Grumpy Editor

Police files take spotlight in current news coverage

Hey, is there any good news around?

Apparently not much, using Saturday morning’s edition of a newspaper, largest in its state, as an example of something to kick off the weekend with perhaps some indigestion along with morning coffee and a muffin, notes Grumpy Editor.

Most stories seem to originate from law enforcement agencies.

Front page gets right into it with one of three long pieces devoted to a local man “accused of trafficking teenager.”

Among other items in the opening pages: Mental evaluation for Fresno suspect; Prosecutors file charges in genital mutilation case; Man kills 2, injures 1 before shot dead at office; More than 100 men accused of seeking sex from minors; record homicides reached since 2011 cartel clashes; Violence leaves dozen dead in Venezuelan capital area; Stabbing suspect believed cartel was after him; Parking lot shooting injures one, arrest made; Blood-covered nude man hospitalized, critical; Officers, drivers injured in crash amid traffic stop; Victim of rollover crash identified; Teen, city settle lawsuit over molestation by cop.

Any good news in the edition?

Well, sort of.  On the religion page, top story is on “Taking steps to combat hatred.”

Ads contribute to gloom and doom, too.  A quarter page security screens pitch, for example, carries the headline, “Protect your home, protect your family.”  Included is an illustration of  a masked bad guy in black garb ready to swing a baseball bat.

Other newspapers --- and broadcast outlets --- also go heavy on crime these days.

Whatever happened to coverage of  Boy Scouts helping little old ladies?

Well, there’s always the weather forecast --- unless rain  is predicted.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Navy veterans are shaking their heads over the changes being made in submarines --- for women now serving on them.  Designers are giving women sailors more doors, washrooms, sleeping and bathing areas, plus with more privacy, along with lowering of some overhead valves and installing steps leading to triple-high bunk beds.  These will be incorporated in the upcoming USS New Jersey. But the ship is not scheduled to be delivered until 2021…Bill O'Reilly reportedly will receive up to a $25 million payout following his exit from Fox News...How strange is North Korea?  Otto Warmbier,who was a 21-year-old University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, remains behind bars after being sentenced last year to 15 years of hard labor in a North Korea prison after he confessed to (ready for this?)--- trying to steal a propaganda banner...Tesla Inc., the electric car maker, discloses its billionaire Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk paid at least $593 million in income taxes last year…Sinclair Broadcast Group is adding 14 television stations via purchasing Bonten Media Group Holdings...A U.S. federal judge ordered Volkswagen to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine in the rigging of diesel-powered vehicles case... IBM, once the darling of business editors in grabbing space in their sections, posts its 20^th straight quarter of falling revenue, despite a 12 percent gain from its new businesses…America's chief federal banking regulator admits the agency failed to act on numerous "red flags" at Wells Fargo that could have stopped the fake account scandal at the bank years earlier. It cites an overlooked key red flag In January 2010, when the regulator was aware of "700 cases of whistleblower complaints" about sales tactics”…Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocker on the mobile and desktop versions of its Chrome internet browser…University of Tennessee’s student-run newspaper, Daily Beacon, is cutting its print edition to twice weekly in the fall from five days a week during the past five decades…The number of out-of-work people collecting unemployment checks dropped to a 17-year low in April.

 

British insurance company Aviva’s annual Home Report surveys 2,004 people on how they handle relatively common tasks around the house and finds one in five not being able to change a light bulb.

Almost forgotten: Korean War remains open-ended

So North Korea is acting up again?

Well, what else is new? asks Grumpy Editor.

Few in media seem to be aware that the Korean War, which started 67 years ago, remains open-ended.

Also labeled the “forgotten war,” the Korean War erupted when 135,000 communist North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea in pre-dawn hours of June 25, 1950. 

Battles ended with a cease fire on July 27, 1953. 

North and South Korea technically remain at war with no peace treaty. 

For the U.S., it resulted in 36,940 military deaths, 103,000 wounded, 8,142 missing in action and 3,746 prisoners of war. 

North Korea now likes to shake up the U.S., South Korea and Japan, among others, by conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests.

Over the weekend North Korea showed off its military arsenal during a Saturday parade that was widely covered. Then later, the latest --- and much touted --- North Korean missile blew up almost immediately after its test launch.

Meanwhile, with rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, less covered is a U.S. aircraft that arrived on Okinawa.  The WC-135, also known as the "nuclear sniffer," specializes in detecting radioactive debris after a nuclear device detonation.

President Donald Trump last week tweeted, “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”

As far as “help” is concerned, what seems to be forgotten is that China indeed helped during the Korean War --- by providing support in both material and especially in soldiers (battling U.S. troops on the ground) to aid North Korea.

What many seem to overlook is that nuclear disarmament talks have been going on for years.  The routine has been for North Korea to talk, followed by pauses, then more talks, followed by no final action.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

With all the highly negative publicity triggered by United Airlines actions over the past week that sparked outrage following the dragging of a ticketed and seated doctor passenger off a plane to make room for a United employee, and issuance of a string of apologies from United CEO Oscar Munoz, major media missed these:

Munoz last year won PRWeek's Communicator of the Year award and Fortune magazine's Business Person of the Year list (No. 20).

Talking Biz News reports Marijuana Business Daily now is an Associated Press member, giving the cannabis-focused publication access to marijuana-related stories from around the world…Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, which nudged past GM in market value last week, reveals the electric car company will unveil its first semi truck in September, followed by a pickup truck in about two years…Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway says it has withdrawn its application to the Federal Reserve to boost its ownership of Wells Fargo beyond 10 percent. Berkshire is the largest shareholder in the San Francisco-based bank that has been smacked by a scandal involving creation of unauthorized customer accounts…In a compilation obviously before an anticipated high snow melt in coming weeks, American Rivers, a national conservation organization, labels the lower Colorado River as the most endangered river in the nation. The river supplies water to Southern Nevada, Arizona, California --- and seldom-mentioned Mexico.

 

Another Mexican reporter killed.

A police beat reporter for Colectivo Pericu is shot and killed in La Paz on the Baja California peninsula.

It marks the sixth attack in one-and-a-half months against journalists in Mexico and the fourth that resulted in death.

California lifts ‘drought’ as wasted water continues

After a season when “tons” of water saturated the dry Golden State, filling or overflowing rivers, lakes and reservoirs, California Gov. Jerry Brown finally lifted the drought declaration, notes Grumpy Editor.

Brown declared the emergency in 2014 and officials later ordered mandatory conservation for the first time in state history.

But now, brown grass has given way to green and residents, with lifted restrictions, can now take longer showers.

However, rather than building more reservoirs to cope with increased water usage from growing population and more farming, keeping an eye on conservation will continue, say state officials who don’t seem to be concerned about precious Golden State water being wasted by flowing to the Pacific Ocean.

Over recent months, billions of gallons of water are being released from lakes and rivers, even including the Los Angeles River, to avert flooding.  Some areas discharge water to protect endangered smelt and salmon.

Water conservation will be a way of life in California, reminds Felicia Marcus, who heads the State Water Resources Control Board. “This drought has been one for the record books, but it won’t be our last or longest,” she predicts.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

On the campus front: A bill before a Vermont House committee would protect student journalists and their media advisers. It calls for content not to be suppressed because it involves political or controversial subject matter or is critical of the school or its administration. Meanwhile, colleges, seeing an upswing in demand for creative writing courses, are adding writing programs to accommodate interest in that area. The number of schools offering bachelor's degrees in creative writing has jumped to 733 from three in 1975, according to the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, an industry group based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

 

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly's new book Old School: Life in the Sane Lane debuts on top of the New York Times bestseller list amid reports that 21st Century Fox, parent company of Fox News, paid millions of dollars to five women who accused O'Reilly of sexual harassment…How much did you make in your current or last job? The New York City Council votes legislation that bans employers from asking job applicants that question…Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. eliminates 289 jobs at its newspapers amid a decline in print readership and advertising revenue…Oops! A 58-year-old pilot was arrested on suspicion of operating an aircraft while under the influence after he landed his single-engine Piper on the warehouse parking lot of fashion designer Michael Kors distribution center, Whittier, Calif…A global coalition of tech leaders, academic institutions, nonprofits and funders, including Facebook, Mozilla and Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark, are behind a $14 million initiative to combat declining trust in news media and advance news literacy. It will be administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism…Adults over 18 years old watched 27.1 billion minutes of cable news in 2016, a 44 percent jump from the 18.8 billion minutes in 2015, according to a Nielsen report…A newspaper at the Mexican border city Juarez is shutting down because rampant killings of journalists in the area have made it too dangerous for operations to continue...Look for bank shareholders stirring at Wells Fargo's annual meeting April 25 after Institutional Shareholder Services says the majority of the bank's board of directors should be removed because of lack of oversight on the recent sales practices scandal...Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will reunite at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner with a speech defending “a free and independent press”…Added ingredient: A consumer in Florida reported finding a dead bat in a packaged salad mix.

 

Sharp headline over a Wall Street Journal story on the razor business:

Gillette, in Change, Shaves Prices

 

 

 

Radio set to top newspapers with advertisers in 4 years

Radio has come a long way since the days of The Shadow and The Lone Ranger, and it’s coming back strong, observes Grumpy Editor.

BIA/Kelsey’s 2017 Investing in Radio report indicates  radio will surpass newspapers and become the fifth-largest media category among advertisers by 2021.

The report adds that nearly a century after radio stations began accepting commercials, the medium now takes about 10 percent of all local ad revenue and its fastest growing segment is on digital platforms.

BIA/Kelsey notes radio stations digital advertising income was up 14 percent last year, along with a slight increase in over-the-air income that continues to grab the biggest chunk of about $14.1 billion.

“In an age where consumers have many entertainment choices, local radio maintains its strength and popularity in the marketplace among national and local advertisers,” says Mark Fratrik, senior vice president and chief economist at BIA/Kelsey.

The report projects radio revenue reaching $14.9 billion this year, topping $16 billion by 2021.

The news-talk category shows the most improvement for 2016.

Highest earning local radio station last year: WTOP,  Washington, D.C. with $67.5 million in ad revenue.

Direct mail remains the most lucrative segment of local ad spending.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

California on Saturday upped the state tax on a pack of cigarettes by $2, making the average cost per pack now a steep $7.89…Monthly  index of pending home sales jumped 5.5 percent in February, 2.6 percent higher than a year prior…Investigation into possible connections between Russian agents and the Trump campaign was the most-talked-about story on news/talk radio last week, notes Talkers magazine...Along with that, Grumpy Editor observes a daily overused phrase since before the November election:  Russian meddling… Quote of the week?  At the daily White House briefing, Sean Spicer, press secretary, tells media, "If the president puts Russian dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a Russian connection”…Wells Fargo agrees to pay $110 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over accounts its staff opened without clients' consent. It marks the first private settlement that Wells has reached since paying $185 million to federal and local authorities last year over its sales practices…Now sprouting gray hairs is the PR department at Bank of America after a bankruptcy judge issued a $45 milliion fine, citing the bank's treatment of a Calif0rnia couple who fought to save their home as "brazen" and "heartless"...The White House staff is joining in skipping this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner…Despite California’s steepest Sierra Nevada springtime snowpack in years --- with snowdrifts up to 20 feet deep at higher elevations, the Golden State remains under drought declaration…The Guardian, London, reports a Staffordshire bull terrier mauled its owner to death while he was being interviewed by a BBC film crew...Rule:  Don’t get your newspaper carrier upset.  A 42-year old newspaper carrier in the northern German city of Lueneburg stabbed a 51-year-old customer multiple times with a knife, killing the subscriber who police say repeatedly complained about delivery problems.

Gear up for National Pet Day April 11, get a

goodie for your dog, cat --- or turtle.