Grumpy Editor

Officials around the country are wondering why so many drivers are speeding these days.

 

Grumpy Editor has the answer:  TV commercials.

 

Just about every spot pitching cars shows the vehicles speeding on --- and off --- city and country roads.

 

The speeding is prompting cities and states to toughen enforcement.

 

As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Michael Hanson, director of Minnesota’s Office of Traffic Safety, declares:  “I am literally somewhat terrified by what could happen on the roads in Minnesota, and really across the country, if we don’t get a handle on some of this really dangerous driving.”

 

About 42,000 people died in car crashes last year, up eight percent from 2019, estimates the National Safety Council.

 

Law enforcement officials note an uptick in excessive speeding, with some vehicles going over 100 m.p.h. on highways.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

 

HOW STRANGE CAN HOLLYWOOD GET?  Last night’s Academy Awards, held at Los Angeles’ Union Station, the 82-year-old transit hub in downtown Los Angeles, saw few journalists and no bleachers where fans can cheer the nominees.  

 

HOME SALES SOAR.  New home sales jump 20.7 percent last month, the highest level since 2006, with the median sales price $330,800.

 

COYOTE SPOILS TV REPORTER'S LIVE SHOT.  A coyote came out of nowhere to spoil a Winston-Salem, N.C. TV reporter’s live shot for the 10 o’clock news --- on a story about coyote sightings.

FLUFFY CAT NABBED SMUGGLING NARCOTICS.  A drug-runner’s fluffy white cat is caught trying to smuggle narcotics into a prison in Panama.  The feline, carrying the contraband in a pouch tied around its neck, is stopped outside the Nueva Esperanza Prison in the province of Colon.

 TV AND MOVIES PRODUCT PLACEMENT GETS BOOST.  Product placements on TV and in movies get a boost as items now can be digitally added to scenes and closeups such as bottles or advertising signs.

FULL MOON AFFECTS MEN, SAY RESEARCHERS.  Researchers find a full moon leaves men stressed and sleepless.  They believe solar radiation reflected by a full moon could cause changes in brain activity and blood chemistry.

 

COFFEE DRINKERS MORE FOCUSED.  European scientists say three to five cups of coffee a day can make coffee drinkers more focused while also displaying greater memory and learning abilities.

TWO MINUTES OF TV COMMERCIALS PER HOUR TARGET OF FOX

Good news for TV watchers who grumble over heavy interruptions via abundant commercials cluttering programs:  Fox Network Group is aiming to slice its television spots time to only two minutes an hour, notes Grumpy Editor.

The goal to accomplish this is by 2020. Accomplishing this would be a significant change heartily welcomed by TV watchers. 

Current commercials per hour now average a little over 13 minutes on broadcast TV --- just short of one quarter hour, according to Nielsen.  On cable TV, it’s a bit more, 16 minutes.

To compensate for the revenue drop, it means charging more for advertisers to get messages beamed.

Inspiration for the reduction in ad pitches is attributed to ad-free streaming platforms such as  Amazon and Netflix.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

HIGH PRICE TAG FOR DOORS.  Doors to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's office are getting a $138,670 upgrade with installation set for summer.  The Interior Department says it is necessary to replace old doors that are in "disrepair" and attributes the high cost to the historical nature of the building while noting current doors from a hallway to the sixth floor office do not lock.

 

NAVY PLANS TO MODERNIZE SUPER HORNETS AIRCRAFT FLEET.  Boeing is being called on to modernize the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornets to extend their life by at least a decade and improve cockpit, communication and fuel systems.

 

MORE WOMEN READERS SOUGHT.  London-based The Economist, a weekly aiming to attract more readers, is targeting women — an underrepresented demographic in its audience. Less than 30 percent of its 1.4 million print and digital subscribers are women, finds the publisher. The publication started in 1843.

 

BAY STATE HATES GUNS, BUT PRODUCES THEM.   Massachusetts, which has strict gun-control laws and the lowest shooting-death rate, also accounts for one fourth of the 11.9 million guns produced each year, centered around Springfield.

 

EVENING NEWSCASTS TARGET TRUMP.  A Media Research Center analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in January and February finds 10 times more negative comments about President Donald Trump than positive statements as the ongoing Russia investigation swamps all other topics.  In the study, MRC analysts looked at 505 evening news stories that mentioned the President or his administration and tallied out of 851 total minutes of airtime devoted to the administration, the networks spent almost one-fourth of it (204 minutes) on the Russia investigation, eclipsing other major topics such as the economy, immigration reform and the gun debate.

 

TOP CITIES FOR EARLY RISERS FOR WORK.  A Census Bureau survey from 2009 to 2015 to determine key locations of early risers finds top cities where commuters leave for work before 5 a.m. include:  Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana: 13.3 percent; Pascagoula, Mississippi: 11.9 percent; El Centro, California and Stockton-Lodi, California: 11 percent; Hammond, Louisiana: 10.9 percent, and Merced, California: 10.1 percent.

 

U.S. SET TO OVERTAKE RUSSIA IN OIL PRODUCTION.  Within five years the U.S. is aiming to overtake Russia as the world’s largest oil producer with 12.1 million barrels a day, predicts the International Energy Agency.

 

WORKPLACE DRUG TESTS FADING.  As the job market tightens and more states legalize marijuana, a growing number of American employers is dropping drug tests as hiring prerequisites, notes Bloomberg.  With employers accepting drug use more, testing is no longer worth the expense.

Big 3 TV networks nix Trump’s first 100 days commercial

Grumpy Editor notes the big three TV networks refuse to air a President Donald Trump commercial citing accomplishments of his administration’s first 100 days.

Those news outlets, along with CNN, contend a “fake news” graphic superimposed over news anchors’ faces as the reason not to air the spot.

ABC also maintains the commercial represents a personal attack.

Interestingly, leading up to last November’s elections when national and local politicians were beating up their rivals in commercials, TV stations just sat back and watched political campaigns’ advertising dollars roll in despite an abundance of assorted and unverified claims.

With CNN’s refusal to air the commercial, Trump supporters accuse the cable network of censorship for nixing the message spotlighting the president’s accomplishments in 100 days.

The Trump commercial reports “America has rarely seen such success” and lists a series of actions from Trump’s first 100 days in office.

“You wouldn’t know it from watching the news,” it continues, “America is winning and President Trump is making America great again.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Business magazines turn to focus on TV personalities:  Bloomberg Businessweek devotes five pages to Fox News' Sean Hannity (wihout interviewing him) while Fortune devotes a half page with "Five Questions for Larry King."  Example directed to King:  "How has the news business changed since you started?  King:  The change in TV has been unbelievable.  But what I did in the late '50s is what I'm doing now, just transmitted differently"...Variety reports FCC chairman Ajit Pai says his agency will be looking into complaints made against Stephen Colbert “for what some labeled a homophobic joke about President Donald Trump”…Gannett Co., Inc., publisher of newspapers coast to coast, eliminates a number of jobs at as many as 37 local newspapers around the country. Matt DeRienzo, executive director of LION Publishers, says, “Already-lean small town newsrooms were hit the hardest — papers such as the Times-Herald in Port Huron, Michigan, the Reporter-News in Abilene, Texas, the Daily Record in York, Pennsylvania, and the Sun-News in Las Cruces, New Mexico”…Sinclair Broadcast Group is close to finalizing a deal to acquire Tribune Media for almost $4 billion, according to Reuters…Ever tax-hunting California is eyeing collecting taxes from space transportation companies based on a formula factoring in how often a company launches spacecrafts out of the state and, most importantly, how far a commercial spacecraft travels from Golden State soil…Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez comes up with a sore right elbow.  So that places him on the disabled list for the first time in his 14-year major league career, or 1,774 games, the most among active players.

 

Hey, isn’t North Korea north of South Korea?

Despite North Korea dominating the news and talk out of Washington in recent days, most Americans are fuzzy as to where the communist nation is located.  That's the  finding of a Rasmussen Reports survey.

It tallies only 31 percent of adults think most Americans can locate North Korea on a map but 50 percent don’t think they could while 19 percent are not sure.

Quiet Fed pay raise; overused fiscal cliff; ‘new’ Tribune

Despite a heavy flow of news stories on fiscal crisis and spending cuts at year-end 2012, somehow overlooked by major media was President Barack Obama’s executive order granting federal workers a pay raise, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper got wind of it and covered the development on Dec. 28. 

That was on a Friday afternoon, a time when most key media are snoozing. 

The raise becomes effective March 27. 

As an example of the pay increase:  Vice President Joe Biden will make $231,000 a year, up from $225,521. 

See how other federal workers fare here:  

Halper points out that a senior Republican congressional aide who reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office says the pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over 10 years.

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“Fiscal cliff” much overused by media in 2012 

Fiscal cliff, meanwhile, was one of the most overused phrases by print and broadcast media in 2012. 

Yet, the phrase is now new. 

Some writers credit Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with the words when he warned the House Committee on Financial Services last Feb. 29 of the coming “fiscal cliff” that would take effect with upcoming spending cuts and tax increases. 

Annalyn Kurtz, a reporter at CNNMoney, finds the earliest reference to the term was in a 1957 New York Times article on home ownership. 

Kurtz also notes Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) used fiscal cliff in 2008 in describing Obama’s spending program while Reuters used the phrase in several articles two weeks prior to Bernanke uttering the words in February.

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Future owner candidates eye Tribune Co. assets 

Now that Chicago-based Tribune Co. enters 2013 emerging from bankruptcy, talk centers on new owner candidates. 

Tribune Co. properties include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) plus 23 television stations. 

Coming out of bankruptcy, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. now control the Tribune Co.’s portfolio of publishing and broadcasting assets, which are expected to be sold. 

Among names mentioned as possible future owners: 

Aaron Kushner, owner of the Orange County Register.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (for the Los Angeles Times).

Doug Manchester, San Diego real estate developer who bought the Union Tribune (now U-T San Diego) newspaper in 2011.

Austin Beutner, former venture capitalist and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles (for the Los Angeles Times).

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In case you missed these... 

Ten minutes into the 2013 Tournament of Roses parade yesterday, it was cutaway time in coverage for ABC and NBC networks which decided to air commercials just as the 100-plus-member precision-marching Marine Corps band passed the reviewing stand.  But the HGTV network, without commercial interruptions throughout, showed all…The Pasadena parade included the first Defense Department float.  It depicted the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. while an added attraction was an Air Force B2 bomber timed to fly over the reviewing stand at 1,000 feet as the Korean War float passed…The Food and Drug Administration moved toward approving genetically-modified salmon for human consumption…Chicago’s Sun-Times Media Group said it will consolidate its suburban newspaper chain…Most discussed story on news/talk radio in 2012 was the presidential election, topping chatter on the fiscal cliff, according to Talkers magazine…A dopey move by District of Columbia police was starting an investigation of David Gregory, Meet the Press host, after he held up to NBC cameras a high-capacity magazine during a gun control discussion.  Police said possession of a high-capacity magazine was not permissible.  One wonders if police would get as excited if a Washington Post photographer, for example, used a similar magazine to illustrate a story on guns.

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Note:  Going into 2013, Grumpy Editor with daily postings since September 2006, will now appear in expanded format weekly.

 

Jeeps to China stemmed from print report, not Romney

In recent days leading up to today’s national election, media (extending to MSNBC this afternoon) and Democrats have been emphasizing Mitt Romney campaign’s “misleading” ads mentioning production of Jeeps --- one of the world’s most famous U.S. vehicles dating back to their debut in World War II --- would move to China, notes Grumpy Editor. 

They cite the ads as the Romney campaign’s efforts to undercut President Barack Obama’s support for the auto industry. 

Jeeps --- produced by Chrysler Group LLC, now majority owned by Italian car manufacturer Fiat --- currently are produced at assembly plants in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. 

What media are overlooking is that the China rumble started with one of their own --- Bloomberg News.

This afternoon with Martin Bashir's segment on MSNBC, discussion centered on the on-screen headline:  Romney's "Jeep" ad may have backfired with Ohio voters.

An Oct. 22 Bloomberg story reports Fiat “plans to return Jeep output to China and may eventually make all of its models in that country, according to the head of both automakers’ operations in the region.”

It adds,”Fiat is in ‘very detailed conversations’ with its Chinese partner, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., about resuming Jeep production in China.

In pre-Fiat days, some Jeep models were manufactured for distribution in that country.

Three days after the Bloomberg story, Romney, at a Defiance, Ohio, rally on Oct. 25, tells supporters, “I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China.  I will fight for every good job in America, I’m going to fight to make sure trade is fair.” 

Soon after, a Chrysler spokesman declares, “The take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce.” 

Five days later, Chrysler’s chief executive strongly refutes claims that production of Jeeps would shift to China.

Voters remain fuzzy over Romney’s business experience

Despite Mitt Romney’s many years as a business executive, a Rasmussen Reports survey finds voters are evenly divided over whether the business experience of the former CEO of Bain Capital is a plus or a minus, observes Grumpy Editor.

However, Rasmussen adds, voters in the survey consider Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, more ethical than President Barack Obama.

Attacks on his background have made some voters switch their opinion of Romney's business record and now Americans are equally divided on whether the ex-Bain executive's real world experience is a positive or a negative, according to the Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters.

The latest Rasmussen national telephone survey finds 41 percent of likely U.S. voters think Romney’s track record in business is primarily a reason to vote for him, while a similar 41 percent consider it chiefly a reason to vote against him.

“A sizable 18 percent are not sure,” adds Rasmussen.

"These findings suggest that President Obama's attacks on Romney's tenure as a venture capitalist with the Bain Capital investment firm may be having some effect," notes the poll taker.

Indeed, Grumpy Editor feels some newspaper readers/TV news viewers appear to be confused by the foolish fuss, hypoed by major media overplaying whether Romney was actively managing Bain Capital after 1999.

Most editors are going along with the detraction rather than focusing on candidates' solid plans for correcting the country's economic woes and increasing jobs --- where an improvement would be reflected in a much-needed boost in advertising, especially sought by newspapers with sinking revenues. 

Publicist’s nightmare: Ex-Sen. Specter barks at KTCN host

What makes a day rough for a book publicist is for a book-plugging author to get nasty during a live radio interview in which the host is called “absolutely insulting,” as was the case Monday when former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter appeared on a Twin Cities station, finds Grumpy Editor.

Specter, making the rounds promoting “Life Among the Cannibals” published by Thomas Dunne Books at St. Martin’s Press, made it to Jason Lewis, a conservative talk show host at KTCN (a Clear Channel Communications station in Minneapolis that prefers to be identified as News/Talk 1130), when he let loose with an outburst near the close of an interview.

“I have one final comment,” said Specter who turned Democrat from Republican in April 2009. “I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I’ve listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve been in a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting.”

Lewis fired back with:  “Good God. This is not public radio. I don’t have a government grant. We’ve got to pay the bills.  They’re called commercials. Capitalism.”

Replied Specter:  “I’m talking about someone who’s civilized. I told you the last time around I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to your commercials, and I didn’t want to hang up on you. This is no way for anybody to run an interview. I’m as experienced as you are, if not more so.”

The call wrapped up with Specter saying, “That’s all I have to tell you, so goodbye.”

Lewis countered, “Good Lord, senator, no wonder you got beat.” 

 

Fed up with dopey TV commercials? Check these spots

Take a break from those dopey television commercials, repeated over and over until you scream “enough already” at the TV set, with a look at refreshing, humorous, clever and different spots you don’t mind seeing again, suggests Grumpy Editor. 

Unfortunately, they are not transmitted on U.S. television outlets.

But you can view them here by clicking on each of the three bold-faced subjects below. 

The TV ads --- focusing on penguins, ants and crabs --- are from Belgium, created with a Pixar-type animation by Creative Conspiracy for advertising agency Duval Guillaume Brussels.  

Client is De Lijn, a public bus line that operates about 3,650 buses and 359 trams. 

The spots push:  “It’s smarter to travel in groups.  Take the bus.” 

How do these TV spots rate with you?

E-mail Grumpy Editor with your comments.