Grumpy Editor

Memo to AP: Tinkering with photos once was no big deal

Associated Press severed its relationship with photographer Narciso Contreras after the news agency learned the Pulitzer prize-winning lensman manipulated a digital image of a Syrian rebel fighter by using software to remove a colleague’s (difficult to notice) video camera in the lower left corner of the frame, notes Grumpy Editor.

The action was taken after Santiago Lyon, AP’s vice-president and director of photography, said that while the alteration involved a portion of the image with little news importance, it breached AP’s requirements for truth and accuracy. 

Grumpy Editor reminds that touching up photos once was a common practice with daily newspapers. The procedure was for photo editors to send black-and-white glossies to editorial artists where they would paint out “busy” backgrounds/foregrounds and eliminate wrinkles from faces of entertainers and other people in the news, among other tasks. 

That routine included AP photos. 

Nobody complained. 

Also, photos were cropped to eliminate extraneous areas.

That, too, would be “shocking” today.

In the controversial image snapped last September by Contreras, a Mexican citizen, Lyon said AP’s “reputation is paramount and we react decisively and vigorously when it is tarnished by actions in violation of our ethics code.  Deliberately removing elements from our photographs is completely unacceptable.” 

See before and after images here:

 

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PUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST TOPS BEST CREATIVE JOBS CATEGORY.  U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Jobs of 2014” tally places public relations specialist atop the “Best Creative Jobs” category.  That position is followed by art director and architect.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects public relations specialists employment growth of 12 percent through 2022.  That amounts to 27,400 jobs to be filled.  PR profession claims No. 85 spot on the 2014 Best Jobs list.

BARTIROMO'S DEBUT ON FOX BUSINESS NETWORK SLATED.  Former long-time CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo officially joins Fox Business Network as its global markets editor on Saturday. She will anchor a daily program for FBN plus a weekly business-oriented show for Fox News Channel. 

MEDIA QUIET ON REPORT UFO ZOOMS BY JET.  Remember when anything relating to UFOs grabbed front-page headlines worldwide?  All was quiet in media last week after a report surfaces that a British airliner flying to Manchester from Spain encountered a near miss with a bright silver, metallic “rugby ball-shaped” unidentified flying object.  Pilot of the Thomas Cook A320 says he ducked as the object flew toward his aircraft, passing “within a few feet” above the jet which was flying 516 m.p.h. in daylight at 34,000 feet. 

WHY AD READERS SAY FORGETABOUTIT.  With ample space in a Friday full-page ad, JCPenney lists 22 “end of season savings” in small, difficult-to-read white words on red background.  At the bottom, four lines of almost unreadable tinier print relates to “while supplies last” and “selection may vary by store.” 

CNN CUTS VETERAN STAFFERS --- BUT PLANS TO HIRE.   CNN lays off more than 40 senior journalists, including an executive producer who spent 32 years at the network, reveals a delayed story out late last week.  Cuts are mainly in Atlanta, Washington and Los Angeles.  Despite that action, a CNN spokesperson says the cable network will add about 100 people this year, as it is “investing in journalism.” 

PORTLAND DAILY READIES SWITCH TO TABLOID.  The Oregonian is downsizing in format, going to tabloid from broadsheet. Along with the new 15 by 11 inches size, local, national and international news will be combined in the main news section. Sports will continue in a stand-alone section.  Some sections switch to the new size next month with the full change by April 2. 

NISSAN MOTOR CO. CITED FOR MISLEADING AD.   The Federal Trade Commission claims a Nissan TV commercial --- in late 2011 --- was deceptive because it showed a Frontier pickup pushing a stalled dune buggy up a steep sand dune when, in fact, the buggy and the Frontier were pulled up by cables. 

FEED BACKYARD BIRDS, GET A HEFTY FINE.  Not getting wide national media attention is a Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., report that a retired Bethlehem couple is facing an excessive $1,000-a-day fine for feeding their fine-feathered-friends.  Seems the bird feeder on their property is deemed out of compliance with a town ordinance designed to curb squirrels and other wildlife. The ordinance, in part, calls for a squirrel-proof top and catch basin affixed at the bottom of feeders.  

Tesla Motors’ CEO disputes NHTSA’s usage of ‘recall’

An “auto recall” last week, involving Tesla Motors, Inc., wasn’t a true recall but most media played it up as one, irritating the electric car maker’s founder and CEO Elon Musk who disputed use of the “recall” term, notes Grumpy Editor.

Ordinarily, a recall means returning a product --- whether auto, electric drill, baby carriage, etc. --- to a dealer.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started use of the recall word by announcing Tesla was recalling 29,222 Model S electric sedans because parts of the charging equipment could overheat.

Musk immediately sent out word that there was “some confusion in media reports” and “no Tesla vehicles are being physically recalled by Tesla.”

Indeed, the action --- said to affect under 3 percent of the vehicles --- did not require physical return of the electric cars.

NHTSA later admitted Tesla had already begun providing owners of the affected vehicles with a software update followed by a replacement electrical adapter to eliminate the problem.

Tesla sent an over-the-air software update last month and is mailing an upgraded US 14-50 adapter to affected customers.

The NHTSA  “recall” announcement was issued on the second day of the Detroit auto show where a Tesla executive revealed the firm’s 2013 fourth quarter deliveries surpassed expectations, with almost 6,900 vehicles sold and delivered.

Along with a mid-week announcement that Tesla is looking into a charging station network in China, the company’s stock --- despite the “recall” coverage --- closed Friday at $170.01, up 30.67 points from Monday’s $139.34 close.

 

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TIME TO SHAKE UP READERS AGAIN.  The Los Angeles Times continues with periodic earthquake stories.  A weekend piece cites an estimated 75 (out of 1,500) concrete buildings in Los Angeles County could topple by violent shaking.  Also in the story:  City officials have known about the potential dangers of concrete buildings for more than four decades.  (A Dec. 30 Times story mentioned apartment houses going up over or near earthquake faults.) 

NO MAPS IN THE OFFICE?  Latest Southern California wildfire --- still kicking up smoke --- triggers confusion as to what direction it is from downtown Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles Times initially places the blaze near Glendora, north of Los Angeles, then switches to northeast.  Other media outlets (all the way to London’s Daily Mail) also report the location north in the early stages then switch to northeast.  To be precise, Glendora is 21 miles east-northeast of Los Angeles’ Civic Center.

FORBES ACQUISITION BEING EYED INTERNATIONALLY.  Companies from Europe to the Far East are showing interest in acquiring Forbes Media, parent of business magazine Forbes.  Meanwhile, Forbes magazine, established in 1917, is moving its base of operations from Manhattan to New Jersey.

STAFF CUTS FOLLOW PAYROLL EXPANSION.  The Orange County (Calif.) Register, after an aggressive staff expansion, is cutting 32 jobs. Parent company, Freedom Communications, last year launched a daily in Long Beach, purchased The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, and announced plans to roll out another daily paper soon in Los Angeles.

SENATORS SEEK MORE CHATTER ON CLIMATE CHANGE.  Some Senate Democrats feel climate change should be discussed more on major TV networks’ Sunday morning talk shows.  Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are gathering colleagues' signatures on a letter, soon to be directed to the networks, asserting they are ignoring global warming.

MEANWHILE, EXPERT SAYS ‘COOL IT’ WITH CLIMATE CHANGE.  MIT Professor Richard Lindzen, a leading international expert on climate change, tells Boston’s WBZ-TV changes that have occurred due to global warming “are too small to account for” and “global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians” --- including opportunities for taxation.

GO TO JAIL, BECOME A JOURNALIST.  Key editors of San Quentin News, a monthly produced in the California prison, are serving long sentences. The editor-in-chief is serving 65 years to life for burglary and skipping bail.  The managing editor is serving 55 years to life for bank robbery.  Other newspaper staffers are inmates. 

N.Y. Times story omits Mexico gulps Colorado River water

With “global warming” getting socked following an ice-stuck Russian ship with “warming” followers aboard during summertime in the Antarctic along with record cold over most of the U.S. last week plus Southern California getting another round of earthquake perils stories, media are turning to another periodic nature-triggered standby:  drought, with a lengthy New York Times feature as a prime example, notes Grumpy Editor.

The N.Y. Times story focuses on the 1,450-mile Colorado River “being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years.” 

(One wonders who was measuring the river flow going back to 728 years before Columbus discovered America.) 

N.Y. Times writer Michael Wines relates “many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado’s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished.” 

(The Colorado River depends mainly on Rocky Mountains snow melt.  Precipitation varies from year to year, as any meteorologist will explain.  Thus, a period of low measurement could be followed by an above-average or a record-breaking tally.) 

Most interesting in the N.Y. Times piece is that while citing the Colorado River provides water to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada and California ---  and that drought-linked possible rationing lies ahead --- a vital missing word in the article is Mexico.

Mexico siphons 1.5 million acre-feet out of the 16.5 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado River and Lake Mead, stemming from appropriations in a 1944 treaty.  That’s five times the allotment of a skimpy 300,000 acre-feet annually for the whole state of Nevada, not just Las Vegas as reported by some media.

 

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A NO-NO IN NEWSPAPERS BUT OKAY ON THE BIG SCREEN.  Current showing of the Martin Scorsese-directed film, "The Wolf of Wall Street," contains more than 500 utterances of the f-word.  Now, that’s entertainment and explains why the repeated word contributes to the footage extending to three hours.

“MADE IN CHINA” FOOTAGE STANDS IN FOR L.A.  “Here,” a currently-playing film, snubs the real City of the Angels with scenes of a future Los Angeles --- shot in Pudong, a district of Shanghai.

BUT WHAT WAS ON THE MENU?  In a simple move to offset Washington media’s frustration on the administration’s policy of limiting photos to those taken by the official White House photographer, press photographers last Wednesday were allowed to photograph a weekly President Obama-Vice President Biden lunch meeting.

SUNDAY MORNING NEWS SHOWS REACH MILESTONES.  CBS’ Face the Nation, is now in its 60^th year on the network.  The program expanded to one hour in many markets in 2012 and became the most watched Sunday public affairs program for the 2012-2013 season.  Bob Schieffer has been at the helm for the past 23 years.  NBC’s “Meet the Press,” longest running similar Sunday offering, marks 67 years later in 2014.

TV NEWS VIEWERS FADE.  Pew Research analysis of Nielsen Media Research figures show TV network news viewers fell to 24.5 million last year from an average 48 million in 1985.   The findings note the 18 to 29 age group is the least likely to watch network news regularly --- just 11 percent did so in 2012 --- and 49 percent in that category say they never watch TV news.

MAGAZINE COVER STORIES FOCUS ON CLUTTER.  “Get Cash for Your Clutter” is in Woman’s Day, with a two-pager in the February issue, while Better Homes and Gardens features “Clutter Nightmares Solved” spread over five pages in the January issue.

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L.A. Times pinpoints apartments over earthquake fault

The Los Angeles Times, in the quiet news period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, came up with another periodic earthquake story to shake up readers and in the process made it difficult for future rentals of two under-construction apartment projects, notes Grumpy Editor.

Under bylines of three staffers citing a Times analysis focusing on Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the Dec. 30 story mentioned approvals by those cities of “more than a dozen construction projects on or near two well-known faults without requiring seismic studies to determine if the buildings could be destroyed in an earthquake.” 

Pinpointing a West Los Angeles address of a 49-unit apartment complex under construction, the story pointed out a 2010 state map “suggests the (Santa Monica) fault could sit directly under the apartments.”

Also mentioned was the address of  a west side 63-unit apartment building being built and the same fault “could be under the site,” said the writers who added an estimated 1,400 buildings have been erected on or next to Santa Monica or Hollywood earthquake faults. 

The story followed an October Times piece that reported “more than 1,000 old concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake.”

 

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KEEPING THE LID ON GLOBAL WARMING.  While there was much coverage of the Russian ship Akademic Shokalskiy getting stuck in Antarctic ice and its 48 passengers rescued and now are aboard an Australian ship, little was mentioned that it is the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere, and passengers were on a global warming mission. Mike Ciandella at NewsBusters tallied 40 out of 41 stories on TV network news shows since Dec. 25 “failed to mention climate change had anything to do with the expedition.”

A SMOKING HEADLINE.  Colorado pot smokers start 2014 on a high note was the clever headline over an Al Kamen New Year’s Day Washington Post story on Colorado becoming the first state to set up a system for legal cultivation and sale of marijuana. 

‘SELFIE’ USAGE GETS BAD MARKS.  Topping Lake Superior (Mich.) State University’s 2014 list of banished words:  selfie, which means snapping one’s own image via a smartphone.  Runners-up were twerky/twerking and hashtag. 

VETERAN COLUMNIST TURNS LAWYER.  Frank Mickadeit, Orange County (Calif.) Register columnist for 10 years, passed the bar and entered the new year with a Costa Mesa, Calif., law firm.  Before clearing out his newspaper desk, he issued this advice:  "Never talk to a reporter without your lawyer present." 

A Gallup poll ranking “high” or “very high” honesty and ethical standards of 22 professions placed newspaper reporters 15^th on the list and TV reporters 17^th.  Topping the rankings were pharmacists while lobbyists were at the bottom.

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Another scary L.A. earthquake story shakes readers