small business follows with 50. 

These are well ahead of third-place medicine with 34.

 

Jeopardy! contestants trigger NBC, Fox News tiff

Jeopardy!, the long-running Sony Pictures Television quiz show, in featuring familiar faces --- many seen on TV --- as special contestants last week, unexpectedly also served as a battleground between NBC (with “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno getting into the fray later in the week), and Fox News, notes Grumpy Editor. 

It started with NBC’s Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” who flunked in his Monday appearance, winding up last with $2,300, in appearing with former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Lizzie O’Leary of CNN. 

Wednesday’s session featured Fox News host Chris Wallace, who bagged $22,400, topping fellow contestants BBC World News America host Katty Kay and Dr. Oz host Dr. Mehmet Oz. 

The Fox News website trumpeted Wallace’s win and mentioned, “This followed Monday's abysmal performance by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.” 

Leno, on his Thursday night NBC show fired back, describing Matthews as “a political junky, clever guy” who “got his ass kicked on ‘Jeopardy’ and “was so embarrassed.” 

Then Leno hastily added, “The good news:  he got so many facts wrong, today he was offered a job at Fox News.”

 

17 percent of Americans skip what’s happening in world

In news about news --- and newspapers --- Grumpy Editor is almost wordless in learning 17 percent of Americans get no news every day, up from 3 percent in 1998.

That finding comes from Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit, non–partisan "fact tank."

Based on a 2010 tally, Rainie also uncovers only 17 percent of Americans read a newspaper daily.

But it gets worse --- 31 percent of the 18 to 24-year-old group gets no news on an average day.  That’s up from 25 percent in 1998.

The 30 to 34-year-old bracket doesn‘t fare too well, either, with 22 percent getting no news daily, compared with 15 percent 12 years prior.

Seniors rank worse with 11 percent getting no news, vs. 6 percent in 1998.

Topping the news source list?  Local TV news --- despite the fact that many TV newsrooms simply rewrite material from morning newspapers.

Meanwhile, for those who do read, Americans still choose print newspapers rather than online versions, finds Rasmussen Reports.

In a national telephone survey, Rasmussen tallies 66 percent of adults say they prefer reading hard-copy newspapers while 28 percent like reading their preferred newspapers’ online material.

 

Expect 1992 L.A. riots anniversary coverage in print, TV

With many print/broadcast editors ever craving for anniversary stories --- partially because it’s an easy way to fill chunks of editorial space around ads or chew up TV time --- look for lengthy pieces through Sunday on the 1992 Los Angeles riots, predicts Grumpy Editor. 

Editors get especially excited when recycling anniversary events that include elements that grab attention. 

The April 29, 1992 L.A. unrest coverage included images of police actions, fires, smoke, looters storming supermarkets and TV stores --- even National Guard troops getting into the fray. 

The 1992 rioting broke out after a jury acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King after a high-speed pursuit. 

Reappearance of that footage is likely to be seen on TV. 

The rioting over five days resulted in about $1 billion in property damage, 63 deaths and thousands injured. 

Also look for King to appear in interviews.  He’s making the rounds pitching the book, “The Riot Within:  My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption,” coauthored with Lawrence J. Spagnola, that debuted this week.

 

Did Obama’s NBC appearance violate campaign law?

 Chances are newspaper editorial writers will not tangle with this TV event, ditto with the Federal Communications Commission:  Did President Barack Obama’s appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” program violate the campaign finance law, questions Grumpy Editor. 

Breitbart.com writer Ben Shapiro thinks so and backs it up with input from federal “Statutes and Rules on Candidate Appearances and Advertising.” 

Aside from the president’s banter with Fallon on Tuesday, which Shapiro describes as “the worst ‘comedy’ segment in the history of mankind,” Shapiro explains: 

“The equal time rule states that if a licensee permits a person ‘who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station.’” 

Shapiro mentions there are exceptions to the rule, namely, “appearances on (1) a bona fide newscast, (2) a bona fide news interview, (3) a bona fide news documentary, or (4) on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events.” 

Pointing out “only the second provision could be construed as saving NBC from giving Mitt Romney equal time,” Shapiro adds, “But this was not a bona fide news interview. In fact, it wasn’t an interview at all --- no questions were asked, no answers were given. It was literally Obama reading a campaign speech over a guitar, a horn, a keyboard and some drums.” 

Shapiro figures the president’s appearance on the late-night program “was clearly an in-kind contribution by NBC to the Obama campaign.”

 

Young TV reporters lack ‘nose for news,’ says CBS’ Simon

In recounting Mike Wallace’s inquisitive mind, longtime 60 Minutes colleague Bob Simon told Howard Kurtz, host on CNN's Reliable Sources, that today’s young television reporters lack a “nose for news,” notes Grumpy Editor. 

Simon, a veteran in international reporting and marking his 16^th season with 60 Minutes, appeared on the program Sunday with fellow contributor Steve Kroft in reflecting on the legendary Wallace, who died April 7 at 93. 

Wallace, with six decades in television, was noted for asking tough questions in interviews where others feared to ask. 

“When we started in the business, just about everyone came from newspapers or wires or print,” recalled Simon. 

“They were writers.  They were investigative reporters,” he pointed out. 

“It’s only in the last couple of decades that people go straight from colleges or universities into television,” Simon continued. 

“But it seems they are not coming in with the instinct or the writing or the nose for news," he emphasized. 

“Everyone had to have that back then because they were reporters long before they stood in front of the camera.”

 

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.

 

Stock market slips: ‘China fears’ or simply profit taking?

Sensitivity of the stock market these days, since the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently moved above 13000, was illustrated when wire and broadcast reports throughout yesterday mentioned stocks slip "on China fears” or “worries over China’s economic outlook,” sending the market tumbling 68.94 points to 13170.19,” observed Grumpy Editor.

So what were those worries over China that sent the Dow lower for the second time in 10 sessions?  

The “China fears” stemmed from a comment Monday in far-off Perth, Australia, from Ian Ashby, president of iron ore operations of Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton, Ltd., the world’s largest mining firm (and listed on the New York Stock Exchange).  He said his company was seeing signs of "flattening" iron ore demand from China.

But then, Ashby went on to say iron ore demand would ''grow strongly'' in the next decade and consumption would advance more than 3 percent globally over the next eight years. 

And what about the softening in China demand?

That would not happen until after 2025, said Ashby.

Yet, what investors heard triggered concern, said news reports, sending the Dow averages lower.

In the past, a drop in the Dow from a series of major gains would be attributed simply to profit taking.