Grumpy Editor

Wall Street Journal editorial puzzling to seniors

A Wall Street Journal editorial on Friday contained a clever headline --- The Diet COLA Myth --- but puzzling text didn’t make many senior readers happy, observes Grumpy Editor.  Some even scratched their heads after getting to the bottom of the editorial.

“Like most Americans in this recession, seniors are struggling to maintain their standard of living,” started the editorial’s last paragraph.  “Their retirement savings have been hit especially hard by the stock market plunge, and they’ve lost income on their savings accounts and Treasury bills from the plunge in interest rates.”

Never mind.

The text above the last paragraph covered news out of Washington that Social Security recipients “won’t be getting a cost of living increase in their monthly checks” (in 2010) and the moaning it is bringing, adding, “The recent fall in prices has served up a windfall for seniors and a real $600 average increase in their Social Security payments this year.”

That will be fresh, revealing news for the 50 million retired and disabled Americans receiving S.S. benefits.

The editorial writer should have checked with an elder family member about that “windfall” and phantom $600.

The WSJ editorial writer explained, “There will be no COLA increase this year [actually starting January, 2010 and likely continuing to 2012] because consumer prices have been level or even falling”…and “the real purchasing power of a Social Security check has risen.”  The writer later worked in “the Social Security windfall over the past 12 [actually the year’s eight] months that resulted from a 5.8 percent COLA increase awarded for 2009.”

The annual adjustment for seniors is based on a long-used formula.  It was adopted 34 years ago.  So 5.8 percent came out of the chute last fall for 2009.

As for the “windfall” and “real $600 average increase,” perhaps the editorial writer had been watching too much of the SyFy channel.

How can seniors possibly have more bucks in their pockets when, despite “low inflation,” they have been clipped by rising costs this year in health care, utilities, car/home insurance, higher property tax (despite sinking home values), car registration fees and everyday price tags of products and services.

In addition to much lower home values, many seniors have been smacked hard as their investments have plunged 40 to 50 percent.  What’s more, some of their dividend-paying stocks, used to supplement Social Security funds in paying bills, have been cut or eliminated.

The WSJ editorial also mentioned that “members of Congress are calling for an investigation into the way COLAs are calculated.”

Rather than zeroing on S.S. recipients and COLA, the WSJ would make more seniors happy --- and less likely to cancel subscriptions ---  by penning an editorial on mature folks being throttled while members of Congress roll merrily along with their own automatic tasty, bubbly COLA (relished more than the diet COLA, as noted in the WSJ headline) stemming from an amendment they passed in 1989 giving themselves a hassle-free annual pay boost ($4,700 for 2009) unless they specifically pass legislation rejecting or reducing it.

Squeezed seniors, long-time taxpayers, certainly would welcome an automatic hassle-free annual pay increase, too.

Week’s wrapup: Anti-health care reform TV spot registers

The one-minute anti-health care reform TV spot, mentioned here on Aug. 15, “had a dramatic impact on decreasing favorability among Democrats, Republicans and independents,” finds a national media study, notes Grumpy Editor.

The spot by the 60 Plus Association, Alexandria, Va., emphasizes the plan pushed by the Obama administration “means massive Medicare cuts in order to pay for health care reform.”

“Online dial testing suggests that the claim regarding Congress cutting Medicare dramatically moved the viewers,” relates Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, Flemington, N.J.   “These results suggest that among viewers participating in this study, the ad was successful in moving all political segments away from pro reform camp.”

The study finds the majority of all political parties report the 60 Plus Association ad was effective; 79 percent of Democrats, 99 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of independents indicate it is either extremely effective or somewhat effective.

View the findings along with the TV spot here.

In other Grumpy Editor end-of-week leftover notes:

Give those broadcast network execs a raise.  Coming down to one month left in the major league baseball season, guess which baseball event is of most interest to fans today:  ABC-TV’s coverage of a Little League World Series game, Reynosa, Mexico vs. Taoyuan, Taiwan or, airing at about the same time, the Chicago White Sox vs. the New York Yankees on Chicago’s WGN, seen nationwide on cable.

New Yorker gets a new M.E.  The New Yorker’s new managing editor is 26-year-old Amelia Lester, a Sydney, Australia, native and a Harvard graduate.

A&E plans to acquire Lifetime.  A&E Television Networks, a joint venture between Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corp. and NBC Universal, has entered into an agreement to acquire Lifetime Entertainment Services.  It would put several cable channels under one management team.

Paper ad sales continue downward.  Newspaper ad sales fell to $6.8 billion in the second quarter, compared with $9.6 billion in the like year-ago period.  It’s the deepest downturn in a three-year newspaper ad revenue free fall.

Another D.C. lawmaker fails in geography.  In our Saturday series of how some members of Congress are fuzzy in map reading, another tale from a Washington, D.C., airport ticket agent: A Vermont congressman called, furious about a Florida package.  Asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando, the congressman said he was expecting an ocean-view room. It was explained that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.  (Look for another congressional failure in geography in next Saturday’s posting.)

Copy editors on guard for overused workplace terms

Some overused words and phrases --- clichés, buzzwords and industry jargon --- currently peppering office chatter may creep into editorial copy, causing editors to sprout gray hairs, warns Grumpy Editor.

Reach out, disconnect, value-add, circle back and interface are among the “most annoying or overused” phrases or buzzwords in the workplace today, according to an Accountemps survey.

"When business or industry terms become overused, people stop paying attention to them," says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps, the world’s largest staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance.

Some of the buzzwords and phrases that irk senior executives:

Reach out.  As in, "Remember to reach out to customers impacted by the change."

Disconnect.  “There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what the product provides."

Value-add.   "We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it.”

Circle back.  "I'm heading out of the office now, but I will circle back with you later."

Interface.  "My job requires me to interface with all levels of the organization.”

Then there’s the overworked cutting edge, as used in "our cutting-edge technology gives us a competitive advantage."

All this brings us to it is what it is.  It puts the cap on well-used terms making the rounds in the workplace.

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

For vacation reading, President Obama omits H.R. 3200

President Barack Obama, thinking there may be some quiet time for reading while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, slips five books into his luggage, notes Grumpy Editor.  But critics claim an important, yet weighty, “must-read” is not among them.

While observing the sea, surf and gulls is a favorite pastime with the island’s locals and visitors, the president, as in Washington, finds himself issuing statements, making “live” announcements to print and broadcast media and dealing with other official duties.

Along with golf and other leisure activities, that doesn’t leave much time to open a book.

A math-minded media person tallies the combined number of pages of the five volumes at 2,300.

Then someone else says perhaps the president should have slipped some other reading matter into a well-reinforced bag:  H.R. 3200 America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

With 1,000-plus pages, it’s a lot of very dry reading. 

And even with all the eager Washington readers in the mix, it has'nt made the New York Times best seller list.

But many Americans declare it’s a “must read” for the president since he is out there --- almost like on a book tour in various cities --- talking about health care reform almost every day.

To impress the media, bookworms, authors and perhaps Barnes & Noble, here are the volumes Obama brought to the 87-square-mile island, south of Cape Cod, Mass.:

•  Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a 2008 book that urges a “green revolution.”

•  Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, a 1999 novel set in Colorado that became a best seller.

•  John Adams, a biography by David McCullough that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002.

•  Lush Life, by Richard Price, a 2008 murder novel set in New York City.

•  The Way Home, by George Pelecanos, a  May, 2009, crime thriller set in Washington.

Hearing Harry Reid speak on health care costs up to $70

Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), who is facing an uphill battle in the 2010 election with Republican challengers rating higher in a Mason-Dixon poll this week, today faces the business community with his views on health care reform and other topics, but it costs attendees up to $70 per person to hear his thoughts, discovers Grumpy Editor.

At a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce “membership power lunch” at an upscale Strip hotel, Reid also will cover economic stimulus and recovery, and green energy.

To hear what Reid has to say costs Vegas Chamber prepaid members $50, prepaid non-members $65, and $5 more for those signing up yesterday or today.

Reid, a former boxer, is "on the ropes" to retain his Senate position.  A June statewide poll by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows only 34 percent of people have a favorable opinion of him.

He didn’t make points with many of those people earlier this month in Washington when he waved a patch of Astroturf --- popular artificial ground covering at indoor stadiums --- to decry what he called fabricated opposition to Democrats’ health care efforts.

“They want to try to convince people that they’re grass roots, and they’re not,” he declared.  “They’re as phony as this is.”

Nevadans get a chance to hear Reid --- who will not be facing an audience --- on Friday when he holds a “town hall” by telephone “with small business owners, healthcare providers, seniors, and any other Nevadans interested in voicing their opinions and asking questions about health insurance reform,” according to a news release.

That, however, requires signing up via a form at Reid’s Web site.

No S.S. increase for seniors covered here in April

Newspapers and broadcast outlets shook up Social Security recipients --- one sixth of the U.S. population --- yesterday with word that there would be no S.S. cost of living increases for 2010 through 2012, a “freeze” that Grumpy Editor covered in an April 2 posting while many editors were silent on the subject.

Social Security trustees project no COLA until (perhaps) 2013, something that has not happened since automatic adjustments were adopted 34 years ago.

About 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits.

Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which Washington maintains is “low” this year.

But seniors --- and others --- note rising costs in health care, utilities, car and house insurance, rent and everyday shopping items.

What puts salt on the financial wound is that members of Congress receive an automatic annual cost of living raise unless they specifically pass legislation rejecting or reducing it.  That stems from an amendment passed in 1989 giving themselves a hassle-free annual pay boost.

(This year, members of Congress received a $4,700 cost of living increase, amounting to a 2.8 percent hike, bringing their salaries up to $174,000.) 

Will newspapers take a stand on the COLA “freeze” for Social Security recipients via editorials focusing on hard-hit seniors while Congress rolls merrily along with their automatic raises?

On the heels of “cash for clunkers” and billions spent so far this year on other stimulus packages, will there be a push to contact senators and House members, urging them to make some sort of adjustment or “senior stimulus package?”

Stay tuned.

Newsweek cites ‘mock execution’ of terrorist suspect

Again, “torture” (of suspected terrorists) was grabbing heavy print space and airtime, triggered by a Newsweek story over the weekend on “a long-awaited report on post 9/11 interrogation tactics” due out this week, notes Grumpy Editor.

But all the jumping up and down by some media members was over CIA interrogators staging a mock execution in quizzing a terror suspect.

(Definition of mock [take your choice] means fake, feigned or not real.)

The fuss was over a weapon fired in an adjoining cell, “in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed” in a “mock execution,” write Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff.

Also cited was a gun being brandished during interrogation of an al-Qaeda suspect seven years ago.  In a separate incident, a power drill was turned on in a room where another detainee was being quizzed.

Attorney General Eric Holder today is weighing a Justice Department recommendation to reopen and investigate such "prisoner abuse" cases.

Compare these tactics with what enemy forces did to captured U.S. military during World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War.

U.S. troops got genuine (not mock) treatments such as yanking off toenails, hanging upside down for a lengthy period and 30 days in dank, underground space.

Washington officials, along with some media, periodically concerned about treatment of suspected terrorists seem to forget that the bad guys are not members of any military organization.  They represent no country.  Most of all, they wear no uniforms or dog tags and bear no military identification, rank or serial numbers.

If up-to-date stories on real torture are sought, a recent example worthy of a lengthy report from Washington --- and perhaps then hypoed by Newsweek and other media --- is the Aug. 7 to 8 overnight detention of 49 passengers plus two children stranded for about six hours on a stuffy jet parked on the tarmac at the Rochester, Minn. airport with little food or water and smelly lavatories.

The passengers, deprived of sleep, were not allowed to deplane and seek comfort and rest in the terminal.  Bad weather had forced the aircraft to land on a flight from Houston to Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Week’s wrapup: Sears Auto Center means well, but…

Good intentions in retailers’ PR can turn sour when customers read the fine print on receipts, finds Grumpy Editor.

Building customer traffic is especially important for Sears Holdings Corp. which on Thursday posts a second quarter loss on a 10 percent decline in revenue from a year earlier.  Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year drops 12.5 percent at Sears.

In efforts to provide some PR to Sears Auto Center patrons who have been sitting overtime in waiting rooms while vehicles are repaired, this message appears on receipts:

“The Sears auto team understands that your time is valuable and we apologize for not making our completion time on your vehicle.  Please accept this attached $5 coupon good on any purchase of $20 or more at any Sears store location nationwide.”

Now, that’s a nice gesture.

But the coupon reads “Today Only” with the date.

Indeed, “time is valuable,” as Sears admits.  So for even better PR, and a better shot in soothing customers, one wonders why not extend the modest offer for 30 days.

Better yet, just deduct the $5 from the vehicle repair bill.

In other Grumpy Editor end-of-week leftover notes:

Something urologists encounter, too?  President Barack Obama unveils a phrase that has Washington and the rest of the country buzzing.  At a Thursday health care forum he tosses this line:  “There's something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.”

Time to scrap “off the record” talk.  News outlets and journalism organizations this week send letters to about 600 press relations people urging a halt to off-the-record briefings.

Paper plans move from downtown.  Atlanta Journal-Constitution plans to move from its downtown building to leased offices formerly occupied by Macy’s across from Perimeter Mall. The Cox Enterprises’ newspaper, located downtown since 1868, has been headquartered in its current building since 1972.

TV spot uses down-to-earth announcer.  While all sorts of talking animals (birds and lizards, too) and cartoon characters are making pitches in TV commercials these days, the latest one from vehicle insurer GEICO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, features a pothole (yes, the road depression that ruins tires) doing the talking.

Fictional ad agency activities still grab.  Cable channel AMC’s third season premiere last Sunday of Mad Men, focusing on goings-on at a Madison Ave. ad agency, attracts 2.8 million viewers, one third more than the initial program last year.

Seinfeld returns with Leno.  Debut of The Jay Leno Show on NBC Sept. 14 will see comedian Jerry Seinfeld chatting with Jay Leno on collecting exotic cars.

Another D.C. lawmaker fails in geography.  In our Saturday series of how some members of Congress are fuzzy in map reading, another tale from a Washington, D.C., airport ticket agent:  An Illinois congresswoman asks how it was possible that her flight from Detroit leaves at 8:30 a.m., and gets to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.  It’s explained that Michigan is an hour ahead of Illinois.  But she doesn’t understand time zones. Finally, she is told the plane flies fast.  (Look for another congressional failure in geography in next Saturday’s posting…with more to come.)

Efforts to nab shoplifter lead to firing 2 Best Buy workers

After showing some guts in chasing and tackling a fleeing shoplifter, two employees at a Best Buy Co. store in Broomfield, Colo., are fired --- but locals, along with the Denver Post, think their actions merit a reward, notes Grumpy Editor.

Some consider the pair heroes.  The firing action casts a negative image on the electronics store.  Thus, a PR problem.

Best Buy, along with other companies, cite policies that frown on staffers tangling with bad guys mainly because of “safety reasons.” 

Perhaps being gutsy is a thing of the past, something that triggers California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to refer to some males as “girlie men.”  (Maybe the former body builder and Terminator actor also has in mind guys who shave their chests.)

A Denver Post editorial protesting Best Buy’s decision to fire the young men asks:  “Shouldn’t heroism be rewarded?”

In hero-type efforts, Jared Bergstreser, a 20-year-old former high school football player and three-year employee at Best Buy, and Colin Trapp, 10 months with the suburban Denver store, chase a shoplifter with an armload of electronics.

The suspect is pinned but, along with a male accomplice, manages to flee, jumping into a getaway car.

Companies with “do no interfere with bad guys” rules fear confrontations risk violence and other problems, including lawsuits stemming from injuries.

On the other side, a hands-off policy, in this case, encourages more shoplifting, protects perpetrators, raises crime statistics and ultimately boosts costs of operations.

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

NCR quietly brings ATM production back to U.S.

Those who frown on outsourcing electronics production to foreign nations will find a noteworthy development --- somehow not given widespread attention in daily media --- focusing on NCR Corp. in the Aug. 24 issue of BusinessWeek, observes Grumpy Editor.

The article by Pete Engardio notes NCR, which has outsourced production of ATMs for North America, is changing course and “it may be in the vanguard of a shift in corporate thinking that could bring skilled manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.”

Adds Engardio:  "Not only will NCR once more build all automated teller machines in-house, but it will also supply North America entirely from an 800-worker plant in Columbus, Ga.”

Some ATMs sold to financial institutions in the U.S. have been produced in China and Brazil.

“ATMs are so complex, NCR engineers often had to jet around the world to sort out production glitches and design changes,” leading to delays in launching a line of ATMs, points out Engardio.

NCR CEO Bill Nuti confesses, “By outsourcing, we just couldn’t move as quickly.”

However, NCR plants in Latin America, Europe and Asia will continue to make ATMs for those regions.

Also not widely reported by U.S. media is that NCR, established in 1884 as National Cash Register Co., in June announced it is moving its world headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, to Duluth, Ga., near Atlanta.

And that happens to be 113 miles from its Georgia ATM manufacturing plant in Columbus.