Picture this: Police answer a disturbance call at a bank --- and wind up helping an agitated customer. With no scuffle, no handcuffing and no shots fired, media ignore the event, thus missing a good story, notes Grumpy Editor.
Robert Josett, a Montebello (Calif.) Police Department officer responded to a public disturbance call at a Bank of America branch where he faced a 92-year-old man with a cane who was upset because tellers wouldn’t give him his money.
With a BofA policy requiring a valid government-issued identification card be presented before a customer makes a withdrawal, the problem was that the senior citizen’s ID card had expired and the bank was going by the book.
So officer Josett comforted the white-haired customer and suggested they take a ride, not to the police station, but to the nearest California Department of Motor Vehicles facility to get a fresh ID card.
At the DMV, staffers quickly renewed the bank customer’s ID , then Josett drove him back to the bank where he received his requested funds --- just before bank closing time.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
CONSUMER SENTIMENT AT 13-YEAR HIGH. Some media are quiet as U.S. consumer sentiment surges to a 13-year high. Americans’ perceptions of the economy and their own finances rebound following several major hurricanes, shows a University of Michigan survey that also notes repeated record highs for the stock market and a 16-year low in unemployment.
N.Y. TIMES SEEKS TO CUT BIAS. The New York Times editorial staff gets new guidelines on appropriate use of social media, urging reporters to avoid making any public comments on social platforms that would suggest political view or bias. “Social media presents potential risks for The Times,” notes the paper. “If our journalists are perceived as biased or if they engage in editorializing on social media, that can undercut the credibility of the entire newsroom."
FILMLAND PREACHES GUN CONTROL YET PROMOTES VIOLENCE. Hollywood is calling for more gun control, yet features much gun violence, including 100 uses of automatic weapons in four of its most profitable movies in theaters today, observes Media Research Center President Brent Bozell. “You just knew the Hollywood celebrity crowd would jump all over that issue in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre. Yet in just four of the biggest movies showing around the country at this very moment – Kingsman: Golden Circle, American Assassin, It, and Mother! – there are no less than 212 incidents of gun violence,” points out Bozell.
STAFF GETTING TRIMMED. Disney/ABC-TV layoffs start, triggering insiders to say it is part of a broader restructuring of the broadcast business with rumors that bigger moves, including possible sale of ABC, are coming.
PRINT EDITIONS REDUCED. Time Inc. reveals it will cut print editions of Fortune to 12 from 16 a year while Money will be reduced to 10 from 11.
STUCK ON RUSSIA. CNN doesn’t give up on the long-running Russia saga, with a Friday headline and discussion noting “Priebus interviewed by special counsel in Russia probe.”
MOST NATIONAL MEDIA DON’T KNOW VEGAS. Print and TV stories relating to the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas often refer to the location as city of Las Vegas. Mandalay Bay hotel and casino, where the shooter was based, along with most of The Strip is in county territory. Downtown Las Vegas, a few miles north, is in the city of Las Vegas --- which, unlike the county, has a mayor who is delighted to serve as spokesperson for an event outside her domain.
GOODYEAR BLIMP HEADS WEST. A new Goodyear airship --- Wingfoot Two --- left Akron, Ohio, for its new permanent base in Los Angeles.
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