Grumpy Editor

Grumpy Editor lists FOMC’s meeting dates in 2009

In these turbulent financial times, keeping up with scheduled Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting dates is important, reminds Grumpy Editor.

Investors, seeking clues on the direction of interest rates, focus on actions and wording in statements of FOMC’s 12 members headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

Changes in the federal funds rate trigger a chain of events that affect other short-term interest rates, foreign exchange rates, long-term interest rates, the amount of money and credit, and, ultimately, a range of economic variables.  That includes employment, output, prices of goods and services plus, of course, the stock market.

During the months ahead, many business and financial stories will mention upcoming Fed action.  Yet, for some strange reason, many writers tend to bury or not pinpoint actual dates of FOMC meetings in advance.

Sometimes they come close with “next week” or “next month.”

With one more 2008 FOMC meeting set for Dec. 16, Grumpy Editor, for easy reference, lists the eight scheduled 2009 meetings, including three two-day sessions:

•  Jan. 27 and 28
•  March 17
•  April 28 and 29
•  June 23 and 24
•  Aug. 11
•  Sept. 22
•  Nov. 3 and 4
•  Dec. 15

Following the meetings (or at the end of two-day gatherings), statements are released to media around 2:15 p.m., Eastern time.

 

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

 

Happy Halloween!  In keeping with the “spirit” of the seasonal scary event, users of iPhone or iPod Touch today can easily extend ghoulish entertainment in the devices to the midnight hour and beyond with a “scary” program.  Called Halloween Experience (downloaded from the iTunes App Store for under $1), it offers all the spooky things --- plus haunting music, games and virtual pumpkin creation --- associated with the annual observance…The twice-monthly Santa Fe, N.M.-based Sun News this week came out with a pre-election headline proclaiming Barack Obama winner in the presidential race.   It prompted the daily Las Cruces Sun-News, citing no affiliation with the other publication, to declare, “Folks, it’s not us…we do not have those predictive powers”…The New York Observer reports that all Condé Nast publishers and editors, including those on Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Glamour and Wired, have been told to cut staffs and budgets by five percent within weeks…CNBC, NBC’s business news cable channel, reports the economic crisis and stock market action resulted in its best ever ratings in total viewers in October…CNN, another cable network, is wooing newspaper editors as it prepares to launch CNN Wire to compete with Associated Press…Geography lessons required?  In material five days apart, staffers at The Wall Street Journal messed up in geographic locations.  One writer referred to Pennsylvania as being in the Midwest rather than a Middle Atlantic state.  In the other, a chart placed a Mayo Clinic in Rochester, N.Y. instead of Rochester, Minn.

Lower revenues force publications to shed staffers

Hard times in the publishing business are reflected in announcements in the past week of major layoffs while the 100-year old Christian Science Monitor will be scrubbing its print daily for a weekly version in April plus emphasizing its reporting online, notes Grumpy Editor.

Deep staff cuts are in the works at the Orange County Register, Gannett Co.’s local newspapers, Newark’s Star-Ledger and Time Warner’s Time Inc. magazine unit.  The Los Angeles Times (as reported here on Tuesday) is laying off 75 additional newsroom staffers.

Publications are facing tough industry conditions in a weak economy as advertising revenue and circulation figures decline.

About 110 employees, including about 30 in the newsroom at the privately-owned Orange County Register, are being notified this is their last week with the daily that has seen its Sept. 30 circulation of 236,270 decline 15 percent from the year-earlier 298,410.  It marks the fourth round of layoffs this year.

Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper company, plans to lay off another 10 percent of its work force by early December at its local newspapers around the country.

The Star-Ledger, which earlier faced a possible shutdown threat, announced last Friday that roughly 40 percent of its newsroom staffers will exit by year-end after taking buyouts. 

While not finalized, talk at Time Inc., which publishes People, Time and other magazines, focuses on cutting about 600 staffers in editorial and business departments.

The Christian Science Monitor, however, expects few if any job cuts or other reductions with its downsizing.  A weekly 44-page publication, published on Sundays starting in April, will replace the Monday through Friday daily.

 

Newspaper endorsements tilt heavily to Obama ticket

In the presidential race, daily newspaper endorsements of the Obama-Biden ticket lead McCain-Palin by almost 2½ to 1, according to a tally by Editor & Publisher magazine, notes Grumpy Editor.

The latest score:  222 to 93.

The lopsided editorial endorsements provided the biggest clue as to why certain newspapers during this campaign season are tilting heavily for the Democrats.  Rather than being fair and balanced in coverage --- a journalistic practice newspapers once held --- they are not ashamed of bias outside the editorial pages.

The E&P tally noted at least 38 key newspapers that endorsed George Bush in 2004 have switched to Obama this time around.

From Tuesday’s Washington Post, media columnist Howard Kurtz quoted  Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University's College of Communication who issued this yellow caution sign:

"If the mainstream media are wrong about Obama and the voters pull a Truman, that is going to be the end of whatever shred of credibility they have left."

The “pull a Truman” phrase referred to underdog Harry Truman snatching a presidential upset victory in November, 1948, against favorite Tom Dewey who was the frontrunner up until election day.

The 1948 election results caught the Chicago Tribune by surprise and left editors blushing big time.  It’s big, bold headline had Dewey the victor.

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, released last week, found that from the end of the conventions through the debates, McCain's media coverage was on the negative side more than three times as much as Obama's.

As daily circulation drops, so does newsroom staff

A few hours after lower circulation figures of major U.S. newspapers were released Monday, the Los Angeles Times announced it is laying off 75 additional newsroom staffers, observes Grumpy Editor.

It’s the latest example of a newsroom getting whacked when circulation declines.

For the L.A. Times, daily circulation fell 5.2 percent to 739,147 for the six months ended in September, compared with the same period a year prior, in a tally by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The economic slowdown was blamed for the latest round of cutbacks at the L.A. Times, owned by Chicago-based Tribune Co.   The action follows a summer reduction of 250 overall staff, including 150 in the newsroom.

All 25 top U.S. dailies saw declines from a year ago. 

Hardest hit were the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dropping 13.62 percent; Houston Chronicle, down 11.66 percent; Philadelphia Inquirer, declining 11.06 percent; Newark Star-Ledger, 10.4 percent lower, and Boston Globe, ebbing 10.18 percent.

Smallest dips were from USA Today, largest daily newspaper, and The Wall Street Journal, the No. 2 daily.  Both were off 0.01 percent.

Obama campaign nixes further interviews at WFTV

A few tough questions to Joe Biden (D., Del.) from a veteran Florida TV reporter-anchor didn’t set well with the vice presidential candidate, so the Obama campaign spanked WFTV (channel 9, Orlando, Fla.) with “further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely,” notes Grumpy Editor.

It started with last Thursday’s quizzing of Biden by Barbara West, with 16 years at the station and at one time the principal assistant in London to the late Peter Jennings when he was anchor for ABC’s World News Tonight.

West quoted Karl Marx and asked Biden if the comment by presidential candidate Barack Obama (D., Ill.) to Joe the Plumber about spreading the wealth wasn’t being Marxist.

“Are you joking?” said Biden.  “No,” replied West.

West asked Biden about Obama’s ties to ACORN, a national advocacy group facing FBI investigations on whether it helped to foster voter fraud.

Then she asked if Biden, through earlier comments, was implying the U.S. no longer was the world’s leading power.

“I don’t know who is writing your questions,” growled Biden.

Explained West later via an Orlando Sentinel blog:  Facing four minutes of satellite time, “I got right down to it and, yes, I think I asked him some pointed questions. These are questions that are rolling about right now and questions that need to be asked. I don't think I was rude or inconsiderate to him. I think I was probing and maybe tough. I can't believe that in all of his years in politics, and all of his campaigning and such, that he hasn't run into some tough questions before. He's certainly up to it in giving good answers."

WFTV news director Bob Jordan said, “When you get a shot to ask these candidates, you want to make the most of it. They usually give you five minutes.”  Political campaigns, he added, in general pick and choose the stations they like and stations often pose softball questions during the interviews.

Biden “didn't like the questions," Jordan mentioned. "We choose not to ask softball questions."

Acorn newspapers stress no link with activist ACORN

The Acorn, a weekly newspaper group in Ventura County, Calif., is quick to point out it has no connection with the other ACORN (in capital letters), a national activist group, that has been grabbing print space and air time lately with investigations focusing on claims of voter registration fraud, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Acorn group of newspapers, with several editions, serves Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Moorpark, Calabasas, Camarillo, Simi Valley and Westlake Village.

The communities are northwest of the city of Los Angeles, just outside Los Angeles County.

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), is facing FBI investigations on whether it helped to foster voter fraud around the nation.

The Acorn newspapers emphasize on their Web sites they are “in no way affiliated with the advocacy group.”  Their publisher, J. Bee NP Publishing Ltd., points out the newspapers are “named after the seed from which tall oak trees grow.”

The ACORN advocacy group, which claims to have more than 1,200 chapters in 110 cities, is accused of submitting false voter registration forms in connection with the upcoming presidential election, for some of the 1.3 million young people, minorities, poor and working class voters it has registered.

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

An omen?  Lottery tickets in Meta, Colombia, just added a photo of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, (D., Ill.).  BBC News reports 700,000 tickets were sold on the day Obama’s image debuted…Funniest election season line of the month comes from singer-actress Bette Midler.  Commenting on spending an excess amount of time watching news channels’ election coverage, she moans:  “All the news stories are about the election.  All the commercials are for Viagra and Cialis.  Election, erection, election, erection.  Either way, we’re getting screwed!”…Seeking a boost in funds, Chicago-based Tribune Co. has tapped $250 million of a $750 million revolving line of credit…South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, in December will start printing the Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach Daily News and La Palma…Boston Globe figures it will save about 24 pages a week in printing costs by shifting its standalone business section into the Metro section that contains regional news --- and obituaries…Speaking of Bean Town, a guide, due out next month, focuses on several hundred places to see “the world's most precious and fragile sites that are disappearing at an astonishing rate” affected by climate change.  However, one of the sites mentioned that has withstood all types of climate conditions --- heat, deep freezes, blizzards, even hurricanes --- for almost a century:  sturdy Fenway Park, Boston, which the author describes as “one of the last original ballparks and a national icon.”

Media focus on Palin fashion, travel expenses

It’s interesting to note how “investigative” media, in recent days, have spent time and effort digging to uncover what they consider negative happenings involving the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin, notes Grumpy Editor.

Grabbing attention Wednesday were two reports that ordinarily would be dismissed.

One reveals the Republican National Committee “spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize” Palin and her family via shopping trips to Saks Fifth Avenue and Nieman Marcus plus hair and makeup activities.

Now, if the Alaska governor did not receive these normal treatments for the vital campaign trail that involves facing highly-critical print and broadcast reporters, there probably would be cries that she looks dowdy and unbecoming as a candidate for the second highest office in the nation.

The revelation carried through to today's newspapers which carried an Associated Press 20-plus paragraph story, starting off with: "Who knew looking like a hockey mom was this darned expensive?"

The other article --- spanning two dozen paragraphs --- by a trio of Associated Press writers with an Anchorage dateline, criticizes the governor who “charged the state for her children to travel with her.”  The focus is on her daughters, 17, 14 and 7.

As a mother, if the governor did not take her offspring with her, she would be roundly criticized for leaving them behind.

Digging into records, the AP trio tallies Palin and her daughters charged the state for 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office at the end of 2006.

While the writers attempt to inject the funded travel as shady, they also bury in the text:

•  “The trips enabled Palin, whose main state office is in the capital of Juneau, to spend more time with her children.”

•  “Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor’s children.”

Copy editors frown on dispatching editing overseas

Outsourcing newspaper copy editing to overseas points just won’t work, contends the American Copy Editors Society, notes Grumpy Editor.

ACES, a professional organization of copy editors, is stirred up by comments Monday from MediaNews Group, Inc. chief executive Dean Singleton, speaking at the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual convention in Aventura. Fla.

Denver-based MediaNews publishes the Denver Post, Detroit News and 52 other daily newspapers.

"In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter," said Singleton, according to The Associated Press, where Singleton serves as chairman of the board.

“One thing we’re exploring is having one news desk for all our newspapers in MediaNews…maybe even offshore,” he mentioned.

ACES declares, “How often do we have to repeat this? Sending copy editing overseas is a sure way to kill a paper's credibility. Maybe not immediately, and maybe not in one dramatic gesture, but every time that desk 9,000 miles away overlooks some nuance that local readers will spot, the newspaper's credibility dies a little. Oak Lawn, Oak Cliff, Oak Park, Oak Hill? What's the diff?  A lot, if you live in one of them.

“Some things just can't be measured in terms of money. It's easy to say that you'll save thousands of dollars by hiring overseas workers to edit your copy. It's not so easy to say how much that loss of credibility is going to cost you when they miss errors a local person would have caught. But cost you it will.”

ACES points out the importance of “collective wisdom of a locally-based copy desk with its inevitably diverse and quirky knowledge of the community.”

Several TV blackouts irk weekend sports viewers

With the World Series starting tomorrow night from St. Petersburg, Florida, Fox Sports technicians will be double checking all connections, routers and backups, following gaps in other networks' TV coverage of two major sports events last weekend, presumes Grumpy Editor.

Both CBS and TBS had blank spots in video transmissions that left sports fans grumbling --- and switching to other channels.

Power problems at Orchard Park, N.Y. Sunday caused several interruptions of CBS’ live TV coverage of the Buffalo Bills-San Diego Chargers football action.  Biggest gap was 45 minutes.

That problem started before the game when three small helium-filled balloons became entangled in power lines across the street from the stadium, causing electricity to go out.  Power was restored about 10 minutes prior to start time, then flickered on and off later before being restored.

Also running into technical difficulties was TBS’ Saturday night Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg.

Fans missed the first 20 minutes of the game’s live feed when “two circuit breakers in our Atlanta transmission operations tripped, causing the master router and its backup, which are necessary to transmit any incoming feed outbound, to shut down,” said a TBS spokesman.

Got that?

So, for technicians, keep an eye on those routers and “incoming feed outbound.”

N.Y. Times’ jabs at Cindy McCain bring protests

A New York Times Friday front-page negative-shaded article on Cindy McCain, wife of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), is stirring up some outrage, especially when the spread was in “the newspaper of record,” observes Grumpy Editor.

In contrast, meanwhile, it is recalled that McCain opponent Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) on ABC’s “Good Morning America” last May 19 issued a warning to “lay off my wife.”

The Times story --- with elements similar to those found in supermarket tabloids --- by Jodi Kantor and David M. Halbfinger focused on personal matters including mentions of Cindy McCain’s miscarriages, her past addiction to painkillers and her failure to fit in the Washington scene.

Among dopey trivia worked into the lengthy Times text:

•  “Mrs. McCain (is) nearly two decades younger than her husband…”

•  “Those close to Mrs. McCain say she aspires to be like another blonde, glamorous figure married to an older man: Diana, the Princess of Wales.”

•  A person who formerly socialized with the McCains recalls Cindy “as gracious but timid, unschooled in Washington conversation and worried about fitting in.”

•  “For his (Senate) district offices, (Cindy) ordered native Arizonan plants --- which all promptly died…”

•  “Mrs. McCain expanded her childhood home, turning it into a 10,000-square-foot mansion that struck more than one visitor as a shrine to her husband.”

•  “If Mr. McCain wins, she would have to return to the town she says she dislikes, attending the same sorts of luncheons she once fled from.”

The McCain campaign complained that The Times’ article co-writer Kantor went fishing in e-mailing a 16-year-old friend of the McCains' youngest child, seeking more information on Cindy McCain.

According to Fox News, Cindy McCain Attorney John Dowd earlier this month wrote to The Times’ Executive Editor Bill Keller accusing him of biased coverage for not pursuing more information about Obama's personal life.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama," Dowd wrote.

"You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, 'Dreams of My Father,’” Dowd added.  “Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here."