Grumpy Editor

Vital financial background lacking in Frank, Dodd

Now that the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan failed in the House on Monday, it should be pointed out --- which major media have not touched on --- that the chairmen of two key Congressional committees at the center of the effort focusing on the Treasury proposal do not have a financial background, notes Grumpy Editor.

Perhaps that would have helped. 

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee since January, 2007, has a law background.  His committee, with 70 members, is the second largest in the Congress.

On the Senate side, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), also a lawyer, is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee (or to be technically correct:  Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs).  He took over the committee’s helm in January, 2007.

Both have been major players in the push-and-shove negotiations on a market rescue package. 

After the measure failed to pass in the House on Monday, Frank declared, “We are threatened with a shutdown of the credit system.”

Long-time irregular doings on Wall Street, spreading to Main Street, would have been recognized far earlier if the chairmen had a solid knowledge of financial matters, including the operations and scrutiny of investment banks, commercial banks and lending operations right down to the sore spots that triggered the major Washington rattling: sub-prime mortgages and other sour loans.

But seniority counts in Congress.

Frank has been in the House since 1981.

Dodd started in the House in 1975 and became a senator in 1981.

Meanwhile, as Democrats and Republicans on Monday continued to point fingers at each other in the bailout bust, Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) informed a press conference that “we must work in a bipartisan way.”

Many editors put WaMu’s failure on inside pages

When newsrooms receive reports of the largest financial institution to fail in American history, that should be front-page news, right?

For some newspapers it was.

But for others, editors --- fuzzy on the scope and distracted with conflicting stories on financial bailout talks in Washington --- decided to put the shocking development on inside pages, observes Grumpy Editor.

So it went in Friday’s newspapers with the failure of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. with $307 billion in assets, 2,300 branches in 15 states and 43,000 employees.

Founded in 1889, WaMu’s downfall was triggered by its focus on once-booming sub-prime mortgages and “option” adjustable-rate mortgages that went sour.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquired the financial institution’s assets for $1.9 billion.

Also confusing: writers (with copy getting past editors) referred to WaMu as a bank, in most cases, rather than a savings and loan or a thrift.

Even The Wall Street Journal in its front-page, top-story lead noted, “In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history…”

Actually, the largest bank failure was Chicago-based Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co.  With $40 billion in assets, it collapsed in 1984.

Among key newspapers that didn’t see the demise of WaMu as front page news were the Boston Globe, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald and Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Among those with a one-line, front-page “refer” to inside pages were Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Daily News, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer and USA TODAY.

Giving it heavy front-page play were Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times, close to WaMu’s downtown Seattle headquarters, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Lesser front page coverage came in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune and Dallas Morning News.

Also overlooked in most news coverage was that WaMu grew rapidly in recent years through acquisition of giant Los Angeles area S&Ls --- American Savings, Great Western Financial and H. F. Ahmanson & Co., parent of Home Savings of America.  Home Savings itself at one time was the nation’s largest S&L.

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell skirts ex-Fed chairman mention

Andrea Mitchell these days is ultra-busy disseminating comments on NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNBC and other programs in the broadcast family owned by parent General Electric Co.

While her official title is NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent, she has been active wearing another hat --- as a national political reporter, including being on scene at the recent GOP and Democrat conventions, notes Grumpy Editor.

In the past few days she has been dishing out commentaries on the financial market bailout which started with faulty loans, including sub-prime mortgages that have led to the current credit crisis.

The big question is:  Should Andrea Mitchell be discussing these financial elements that are shaking up the U.S., since her husband, Alan Greenspan, is the former Federal Reserve Board chairman, at the helm when some of the seeds of the current meltdown were planted?

Thus, should a disclaimer appear when she goes on camera to discuss the financial situation, especially when comments or interviews are linked to the Fed?  Or should NBC just bring in other talent and put Mitchell strictly on the foreign affairs beat?

Megan Garber, a staff writer at Columbia Journalism Review, gets into this with “The Elephant in the Control Room.”

Garber points out that “Greenspan, by virtue of his nearly nineteen-year chairmanship of the Federal Reserve Board, is, to some extent, culpable in the crisis we’re facing. Critics have accused the Greenspan-led Fed of inflating the housing bubble by keeping loan rates too low for too long, encouraging reckless lending and borrowing.”

Then she adds, “The degree of Greenspan’s culpability in the current meltdown is certainly debatable. One could argue, as he does, that its root cause wasn’t the interest rates of the mortgages themselves, but their repackaging. What isn’t debatable, though, is the fact that, as chairman of the body that presided over the economy while it began its slow-before-sudden descent into Dante-economic hell, the legacy of Greenspan’s Fed chairmanship is intimately entwined in the crisis.”

Garber points out, “It’s one thing for Mitchell to report the facts of the credit crisis, but venturing into commentary is a precarious trek” as is reporting on the Fed itself, which she did in a CNBC segment this week when the Fed agreed to lend American International Group Inc. (AIG) $85 billion to stave off a financial crisis.

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

Leading the “Best Cover” finalists, selected by the American Society of Magazine Editors, is New York magazine, with six nominations, followed by The New Yorker with four and Wired with three.  Winners will be announced on Oct. 6…With a mountain of news developments during the week, most media missed marking Sept. 24.  What was it?  For those confused over a comma vs. a semicolon, it was National Punctuation Day… No calendar at the ad agency?  As autumn was ushered in this week, a national Home Depot radio spot pitched tools --- for Father’s Day, nine months away... New York photographer Bert Stern is suing two others over Marilyn Monroe images he says were shot in July, 1962 in Los Angeles.  Stern is seeking the photos, or at least $700,000 in repayment, plus $1 million in punitive damages and legal fees…The Baltimore Sun is starting to share video and content with WJZ, the local CBS-TV affiliate…The Boston Globe on Thursday debuted OT (Our Town/Our Teams) a 24-page, full-color, oversize tabloid weekly (initial press run: 20,000 copies) with coverage of professional sports teams…The Providence (R.I.) Journal is cutting all part timers in the news department plus five full-time positions.  Oct. 10 is their last day…Some blushing at BusinessWeek:  In a ranking of “50 employers with the right stuff,” it placed the failed investment banking firm Lehman Brothers at No. 29 on the list, up two places from last year…A Citibank ad this week pitched a six-month CD at 4.00 percent APY.  Sounds like a great deal.  But the fine print (readable with a magnifying glass) noted a checking account is required to open the CD and “fees may apply to the checking account.”

Newsweek editor tangles with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly

Jon Meacham, Newsweek magazine editor, probably thought getting a few minutes on The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel would generate some solid interest in his new book, “American Lion,” about Andrew Jackson in the White House, observed Grumpy Editor.

So on he went this week.

Result:  a testy exchange with Bill O’Reilly who asked Meacham why Newsweek, a Washington Post. Co. property, “has taken a sharp turn to the left in the last 12 months.”

The host of the high-ranking cable program informed Meacham, “I’ve been a subscriber for 20 years and I’ve never seen the magazine more left wing than it is.”

O’Reilly tallied that Newsweek has featured five cover stories on Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) and two on John McCain (R., Ariz.).  In addition, he pointed out, of the magazine’s 11 columnists, eight are liberal and three are conservative.

Meacham responded with, “What we try to do is offer as much thoughtful commentary as we possibly can.  We try to be as diverse as possible in what we have to say.”

O’Reilly mentioned, “What really raised my eyebrows was the Daily Kos guy (Markos Moulitsas) you hired.  The Daily Kos is a hate site.”

(Daily Kos, launched on the Web six years ago, provides political analysis from a liberal perspective.)

Meacham, facing O’Reilly in the studio, was then asked, “Doesn’t it disturb you to be in business with a man like that?”

Keeping his cool, the Newsweek editor said, “I’d rather be running a magazine that shows a lot of different voices.”

They parted disagreeing.

As for plugging his book, Meacham got about 30 seconds worth in the beginning of the six-minute segment, including a camera shot of the cover.

Microsoft pulls plug on Bill and Jerry TV spots

The much-touted Bill and Jerry series, part of a $300 million Microsoft Corp. TV ad campaign to promote Windows’ image, has been canceled, notes Grumpy Editor.

The 90-second capsule dramas had a short life --- only two commercials during a two-week run.

But comedian Jerry Seinfeld is happy.  He pocketed $10 million.

For Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and chairman proved he can bend a shoe sole with zest in a mall discount store (as in the first commercial) and chat at the dinner table with a suburban family (second episode).

As Grumpy Editor reported Sept. 8, comment on the TV ads from most viewers was “Huh?”  And Advertising Age pointed out Gates’ “hokey delivery” was the star of the commercials.

Other viewers felt the quirky commercials made no sense.

It wasn’t clear how the spots were supposed to spur viewers to buy Microsoft software.

However, there’s still hope for zippy sales action.

The Bill and Jerry routine is being replaced with TV spots featuring Microsoft employees who chat about the company’s output.

Despite getting details, FTC says ‘file a complaint’

Apparently few --- if any --- of the 950 employees at the Federal Trade Commission listen to radio, feels Grumpy Editor.

For more than a month now, Mercedes-Benz has been running a national radio spot with a male voice pitching the benefits of pre-owned vehicles. 

Nothing wrong with that.  Many folks seek classy used cars.

But the eyebrow raising comes toward the end of the normal speech-delivered commercial when an electronically-enhanced super fast speed “coda” with a female voice spews nitty-gritty details.

Equivalent to newspaper or magazine fine print, that portion runs 15 seconds.  Faster than an auctioneer, it’s completely unintelligible.

As Grumpy Editor noted in an Aug. 26 posting, if the deal is so good, then it should be promoted at standard delivery for human ears rather than utilizing the hypoed-blabber tag.

Going to the FTC --- the nation’s consumer protection arm --- for their take on the “slippery tactic” doesn’t stir the agency.  Frank Dorman, press officer in the FTC’s office of public affairs, after being fed information on the radio spot, follows protocol with:

“All ads, including radio ads, must be truthful and not misleading. If the speed of the ad makes the ad deceptive (e.g., because they say a disclaimer too fast for consumers to understand, and without that disclaimer the main claim is misleading), then the ad could be actionable.”

After receiving an offer to listen to a tape of the offending muddled portion of the commercial, Dorman came back with:  “If you’d like to file a complaint, go to https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov.”

A consumer --- especially one with limited time going to that FTC site --- will find it an adventure.

One has to click on a large button labeled “FTC Complaint Assistant.”  No real person.  But several pages of questions that lead off with:

•  Is your complaint related to any recent natural disasters, such as Hurricane Ike?

•  Is your complaint concerning identity theft?

•  Is your complaint most closely related to:
         Debt collectors or debit collection practices.
         Credit reports.
         Dissatisfaction with other business practices.

And there is more.

Whew!

Getting back to Dorman and what the FTC plans to do about it, brought this prompt, yet stock, response:  “We encourage people who feel they’ve been misled about any particular business practice to file a complaint with the FTC.  Not every complaint turns out to be a law violation, but the Commission takes every complaint seriously, and we leverage our resources and target our enforcement efforts at practices that cause the greatest harm to consumers.”

Now one knows how scams and rip-offs can mushroom before action is taken through the “FTC Complaint Assistant” and federal authorities.

Pat Buchanan notes boomers’ sad financial deeds

Many Sunday newspapers carried an interesting column by Patrick J. Buchanan who indicated "the new era will see a more sober and much diminished America.”

Readers in a hurry only had to read the first and last paragraphs to get the grasp of Buchanan’s comments, notes Grumpy Editor.

The column’s lead:  “The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.”

Buchanan wrapped it up with:  “What the Greatest Generation handed down to us --- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved --- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.”

That last paragraph is worthy of enlarging into 48-point type, printing the text on an 8½ by 11 sheet and placing it into a fancy frame.

Buchanan’s words should be taken seriously.

The syndicated columnist, author, political commentator and TV panelist, was a senior adviser to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.  He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996.

Editorial cartoon sums up bailouts, rescue plans

Also on Sunday was a humorous, on-target editorial cartoon that summed up recent gloomy days --- involving massive financial bailouts and rescue plans --- that have affected everyone from Wall Street to Main Street.

Editorial cartoonist Jim Day, based at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, captured the atmosphere with a cigar-smoking chief of giant “Ace Ink Co.” sitting behind a mammoth desk, holding up a contract while informing his haggard secretary, “We’ll be sitting pretty for years --- we just signed a contract to be the sole supplier of red ink to the U.S. government!”

 

NBC’s Jay Leno thrives with jabs at McCain, Palin

Some late-night viewers of NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno have complained about the pounding the comedian has been giving presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and his Republican running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, notes Grumpy Editor.

A recent example of a line in Leno’s monologue that brought hefty laughter from his young studio audience: "Palin and McCain are a good pair. She's pro-life and he's clinging to life."

Generally, Leno’s jokes have been focusing on McCain’s age (72) and Palin’s expertise with a shotgun.

The late-night comedian has been mounting aggressive negative attacks on the Republican duo while lobbing a few softballs at their opponents, Barack Obama (D., Ill.) and his running mate, Joe Biden (D., Del.) --- although the latter does not get much attention.

Leno is not alone.  A Center for Media and Public Affairs study last month showed late-night television comics shying away from jokes about Obama while they regularly jab at McCain.

While that routine continues, Leno may be mellowing somewhat.

On Wednesday’s Tonight Show the comedian spent a chunk of time poking at the financial woes of Wall Street during his 11-minute monologue before turning to just a handful of harmless political gags.

Favorite targets remained McCain, Palin and President George Bush while Biden was overlooked.

But then a line about gloves and O.J. Simpson (on trial in Las Vegas) triggered laughs from the audience.

Just in case Leno and other late nighters --- plus their writers --- run out of material targeting McCain and Palin, there’s a mountain of gags lurking with the to-date untouchable phrase, “neighborhood organizer,” and Obama’s middle name.

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

So much for Thursday’s scary front page Wall Street Journal headline: “Worst Crisis Since ‘30s, With No End Yet in Sight.”  Then the Dow Jones Industrials closed up 410.03 points…For those concerned about global warming:  While not quite into autumn, first freeze of the season looms today for parts of northern New York state and northern New England…With nearly every American socked in the wallet in the aftermath of sub-prime loans, the nugget for a major story was tucked away in the very last paragraph of an Associated Press story Wednesday dealing with new rules for national security investigations.  It revealed FBI Director Robert Mueller said his agency is now investigating 24 large corporate mortgage lenders, up from 21 in July, in the wake of the collapsing mortgage market…Speaking of AP, on Wednesday the wire service said it would not comply with a Secret Service request for copies of leaked e-mails from a hacker who broke into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail account… Where do former newspaper political reporters go after they retire?  No retirement home in the case of Gerry Braun, longtime San Diego Union-Tribune columnist who resigned this week.  He’s going to be San Diego mayor’s director of special projects --- at $140,000 a year…Most media overlooked the death last Friday of pioneer TV anchorman George Putnam, especially well-known in Southern California.  Switching to radio in latter years, he was still doing his regular broadcast through May 8 and returned on July 14 for a one-hour program marking his 94th birthday.  In the 1940s he shared narration of Fox Movietone News with legendary broadcaster Lowell Thomas.  He also was a familiar figure at the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.  For more than 45 years, he rode silver-saddled palominos from his Chino, Calif. ranch…Sole photo on the front page of the New York Times to illustrate a story on Sarah Palin on Sept. 14 showed the governor as a Wasilla, Alaska, councilwoman…City news blackout in Galveston:  local officials have been ordered by Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas not to talk to the media…The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J., may close on Jan. 5 if 200 buyouts and several union concessions are not met…Chicago Tribune comes out with a new look on Sept. 29 and will condense its size to three sections from five…McClatchy Co. is cutting 10 percent more jobs and slashing its dividend in half…Dow Jones & Co. plans to shutter its Naperville, Ill., printing plant, probably by year’s end…While hard-to-read white print on an orange background for ads has been popular for months, Monster has focused on another hue, going with white type for its message on purple in full-page ads.  Optometrists welcome these efforts to boost their business.

Busy reader compiles key newspapers’ distinctions

From an obviously well-read person, who remains anonymous, Grumpy Editor received the following capsule characteristics of a dozen key American newspapers:

·  The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

·  The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

·  The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country --- and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

·  USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times.  They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.

·  The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could find the time, and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.

·  The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it.

·  The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

·  The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated, and who like their news as pictures and/or cartoons.

·  The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country --- but need the baseball scores.

·  The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it, but if so, they oppose all that they stand for.

·  The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

·  The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Add your local paper and its traits to the list.

Let Grumpy Editor hear from you.

Scary Halloween program amuses iPhone, iPod users

While it’s been scary with rollercoaster-like ups and downs from Wall Street this week, leaving sad faces, another type of spookiness that debuted a week ago should ease the grumpiness and bring smiles to investors and even media folk, especially iPhone and iPod Touch users, predicts Grumpy Editor.

With Halloween around the corner, an entertainment program called Halloween Experience, created by Energize Software, is gaining attention.

First week sales zoomed to the top 25 percent of about 3,400 programs for the Apple Inc. hand-held devices.

Costing under $1, the program, with haunting Halloween background music and sounds plus flying (and cackling) witches, allows users to create their own “virtual pumpkin” by moving 15 facial pieces by pinch and rotate gestures.

Among other features are a Halloween version of hangman with more than 100 spooky words and a countdown on the number of days to the annual ghostly celebration.

The Energize Software site provides a preview video of the sound and action of the program that sells for 99 cents and is downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

At least it brings temporary relief from the malaise in the financial markets and gloom dominating business news.