Grumpy Editor

Permit for photos shot in forests shakes up press photogs

Confusion prevailed following federal regulations announced last week that starting in November news photographers would be required to obtain permits, costing up to $1,500, to take photos or videos in federal wilderness areas, observes Grumpy Editor.

The Oregonian, Portland, got that information from U.S. Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, who added reporters or photographers who don't get permits could face fines up to $1,000.

Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, told The Oregonian the move keeps wilderness areas from being exploited for commercial gain.  “We have to follow the statutory requirements,” she said, pointing to the need to be in compliance with the Wilderness Act of 1964.

“It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Virginia, The Oregonian reported. “They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can’t.”

The policy, as announced, would also apply to documentary film crews, nonprofits and private citizens who might sell a photo or a video.

However, it would allow members of the press to shoot photos and videos during breaking news events, describing them as "an event or incident that arises suddenly, evolves quickly and rapidly ceases to be newsworthy."

Then on Friday, Tom Tidwell, Forest Service chief, in clarifying the sticky position to media, said, “If you’re there to gather news or take recreational photographs, no permit would be required.”

That undoubtedly brought a sigh of relief to editors of publications such as Sunset magazine which monthly includes color art of national parks and forests. 

The October issue, for example, features illustrations of San Bernardino (Calif.) National Forest, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Yosemite National Park in California, Olympia National Park in Washington and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Focusing on “hot stocks”?  About 1,000 activists gathered in Manhattan’s financial district last week to chant:  “We can’t take this climate heat; we’ve got to shut down Wall Street”…Then President Barack Obama, also in New York, speaking at the UN Climate Summit 2014, declared:  “Alarm bells are ringing”…Also getting into the climate act (as the not-yet-designated Secretary of Climate) was Secretary of State John Kerry who warned climate change may be “the most serious challenge we face on the planet”…At the same time, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century” based on a study by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington…CNSNews.com noted Oct. 1 will mark the 18th year of “no significant warming trend in surface average temperature," according to Patrick Michaels,  director of the Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science…The Journal of the American Medical Association also jumped into the climate act with a lengthy one paragraph shake-'em-up warning:  “The adverse health aspects related to climate change may include heat-related disorders, such as heat stress and economic consequences of reduced work capacity; and respiratory disorders, including those exacerbated by fine particulate pollutants, such as asthma and allergic disorders; infectious diseases, including vectorborne diseases and water-borne diseases, such as childhood gastrointestinal diseases; food insecurity, including reduced crop yields and an increase in plant diseases; and mental health disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, that are associated with natural disasters”…It should be noted that a Gallup poll on “warming” five months ago found “most Americans continue to express low levels of concern about the phenomenon. A little more than a third say they worry ‘a great deal’ about climate change or about global warming, putting these concerns at the bottom of a list of eight environmental issues”…With U.S. military being scaled back, overlooked during the heavy news week but reported in the Washington Times: Russia plans to add 80 warships to its Black Sea fleet by 2020 and expects to complete construction on a new naval base near Novorossiysk by 2016...Leaving a country boosts a company's stock price?  Announcement that Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co., maker of bleach and allied products, is exiting Venezuela hypoed its stock $6.66 to $97.23 last Monday…A two-thirds-page Toyota ad in The Wall Street Journal, designed to lure car buyers into showrooms, quoted Prius owners saying:  “We went across the U.S. three times in our first Prius.  The new one’s got a lot of adventure ahead of it”… Indication of things to come?  The Federal Trade Commission sent Grumpy Editor a news release --- in Spanish.

 

Selected for “quote of the year” at Media Research Center's 2014 Gala featuring the DisHonors Awards was columnist Eleanor Clift for her insistence that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was not murdered by terrorists at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, but died as a result of smoke inhalation.

Gallup poll: confidence in print/broadcast coverage slips

A Gallup poll, out last week --- understandably without much broadcast or print coverage --- showed Americans' confidence in the media's ability to report "the news fully, accurately and fairly" slipped to 40 percent, matching the low two years ago and down from 55 percent in 1999, notes Grumpy Editor.

Gallup found “Americans are most likely to feel the news media are too liberal (44 percent) rather than too conservative.”  That was on par with 2006 and down from 46 percent last year.

One in three (34 percent) said the media are "just about right" in terms of coverage, down from 37 percent last year, while 19 percent thought media were too conservative, up from 13 percent last year.

Summarized Gallup:  “Though a sizable percentage of Americans continue to have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media, Americans' overall trust in the Fourth Estate continues to be significantly lower now than it was 10 to 15 years ago.”

Meanwhile, a major roadblock in reporting news developments fully stems from a growing lack of access and transparency undermining journalists' work.  

Editors and reporters brought out that problem, with some blaming the current White House for setting standards for secrecy that are spreading nationwide, at a convention of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers. 

AP reporter Michael Tarm said Brian Carovillano, AP managing editor for U.S. news, noted, “The White House push to limit access and reduce transparency has essentially served as the secrecy road map for all kinds of organizations --- from local and state governments to universities and even sporting events.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE… 

Here today, gone tomorrow:  House and Senate members, after a five-week recess that included August and a quick two weeks (actually eight days) back on the job in Washington, departed the nation’s capital at the end of last week, returning in six weeks after the November elections.  That’s two weeks of work in a quarter…The New York Times was the latest to switch to Islamic State in referring to the terrorist group also known as ISIS or ISIL, joining other news organizations such as The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal in doing so…Grabbing more TV exposure than the president:  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s 45-minute press conference Friday on off-field player misconduct was carried by all major broadcast and cable networks --- even interrupting CNBC’s financial news coverage…Where are the sleuths to nail the bad guys?  Bloomberg Businessweek detailed an underground Web site that alerted cybercriminals to new stolen credit card numbers available for bulk purchase…While some folks feel a growing financial pinch with higher price tags, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the consumer price index fell 0.2 percent in August, bringing a fresh round of describing inflation as muted, dormant and, yes, even bringing back the long-overused “tame.”  However, inflation did show up with the average price for a pound of ground beef reaching $4.013, a record high…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), trying to boost his newsletter readership, e-mailed three easy questions seeking a yes or no (among them:  Do you believe college graduates should be able to refinance their student loans?).  Alongside an asterisk:  “By answering this survey, you are subscribing to my newsletter”…A press release on a “legendary restaurant” opening in a new Beverly Hills location mentioned it will be “modern and sexy” and “will reflect the sophistication of Beverly Hills” while “housed in a vintage building on Canon Drive”…A touching story with photos on service dogs and their role with those physically impaired, including returning servicemen with missing limbs, appeared in The Dallas Morning News last week.  Read it here.

Summing up the situation in Washington and security, radio talk show host Mark Levin, on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program declared:  "We're surrounded by knuckleheads, and the problem is they’re supposed to be protecting the country." 

 

Obama team alters ‘counter-terrorism operation’ to war

There was some reluctance by some in Washington late last week to use the word “war,” even after President Barack Obama in a prime-time TV address to the nation said he is authorizing the expansion of a bombing campaign in Iraq and start of air strikes in Syria to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamist militants, notes Grumpy Editor.

Originally, the White House and Secretary of State John Kerry termed the action a "counter-terrorism operation." 

Then, perhaps, someone looked up the “war” definition in a dictionary:  a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.

Later, spokespersons at both the State Department and Pentagon mentioned “we are at war" with ISIL (the Islamic State term favored by the Obama administration but also known as ISIS). 

In his speech, the president raised eyebrows by declaring “ISIL is not Islamic.”  

CNN, for example, noted, the four-letter term “could still come back to haunt him,” adding, “critics on Twitter quickly fired off on the president for making the assertion, with many noting that ISIL in fact stands for the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.’ (CNN refers to the group by the acronym ISIS in its news reports. The group recently started calling itself the Islamic State).” 

While TV viewers felt the president was facing only a camera crew, Bloomberg reporter Angela Greiling Keane revealed about two dozen people were in the White House foyer. 

That included a media pool about 20 feet from the president along with one news photographer and two official White House photographers (with cameras silent), White House staffers handling video, audio and lighting plus Secret Service agents and press secretary Josh Earnest.

Keane mentioned the five on-scene reporters were told to leave electronics and personal effects behind, not make any noise and “don’t let your pens hit the marble floor in the cavernous hall where the slightest noise was sure to echo.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Just in time:  After the president’s prime-time speech Wednesday, former White House press secretary Jay Carney, debuted as a CNN political commentator…Good PR move: Not sleepy like some other major financial institutions, U.S. Bank, alert to boosting future business, within hours of Thursday's Nevada legislature-approval of a Tesla Motors $5 billion gigafactory employing 6,500 workers to produce batteries for its electric cars, mounted a large exterior “TESLA Welcome to Nevada” banner on a building in Reno near Tesla’s plant location....Network radio news over the weekend again failed to pinpoint location of a growing wildfire in Southern California, reporting that it was “near Cleveland National Forest.”  That’s close, but no cigar.  Cleveland National Forest spans 720 square miles in three counties.  More precise:  near Silverado, 15 miles east of Santa Ana.  The community, now with some new homes, was founded in 1878...Heavy drinkers:  Britain’s The Guardian reported “journalists are coffee addicts, drinking more cups a day than any other group of professionals,” based on a survey of 10,000 people…Sluggish action:  Eighteen days after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook Napa, Calif., President Obama on Thursday declared the area a major disaster site, unlocking federal funds for recovery efforts.  The Aug. 24 quake resulted in one fatality, about 280 injuries, devastated more than 100 wineries and damaged at least 1,000 buildings…PR gimmick to grab attention?   A hedge fund investor, in a 300-page report on what’s wrong with the Olive Garden chain, suggested the Italian-flavored restaurants were being reckless in providing unlimited breadsticks…Cutbacks loom, then hiring.  In another restructuring move among its coast-to-coast newspapers, Gannett Co. was focusing on the 241-person newsroom at The Arizona Republic, Phoenix. New job titles will be posted and existing staffers --- just like new applicants --- will apply for the positions.  Early indications pointed to a staff reduction of about a dozen.

Heard Friday on Real Time with Bill Maher: former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), looking ahead to the November elections, warned, “Civilization as we know it today would be in jeopardy if the Republicans win the Senate.”

 

Few media eyebrows raised as 11 jetliners disappear

Most U.S. major print and broadcast media, usually relishing intrigue and mystery disappearances --- especially with the 9/11 anniversary on Thursday --- took a rain check in reporting 11 commercial jet airliners vanishing from Libya’s Tripoli International Airport after an Islamist militia took control, notes Grumpy Editor.

Free Beacon writer Bill Gertz on Tuesday revealed, “Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.”

A number of Web sites picked up the information, mentioning the possibility of suicide attacks utilizing aircraft.

London’s Daily Mail pointed out the 11 commercial jets from state-owned carriers Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways went missing in August after militants overran the airport.

Sept. 11 marks the 13th anniversary of terrorist attacks by airliners in the U.S. and the second anniversary of the raid on the U.S. Ambassador's compound in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Although Friday’s Labor Department report mentioned U.S. businesses added just 142,000 jobs in August, below the 226,000 added on average in the prior seven months, Vice President Joe Biden, filling in for President Barack Obama with the weekly White House address Saturday, painted a rosier picture, saying the “jobs report was another reminder of how far we’ve come. We’ve had 54 straight months of job creation. And that’s the longest streak of uninterrupted job growth in the United States’ history”…Film critic Leonard Maltin’s 2015 edition of "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide," out tomorrow, will be the last in the series.  Maltin, now 63, was 18 when the first edition of his "Movie Guide" was published in 1969…USA Today, Gannett Co.’s flagship newspaper, laid off about 70 people, equally split between newsroom staffers and employees in other departments.  The newspaper said it is “working to align its staffing levels to meet current market conditions”…Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg soon will return to run Bloomberg LP, a financial data and media company…Reporting becomes dangerous job.  The Committee to Protect Journalists estimated at least 72 journalists have been killed covering the Syria conflict; more than 80 have been kidnapped and about 20 remained missing…Danger in San Francisco, too.  A KRON, San Francisco, TV reporter, sitting in the station’s van, was robbed by two men who stole his wallet plus TV equipment before fleeing in the Potrero District. It was the latest in a series of Bay area robberies involving news media members…Although Bank of America Corp. recently settled on a $16.65 billion fine for mortgage law violations, it faces PR problems with its patrons.  In the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, BofA rated at or near the bottom for customer service in most U.S. geographic regions where it conducts business…Investigation results near?  After more than three months of investigation into Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s 2009 disappearance in Afghanistan, a final draft should be close. Bergdahl, who was held by the Taliban for five years, was released in May in a controversial exchange for five Taliban members.  Several fellow soldiers labeled Bergdahl a deserter who walked away from his outpost in Afghanistan.

Kudlow: ‘ATMs’ with billions for Obama administration

Grumpy Editor, over the Labor Day weekend, noted that Larry Kudlow's syndicated column advanced some thoughts that business editors of major publications missed:  Where are all those billions of dollars going that the Obama administration got as “settlements” from top U.S. banks?

Most recent, the former CNBC host pointed out Bank of America’s $16.65 billion settlement was for financial-crisis era mortgage securities.

That came after $12 billion was obtained from JP Morgan and $7 billion from Citigroup.

As with BofA, both payments from those top banks to the U.S. government were linked to mortgage-backed securities dealings.

“These huge bank settlements are election year ATMs for the Obama administration,” declared Kudlow, an economist and a former advisory committee member of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac).  “It’s a real shakedown.”

Added Kudlow:  “No one even remotely knows how these penalty-payment numbers are calculated.  And the federal government’s disbursement of these funds is equally mysterious.”

Kudlow was associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration. 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

CNN correspondent Will Ripley, in Pyongyang, North Korea, managed to interview three American detainees on Labor Day: Jeffrey Fowle, Mathew Miller and Kenneth Bae.  They called for a U.S. representative to go to the communist nation to make a direct appeal for their releases.  “I’m getting desperate for help,” declared Fowle…A recovered “Laptop of Doom” (as CNN called it), containing 35,000 ISIS terrorist files, resulted in interviews from Dubai over the weekend with Jenan Moussa, Foreign Policy contributor. What was interesting to the TV-dial flipper:  CNN and Fox News interviews at the same time on Sunday both were labeled “live” --- but with different backgrounds…Even with the 9/11 anniversary coming up in nine days, top U.S. editors didn’t get very excited about a new English-language al-Qaeda on-line publication that suggested U.S. locations for Muslim extremists to car bomb.  Sites included Times Square in New York, Las Vegas casinos, Georgia Military College, U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and San Diego-based defense contractor General Atomics...U.S. editors, concerned in the past about ice fading from Arctic waters, also yawned at a London Daily Mail revelation that an Aug. 25 satellite reading showed an area the size of Alaska that was open water two years ago is again covered by ice.  Among the few news outlets mentioning this:  The Hyannis (Mass.) News and NewsBusters…Two new national polls not widely reported: a Rasmussen Reports survey found 75 percent of American adults are concerned about inflation.  The tally included 37 percent who are “very concerned” and 22 percent who are “not concerned.”  Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center/USA Today survey revealed 65 percent said the world is more dangerous than it was several years ago, 7 percent felt the world has gotten safer while 27 percent said things have not changed much.  Also, nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats (46 percent vs. 24 percent) now think the U.S. does too little to help solve world problems…Fish get water, farmers don’t:  In the California water battle during a drought, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is releasing water --- through Sept. 14 --- from Trinity Lake to help protect Chinook salmon in low-water conditions.  Irate farmers declare the water release comes when their allocation of federally-managed irrigation water has been cut to zero.  Result?  Higher food prices ahead.

    The federal government plans to spend nearly $1 million to create an online database to track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. 

Grumpy Editor observes Labor Day, returns tomorrow

 

Grumpy Editor is taking the day off today, Labor Day; will resume Tuesday.

Grumpy Editor observes Labor Day, returns tomorrow

Grumpy Editor is taking the day off today, Labor Day; will resume Tuesday.