Grumpy Editor

MEDIA ROUGHED UP DURING NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

 

Many news media members — print and broadcast — got roughed up during the past few days as protests blossomed around the country, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

One organization tallied 230 incidents targeting journalists since the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.  They were shot at, manhandled, gassed or arrested while covering demonstrations.

 

Despite identifying himself and crew as media, NBC host Ali Velshi was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet in Minneapolis.  Also in that city, Star Tribune reporter Chris Serres twice was ordered at gunpoint to hit the ground.  Serres wrote that he was warned “if I moved an inch I’d be shot” and "waving a press badge made no difference.”

 

In St. Petersburg, Florida, two Tampa Bay Times journalists were detained by police. 

 

With the protests, there were other journalist injuries reported in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Denver and Detroit, among other cities.

 

A freelance photographer was shot in the face by police using rubber bullets in New York.

 

Injuries were not limited to American journalists.  An Australian reporter and cameraman were assaulted by U.S. Park police at a Washington protest. 

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

PANDEMIC AFFECTS D-DAY ANNIVERSARY.  Saturday’s D-Day anniversary was one of the loneliest remembrances for the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy. The pandemic kept almost everyone away — from government leaders to frail veterans who might not get another chance for a final farewell to their fallen comrades.

 

CHURCHILL'S STATUE VANDALIZED.  Protesters in Britain — on World War II’s D-Day anniversary Saturday — vandalized a statue of the country’s most renowned leader, Winston Churchill.  Police eventually surrounded the statue in an attempt to protect it from further defacement in Parliament Square, where thousands of protesters gathered. 

 

CASINOS SPRING BACK INTO ACTION.  About half of 989 U.S. casinos --- including those on the Las Vegas Strip that were hit by the pandemic shutdown, reopened last week. 

 

WIPES BLOCK SEWERS.  Blockages in sewers and storm drains are increasing as home-bound Americans are seeking alternatives to bathroom tissue because of occasional shortages, while stepping up efforts to sanitize their dwellings and themselves with disposable wipes and masks.

 

VA CLAIMS BACKLOG SWELLS.  Backlog of Department of Veterans Affairs claims has grown by tens of thousands of cases since the department halted work because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to top VA officials. There were 119,000 backlogged claims as of Wednesday, up from 64,000 in November.

 

ADWEEK SOLD.  Los Angeles-based investment firm Shamrock Capital bought Adweek from Beringer Capital.  Adweek covers marketing and advertising. 

 

MOVIE CHAIN MAY NOT SURVIVE.  AMC, the world's largest movie theater chain closed during the pandemic, warns it may not survive because its ability to stay in business is in jeopardy if it is unable to raise funds.

 

ATMs HIT IN PHILADELPHIA.  While police coped with demonstrations in Philadelphia, thieves blew up or stole 10 ATMs, mainly at neighborhood convenience stores and gas stations in what authorities believe was a coordinated effort.

PROTESTERS HIT L.A. SYNAGOGUE.   Not widely reported was Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles vandalized and set on fire during protests last week.

CABLE CHANNEL WGN PLANS THREE-HOURS OF FACT-FILLED NEWS DEBUTING IN SUMMER

 

An alternative to the current cable news networks will debut this summer via Chicago-based cable channel WGN America, notes Grumpy Editor.

“News Nation,” slated for three hours nightly, promises just the facts without opinions — which many viewers will relish.

 

It means luring audiences from MSNBC, Fox News and CNN.

 

The new prime time offering will draw on the news operations of its parent company, Nexstar Media Group which boasts 110 local newsrooms and 5,400 journalists.

 

“I’ve heard so much about how news has become coastal, all with opinionated talk, all far left or far right, with no one covering news anymore in prime time,” says Sean Compton, executive vice president at WGN America, in a Wall Street Journal interview.  “Part of the problem is all this content is created in New York City or Washington, D.C.”

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

 

HEMMER DEBUTS TODAY ON FOX NEWS.   Fox News' Bill Hemmer, starting today, takes over the news hour vacated by Shepard Smith late last year.  Hemmer, with Fox News since 2005, says he has no interest making opinion part of his job.

TRUMP, BLOOMBERG SLATE $10 MILLION SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS.  President Donald Trump and presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg both plan to run Feb. 2 Super Bowl 60-second commercials.  Those commercials each cost about $10 million.  The game airs a day before the Iowa caucuses.

WOMAN JOINS S.F. GIANTS COACHING STAFF.  The San Francisco Giants makes baseball history by hiring the first woman to a Major League Baseball full-time coaching staff.  Alyssa Nakken, a former Sacramento State softball player, will help round out a 13-person staff as a “major league assistant coach.”  

COWBOY HAT-TOPPED PIGEON DIES.  A Las Vegas pigeon rescue group says one of the birds — called Billie the Pidge — that had a cowboy hat glued to its head has died.  The rescue group figures fumes from the glue could have poisoned it.

CIGARETTE TOSSERS FACE HEAVY FINES.  Drivers in New South Wales, Australia face a penalty of up to $11,000 if they are caught tossing a lit cigarette from their cars during a total fire ban.  Fines also apply to passengers if they toss cigarettes. 

FOX DROPPED FROM STUDIO NAME.  Disney, which bought 20th Century Fox with other media operations last March, cuts the word "Fox" from the studio's name.  

STUDENT JOURNALISTS EYE CRIME STATISTICS.  The Florida Institute of Technology is undergoing scrutiny after student journalists at the school's student newspaper, The Crimson, exposes a discrepancy over crime statistics reported by the university.

HUNGRY DOG EATS AT SUBWAY.  A hungry dog called “Subway Sally" is gaining widespread coverage by daily patiently waiting for supper outside the doors of a Portales, New Mexico, Subway sandwich shop for the past year.  Staff is happy to feed her.

VULTURES ROOST IN RADIO TOWER.  Federal officials are seeking solutions to address the problem posed by about 300 vultures roosting on a Customs and Border Protection radio tower in Kingsville,Texas.

AMBASSADOR'S MUSTACHE BOTHERS SOUTH KOREANS.  Harry Harris, a retired navy admiral and U.S. ambassador in South Korea since 2018, upsets the country with a mustache.  To some South Koreans, it evokes memories of Japanese colonial rule over the country from 1910 until 1945.

 

 

MOST PEOPLE AVOID NEWS BECAUSE IT AFFECTS MOOD: SURVEY

 

Some 58 percent of people avoid the news because it has a negative effect on their mood or because they feel powerless to change events, noted Grumpy Editor.

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University two years ago found 29 percent of those surveyed worldwide said they “often or sometimes avoid the news,” including 38 percent in the United States and 24 percent in Britain.

 

This year those numbers increased to 32 percent worldwide, 41 percent in the U.S. and 35 percent in the U.K.

 

Why do people avoid news?

 

Leading causes for Americans were, “It can have a negative effect on my mood” (57 percent) and “I can’t rely on news to be true” (35 percent).

 

Among comments:

 

     There is never anything positive in the news. It’s always negative, and I’m not a negative person.

 

     I hate hearing or reading a paper that constantly has nothing but bad reports in it.

 

     News organizations have become dependent on sensationalism and shocking news. While I agree that we need to shed light on what is terrible and the atrocities in the world, balance those with what is right in this world.

 

     I haven’t read a newspaper in years. It was all too depressing, and I have enough to read.

 

     I stopped reading newspapers or watching the news when I realized that facts don’t matter anymore.  Pressing a political or commercial interest is all they’re good for, and that isn’t healthy.

 

    Grumpy Editor, meanwhile, observed that broadcast news has become too repetitious with the same headlines carried through the day (without a "fresh" hourly top, as in former days) and sometimes into the next day or two.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

 

 

 

 

WORKHORSE DRONE.   Iran’s attack on a U.S. RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz marked the first known instance of an adversary shooting down the workhorse drone in its nearly 18-year operational history. 

 

WOMAN TO HEAD U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE. Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, a helicopter pilot who heads a military command in Guam, will be the first female leader of the U.S. Naval War College.  She will replace Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley, who is being investigated for excessive spending and abusing his hiring authority.

 

FATHERS TEND TO BE BETTER EDUCATED.  A U.S. Census Bureau report finds fathers tend to be better educated than those without children and relatively few men over age 40 have children.  The report also discovered more than 60 percent of the 121 million adult men in the U.S. are fathers and just under a fourth between 40 and 50 are childless.

 

ONLY ONE NEWS CHANNEL CARRIES S.C. DEMOCRATS' GATHERING.  Other news networks were upset Saturday that that the South Carolina Democratic Party decided only one TV outlet — MSNBC — provide live coverage to the South Carolina Democratic Convention where presidential candidates spoke.  Among banned networks:  C-Span which has never been denied live coverage of a state convention in its 40 years.

165-YEAR-OLD BRITISH WEEKLY CLOSES.  An era came to an end on the Scottish island of Bute with closure of one of the United Kingdom's oldest weekly newspapers. The Buteman has recorded the ebb and flow of the island community of just over 6,000 residents 90 minutes from Glasgow for 165 years. With circulation dropping below 1,000, its owners decided to call time. 

ANGELINA JOLIE JOINS TIME MAGAZINE.  TIME announced Angelina Jolie will join the magazine as a contributing editor.  She will write on a variety of topics, focusing primarily on displacement, conflict and human rights.  Jolie’s writing for TIME will draw on her 18 years working with the U.N. Refugee Agency.

GOING AWAY PARTY FOR SARAH HUCKABEE.  A going-away party for departing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is slated today at an upscale Washington bar and restaurant.  She plans to depart her post at the end of this week.

BEAR GETS INTO HOUSE, LOCKS DOOR, NAPS.  A black bear in Missoula, Mont. decided he didn't want to be disturbed while taking a nap inside an empty home he entered.  So, somehow, he locked the deadbolt inside, making it difficult for authorities to reach him.  They finally did, and he was relocated. 

TWO DADS COMMENT OUSTS POPULAR RADIO TALK SHOW HOST

 

 

Grumpy Editor notes popular conservative radio talk show host Heidi Harris, after two years on CBS’ KXNT in Las Vegas, is suddenly bounced from the station after commenting on her Facebook page that “it would be better for a child to have a mother and a father, rather than two fathers.” 

 

The comments followed an ad showing two men teaching a baby how to walk.

 

Her listeners, backing her comment, then take to the local newspaper’s “Letters to the Editor” page to express their unhappiness with 50,000-watt KXNT, vowing to boycott the station.

 

Harris is a two-time winner of the Electronic Media Award for "Best Local Radio Talk Show.” 

 

She also is among  "America’s 100 Most Influential Hosts” tallied by Talkers Magazine.

 

The executive vice president, communications, CBS Corp. in New York did not respond for comment. 

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

 

ILLEGALS COST MOUNTS.  Swelling population of illegal immigrants is costing American taxpayers $135 billion a year, the highest ever, driven by free medical care, education and a huge law enforcement bill, according to a report cited by the Washington Examiner.

 

STOCK MARKET BEHAVES IN SEPTEMBER.  The stock market sets the least volatile September on record.  But stock watchers caution this month historically has been the most volatile of the year.

 

WSJ CLIPS EDITIONS.  The Wall Street Journal is ending publishing European and Asian editions.

 

NFL PLAYERS KEEP POLICE BUSY.  On average, one National Football League player is arrested each week and the longest time on record that the NFL has gone without one of its players being arrested is 65 days, reports CNSNews.com.  It points to NFLarrest.com that says the average time between arrests is seven days.  Players get arrested, it adds, "for a variety of crimes: drunk driving, drug offenses, domestic violence, assault and battery, gun violations, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, theft, burglary, rape and even murder.”

 

BILL CLINTON NOVEL SET FOR TV.  Showtime secures television rights to “The President Is  Missing,” a mystery novel being co-written by former president Bill Clinton and author James Patterson.

 

MOVIE SCRIPT BEATS ESTIMATED VALUE WITH SALE.  Actress Audrey Hepburn’s personal shooting script for the film, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” sells for $846,610 at Christie’s.  That’s seven times its pre-sale estimate.

 

CBS MULLS SALE OF VAST STUDIO.   CBS Corp. is pondering the sale of its historic site --- known as CBS Television City — in Los Angeles’s Fairfax district, reports the Los Angeles Times.  The complex is known for its state-of-the-art television production, The city’s construction boom propels developers to seek new places to build.   

 

HEFNER REMAINS CLOSE TO MARILYN.  Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who died Wednesday at 91, made plans to be buried next to Marilyn Monroe at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Poll finds most believe media loaded with 'fake news'

Chatter on “fake news” just won’t go away, notes Grumpy Editor.

NewsBusters reports a poll by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies with Harris Insights and Analytics finds 65 percent of voters believe the media are loaded with “fake news.”

The poll reveals 80 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Independents and 53 percent of Democrats admit they couldn’t trust the mainstream media.

The study’s writers say “conservative voters are turned off by the media’s eagerness to uncover all the dirt they could find in the White House, when in many cases, these stories ended up being full of nothing more than hot air.”

Despite not trusting the media, just under half of those polled agreed that media are treating President Donald Trump unfairly.

The poll also notes voters are more concerned than the media about who is leaking information out of the White House.

Seventy four percent agree leaks are a serious matter that need to be investigated.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

The Los Angeles Times runs another in its periodic “big one coming” stories on earthquakes to shake up readers under a headline: “The Big One is going to happen, no matter how much you want to deny it, California scientists”…During a Thursday press briefing, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticizes the president’s choice of visiting Saudi Arabia first during his inaugural foreign trip. “I thought it was unusual for the president of the United States to go to Saudi Arabia first. Saudi Arabia! “It wasn’t even alphabetical. I mean, Saudi Arabia”…A 22-year-old University of Central Florida student, accused of illegally logging into a Florida university's grading system to change his electronics class grade to B from F, faces a felony charge of accessing a computer without authorization…The Justice Department files a lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for allegedly building and selling diesel engines that violated pollution standards. Involved are 104,000 Ram pickup trucks and Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-utility vehicles that contain software that violates U.S. emissions tests for diesels…Moving on up. Median pay for a female chief executives last year: $13.1 million vs. $11.4 million for male CEOs, according to an analysis by executive data firm Equilar and the Associated Press…Hollywood’s movie industry reached a record year in 2016 in total domestic box office grosses (via higher ticket prices). But the movie industry also is facing a shrinking audience as the number of tickets sold annually dipped by 80 million.

 

Newscast delayed by intruder.

Albuquerque’s KOB-TV delayed its Saturday night newscast after a man breached the back lot of the station and tried to enter the building. Police responded quickly and arrested the man on site.

Stephanopoulos' actions show lack of true journalism

 

ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos --- former communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy for former President Bill Clinton --- faces a credibility crisis in political coverage even after apologizing to viewers Friday for failing to disclose donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, observed Grumpy Editor.

In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made $25,000 donations each year to the charitable organization headed by Bill and Hillary Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea.

In an interview last month with author Peter Schweizer about his book "Clinton Cash,” Stephanopoulos did not disclosed that Clinton link to viewers.

In addition to being chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, Stephanopoulos is co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and host of Sunday’s "This Week."

Like many others working these days in broadcast and print news, Stephanopoulos was a political science graduate (from Columbia University, New York), rather than holding a degree in journalism, thus lacking solid education/basic training in the specialized news-gathering field.  It’s much like allowing an unqualified “dentist,” without a doctor of dental surgery degree, to drill on teeth or going to a fake certified public accountant, who doesn’t hold an accounting degree, to tackle figures for taxes.

Mark Levin, on his Friday talk show, called Stephanopoulos a “phony journalist.” 

Jeremy W. Peters and John Koblin in the New York Times on Thursday said, “Even after more than a decade as an analyst, anchor and public face for ABC News, George Stephanopoulos has never been able to shake the image that many Republicans have of him: Clinton hatchet man.”

AP television writer David Bauder on Friday pointed out “ABC News' rules permit charitable donations, but reporters are required to inform management before covering a story related to the organization.”

Bauder added, “The story is a threat to Stephanopoulos' ability to cover politics for ABC, said Mark Feldstein, a veteran broadcast journalist now a professor at the University of Maryland” and “he couldn't have given the Republican Party a greater sword to decapitate him.”

Meanwhile, Free Beacon on Friday reported Heather Riley, spokeswoman for ABC News programs “Good Morning America” and “This Week,” worked in the White House press office from 1997 to 2000.

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Among federal agencies missing from current news stories:  Anyone read or hear about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coming to the rescue of tornado victims in many states this month, or over the weekend?  However, FEMA has been busy concentrating on states that must, as of next March, properly address climate change to be eligible for grant funding…Industrial output fell for the fifth straight month in April, triggered by a drop in energy-related drilling and sluggish manufacturing, reported the Federal Reserve on Friday…So does this mean sending more jobs overseas?  Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. declined by 7,231,000 (or 37 percent), since employment in that category peaked 36 years ago, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data…Among government waste items in the "2015 Pig Book":  $120 million for the continued upgrade of the M1 Abrams tank --- despite objections by senior Defense Department officials…Comcast, largest U.S. cable provider, in efforts to repair its poor relations with customers, said it plans to hire 5,500 workers over the next three years to handle customer service…The $4.4 billion deal by Verizon Communications Inc. to acquire AOL Inc., includes the Huffington Post.

 

Gee! In the no-kidding department:

Grumpy Editor noted this front-page headline ---

 ACLU:  Tough-on-crime bills will lead to more inmates.

Tesla regains $18 analyst-linked one-day drop in 8 days; Kansas City Star cites Obama boost in middle class lives

After a Goldman Sachs market analyst’s comments sent Tesla Motors Inc. stock down $18.21 to $109.05 a share on July 16, the buoyant electric car maker steadily regained upward movement, capped by a positive outlook Friday from a Deutsche Bank analyst as the Palo Alto-based auto firm's stock jumped $5.32 to $129.39 a share, notes Grumpy Editor. 

That put Tesla $2.13 above its July 15 close of $127.26, a day before Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault set a Tesla price target of $84 a share, sending the auto maker’s stock south.  (Interestingly, two months earlier Archambault set a price target of $61.)

On Friday, Deutsche Bank analyst Dan Galves upgraded Tesla, saying the electric car maker “has taken a very large step ahead of the competition” and raised his rating to “buy” from “hold.”  He boosted his price target to $160 --- about double that of Goldman Sachs analyst Archambault two weeks ago. 

Despite a down market today, Tesla jumped to a new high, up $5.23 to $134.62.

Zig-zag comments with opposing analysts’ views are what trigger gray hairs on business writers and investors.  

Deutsche’s Galves told an Associated Press reporter:  "Several unbiased third parties (are) concluding that Tesla's first mass-produced vehicle is the best car they've ever tested.  In the eyes of many consumers and critics, (Tesla has) designed a superior car by taking advantage of the architectural attributes of an E-vehicle (such as battery placement underneath the floor of the vehicle), and using this to (the company’s) advantage (i.e. better handling, quietness, storage, interior volume)."

 

KC Star sees ‘gusto’ in Obama speech 

While many in the media cited President Barack Obama’s on-the-road speeches at two college campuses last week as recycled material --- although it included new remarks on “phony scandals” (such as Benghazi, IRS, and NSA spying) --- the Kansas City Star saw some nuggets that inspired an editorial.

The Star noted glowing pluses in the president’s comments for middle class folks. 

“Obama left the naysayers behind and pledged to spend the rest of his time in office fighting to improve the lives of the middle class,” read the Star editorial.  “He did so with gusto.” 

The editorial in the McClatchy Co.-owned newspaper also beamed, “His template is consistent, reasonable and refreshingly positive:  access to quality education from preschool to college, infrastructure upgrades, good paying jobs, home ownership, secure retirements and affordable health care.” 

The Star’s daily circulation, as of a March 31 tally by Alliance for Audited Media, was 189,283.  That compares with weekday circulation of 206,441 in September, 2010.

 

In case you missed these… 

NBC plans a Hillary Rodham Clinton miniseries timed to precede the 2016 presidential election.  It’s linked to the network’s effort to create "event" programming.  Diane Lane is set to portray the former first lady and secretary of state...More Hispanic adults are consuming news in English from television, print, radio and Internet outlets, according to a Pew Research Center survey.  It found 82 percent said they get at least some of their news in English, up from 78 percent six years earlier.

Bank PR problem:  First National Bank of Wellston (Ohio) has a very irritated female in its community.  The two-office bank foreclosed on the wrong house --- which happened to be hers.  With the action, out went her belongings, with most hauled away, some sold, others trashed…In another problem --- the type that shakes up PR folks --- when San Diego Mayor Bob Filner held a press conference Friday to announce he was undergoing two weeks of counseling, his microphone went dead soon after he started talking.  It was out for about 10 minutes while about two dozen print and broadcast staffers anxiously waited (they expected him to resign).  MSNBC, Fox News and CNN anchors, some depending on a feed from KFMB in San Diego, had to ad lib during the blank period. Meanwhile, a next-day Associated Press story identified Filner as a Democrat --- in the eighth paragraph. 

    Political affiliations usually are indicated at first mention of name.

Some mature information seekers dump wobbly news outlets; barbecue editor new position at Texas Monthly

The Pew Research Center finds nearly one-third (31 percent) of more than 2,000 adults surveyed say they have deserted a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news and information they had grown accustomed to, observes Grumpy Editor.

The survey also uncovers those most likely to have walked away are better educated, wealthier and older than those who did not.

News organizations’ financial problems (including reduced ad revenues and circulation), triggering slashed news staffs and reduced coverage, are prime factors behind the audience recoil.

Yet 60 percent of news consumers say they have heard “a little” or “nothing at all” about financial conditions.

Meanwhile, in a poke at NBC's left-leaning cable operation, Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, barks, “don’t dare call MSNBC a news organization.”

Referring to a Pew Research Center poll, Bozell says only 15 percent of MSNBC air time is devoted to straight news reporting (vs. 45 percent at Fox News) with the remainder described as commentary.

Tasty job in Texas 

With growing newspaper staff cutbacks, titles such as science editor, aviation editor, boating editor, investigative reporter and such, are fast disappearing.

However, here’s a first: barbecue editor.

Daniel Vaughn joins Texas Monthly, which focuses on the Lone Star State’s politics, environment and education, along with Texas food.

He is being hailed as the only full-time barbecue staffer on a major U.S. newspaper or magazine. 

Texas Monthly editor in chief Jake Silverstein says Vaughn “is one of the state’s foremost experts on the subject of smoked meat,” adding, “his passion for the subject is unrivaled. He understands good barbecue, he understands what it takes to make great barbecue, and most important of all, he understands the way that with good barbecue --- as with all the world’s great traditional foods --- cuisine and culture are completely intertwined.”

That’s certainly a tastier position than the police beat.

 

In case you missed these…

Getting heavy play in print and broadcast media last week was salt, with coverage focusing on a study that claims too much sodium intake contributed to 2.3 million deaths from heart attacks, strokes and other heart-related diseases worldwide in 2010.  Could a focus on the effects of pepper be next, then soy sauce?...Most interesting headline of the week illustrates where U.S. taxpayers’ money is going: $384,949 Federal Study Looks at “Plasticity in Duck Penis Length.”  The CNSnews.com story notes the National Science Foundation issues that grant --- made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package --- to Yale University for a study on “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia.”  The study aims to show age, environment and breeding changes can impact the penis length of certain ducks.

Endless winter:  Two words absent in weather coverage as unseasonal cold weather and snowstorms sweep across the Midwest and East at the start of spring --- global warming.  The U.S. is on track for the coldest March in 17 years...The late movie producer and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio executive Louis B. Mayer would have chased out of his office (and perhaps Culver City) creators of a “zombie romantic comedy” script that goes like this:  A walking corpse eats the brain of a young fighter, falls in love with the dead man’s girl friend and slowly becomes more human.  But it has been made into a movie, “Warm Bodies,” now showing

The Kiplinger Letter sums up current “not good” economic conditions in one compact paragraph:  “Growth is listless.  For every job that’s open there are three job seekers.  Nearly 8 million part timers can’t find full-time work.  Wages are stagnant.  Export growth is lackluster, and average home prices…still 15 percent below the peak.”

“Swift” progress:  Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, on CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday, declares the Obama administration has a plan to eliminate a 600,000-case backlog in veterans’ disability and compensation claims --- by 2015…Not getting much coverage:  A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of likely voters believe everyone should be required to prove his or her U.S. citizenship before being allowed to register to vote…Four days into spring, Target Corp. --- in an ad in yesterday’s newspapers --- pitches a portable ice maker with “our lowest price of the season.”

Sequestration triggers reports of wasted taxpayer funds

With the sequester in place, Washington Times and Wall Street Journal writers are among those pointing out some ridiculous happenings on where taxpayer money is dumped, notes Grumpy Editor.

On the day sequestration went into effect, the Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan tallies more than 400 jobs posted by federal agencies via ads.

Among them:  The U.S. Forest Service seeks a few good men and women to work as recreation aides this summer, the Internal Revenue Service is searching for an office secretary in Maryland, the U.S. Mint wants 24 people to help press coins, and the Agriculture is searching for three insect production workers to help grow bollworms in Phoenix. 

Citing waste of taxpayers’ money as the sequester rolls in, Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley A. Strassel lists some “absurdities in government spending.” 

They include the Environmental Protection Agency giving $141,000 for a Chinese study of swine manure, part of a $325,000 National Science Foundation outlay for building a robotic squirrel, a $27 million project to help fund pottery classes in Morocco, and most noteworthy --- “feds last year held 894 conferences that each cost more than $100,000 --- $340 million altogether.” 

Meanwhile, shutting White House tours in the wake of the sequester is kicking up some dust. 

ABC News' Jonathan Karl, for one, questions the White House's claim that $84 million in cuts, out of a $1.6 billion budget for the Secret Service, caused the end of the tours.  Karl claims, “Tours are open 20 hours a week and use 30 uniformed Secret Service officers at about $30 an hour. Total saved? Approximately $18,000 a week." 

 

‘Snow day’ in D.C. shelves ‘warming’ hearing 

Prediction of a major snowstorm smacking Washington, D.C., led to cancellation of a global warming (aka climate change) hearing slated for the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.  

Most of nation’s capital was shut down for a “snow day” in which federal workers stay home with full pay.  Although the Wednesday storm did not materialize and snowflakes were scant, there was no indication that workers would make up for the lost time in the now budget-conscious Washington. 

The Washington event --- underscoring weather predictions often are fuzzy despite heavy use of large-scale computers and specialized software with input from hundreds of daily observations from land, sea and air --- was followed by a widely covered Friday story emphasizing the planet will be warmer in 2100 than it has been for 11,300 years. 

In the study, published in the journal Science, researchers claim that after a cooling trend that lasted about 5,000 years, about two centuries ago temperatures began to rise and that projections indicate a continued uptrend. 

The National Weather Service, known as the Weather Bureau when established in 1890 (when Ulysses S. Grant was president), is staying out of the discussion which relies on paleoclimatology that reconstructs climate based on geological evidence that includes glacial deposits, fossils, sediments plus rock and ice cores.

 

Washington Post boots indie ombudsman 

The Washington Post is eliminating its independent (non-staffer) ombudsman who fields readers' complaints, investigates, and then writes about them.  The Post created the position in 1970. 

Publisher Katharine Weymouth says she and the Post "remain faithful to the mission" of the ombudsman and added the newspaper planned to appoint "a reader representative (a Post employee) shortly to address our readers' concerns and questions." 

The staffer will not write a weekly column but will “write online and/or in the newspaper from time to time to address reader concerns, with responses from editors, reporters or business executives as appropriate,” adds Weymouth."

 

In case you missed these… 

Rasmussen Reports 56 percent of voters regard news reported by the media as at least somewhat trustworthy, but that includes only six percent who think it is very trustworthy…Toronto Star reporters withheld their bylines from the Wednesday edition in a show of protest against upcoming layoffs and restructuring…The buzz around Hollywood, via “two high-level industry sources” reported in the Hollywood Reporter is that NBC is moving toward a May announcement that the 2013-2014 television season will be the last for Jay Leno as host of the long-running The Tonight Show…TV reports on an abundance of sharks in waters off the Florida coast gained wide coverage in the past few days despite the fact sightings of the toothy marine fish, most of them small and ignoring humans, are normal for this time of year…Time Warner Inc. has decided to spin off its Time Inc. publishing business into a separate company…Redesigned Redbook, one of the Hearst Corp.’s magazines, turns its focus on fashion, beauty and shopping starting with the April issue…The Salt Lake Tribune trims Monday editions to two sections from five in an effort to reduce costs.

Media not stirred by Obama’s 70,000 bridges to repair

Absent from most print/broadcast coverage of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last week:  those 70,000 “structurally deficient” bridges popping up again, this time with a repair price tag of $50 billion, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Initial mentions of the 70,000 bridges started five and a half years ago. 

Repairing bridges comes as Congress debates a jobs bill. 

Media’s focus last week was on Obama’s agenda of upping the minimum wage, climate change and gun control legislation. 

 

Broadcast newsrooms need larger maps 

One of the lead items on broadcast news last week was “a moderate earthquake has struck in rural Nevada near the California state line.” 

That doesn’t quite pinpoint the shaky area. 

For eastern news writers, the Nevada-California state line runs 650 miles.  That’s the distance between New York City and Chicago. 

Actual center of the 4.9 magnitude shaker was 45 miles west of Tonopah, Nev.  Closest California city: Bishop.

 

Rubio gulps water about 155 times on MSNBC

Television media put the focus on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s Republican response to the State of the Union address on his water sipping rather than content. 

In the forefront was MSNBC which replayed Rubio’s swig about 155 times --- with 101 of them played on loop at the bottom left of the screen Wednesday during the Rachel Maddow Show. 

CNN replayed the water action 34 times. 

In a fair-and-balanced mode, Fox News, meanwhile, showed a clip of President Barack Obama also sipping water from a plastic bottle during an earlier speech.

In case you missed these… 

Carnival Corp. faces a mammoth PR problem in the wake of power-food-sewage problems for five days on its cruise ship Carnival Triumph that was towed to Mobile, Ala…Comcast Corp. agreed to pay NBCUniversal $16.7 billion to acquire General Electric Corp.’s remaining 49 percent of the entertainment company…Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs joins MSNBC and NBC News as a contributor…Thomson Reuters plans to slash 2,500 jobs this year.  That’s 4 percent of its global work force…Time Warner Inc. is in talks to sell a chunk of its Time Inc. magazine division to Meredith Corp.  The plan calls for Time Warner to retain Time magazine, Fortune and Sports Illustrated.  But People and Entertainment Weekly, among 16 others, would mesh with Meredith’s 14 titles including Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, and Better Homes and Gardens.