Getting an unusual play in print and broadcast media over several days at year end and into the new year was the focus on a single singer who quit the 360-member Mormon Tabernacle Choir because she does not want to participate at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, notes Grumpy Editor.
Jan Chamberlin posted her resignation letter to choir leaders on her Facebook page, writing that by performing at the Jan. 20 inaugural, the choir will appear to be "endorsing tyranny and fascism."
Yet no comments were sought from any of the other 359 members going to Washington to sing.
Coverage was extended when retiring Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) jumped into the fray, issuing a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that he admires people like Chamberlin who "reject tyranny and fascism and do what they can to stand up for what is right."
As one of the oldest and largest choirs in the world, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has performed before presidents over the years.
The choir has sold millions of records, won scores of awards and enthralled audiences in more than two dozen countries.
Based in Salt Lake City, the choir --- which practices and performs weekly --- is composed of volunteers, age 25 to 60, all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In zeroing in on the one choir member, much of U.S. media missed North Korea leader Kim Jong Un trumpeting his country was in the “last stage” of preparations to test fire an inter-continental ballistic missile.
Kim, in a New Year address, hinted at progress in developing the ICBM while outlining his regime’s military achievements over the past year.
Bloomberg reported Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, said the regime may test a missile before Kim’s birthday on Sunday or Trump’s inauguration.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
Also missing some editors’ eyes was a report that China's lone aircraft carrier Liaoning planned to prowl the Pacific as the communist nation seeks to assert its military might and build up its naval warfare capabilities. In an editorial, China's state-run Global Times said the carrier’s area of operation could soon include the Eastern Pacific --- and the U.S. West Coast…The Washington Examiner reported, "President Obama's lame duck administration poured on thousands more new regulations in 2016 at a rate of 18 for every new law passed,” adding, “while Congress passed just 211 laws, Obama's team issued an accompanying 3,852 new federal regulations”…Among endangered professions tracked by CareerCast.com, newspaper reporters (No. 9 on the top 10 list) are being hit by a shift from print to online medium and the loss of associated revenue. Topping the list: mail carriers…CNN’s Don Lemon was happier than usual on camera during New Year’s Eve coverage. In New Orleans, he spent the night downing tequila shots.
Austin Raishbrook, a freelance photojournalist in Los Angeles, rescued a man from a burning car on Interstate Freeway 110 while other freelance photojournalists arrived to film the action.
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