Grumpy Editor

Leno, Obama vie for most appearances in Las Vegas

With another campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, President Barack Obama seems to be competing with Tonight Show host Jay Leno in the number of visits a year to Sin City, notes Grumpy Editor.

Obama, recognizing Nevada as a key battleground state in the upcoming election, returns to the casino-studded neon capital over the weekend, on the heels of another visit just 18 days earlier.

It marks the president’s eighth visit to Las Vegas and ninth trip to Nevada this year.

Obama is esxpected to stay three nights in the Las Vegas area before heading to Denver for an Oct. 3 presidential debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Jay Leno, meanwhile, reappears for his stand-up routine in Las Vegas Oct. 12 and 13 --- with six more appearances scheduled on The Strip through next Sept. 20.

The difference between Leno and the president, however, is that Leno encourages folks to visit Sin City.

Obama is remembered for taking two negative blasts at Las Vegas.

In February, 2009, one was directed at business meetings when the president declared, “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.”

A year later, the president followed that with, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

Las Vegas’ economy then turned south, triggering pink slips to thousands of casino industry workers, knocking out construction, and sending the area’s unemployment and home foreclosure rates soaring to the nation’s highest. 

National Coffee Day 2012 serves abundance of free cups

With all the fast-moving worldwide events and pressures going on these days, how about a soothing break in routine with a FREE cup of coffee --- favorite beverage (at least during work hours) of editors --- today, tomorrow or Saturday at a number of locations around the nation, poses Grumpy Editor. 

It’s all part of Saturday’s National Coffee Day 2012. 

Take your choice of with or without caffeine. 

Getting a jump on the official day are participating McDonald’s Restaurants that will be passing out free small cups of coffee today and the rest of this week. 

Joining in one day ahead of the official National Coffee Day are participating 7-Elevens tomorrow.  The outlets will serve free 20-ounce cups of coffee from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

Then on Saturday, others join in marking National Coffee Day, including: 

Participating Krispy Kreme outlets with free 12-ounce cups of the classic American beverage.  Of course, the 75-year-old retailer will try to lure visitors to munch on one of its sweet treats.

Don’t drink coffee and still want to celebrate? 

Well, Saturday also is Confucius Day, observing the philosopher born in China in 551 B.C. 

So drop by a Chinese restaurant and pick up a fortune cookie.

See what your future holds.

Maybe with a little tea.

Look for drop in recruits as 2 Marines slated for trial

Marine Corps brass soon will be wondering why enlistments have dropped off, following word that courts-martial are ahead for two Marines charged with urinating on corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan after posing for photos in the incident, predicts Grumpy Editor. 

Charges were made against Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin and Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola.  Administrative punishments for three other Marines for their role in the urination episode were announced earlier.

What the brass --- and non-question-asking media --- failed to consider is that the deceased bad guys in Afghanistan belonged to no official military force, represented no country, wore no uniforms or dog tags, held no rank and possessed no serial numbers.

What triggered the military inquiry was a video that surfaced in January showing Marines allegedly urinating on three dead Taliban fighters.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) jumped in with a criminal investigation. 

It said there were "other pending cases related to this incident" but mentioned no specifics. 

The leathernecks were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines that fought in the southern Afghan province of Helmand for seven months.

ABC News omits pinpointing blaze that destroys 20 homes

A news report about a growing wildfire always triggers concern for folks on the road and away from home. 

But omitting the precise, or at least the general, location is a faux pas (to use a delicate French term) that seems to be growing in radio news reports with fires and other disasters, notes Grumpy Editor after hearing a top-of-the-hour ABC News account about a wildfire in California’s San Diego County. 

Nowhere in the 30-second piece early yesterday afternoon did ABC correspondent Alex Stone mention the location of the blaze that caused evacuations and “at least 20 homes are gone, burned to the ground.” 

His report opened with “San Diego County.”  But that’s as far as it went in pinpointing the location. 

San Diego County, in the southwest corner of California, is the state’s second most populous with 3.1 million residents.  Major cities are San Diego, Chula Vista and Oceanside. 

The county, spanning 4,525 square miles, extends from the Mexican border to Orange County.

Only clue in the ABC radio report was that the fire was in a rural location stemming from a short quote from an evacuating resident who said he “loaded up the horses.” 

The lack of pinpointing continued today with a noon on-the-hour ABC News radio report noting only that the fire was "in San Diego County."

Meanwhile, U-T San Diego, said the fire, which started early Sunday afternoon, was near the Campo Indian Reservation in eastern San Diego County.  Campo is near the Mexican border. 

Officials yesterday said the fire had burned 2,000 acres and 80 homes continued to be threatened.

Gingrich cites 2 weeks of ‘most intensely’ biased media

“We’ve had two weeks of the most intensely biased media you could imagine,” declared former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during his appearance Friday on “The Sean Hannity Show” on the Fox News Channel, observed Grumpy Editor. 

As an example, Gingrich mentioned “a poll came out in Virginia that shows Obama up by four points.  And you evaluate the poll and realize it’s probably off by 12 to 15 points in the number of Republicans and yet its page one.  It’s a big story.” 

Gingrich, who was a candidate in the Republican presidential race this year, added: 

“You go through item after item like this.  Mitt Romney says, correctly, that the United States should not be apologizing to those who stormed our embassy, an American ambassador gets killed in a situation where he had no security, when the intelligence system did not work, when the administration is lying for 10 days --- and you have three to four days of news media attacking Mitt Romney. 

“Bias has been as big as ever seen.” 

Meanwhile, also on Friday while appearing on CNN’s "Piers Morgan Tonight,” Gingrich urged Romney to go after President Barack Obama in next month's debates with gusto. 

"When he walks in to debate Obama,” suggested Gingrich, “he's got to be as tough with Obama as he was with me in Florida.”

11 days after deadly Libya attack: terrorists did it

Grumpy Editor’s pick as quote of the month --- 11 days after a military-style deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted:

“What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.”

She added, “And we will not rest until we have tracked down and brought to justice the terrorists who murdered four Americans.” 

For more than a week, U.S. officials thought --- and widely proclaimed --- the attack was a protest stemming from a little-seen anti-Islam Internet video. 

The assault resulted in the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith, and ex-Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods who were in Benghazi as part of a security contractor force.

As Leon Panetta tours Chinese sub, reporters see suds

Grumpy Editor notes some reporters were drinking on the job while covering Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in China and it was okay with the Pentagon chief, Chinese military and especially with the brewery --- that got a PR boost. 

Panetta toured two Chinese war vessels yesterday at the Qingdao naval base. 

But the media accompanying the defense secretary were not allowed to follow Panetta on board. 

Instead, and to curb grumbling, the Chinese sent reporters to the nearby Tsingtao Brewery for a tour and a sampling of the output. 

Some found the brewery more fascinating than following Panetta who was checking out the two-year-old Chinese frigate Yantai, 405 feet long and manned by 175 sailors, and the 228-foot-long, 10-year-old “Great Wall 197” submarine, a conventional-powered vessel, with a crew of 55. 

With the brewery tour, reporters learned that the Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 by German settlers and the brand, the top beer in China, debuted in the U.S. in 1972, soon becoming a top seller in the states.

There was no word if the brewery-touring reporters made it back to the naval base on time on a tight schedule that lists New Zealand as the next stop for Panetta.

Media miss UPI report on Russia hypoing missile defense

While print/broadcast media, focusing on a four-month old video, were wrangling yesterday over Mitt Romney’s correct mention that 47 (actually 46.4) percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2011, editors let interesting word out of Moscow --- relating to missile defense --- slip by, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Russia announced it was reactivating a ballistic missile defense system around Moscow as part of a modernization program, reported UPI.

(Yes, United Press International --- perhaps unfamiliar to some young editors --- is still around, feeding information to media outlets, businesses, governments and researchers worldwide.)

The former head of Russian Strategic Missile Forces told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that missile silos positioned to defend the Russian capital would be reactivated, UPI added.

The A-135 system is being thoroughly modernized with missiles and other elements, including upgrading of detection and tracking components, the news service amplified.

In addition, two other interceptor missile systems, deactivated in 2007, will be re-equipped, part of the modernization program.

Getting back to UPI, for those unfamiliar with the news service established in 1907, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Santiago, Seoul and Tokyo.

Among its famous alumni:  Long before becoming anchor of CBS Evening News on television, Walter Cronkite was a front-line war correspondent in Europe during World War II when the news service was known as UP or United Press.

London paper: U.S. warned 3 days prior to Libya attack

Shoving aside new information on the Libya deadly riots, media --- TV and especially MSNBC --- dwelled on a four-month old “hidden video” suddenly surfacing yesterday showing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with off-the-cuff remarks on President Barack Obama’s base, notes Grumpy Editor.

That overshadowed the new revelation, via London’s The Independent, that Libyan security officials warned U.S. diplomats three days before the Sept. 11 murders of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his team in a Benghazi attack. 

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., with appearances on four Sunday talk shows and beyond, has maintained the deaths of U.S. personnel were triggered by a 12-minute anti-Islam video rather than pre-planned. 

(No one questioned her on how most of the thousands of protesters, living way below the poverty line, could afford access to the Internet and computers to view the video.)  

The Independent pointed out the advance warning came as Libya’s interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, said his government had information that the attack on the U.S. consulate was “planned by an Islamist group with links to al-Qa'ida and with foreigners taking part.”

Furthermore, the London daily reported diplomatic sources said threat of an attack against U.S. interests in the region was known to the Obama administration 48 hours before it took place. 

The alert, it added, was issued by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but not made public. 

In contrast, The Independent also reported a State Department spokesman maintained, "We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."

USA TODAY marks 30th year with front-page blue dot

USA TODAY reached its 30^th year on Saturday and marked the occasion by unveiling a big, blue dot logo on Friday’s front page --- that featured only three stories, plus “refers” to inside content  --- along with new designs for its website and mobile apps, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The newspaper’s overhaul is “designed to showcase USA TODAY's prowess in visual storytelling and bring stronger voices to its stories" and "the new logo reflects the pulse of the nation," points out the company. 

Gannett Co., Inc., parent of USA TODAY, launched the newspaper on Sept. 15, 1982, with the mission of providing news and information that was clear, concise and presented largely without opinion or unsubstantiated analysis.  Gannett owns more than 90 daily newspapers, nearly 1,000 weeklies and 23 television stations. 

In its debut and onward, few USA TODAY stories jumped to other pages.  Entertainment and sports grabbed many readers.  Stories were short.  Pages were splashed with color. 

Original core readers were baby boomers, sports fans, singles and travelers, reminds John K. Hartman, journalism professor at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, in an Editor & Publisher article.  But “all four groups largely have gone elsewhere for their news,” he adds, as “smartphones and tablets are the reading platform of choice.” 

Hartman sees USA TODAY running into choppy waters.  “More likely,” he envisions, it “will be shuttered in the next three years, a product of the collective turning away from print and from the concept of being fully informed about national issues (even sports and entertainment) that has swept the country.” 

However, Larry Kramer, USA TODAY president and publisher, declares:  “We are making a real investment in USA TODAY, and putting a major focus on reinvigorating the value of print media while introducing new digital products.  We want to provide our readers with a unique perspective and relevant context on a full range of issues, across all mediums. We are revolutionizing the way we cover and distribute the news in relevant ways that inform and entertain our readers."