Grumpy Editor

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.”

 

February jobs figures coverage sidetracks full picture

Friday’s release of jobs figures, showing 227,000 added in February, underscores confusion in media when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the monthly compilation, noticed Grumpy Editor.

Print and especially broadcast media made in sound like there was a major turnaround in employment numbers, giving a hefty boost to the economy. 

But played down, or completely omitted, in news reports were other figures in the same BLS news release. 

Nonfarm payroll employment may have been up by 227,000, but quoting from the same news release: 

+  “The number of unemployed persons, at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged in February.”  (The BLS news release’s first sentence mentioned “the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent.”) 

+  “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.4 million in February.” 

Adding to the fuzzy mix was the insertion of an explanation by some writers.  The Washington Post, for example, offered: 

“Though the monthly unemployment rate remained unchanged in February at 8.3 percent, economists said that was the result of more people starting to look for work again as they became encouraged by the growing economy.” 

While Grumpy Editor found the jobs report made front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Oregonian and Philadelphia Inquirer, it did not get such treatment in others. 

Putting the report on inside pages were the Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Hartford Courant, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Des Moines Register, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News, (Cleveland) Plain Dealer down to Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star.

 

Deadly Hollywood fire report omits pinpointing ‘where’

In writing news stories, journalism students are taught to follow the five Ws and the H --- who, what, when, where, why, and how --- yet pinpointing the where sometimes gets lost in the excitement of covering events such as with a deadly Hollywood fire last Friday, notes Grumpy Editor.

An Associated Press story reported three seriously injured gunshot victims were pulled from a burning Hollywood home where two others, including the gunman, died.

The story described the blaze that required 130 firefighters two-and-a-half hours to knock down.

With photos, coverage took up as much as half a page, with AP photos, in some newspapers on Saturday.

The story included quotes from neighbors.

Was the scene amid luxury homes in the Hollywood Hills?  Was it close to famous Hollywood and Vine?  Or perhaps near the Sunset Strip?

Readers of the AP story (along with broadcast accounts picking it up) never learned exactly where the incident took place.

Location was not pinpointed in the lengthy account.

Thus, it made traveling out-of-town Hollywood residents uneasy and concerned on learning of the happening.

It wouldn’t have taken much additional space to insert the precise location of the single story home:  517 N. Harvard Blvd.

And while mention of Hollywood always grabs attention, the scene was in an older, far eastern end of Hollywood --- three and a half miles northwest of the Los Angeles Civic Center. 

 

AP suggests journalists avoid use of ‘illegitimate child’

The latest AP Stylebook update says use of “illegitimate” in reference to offspring of unmarried mothers should be discouraged, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The style guide for journalists suggests substituting "illegitimate child" with phrases such as “the child, whose mother was not married” or “whose parents were not married.” 

It’s also a case of using five or seven words to replace two. 

The description “doesn’t come up very often in our news copy, but it’s a term that’s stigmatizing, and unfairly so,” relates David Minthorn, AP’s deputy standards editor. 

The term is okay to use as part of a quote, he adds, but “our guidance would be to use something more sensitive.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the percentage of births to unmarried mothers declined slightly to 40.8 percent in 2010 from 41 percent in 2009. 

Of course, the description can be whittled down to one word that used to be common in the U.S. and Britain --- and is incorporated in the script of the current “Downton Abbey” series on Masterpiece Theater on PBS (Sunday night).

That word: bastard. 

And, yes, some workers still refer to their nasty bosses by that noun.

 

Dickens’ 200th birthday grabs much print space this week

 

U.S. writers struggling to get their fiction or non-fiction books recognized in these competitive times undoubtedly wished they had the same “PR team” that grabbed much newspaper editorial space this week for Charles Dickens, the English novelist born 200 years ago on Feb. 7, observes Grumpy Editor.

Not exactly in PR, but getting the word out with lengthy stories about Dickens and his works, was Associated Press. 

Despite the usual tight editorial space on Mondays, newspapers on Feb. 6 ran a long AP report on Philadelphia marking the 200^th birthday of the novelist from the Victorian period.  It was accompanied by an AP photo of a 12-year-old boy placing a wreath on the head of a bronze statue of Dickens in Clark Park on Sunday. 

The Philadelphia story, by Kathy Matheson, mentioned that the British author, who died in June, 1870, visited the City of Brotherly Love only twice --- in 1842 and 1868. 

Then, for yesterday’s newspapers, AP writer Jill Lawless came up with another long Dickens celebration story, this time from London.  It was bolstered by an AP photo of Britain’s Prince Charles, with his wife and dignitaries on hand, laying a wreath on Dickens’ grave in London’s Westminster Abbey. 

Dickens, with wide popularity and fame extending through the years, was noted for characters that continue to be known by millions worldwide. 

Among them:  Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim.

Scrooge, a principal in "A Christmas Carol," was considered the most popular Dickens character.

 

 

Ladies' Home Journal cuts pro writers, greets amateurs

What could be the start of something --- frowned on by veteran professional writers --- is a major content change among women’s magazines when readers start writing most of the material, debuting with the March issue of the 129-year-old Ladies’ Home Journal, notes Grumpy Editor.

LHJ will be the first major mass-market magazine to utilize reader-generated content.

Seasoned past contributors to LHJ are wondering if the trend toward using amateur writers will spread to other Meredith Corp. magazines.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed company also produces Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Fitness, More, American Baby, Every Day with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun.

Veteran writers compare summoning amateurs to fill editorial pages of a well-known magazine with switching a backyard barbecuer to chef at a swank New York restaurant (with entree cost unchanged on the menu) or calling on a junior high school nurse to perform a tricky gall bladder operation.

Seasoned LHJ contributors, who have provided quality articles over the years, see editors straining to obtain publishable material.

Editors’ eyes may be strained, too, in editing copy.

Readers also may notice the difference.

Eyes also will be on LHJ’s future circulation figures --- and advertising revenue.

 

Kris or Kriss Kringle? AP notes proper holiday terms

Which is it --- Kris Kringle or Kriss Kringle? 

Associated Press, in a holiday guide, is reminding media, especially print news writers and editors, about proper spelling and capitalization of certain words, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Kris vs. Kriss Kringle is drawing attention. 

Seems most people in and out of journalism wrongly settle on Kris. 

From Wikipedia to notes on the 1947 classic movie, “Miracle on 34^th Street,” Kris is used.  Even most spell checks note it is Kris. 

Not correct, reminds AP (along with dictionary.com, among others). It’s Kriss, derived from the German word Christkindl. 

Focusing on some other words or capitalization in its holiday guide, AP points out: 

Christmastime is one word. 

With Champagne, the sparkling wine is capitalized when it is from the French region. 

The number in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is spelled out, not 12. 

Lower case treatment is given to yule and yuletide. 

Don’t forget the “ia” in the popular plant of the season, poinsettia. 

The big no-no is abbreviating Christmas as Xmas.

 

Herman Cain’s background much more than ‘pizza man’

Imagine branding a former Federal Reserve Bank chairman as a “pizza company executive” in the current heavy flow of news stories on Republican presidential candidates, grumbles Grumpy Editor. 

That’s how media are labeling Herman Cain. 

Aside from many years as a businessman, he sports an interesting background that puts him a few notches above “pizza man.” 

Few seem to be aware that after receiving a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and a master of science degree in computer science, Cain worked as a civilian ballistics analyst for the Navy Department, responsible for developing fire control systems for ships and fighter aircraft. 

Then he became a business analyst for Cola-Cola Co., joined Pillsbury Co. as director of analysis in its restaurant and foods group before being assigned to Burger King (then a Pillsbury subsidiary) where he took the company’s reins.  

Next step was president and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, another Pillsbury subsidiary --- and the job most media now emphasize. 

But Cain also became CEO of the National Restaurant Association and later was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. 

He also found time to serve on the boards of five companies, including Nabisco, a subsidiary of Kraft Foods Inc., Whirlpool Corp. and Reader’s Digest Association Inc. 

Until February, Cain also spent time behind the microphone as a talk show host on radio station WSB, a 50,000 watter in Atlanta. 

And media call him a “pizza company executive.”

 

Updated Merriam-Webster dictionary adds 150 entries

Cheers for Americana, a 170-year-old word relating to things typical in America such as history, folklore, culture and music, that makes its way to Merriam-Webster Inc.’s recently updated Collegiate Dictionary, finds Grumpy Editor.

Americana is among more than 150 words and definitions --- including more recently popularized social media, tweet, robocall and m-commerce --- added to the top-selling dictionary now available in print and online at Merriam-Webster.com.

"We've been tracking words like social media and tweet for years, of course, and now we feel their meanings have stabilized enough to include them in the dictionary,” relates Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large. 

Among other new words and phrases: 

boomerang child

bromance

cougar

crowdsourcing

duathlon

helicopter parent

parkour

walk-off

For definitions of these and other newcomers, go to:

www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords11.htm

 

It’s here --- ‘high quality’ news writing by computers

Well, in this high-tech age there now is a news writer requiring no days off, no vacation, no health plan, no retirement plan, no desk, no pay raises, no coffee breaks and no lunch period turning what its producer claims are “facts and figures into compelling stories in real time,” finds Grumpy Editor.

And the writing tasks are not performed in India, where some publishers have gone for editorial assistance in recent months.

Gathering computer-generated writing steam is Chicago-based Narrative Science Inc. which describes itself as transforming data into high-quality editorial content with a technology application that “generates news stories, industry reports, headlines and more --- at scale and without human authoring or editing.”

Sounds spooky.

But it’s growing.

The company, launched early last year with technology developed by Northwestern University electrical engineering and computer science professors, adds, “Our technology cost-effectively turns facts and figures into compelling stories in real time.”

The company reportedly lists 20 clients going the robot-writing route.

The New York Times yesterday reveals trade publisher Hanley Wood and sports site The Big Ten Network utilize Narrative Science to compose computer-generated stories.

Among material that can be robot written:  long and short-form articles, headlines, sports stories, business reports, summaries and real estate analyses.