Grumpy Editor

London’s Sun staffers get inside look at North Korea

Cheers to two newsmen from The Sun, London, who used ingenuity in posing as businessmen to get a truer inside look at North Korea without being shadowed or escorted as journalists, notes Grumpy Editor.

The second part of the story --- by writer Alex Peake with photos by Simon Jones --- runs today in the British newspaper. 

The pair entered from China, crossing the border into what they called “the crumbling town of Sinuiju” where Peake noted “many of the people here are starving.”  Also, he added, “Nobody was smiling and most people were walking alone in a zombie-like state, staring at the floor.” 

From there, a 200-mile, six-hour journey on a chugging 1940s-era train took them to Pyongyang. 

In the capital city, their hotel room featured a TV set and “airtime on one channel filled with pro-regime propaganda including hours of footage of new leader Kim Jong-un watching military displays.” 

They toured the town, saw statues, rode on the Pyongyang Metro, sampled a Big Mac-lookalike which Peake declared, “God only knows what the meat is, there was no way it was beef.” 

Peake noted less than one percent of North Koreans own a car “so traffic jams are non-existent” and that most of Pyongyang “is plunged into darkness at 11 p.m.” 

The Sun writer also observed blue vans with megaphones patroled streets in cities and countryside blaring the message:  Work harder.

 

Air pass idea creates PR problem for American Airlines

An American Airlines marketing gimmick is turning into a major public relations problem for the carrier and its parent, AMR Corp., notes Grumpy Editor. 

The airline, starting in 1987 and through 2004, offered a lifetime AAirpass that, with a companion ticket, allowed unlimited travel at home and abroad for $350,000.  It attracted 66 people. 

Now, the carrier is focusing on ways to terminate the lifetime contracts. 

Steven Rothstein was one of the AA pass holders.  But the airline snatched his lifetime pass, saying it was due to fraudulent activity --- booking flights under fake names if he didn’t know who his companion would be for the trips. 

He filed a lawsuit but a federal judge ruled against him.  The case is being appealed. 

In the meantime, Rothstein has been making the media rounds, including an appearance Monday night on Fox News’ “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren.  It followed an ABC News interview and a New York Post piece.  In far-off Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald last Thursday picked up a lengthy Los Angeles Times story on the revoked pass saga. 

Such negative news is not exactly what AMR, which filed for bankruptcy protection last November, seeks in the competitive air travel world. 

As Rothstein told ABC:  “AA signed a contract, and a contract’s a contract.”

 

First Lady collects campaign funds in Las Vegas today

No doubt about it, the president and first lady love Las Vegas.

Michelle Obama makes her second visit in little over a month to Las Vegas today, part of a four-state campaign swing, where a breakfast fundraiser carries a price tag of $2,500 a person, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Las Vegas in this election year is high on the charts for the Obamas. 

Nevada is an important swing state in November’s voting. 

President Barack Obama also has made two trips this year to Las Vegas, a city that he knocked in recent years that resulted in 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.” 

With ebbing of visitors in a sour economy, thousands of casino workers lost jobs and Las Vegas rose to the top of the foreclosed homes list in the U.S. 

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

Following the Las Vegas visit, Mrs. Obama is schedule to make campaign stops in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M. 

 

Costa Concordia disaster sparks editorial cartoonists

The captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia that tumbled against rocks near the port of Giglio, an island off the Italian coast, is getting it from all sides --- and inspiring editorial cartoonists overseas and in the U.S., observes Grumpy Editor. 

In Europe, the Brussels newspaper, La Libre Belgique, in an editorial cartoon this week, links the maritime disaster with the euro. 

Belgian cartoonist Christian Louis (who signs his work simply “Clou”) sketches a large cruise ship, named Euro, on its side against rocks near a beach where two men stand.  One asks, “Is the captain on board?”  The other responds, “What captain?” 

While that might not bring a Jay Leno-type laugh, the cartoon illustrates two mighty events that happened on Friday the 13^th: 

Standard & Poor's downgraded the debt rating of several eurozone countries in the euro area and the Costa Concordia keeled over at Giglio. 

Among editorial cartoonists in the U.S., Mike Luckovich, of the Atlanta-Constitution, wasted no time in drawing a sinking ship, identified as Titanic 2012, with a message, “Attention passengers, the icebergs melted and we hit a drowning polar bear…” 

 

NOW ABOUT THE CAPTAIN IN THE LIFEBOAT

Meanwhile, much is being made of cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino’s remarks while chaos spread on the stricken vessel. 

Quotes from La Repubblica, one of Italy's two national daily newspapers, makes worldwide rounds in describing how the ship’s captain explained how he wound up in a lifeboat while passengers were struggling on decks. 

“I was trying to get people into the boats in an orderly fashion,” the newspaper quotes Schettino explaining to a judge during a hearing Tuesday. “Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60-70-degree angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That's how I found myself in the lifeboat.”

As for crashing the 114,500-ton, 952-foot-long ship --- in service for five and a half years --- with 4,234 people on board, the captain says:

"I made a mistake on the approach.” 

 

Dutch girl,16, nears end of around-the-world solo sailing

While most newspaper editors have been cramming their editorial space this month with election year candidates/events and milestones, such as Associated Press’s lengthy Guantanamo Bay prison's 10^th anniversary story yesterday, being overlooked is an adventure-courage story of a 16-year old Dutch girl nearing the finish of her solo sailing trip around the world, points out Grumpy Editor. 

Few print readers and television news viewers are aware that Laura Dekker is on the final leg sailing from Cape Town, South Africa, to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, where she set sail on Aug. 21, 2010. 

She’s due to dock on or around Jan. 24. 

There’s even appealing material, stemming from the voyage, that’s tailored for Nancy Grace on HLN:  Seems that Dutch truancy officers have issued Dekker’s father a summons after a newspaper quoted her as saying poor weather was keeping her from her studies. 

Indeed, the Dutch sailor --- who piloted her first boat when six years old --- this week ran into squalls. 

Sailing the high seas always is an adventure. 

Yesterday, via her Website, Dekker reports:  “The gusty and heavy squall that brought 40-knot winds and pouring rain finally dissolved.” 

New Zealand-born Dekker’s adventure is similar to that of Abby Sunderland, who, at 16 in June, 2010, had to abandon her planned around-the-world solo sailing when bad weather with 30-foot waves snapped her $120,000 yacht’s mast in the Indian Ocean, 2,000 miles west of Australia.

 

Missing from the Las Vegas Strip: outcry from PETA

While casino patrons from around the world are welcomed on the famous Las Vegas Strip, pending legislation by Clark County Commissioners would ban some dogs on public and private sidewalks plus pedestrian bridges along the five-mile stretch, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Behind the anti-pooch measure, slated for further action later this month, is commissioner Chris Giunchigliani who also drafted a proposed ordinance that seeks banning pigeon feeding in Clark County. 

The dual actions --- not generating media excitement beyond Nevada --- also have not attracted the attention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 

Giunchigliani a few years ago pushed an ordinance that promoted the capture and spaying/neutering of feral cats. 

One resident asked in print, “After attacking hungry birds and starving canines, will she (Giunchigliani ) target the poor defenseless rodent?” 

Pigeons come up for further discussion by commissioners next Tuesday.  Rules could lead to pigeon feeders (that would include unknowing tourists) getting a stiff up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. 

While the major thrust now is on birds and dogs, commissioners for years have been unable to curb the growing number of unlicensed street vendors, panhandlers and adult news distributors that line the busy Las Vegas Strip --- cluttering up the scenery more than pigeons and dogs.

 

Go Navy, see world? Better: Join White House press corps

As President Barack Obama readies for a swing through the Pacific later this week after a visit to France last week, Grumpy Editor recalls it used to be that one joined the Navy “to see the world” (as recruitment posters pitched), but a better way nowadays --- with far superior accommodations --- is to join the White House press corps. 

White House correspondents are keeping their travel bags handy for further global journeys aboard Air Force One. 

On the heels of the Nov. 3 and 4 visit to Cannes for the G-20 summit, White House reporters get a few days this week to pay personal bills, review their mail and attend to household pets before boarding the special Boeing 747 and heading west to Honolulu for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference on Nov. 12 and 13. 

Then it’s onward to Australia where Obama aims to underscore ties with a staunch ally.  Stops include Canberra on Nov. 16 and Darwin, Nov. 17. 

Next landing is Indonesia to participate at a gathering of leaders from the region at the East Asia Summit in Bali on Nov. 18 and 19. 

All the traveling, from France to Indonesia, occurs in the first half of November --- 16 days, to be exact. 

Jay Carney, White House spokesman, explains the high travel mileage this way:  

"He is, as president of the United States, obligated to travel around the world and represent American interests abroad at these gatherings.”

 

Media led astray by Napolitano’s no shoe removal outlook

A prediction on the end of passengers’ shoe removal at airports comes across as a welcomed change in procedure at security checkpoints and erroneously gets wide print and broadcast coverage Wednesday, as what happened with Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano peering into her crystal ball, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Television jumps at the news, showing footage of shoes being removed at airports, then giving the impression that the procedure is at, or nearing, an end.

But somewhere along the line, news editors miss the announcement that shelving the airport shoe biz is “in the future.”  Make that distant future. 

An Associated Press story on the shoe business distinctly has Napolitano saying that technology to scan passengers’ footwear for bombs doesn’t yet exist and may not be available soon. 

The AP story then underscores that with, “No technology meets government standards to screen shoes for explosives at airports while passengers wear them.” 

Can’t be much clearer than that. 

Footwear removal at airports is an added security measure since an al-Qaida member unsuccessfully tried to detonate a device built into his shoe almost 10 years ago.

Vacation for Congress looms as debt talks deadline nears

Looks like it will be a photo finish in debt talks as Republicans and Democrats aim for a deal on borrowing authority as next Tuesday’s deadline nears when the U.S. government faces bill-paying problems --- but Washington lawmakers also have fishing rods, airline tickets and cruises in mind because a month-long recess starts Aug. 6, reminds Grumpy Editor. 

That should provide incentive to break the long-running gridlock. 

Observers believe Washington lawmakers will find a way to reach an agreement that allows the government to keep paying its debts.

Figuring a bipartisan agreement on debt limit-spending clears Congress and gets to President Barack Obama's desk by Aug. 2, both House and Senate members are scheduled to be on vacation until past Labor Day, returning on Sept. 7.

That’s like leaving the “crime” scene in a hurry and getting out of town.

That will leave Washington rather quiet during August while the White House press corps takes a break themselves or looks for other topics to focus on including happenings with Republican presidential candidates, the always unusual weather in the nation's capital or an update on the summer crop output from the nearby much-publicized-earlier White House vegetable garden.

 

Billboard ‘research’ junket costs taxpayers $300,000

With the current concern on how taxpayer dollars are being spent (or misused), it took a television news report, rather than a newspaper investigation, to expose globe-trotting officials who spent $300,000 on a 17-day trip --- to study billboards, notes Grumpy Editor.

Credit goes to ABC News, spurred by a letter from seven Republican and one Democrat House members, for revealing the “research” junket to foreign lands, part of what is termed the International Scan Program (although some folks now may be tempted to use a similar-sounding middle word).

ABC said the program has been sending groups of federal and state workers on similar trips as often as four times a year for the past decade, at a total cost of nearly $12 million.

After the ABC report, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he was suspending the program.

The revelation started after some members of Congress learned that a dozen transportation officials traveled around the globe in a nine-city tour that took them to Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Great Britain.

That was “research” in preparation for a 76-page report about policies for dealing with billboard advertising.

ABC obtained photos of some members of the delegation toasting with wine glasses in Australia and driving the tulip-lined highways of Holland. Travel records show the group secured luxury accommodations and ate well at expensive restaurants.

"We recognize that our transportation system can benefit from understanding best practices abroad," read a June 17 letter from the eight House members to LaHood.  "But we are unable to justify to the voters in our districts such spending in the face of rising gasoline prices and federal deficits."

The letter was signed by Reps. Jeff Denham (R., Calif.), Jason Altmire (D., Pa.), Rick Crawford (R., Ark.), Blake Farenthold (R., Texas), John Carter (R., Texas), Lou Barletta (R., Pa.), Steve Southerland (R., Fl.) and Randy Hultgren (R., Ill.).