Grumpy Editor

Here’s why PR folks don’t return some phone calls

In the why-corporate-PR-folks-don’t-return-some-phone-calls-to-reporters department:  Grumpy Editor noted that comment was sought from Mars Inc. by a national newspaper staffer because a suspect was nabbed trying to smuggle methamphetamine “disguised as Snickers bars.” 

McLean, Va.-based Mars, with annual net sales of more than $30 billion and producer of the candy, had nothing to do with the case. 

Yet, some quotes were sought from the company with 70,000 worldwide employees and six business segments including chocolate, pet care and Wrigley. 

A Los Angeles International Airport inspection of a “sealed cardboard box with a design printed on the outside suggesting that it contained Snickers candy bars” turned up several pounds of meth disguised as a tasty confection. 

Officials noted 45 individually-wrapped “candy bars” in luggage contained a white substance. 

A 34-year-old was taken into custody as he prepared to board a Tokyo-bound aircraft. 

The writer worked in the line:  “A spokesman for Mars Inc., the maker of Snickers, couldn’t be reached for comment.” 

Maybe the luggage maker should have been contacted.

 

USS Nimitz spooking marijuana boats zips by editors

Most news media this week missed an interesting high seas story involving the 101,600-ton USS Nimitz, one of the largest warships in the world, scattering three 25-foot boats loaded with 100-pound bags of marijuana last Saturday off the Southern California coast, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Associated Press summed up the unusual encounters at sea --- which involved three U.S. ships and one Mexican vessel --- in a four-sentence mid-week story that lacked many details. 

Among media outlets that included the saga in news reports were ABC News, CBS News, New York Daily News, and Stars and Stripes. 

The supercarrier Nimitz, 1,092 feet long, was conducting flight qualification tests when sailors spotted two small boats about four miles away. 

When a Seahawk helicopter went in for a closer look, two marijuana-loaded boats sped toward the coast and began dumping bags which were later found to contain 100-pound bales of marijuana.

Another small “marijuana” boat, spotted three hours later, also dumped similar cargo after being spotted by air.

Also getting into the act was the nearby USS Princeton.  The cruiser sent sailors in inflatable boats to retrieve several dozen of the floating, dumped bales.

A Mexican navy ship arrived later and helped secure the remainder of the 186 bales of marijuana recovered that day.

Total retrieved:  18,600 pounds of marijuana.

The marijuana was subsequently transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Edisto (which fished 156 bales of marijuana tossed by a speedboat off the Baja California coast in December, 2008).

Despite all the action, Saturday's drug runners escaped.

 

As TV news eyes ratings, Hurricane Irene’s eye fizzles

In going with wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Irene over the weekend, television cable news channels --- encouraged by forecasts --- on Friday night initially figured a monster storm would raise havoc on the East Coast and their on-scene reporters would give an historic play by play, notes Grumpy Editor.  ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN all had their top talent on camera during the weekend.

Wind-blown reporters standing (by tradition) in the rain, often with crashing surf as backdrops, did their jobs.  But fizzling Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching New York, let them down.

With no catastrophe to report, especially in the New York City area --- where authorities shut down airports and transit operations ahead of the storm --- the main focus became flooded streets, power outages and downed trees.

Disappointment in the tone of reporting came Sunday morning, as one network reporter tried to keep news directors’ spirits up (and viewers glued to TV sets) by cautioning, “There still is concern here.”

One TV meteorologist, mid-day Sunday, confessed Irene would be remembered “not as a wind storm, but as a flooding storm.”

An early indication of possible doom came five days earlier when an Associated Press story warned, “Forecasters say the hurricane could grow to a monstrous Category 4 storm with winds of more than 131 m.p.h. before it’s predicted to come ashore this weekend on the U.S. mainland.”

After Irene reached the eastern fringes of North Carolina, a parade of state and federal officials issued dire warnings and told residents to evacuate.  President Barack Obama made two appearances on national television.

“Breaking news” banners peppered TV screens.

Grumpy Editor noticed several TV appearances of Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  That contrasted with virtually no media mention of FEMA earlier this year when extensive floods for days smacked the U.S. along the Mississippi River.

With Irene fading and sunshine appearing yesterday morning, a TV newsman went into detailed coverage of a Long Island hotel parking lot under 18 inches of water.

The headline on Howard Kurtz’s media blog for The Daily Beast yesterday summed up the meteorological event with:  A Hurricane of Hype.

Across the Atlantic in London, a Daily Telegraph headline over a comprehensive storm story read:  Perfect Storm of Hype:  Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was.

 

Washington, D.C., leads U.S. in alcohol and drug abuse

A new report finds adults in Washington, D.C. abuse alcohol and drugs more than anywhere else in the U.S., causing Grumpy Editor to wonder if some of that activity may influence goings on with some government workers, leading to wordy legislation out of Congress, often difficult to comprehend, along with long-running fuzziness on expenditures, budget and --- as in the news lately --- debt. 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds 11.3 percent of people 12 and older in the District of Columbia abused or were dependent on alcohol or drugs in the past year, well above the national average of 8.9 percent, reports Emily Babay in the Washington Examiner. 

“Drug and alcohol problems have long been a problem in all corners of the nation's capital, from drug deals on street corners to college binge drinking to the White House,” adds Babay. 

Politicians, lobbyists and others regularly attend functions where "work is socializing," according to Babette Wise, director of the alcohol and drug abuse program at Georgetown University Hospital. 

Other findings: 

+   D.C. ranks among top 10 states where residents most frequently reported smoking marijuana within the past month.  

+   District adults are among top cocaine users in the country --- 3.78 percent say they used the drug over a one-year period.