Media were excited last week reporting on a single, non-injury Tesla Motors Model S fire in a garage in Canada while most ignored two major Toyota Motors recalls --- two days apart --- involving 261,114 Toyota and Lexus brands in the U.S., 713,000 Prius vehicles in North America (1.9 million worldwide) plus 260,000 other vehicles in the U.S., including the RAV4, Tacoma and Lexus RX350 models, notes Grumpy Editor.
The fire involving Tesla’s electric car in Toronto occurred shortly after the driver parked it in a garage. The vehicle reportedly wasn’t plugged in for recharging.
A spokesperson for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla said:
“In this particular case, we don’t yet know the precise cause, but have definitively determined that it did not originate in the battery, the charging system, the adapter or the electrical receptacle, as these components were untouched by the fire.”
Interestingly, Toronto Star editors on Friday ran a Bloomberg story --- with a Los Angeles dateline --- updating the Tesla fire in a Toronto garage rather than putting one of its staffers on the local happening.
In “localizing” the story, Star editors changed Canada (last word in the Bloomberg lead) to Toronto.
In case you missed these…
NEWSPAPER FOR MARINES GETS LESS EXPOSURE AT BASE EXCHANGE CHECKOUTS. Marine Corps Times, part of Gannett Co. which owns and operates 82 daily newspapers among other media properties, is being removed from prominent up-front newsstand locations at base exchange stores worldwide and placed away from checkout lines, where it is harder to find. Marines are raising eyebrows because in the past year, the newspaper published many articles on the service’s commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, abusing his authority to ensure Marines were punished for an embarrassing war-zone scandal.
PRISON NEWSPAPER SUSPENDED. San Quentin News, the monthly newspaper produced by an inmate staff of 15 at California’s San Quentin State Prison, is back in business this week following a 45-day suspension after "inmates circumvented the editorial process by publishing disapproved content" in the December issue. The suspension of the paper, with an 11,500-copy press run, stems from inmate editors switching a photo after prison staff already approved the page.
MSNBC CONTINUES NON-STOP SPOTLIGHT ON CHRISTIE. MSNBC is not letting up on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and “bridgegate.” The cable network continues its daily extended focus on last year’s traffic jam into New York. But Christie remains busy. He visited Chicago Tuesday and returns tonight after he and his family spent the weekend in Puerto Rico.
BLIZZARD BATTERS TOKYO. While snow and ice slam much of the eastern part of the U.S., as some experts, with straight faces, attribute the unusual record-setting frigid/snowy weather to global warming (aka climate change), not much is reported in the U.S. on Tokyo getting more than a foot of snow following the worst blizzard to hit the region in 45 years.
WILL CANDY, CHERRY PIES, CHOCOLATE CAKES AND HEAPING TEASPOONS OF SUGAR INTO COFFEE BE NEXT? California state Sen. William Monning, a Democrat representing the state’s central coast, proposes to make the Golden State first in the nation to require warning labels on soda and other sugary drinks. His bill would require labels on the front of all 12-ounce beverage containers with added sweeteners that have 75 or more calories reading: "STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay."
DOCUMENTARY JOURNALISM COURSE SLATED. Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri in Columbia receives a $6.7 million gift to create a degree program in documentary journalism, educating students in the history, business and production of film and other nonfiction multimedia.
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