Grumpy Editor

U.S. breweries miss out on White House ‘beer summit’

The much heralded White House “beer summit” last night with President Barack Obama, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cambridge (Mass.) police Sgt. James Crowley and late-addition Vice President Joe Biden, looked like a meeting of world leaders at a round white table in the Rose Garden to some and, to others, more like a commercial for the sudsy beverages, observes Grumpy Editor.

Beneath a magnolia tree and sitting on white patio chairs, the quartet sipped beer while White House reporters were contained about 40 feet away from the discussions.

Shaky, pooled video footage with audio only of clicking camera shutters was fed to cable TV news channels about 15 minutes after the event got under way.

Earlier, it was discovered that none of the different beer brands preferred by Obama, Gates and Crowley during the “happy hour” came from a U.S.-owned brewery.  Late-joiner Biden’s choice was cloaked in secrecy.

Thus, for PR folks representing American beer companies, the TV coverage was a bust for them.

But it provided another illustration that underscored key U.S. industries have been slipping into foreign hands.

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out in a front-page article yesterday:

“The problem is that all three beers are products of foreign companies. Red Stripe is brewed by London-based Diageo PLC. Blue Moon is sold by a joint venture in which London-based SABMiller has a majority stake.  And Bud Light? It is made by Anheuser-Busch -- which is now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev NV after getting bought last year by a giant Belgian-Brazilian company.”

Red Stripe was preferred by Gates, Blue Moon by Crowley and Bud Light by the president.  Since only glass mugs were shown on the picnic table, no labels on bottles were observed to see which beer was Biden’s favorite.

The quartet could have sampled some of the District of Columbia’s local brew.  But efforts by the Capitol City Brewing Co., a few blocks from the White House, fell on deaf ears.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes now appear on Saturdays

Seattle sizzles, but what about ‘shivering’ Chicago?

In the era of global warming --- or rather climate change --- much print/broadcast coverage this week of Seattle’s unusual high temperatures overshadows little-reported uncommon readings in Chicago which is seeing its coldest July in 67 years, notes Grumpy Editor.

For the Windy City, this month ranks as the coldest July since the official recording station was moved from the lakefront in 1942.  Average temperature this month:  a mere 68.9 degrees, reports the National Weather Service.

Also, in Chicago there have been more days than usual this year with high temperatures less than 80 degrees.

With yesterday’s Chicago maximum temperature reaching 78 degrees, mid-70 highs are forecast for today and tomorrow with lows in the low 60s.

Meanwhile, print weather stories and TV weather reporters are zooming in on the northwest where Seattle thermometers hit 102 degrees yesterday, setting a record from the prior all-time high of 100 set July 20, 1994.

For the Emerald City, with few air conditioning systems leaving many breaking out in a deep sweat, that, indeed, is news and should give climate change followers something to chat about.

But, to be fair and balanced, cool, snubbed-in-weather-discussions Chicago also should be mentioned.

Mall dispute pits kiosk tenant, Simon Property Group

It’s the old David and Goliath routine as a battle continues between a North Carolina shopping mall kiosk tenant and Simon Property Group, Inc. --- largest U.S. real estate firm and a Standard and Poor’s 500 company --- that is generating print/broadcast negative news coverage for Simon, including national protests and calls for mall boycott, notes Grumpy Editor.

Normally, mall PR people would be anxiously squirming about the predicament.

Despite the furor, Simon refuses to comment on the kiosk situation, the protests or the boycott, calling it a landlord/tenant dispute, reports Beth Shayne, with Charlotte, N.C., TV station WCNC, known as NewsChannel 36.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Simon, headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., owns or has interest in 385 mall properties comprising 261 million square feet of gross leasable area in North America, Europe and Asia.

Kiosk tenant Loren Spivack operates an eight-foot-long “Free Market Warrior” at Concord Mills Mall, near Charlotte.  His lease is set to expire on Friday. 

Friction started with a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer from a recent UNC-Charlotte graduate complaining the kiosk “specializes in memorabilia embellished with pro-confederacy statements as well as those opposing both the government and President Obama.”

Mall management tells Spivack the kiosk items are not “neutral” enough.

In response, Spivack informs WCNC’s Shayne:  “Nobody in that mall is selling anything from a conservative perspective.  Plenty of people are selling things with a liberal perspective, with a pro-Obama perspective.  Given that we are in America and not North Korea, we probably should have some stuff on the other side.”

Spivack tells the Observer he believes the decision to cancel his lease is political since Melvin Simon (now chairman emeritus of the board of Simon Property Group), is a generous contributor to Democrats, including the president.

Sarah Palin speaks without ‘crutch’ of Teleprompters

Print and broadcast reporters are supposed to be observant with their on-scene coverage.  So it is interesting to note that after many months of covering (now former Alaska governor) Sarah Palin, not one has mentioned that when she speaks, it is without the “crutch” of Teleprompters or a text on the podium, observes Grumpy Editor.

Such was the case Sunday with her farewell address in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the annual governor’s picnic where she also served food to some of the 5,000 attendees.

Her off-the-cuff speech, televised live, also was without “ahs” between phrases as with some politicians.

Without a prepared text makes it difficult for media, of course.  So reporters have to haul out their pens and scribble on notebooks.  Or turn on their recorders.

With a theme of free speech, Palin scolded people who are “seemingly hell bent on tearing down our nation.”  She also warned to “be wary of accepting government largess.  It doesn’t come free.”

With a son on active duty overseas with the Army, she focused on the media with, “How about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up?”

That stirred up the crowd --- and media.

Her next speech will be as a private citizen.

That is scheduled for Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Future ‘swine flu’ toll in U.S. provides weekend scare

A major weekend scare came from news stories focusing on the future severity of the H1N1 influenza (also known as the swine flu), emphasizing it could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years, notes Grumpy Editor.

While most print and broadcast media cited “up to 40 percent of Americans,” based on an Associated Press report, the Los Angeles Times version (picked up by some other newspapers around the nation) went one step further in shaking up readers via its lead that mentioned  “hundreds of thousands of Americans could die over the next two years” and “at the pandemic’s peak, as much as 40 percent of the work  force could be affected.”

The “40 percent of the work force” line was repeated later in The Times story.

Obviously, if that happened, another chunk of Times' subscribers --- and advertisers --- would disappear.

The second paragraph of  The Times piece by Thomas H. Maugh II punctured the gloom balloon with “that is admittedly a worst case scenario” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Actually, the CDC, in its probable estimates, came up with a low-end figure of 90,000 deaths from the new flu over a two-year period and several hundred thousand at the upper range.  That information was worked in at the tail-end of The Times story.

That compares with about 72,000 "normal" flu deaths during a similar two-year span.

Week’s wrapup: Why Obama remembers Cambridge police

President Barack Obama’s Wednesday sharp jab at the Cambridge, Mass. police department, claiming its officers “acted stupidly” in the July 16 arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home, may stem from long-simmering encounters when the president, as a Harvard University law student, received 17 parking tickets from the same police force, finds Grumpy Editor.

Obama accumulated the Cambridge citations between October, 1988 and January, 1990 for parking his car at bus stops, street-sweeping zones, in a resident-permit area and failing to pay the meter.

The parking tickets, amounting to about $400 in fines and fees, went unpaid for 17 years --- until January, 2007, two weeks before launching his presidential run.

Other Grumpy Editor end-of-week leftover notes:

Trust him with a press pass?  A poll of 9,400 Time.com site users hands the title of “the most trusted man in America” (long held by former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite who died last week) to Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”  Stewart grabs 44 percent of the vote, followed by real news anchors, NBC’s Brian Williams with 29 percent, ABC’s Charles Gibson with 19 percent and CBS’s Katie Couric with 7.

Time to give her a pass?  Eight months after the national election, some media outlets continue an extraordinary focus on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.  Latest to put her in the limelight is an ABC News-Washington Post poll that finds “just 40 percent of Americans…hold a favorable opinion of Palin overall, down from a high of 58 percent after she joined the GOP presidential ticket.”

Taco Bell “pitchdog” passes.  Gidget, the Chihuahua that gained fame in late 1990s Taco Bell TV commercials, dies at age 15.   The female bug-eyed, big-eared pooch is known for saying, in a dubbed male voice:   "Yo quiero Taco Bell," Spanish for "I want Taco Bell.”

Paper spotlights online operation.  The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, ends its daily run and becomes AnnArbor.com, an online news operation but with a home delivery print version on Thursdays and Sundays costing $9 a month.

 “Thinking” reporters as entrepreneurs.  New breed of journalists as seen by ex-Los Angeles Times staffer Deborah Nelson, now at the Merrill College of Journalism: "I hope to help retool journalism education and to prepare the next generation of journalists -- by training them in the best of both traditional and emerging reporting techniques, by teaching them to be critical thinkers and encouraging them to be entrepreneurs."  Just what police beats need.

AMA mum on President Obama’s poke at the profession

Not getting much print coverage was President Barack Obama's comments taking a poke at the medical profession during Wednesday night’s prime-time news conference in which he declared doctors make medical decisions based on what they would be paid for a procedure rather than the best treatment, notes Grumpy Editor.

Also mum was reaction from the 245,000-member American Medical Association which backs the health care reform plan.

Obama, in a continuing push to gather support for health care overhaul, illustrated a patient who sees a physician for a sore throat, or a parent who brings in a child with a sore throat.

"Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that's out there,” said the president.  “The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, 'You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out.'"

He added, “Now, that may be the right thing to do, but I'd rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid's tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference."

The 162-year-old medical association, via its Web site, had no comment yesterday, although AMA president J. James Rohack, M.D. issued a three paragraph statement that mentioned:

“In addition to covering the uninsured, health system reform should repeal the broken Medicare physician payment system and improve the broken medical liability system.

“The AMA is committed to health reform this year that provides high-quality, affordable care to all Americans.”

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

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes now appear on Saturdays

Solar eclipse, not seen in U.S., grabs some editors

Even though it was not visible in North America, a total solar eclipse grabbed a good chunk of space, including on front pages, in some newspapers yesterday, notes Grumpy Editor.

Some editors, perhaps with an interest in astronomy, pushed aside other material on a busy news day to make way for reports on the eclipse that was observed in India, China, South Korea and Japan.

Grumpy Editor doesn’t recall such extensive treatment for past solar eclipses when seen in the U.S.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, for example, gave it major space that started above the fold on the front page, then jumped to the inside, utilizing a total of 69 column inches, including six photos.

Others going the front page route ranged from the Los Angeles Times, with a three-column photo labeled “Solar Spectacle for Asia” with text inside the first section, to the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, that used the same photo (the moon moving between the sun and the Earth) with a front page story.

The Denver Post, however, went with other closer-to-home action from the sky on its front page:  A photo of lightning in a local storm that uprooted trees and left thousands without power.

The next total solar eclipse occurs next July 11.  That, too, will not be visible in the U.S.  Main path will be over parts of South America, including Chile and Argentina.

Even so, look for some of the same editors to get excited by that one.

 

AMA, AARP mysteriously back health care reform plan

Considering how President Obama’s health care reform plan will negatively affect their members, one wonders why it is getting the backings of the American Medical Association and AARP (formerly known as American Association of Retired Persons), and why the organizations’ leaders are not being quizzed about it by media, asks Grumpy Editor.

For the AMA, the plan will cut the income of doctors, especially specialists.  For AARP, it will mean less (or no) vital medical procedures for the elderly.

Bills before Congress call for forcing Americans to switch to a managed-care plan with limits on access to tests and specialists.

Specialists provide treatments that the White House has decided qualify as “waste,” notes a Monday Wall Street Journal editorial.

The Journal also notes a coalition of 17 state medical associations and three specialty groups are “poised to break with the AMA over its Washington work.”

The health reform plan also slices Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals.

“Our current health care system is unsustainable, not just for individuals but also for employers and government, writes AARP CEO A. Barry Rand in the current issue of AARP Bulletin, somehow forgetting that the organization he heads represents more than 40 million people age 50 and older, many of them retirees, including some with medical problems requiring attention of specialists.

“Health care reform is AARP’s top priority,” continues Rand.  “We simply can’t fix the economy without restructuring the delivery of health care, expanding access and cutting costs.”

Rand, described by AARP as “a recognized leader in corporate social change,” joined AARP four months ago after many years in the corporate world that includes executive positions at Avis Group Holdings and Xerox Corp.

AARP’s position is puzzling, too, because one of the benefits heavily pushed to members is Medicare supplement insurance “created exclusively for AARP members” and provided by United HealthCare Insurance Co.

HLN clips most important information in airing news item

Sometimes headline news on radio and television can be too brief, leaving out main details, thus doing nothing to inform listeners who may be directly affected by the developments cited, contends Grumpy Editor.

On Saturday, for example, in a report on latest banks closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., cable news channel HLN (formerly known as CNN’s Headline News) mentioned that four were closed, including two in California and one each in South Dakota and Georgia.

But the most important information, especially for patrons of the affected financial institutions, was left out:  Names of the banks.

That’s about as bad as reporting a fast-moving wildfire covering 500 acres in Southern California --- without pinpointing the location.  That slip-up happens often, too.  And it will, again, as fire season commences.

As for the latest names of the banks closed by regulators, they were Temecula Valley Bank, Temecula, and Vineyard Bank, Rancho Cucamonga, both in California, plus BankFirst, Sioux Falls, S.D., and First Piedmont Bank, Winder, Ga.

Identifying the closed banks and their locations would take only 10 seconds more of airtime to make the news item complete.

With 57 bank failures so far this year, more than twice as many as in 2008, look for more closures, hopefully with the financial institutions identified.