Grumpy Editor

Huffington Post foots bill for bus caravan to D.C. rally

Sorry to inform the public relations agency handling The Huffington Post's planned 200-bus caravan to Washington D.C. tomorrow that Grumpy Editor will not be able to take the 200-mile ride from New York for the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”

But thanks for the invitation to join the projected 10,000 people who will be getting free round-trip rides --- courtesy of The Huffington Post --- to the nation’s capital.

It’s not the early hour (5 a.m., to gather at the Citi Field parking lot in Flushing, with a 6 a.m. departure) that is the turnoff.  It’s because getting there would require a long, tiring, red-eye flight.

Always wanted to say hello to Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Along with providing the bus transportation, via The Huffington Post, she will be greeting travelers --- including media folks --- before boarding one of the buses herself.

“Taking a stand for sanity is not a partisan position,” says Huffington of The Huffington Post’s support of the rally.  “It's neither right nor left. It's reasonable. We have to stop demonizing anyone we disagree with, so we’re proud to be driving our HuffPost community sane.”

Huffington isn’t the only one providing bus rides to Washington and the “sanity” gathering on the National Mall.

The Democratic club at the University of Pennsylvania is offering bus transportation from Philadelphia.

But that costs $15 per person.

While predicted attendance for the rally is all over the place, a National Park Service permit says organizers expect 60,000 participants.

N.Y. Times sniffs out information on Carl Paladino’s dog

Grumpy Editor almost fell out of bed laughing after hearing a news report on how the mighty New York Times dispatched reporters almost 300 miles to the Buffalo City Hall in search of dog license information on Duke, the 80-pound pet that belongs to Carl P. Paladino, Republican candidate for New York governor who is in a battle with Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo.

Apparently sniffing around Duke is considered big news and something to get teeth into by The Times.

Two Times stories on the pooch this month totaled 21 paragraphs, tallied Grumpy Editor. 

Eight paragraphs about Duke ran under bylines of four Times staffers on Oct. 4.  Then 13 more paragraphs on the dog appeared Oct. 21 under the names of three staff writers.

Now that's dogged journalism.

The Oct. 4 piece’s second paragraph mentioned how “Duke was on the offensive, biting a yellow Labrador at a campaign stop” near Finger Lakes.

Then, the Oct. 21 story reversed the dog’s earlier-described disposition.  The second paragraph described Paladino’s pet as “a powerfully built 5-year-old with a gentle temperament.”

The focus on his dog triggered Paladino the next day to growl, “The New York Times skips the hard facts when it’s Cuomo, but they have time to scour the legal records for my dog.”

"The New York Times is taking character assassination to a new low," snarled Paladino. "Fortunately, Duke is properly licensed and perfectly legal, although I have no doubt that the story would be on page one if he was not."

Paladino concluded, "I must say the New York Times has stooped to a new low: now they're going after my dog.”

Nevada voting machines already show mark for Harry Reid

Receiving scant national coverage is a new wrinkle in possible voting fraud unveiled when some early voters in Nevada found Sen. Harry Reid’s name already checked on a ballot page of electronic units, finds Grumpy Editor.

The Senate majority leader is in a close battle with Republican Sharron Angle.

Las Vegas TV station KVVU yesterday notes some voters in Boulder City said they were concerned about fraud at the electronic machines that capture voting data.

The Fox affiliate says Joyce Ferrara was among those who went to vote for Angle but Reid's name was already checked off.  Ferrara says her husband and several others voting at the same time all encountered the same thing.

Ferrara declares:  "Something's not right.  One person that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five minute period of time -- that's wrong."

An interesting response comes from Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters.  (Boulder City and Las Vegas are in Clark County.)

There is no voter fraud, he tells KVVU, adding the issues do come up because the screens are sensitive.

Rather than calling for an immediate investigation, Lomax pins the faulty action on seniors, noting, “Especially in a community with elderly citizens (they have) difficulty in (casting their) ballot."

Among 32 states that permit pre-Election Day in-person casting of ballots, the Silver State allows early voting Oct. 16 to Oct. 29 via electronic units temporarily set up at neighborhood sites such as community centers, malls, city halls, libraries, supermarkets and even athletic clubs. 

Sometimes voting equipment is in trailers on adjacent parking lots.  Some voting sites are operational for as little as two days before moving on to other locations.

No verification of identity is required for people who vote.

All this, before Nov. 2, is raising eyebrows of those concerned about validations, tampering and security.

Former House Speaker Dick Armey, now FreedomWorks chief executive officer, in a national TV interview this week says with early voting there “is less security” that creates a “great opportunity” for voter fraud, especially in major urban areas.

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Meanwhile, Washington Examiner writer Mark Hemingway notes, “Since early voting started, there have been credible reports that voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are automatically checking Harry Reid’s name on the ballot.”

“It is worth noting,” he adds, “the voting machine technicians in Clark County are members of the Service Employees International Union.  The SEIU spent $63 million in elections in 2008 and is planning on spending $44 million more this election cycle --- nearly all of that on Democrats.”

Downward circulation drift continues for most papers

A downward circulation trend continues for many of the daily newspapers in the U.S. and, in many cases, the publications themselves provided the thrust, points out Grumpy Editor.

An Audit Bureau of Circulations tally showed average weekday circulation for 635 U.S. dailies dropped 5 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with the same period last year.

This followed an 8.7 percent decrease in the six months through March 31 and an 11 percent drop in the six months to Sept. 30, 2009.

Of the top dozen newspapers, only The Wall Street Journal showed an average daily circulation gain in the latest period --- up 1.82 percent to 2,061,142.

Newsday and the Houston Chronicle saw circulation fall more than 10 percent (see table, below).

While publishers like to cite free news --- offered for years --- on the Web as a factor for dwindling readership, newspapers have been steadily irritating readers in efforts to recoup lost advertising revenue.

Among tactics that have triggered grumbling:

Raising subscription and newsstand prices, cutting deliveries to some areas, reducing editorial space in news sections, dumping business sections on Mondays or Saturdays (or both), eliminating long-time features and columns, charging extra for daily TV logs and trimming weather pages where forecasts, in some cases, were condensed to two or three words.

Yet, despite cries of lack of space, many newspapers run half-page --- or larger --- photos or artists’ renderings when those illustrations can be just as effective in reduced form.

Other key newspapers’ latest average weekday circulation figures:

• USA Today, 1,830,594, down 3.66 percent.
• New York Times, 876,638, down 5.52 percent.
• Los Angeles Times, 600,449, down 8.67 percent.
• Washington Post, 545,345 down 6.43 percent.
• Daily News, New York, 512,520 down 5.82 percent.
• New York Post, 501,501 down 1.29 percent.
• Chicago Tribune, 441,508, down 5.23 percent.
• Houston Chronicle, 343,952, down 10.53 percent.
• Philadelphia Inquirer, 342,361, down 5.29 percent.
• Newsday, 314,848, down 11.84 percent.
• Denver Post, 309,863, down 9.12 percent.

Lebedev, ex-KGB spy, debuts third daily paper in London

How about this for a riveting, spy-makes-good movie, suggests Grumpy Editor:  A perfect English-speaking Russian billionaire (yes, with a b) who worked for the KGB, leaves the spy agency with the rank of lieutenant colonel eight years ago, gets into the newspaper business in London and now oversees three British dailies.

Will it work?

It’s a true happening.  And there’s more to the story.

Alexander Lebedev, the ex-KGB billionaire turned newspaper owner, today in London launches i, a very short title for a new daily.

Being promoted as “a new kind of daily paper,” i is published by Independent Print Ltd. which Lebedev purchased for a mere buck and 57 cents seven months ago.

Newsstand newcomer i sells for 30 cents.

Independent Print also owns the Independent, a national U.K. daily, and the daily London Evening Standard.

Lebedev, 50, who holds an economics degree, is familiar with London, being posted there by the KGB in the 1980s, assigned with analyzing politics and economics.

Going into business after the fall of the Soviet Union, he amassed his fortune through complex banking deals.  His portfolio also includes European boutique hotels.

Latest tally puts his wealth at $3.4 billion.

But will the movie saga of a Russian billionaire-turned-newspaper-publisher in the city where he worked as a KGB spy fly?

Perhaps not these days --- unless action/fantasy-minded producers figure a way to work into the script car chases, explosions and the key figure disappearing into a mass of sparks.

Juan Williams’ NPR flap leads to expanded role at Fox

Glum news to Juan Williams, dumped by NPR via a telephone call on Wednesday night, resulted in golden news for him yesterday from Fox News which signed him to a new three-year nearly $2 million contract with an expanded role that includes guest hosting tonight’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” notes Grumpy Editor.

The termination of Williams, 56, by NPR after 10 years with the public radio network, received heavy media coverage throughout the day yesterday along with much chatter in newsrooms.

Williams had dual roles as an NPR commentator and Fox News analyst.  His first appearance on Fox was in 1997.

The saga started with Williams’ appearance Monday night on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox.

In a discussion about terrorism with host Bill O'Reilly, Williams said: “Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Two days later, an NPR executive telephoned Williams with the termination news, saying his remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices” and undermined his credibility as a news analyst at NPR.

The NPR action triggered comments from media observers and politicians, some calling for cutting public funding for the news organization.

Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, declared:  “Juan Williams has done nothing wrong. What he said echoes what the vast majority of Americans believe. It's their tax dollars that fund NPR.  But NPR is ignoring them. Instead, they are kowtowing to the agenda of radical anti-Americans like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), and doing the bidding of George Soros, who hates Fox News with a passion. ’’

All Editor & Publisher editorial now berthed in California

It has been choppy seas lately for Editor & Publisher which wrote its own obituary last December when owner Nielsen Business Media announced its decision to cease the magazine’s operations with the January issue.

Then E&P was brought back to life with a February issue after being acquired by boat-oriented Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., Irvine, Calif.-based magazine and newspaper publisher.

Now an editorial staff shakeup concentrates its activities in Irvine after many years with offices in Chicago and New York, notes Grumpy Editor.

Along with shifting all E&P editorial operations under one roof, Mark Fitzgerald, editor and 26-year veteran on the magazine, is gone along with the eastern editorial staff.

Started 126 years ago as the weekly The Journalist, E&P covers the North American newspaper industry, including newsroom developments, business, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates.

McIntosh also publishes boating magazines, including Boating World, Sea and America's Western Boating plus The Log and FishRap newspapers.

Heading the E&P editorial operation now are Jeff Fleming, editor-in-chief; Kristina Ackerman, managing editor, and Deena Higgs, associate editor.

Restrictive rules hamper U.S. troops in Afghanistan

Restrictive rules of engagement are making things difficult for U.S. Army troops and Marines in Afghanistan --- resulting in a solid blow to morale --- and not much is being reported about that in media, finds Grumpy Editor.

Being handcuffed by restrictive procedures makes it difficult to grab a foothold and gain ground in a combat area.

If such strict regulations in combat with bad guys existed in the 1941-1945 period, the U.S. would still be involved in World War II, with no end in sight.

One wonders what is going on at the Pentagon.

So it was interesting to note the observations and quotes from U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan contained in a Washington Examiner article yesterday, written by Sara A. Carter, the newspaper’s national security correspondent.

With a Kandahar, Afghanistan, dateline, Carter gathered morale-jarring quotes from the frustrated troops.

Keep in mind, enemy combatants wear no uniforms or dog tags in that strange war zone.  They hold no rank like corporal, sergeant or captain and bear no serial numbers. 

Their garb blends in with what civilians wear.

But the enemy carries weapons, fires mortars, plants bombs and maims or kills U.S. personnel.

Among quotes Carter obtained from U.S. troops in the area:

•  "If they (the enemy) use rockets to hit the (forward operating base) we can't shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village.  If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can't shoot back.”

•  “We have to take down our (watch) towers because it offends them and now the Taliban can set up mortars and we can't see them.”  (Watch towers surrounding the base were going to be dismantled because Afghan village elders, some sympathetic to the Taliban, complained they were invading their village privacy, explained Carter.)

•  "I'm sick of people trying to cover up what's really going on over here.  They won't let us do our job.  I don't care if they try to kick me out for what I'm saying --- war is war and this is no war.  I don't know what this is."

•  "Everyone dies for their own reasons but it's sad to think that our friends, the troops, have given their lives for something we're not going to see through."

‘Deadly’ killing, spiking terms fading from newsrooms

Newsroom jargon is becoming mellow these days with long-time murderous references to “killing” or “spiking” stories now being replaced by “delete,” observes Grumpy Editor.

John Kelly, in his Washington Post column, brings this out as his newspaper goes to a new computer system.

Spiking a story harkens back to the days when green-visored editors had about a six-inch nail sticking up from a round metal base within arm’s length on their desks.

If a story didn’t measure up, needed more facts or just turned off an editor, it was spiked.

This was another way of “killing” stories.

Sometimes, an arm-waving editor or subordinate would accidentally receive a puncture in the process from an unseen spike poking up from a stack of copy. 

So, it looks like “killing” and “spiking” are deadly terms being banned in newsrooms.

As Kelly says:  “Now, however, my drop-down menu doesn't say ‘spike.’ It says ‘delete,’ just like on your computer.”

“Spike has been spiked,” he hastens to add.

However, Grumpy Editor feels a term such as “spike a rumor” will continue to find its way into news reports.

The phrase registers better than “delete a rumor.”

Campaigning Harry Reid claims VFW support, but…

In connection with Harry Reid’s nationally televised debate with Republican challenger Sharron Angle, local, state and national media missed the misleading fuzzy endorsement of a splinter veterans group mentioned twice by the Senate majority leader, notes Grumpy Editor.

Reid, looking straight at a TV camera Thursday night in Las Vegas, declared:  “I’ve been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.”

Well, not quite.

Reid, with a legal background, should be aware that, according to federal law, the Veterans of Foreign Wars cannot legally endorse candidates.

Seems there are two groups with VFW initials in their names.

It confuses media, too.

Reid failed to mention that his endorsement came from VFW PAC, a separate group from Kansas City-based VFW with 1.2 million members.

It might be classified as a case of identity theft.

Leaders and members of the true VFW are upset over VFW PAC, formed by 12 VFW members, which also has endorsed other Democrats, including California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Recent endorsements by the PAC are the subject of much controversy,” VFW leaders, including Richard L. Eubank, commander-in-chief, said in a message to members last week.

The leaders stressed, “The VFW PAC was created by the VFW members and not by VFW national leaders.”

They added, "We are requesting the chairman and the directors of the Political Action Committee immediately rescind their endorsement actions."