Grumpy Editor

BUSINESSES HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT ON PEOPLE’S LIVES: SURVEY

More than half of Americans --- 55 percent --- surveyed by Gallup and Bentley University say businesses have an "extremely" or "somewhat" positive impact on people's lives, notes Grumpy Editor.

Americans draw a sharp distinction between large and small businesses, the survey finds. They are twice as likely to say small businesses positively impact people's lives (82 percent) as they are to say the same about large businesses (41 percent).

The survey also finds Americans are very optimistic about businesses' potential to improve society.  About nine in 10 (89 percent) say businesses and companies have "a great deal of" or "some" power to make a positive impact on people's lives, similar to the percentages who say the same about state and federal government (90 percent and 88 percent, respectively).

Charitable and advocacy groups are seen as having less potential, with 71 percent of people saying they have a great deal of or some power to make a positive impact.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

LENSES IN UPPER EYELID.  A woman who felt like there was “something in her eye” actually had 23 daily disposable contact lenses stuck under her upper eyelid.  Dr. Katerina Kurteeva of California Eye Associates, discovered the clump of contacts “in a pancake stack.”

OLDEST TREE IN CALIFORNIA.  A bristlecone pine is the world’s oldest tree species, says Guinness World Records.  Growing in California, it is determined to be 4,854 years old, verified by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona.

ALLIGATOR WANDERS IN — IDAHO.  An alligator, spotted wandering in New Plymouth, Idaho by a man walking his dog, surprises Idaho Fish and Game personnel because the reptile does not inhabit that state.  Besides, alligators are not legal to be kept in Idaho without a permit from the state.

TWO BROTHERS MAKE BASEBALL HISTORY. Two brothers make major league baseball history by playing against each other in NLCS game 2.  "He pitched his butt off," San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola says of his older brother Aaron, pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.

RUSSIAN BOMBERS FLY NEAR ALASKA.  A pair of Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers off the coast of Alaska, operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, triggers sending two U.S. F-16 jet fighters to intercept them.

CALIFORNIA TOMATOES FACE SQUEEZE.  Rising interest rates, inflation and drought are putting the squeeze on tomatoes grown in California.  Normally, the period from July to October keeps tomato farmers busy as machines scoop up the fruit and free them from vines.

AMAZON TAKES TO THE AIR.  Hawaiian Airlines will operate 10 Airbus A330-300 cargo airplanes for Amazon.com starting next fall.  The transaction could lead to Amazon acquiring up to 15 percent of Hawaiian stock over the next nine years.

To contact Grumpy Editor:  [email protected]

EXTREME PRIDE IN THE U.S. HITS 18-YEAR LOW: GALLUP

A Galllup Poll finds extreme pride in the country is at an 18-year low, with 45 percent of adults saying they are “extremely proud” to be Americans with 70 percent mentioning they were proud, notes Grumpy Editor.

“Record-low American patriotism is the latest casualty of the sharply polarized political climate in the U.S. today,” finds Gallup.  “The decline reflects plummeting pride among Democrats since Trump took office, even as Republican pride has edged higher.”

“Highest readings on the measure, 69 percent and 70 percent, were between 2002 and 2004, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the American public expressed high levels of patriotism and rallied around the U.S. government,” adds Gallup.

With this, New York Post’s Kyle Smith, in an opinion column, points out:

"American military, economic and cultural power dominates the world (you’ve never heard of the biggest movie made by China or France this year, but they’ve certainly heard of “Avengers: Endgame”). America leads the world in Nobel laureates, and it isn’t close. America leads the world in the success of our middle class, and it isn’t close. True, America has more poor people than some other countries — but that’s because we let in millions of people from poor countries. Saying “America has a poverty problem” is like saying, “Florida has a high death rate.” Florida doesn’t kill people, it just attracts a lot of old ones." 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

Alfred E. Neuman

 

MAD MAGAZINE LEAVING NEWSSTANDS.  MAD, the magazine instantly recognizable by the gap-toothed smiling face of mascot Alfred E. Neuman (debuting in 1956), will be leaving newsstands after the August issue.   Starting with the issue that goes on sale in October, the long-running satirical magazine will be available only at comic book stores or mailed to subscribers.  Most material will be pulled from cartoons and parodies published over the magazine's 67-year run. The only new material will come in special editions at year's end.

 

LAID OFF NEWS STAFFERS GROWS.  About 3,000 people in the news business have been laid off or been offered buyouts in the first five months of this year.  Cuts have been widespread. Newspapers owned by Gannett and McClatchy, digital media companies like BuzzFeed and Vice Media, and cable news channel CNN have all shed employees.  The level of attrition is the highest since 2009, when the industry saw 7,914 job cuts in the first five months of that year in the wake of the financial crisis, according to data compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement and executive coaching firm.

 

EMPLOYED PEOPLE HITS RECORD.  A record 157,005,000 people were employed in June, the most since February and the 19th record of Trump's presidency, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.  The economy added 224,000 jobs in June, well above the estimate of 160,000.  Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, lowest in 50 years, ticked up a tenth of a point to 3.7 percent.

BOSSA NOVA PIONEER DIES.  Joao Gilberto, 88, Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter considered one of the fathers of the bossa nova genre that gained global popularity in the 1960s, died Saturday.  Bossa nova emerged in the late 1950s and gained a worldwide following in the 1960s, pioneered by Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, who composed the iconic The Girl From Ipanema that was performed by Gilberto and others.

YOUNG FOX WALKS FROM NORWAY TO CANADA.  BBC News reported a young Arctic fox walked across the ice from Norway's Svalbard islands to Ellesmere Island in northern Canada --- 2,176 miles --- in 76 days. To aid in tracking, researchers at Norway's Polar Institute fitted the young female with a GPS device and freed her into the wild in late March, 2018, on the east coast of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard archipelago's main island. The fox was under a year old when she set off on her westward trip.

U.S. ECONOMY SETS RECORD.  The U.S. economy set a record for the most consecutive months without a recession -- 121 -- which dates back to 2009.  Cities that have fared tbest were New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami.  Unemployment peaked at 10 percent in October, 2009 and now is at 3.6 percent, lowest level in 50 years.

FOX NEWS CONTINUES TOP OF LIST.  Fox News finished this year’s  second quarter in precisely the place the network has been for the last 70 consecutive quarters: on top. According to ratings data compiled by Nielsen, Fox News had seven of the top 10 cable news programs and eight of the top 10 among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by national advertisers. 

TESLA SETS RECORD IN DELIVERIES.  Tesla reported 95,200 vehicle deliveries to worldwide customers in the second quarter, breaking its previous quarterly record of 90,700 set in 2018's fourth quarter.

 

 

 

 

 

Do ‘fake polls’ also join the list for close scrutiny?

Should one believe in accuracy of polls, most of them giving President Donald Trump a bad time? asks Grumpy Editor.

With a handle on that is the New York Post’s John Crudele who points out: “These are the same polls that said Hillary Clinton would be in the White House right now. Not only that, but they said Clinton would easily win the presidency.”

Crudele adds, “Pollsters must love these between-election polls because they can report anything and not be proved wrong. It’s when there is an election coming up that they really stick their necks out.”

And what about the media’s role in carrying out the findings?

Concludes Crudele: “The media, of course, are complicit in the pollsters’ scam. Without the press, the polls would go unnoticed.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE..

Now that’s pinpointing the action. A Fox News item, with a video of swinging fists, Saturday night mentions pro and anti Donald Trump forces fighting in California with no mention of exactly where in the third most extensive state --- with 163,696 square miles. (It was in Huntington Beach, in Orange County)…Despite a busy news day, Associated Press, in a "this is big news" report from Hanoi, manages to alert U.S. media that Vietnam’s aviation authority suspended three air traffic controllers, including one who fell asleep while on duty…Where is the beef? A New York Times report finds Americans ate 19 percent less beef from 2005 to 2014…The Hollywood Reporter agrees to pay $900,000 to freelancers as part of a settlement with a class action lawsuit…The Army will be welcoming thousands of new soldiers in coming months to fill gaps in tactical units’ combat readiness…Chris Roush, writing in Talking Biz News, reports a Women’s Media Center study shows female bylines at the Wall Street Journal dropped from 39.2 percent in 2015 to 34.3 percent in last year’s Sept. 1 to Nov. 30 period…Joining the cancellation crowd linked to next month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner are Time and People magazines' annual pre-dinner celebrity-heavy social gathering…Kaiser Family Foundation reports in 24 of the nation’s 50 states at least half of the babies born in the latest year tally (2015) had births paid via Medicaid. Top three states: New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana...The Wall Street Journal reports median pay for CEOs of the 100 biggest U.S. companies rose nearly 7 percent last year to $11.5 million.

 

WalletHub, Washington, D.C. analysts compare all states and District of Columbia across 18 key metrics, with data ranging from share of STEM professionals to R&D spending per capita to average Internet speed to come up with the most and least innovative.

	Most Innovative States			Least Innovative States
	1	District of Columbia		42	Maine
	2	Maryland		43	South Dakota
	3	Massachusetts		44	Iowa
	4	California		45	Tennessee
	5	Colorado		46	North Dakota
	6	Washington		47	Oklahoma
	7	Virginia		48	Kentucky
	8	Utah		49	Louisiana
	9	Connecticut		50	Mississippi
	10	New Hampshire		51	West Virginia

Pollsters, key media and stock mart analysts get it wrong

The "surprise" election of Republican Donald J. Trump illustrates the blushingly wrong-way predictions via political polls, mainstream media and stock market analysts, notes Grumpy Editor.

The question now:  will folks believe them next time?

Polls were way off base. A prime example is Reuters.  In late August, a Reuters/Ipsos poll proclaims Democrat Hillary Clinton, in winning key swing states, would have "a 95 percent chance of beating" Trump.  Then in newspapers on election day, a Reuters/Ipsos story trumpets "Clinton has about a 90 percent chance of defeating" Trump in the race for the White House.

Pollsters, in attempting to recover their blunders, claim their jobs are more difficult now because people are changing how they communicate, with cell phones taking the lead over land lines and the internet.  

Meanwhile, key media, including most TV news outlets, simply got it wrong along with their political pundits, losing touch with many Americans.  Right through election day they had Clinton riding a comfortable victory over Trump.

Pre-election predictions by most stock market analysts warned that with a Trump victory there would be a collapse in share prices.  Instead, the Dow industrials jumped 257 points the day after the elections and wound up the week in new high territory, with the Dow at 18847.65 points.

Believability will be a difficult effort for pollsters, key media and stock market analysts the next time around.

Associated Press got into the act, too, in updating its Stylebook's political terms, mentioning not to refer to the husband of Hillary Clinton as “first gentleman” in the White House but simply “former President Clinton.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Washington is slow in revealing that the four people killed Saturday inside Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, Afghanistan were Americans --- two service members and two contractors. Sixteen other U.S. service members were injured when a man wearing a suicide vest detonated himself. The event didn’t get major headlines in the U.S…Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., the New York Times’ publisher, appeals to readers for their continued support, promising the paper would “reflect” on its coverage of this year’s election while rededicating itself to reporting on “America and the world” honestly…Got to double check those CNNMoney headlines on the web. On Thursday, one read:  People Magazine has come under fire by readers after publishing a cover featuring President-elect, Donald Trump. Then down in the seventh paragraph the “coming under fire” is attributed to “several of People's readers took to social media to claim they would be boycotting the magazine”…A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that, when asked to choose from a list of factors, 27 percent of likely voters say the character of the candidates was most important to their vote this year. Nearly as many --- 23 percent --- say the economy/jobs was most important, followed by national security and the war on terror at 15 percent while 13 percent say fiscal issues such as taxes, government spending and business regulation as most important…As what happened with the Chicago Tribune in 1948 when its headline incorrectly read: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, a Turkish newspaper mistakenly called the election result for Hillary Clinton early Wednesday. Tabloid Posta’s front page headline read "CLINTON PRESIDENT"…Police in Brisbane, Australian in searching the zippered canvas bag of a 50-year-old woman who was being arrested, find a three-pound baby koala. She tells police she had been caring for the animal since she found it the prior day. Police named him Alfred...General Motors plans to lay off 2,000 employees at two U.S. auto plants early next year. 

 

Remember this when ordering a hamburger:

Today is National Pickle Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gallup poll finds most voters say media favor Clinton

A national poll finds most registered voters agree with what Donald Trump has been declaring in this presidential election:  media are biased, favoring Hillary Clinton, notes Grumpy Editor.

A Gallup poll tallies 52 percent of media are biased in favor of Clinton while eight percent are biased in favor of Trump. 

Meanwhile, the poll also counts 38 percent saying media show no bias toward either candidate, while two percent have no opinion.

The poll echoes what Trump has been working into his speeches for weeks --- simply that journalists are dishonest.



He cites an "important issue for Americans is integrity in journalism."

Trump hastens to add, "These people are among the most dishonest people I’ve ever met, spoken to, done business with. These are the most dishonest people. There has never been dishonesty like we’ve seen in this election."

A common denominator for many of today's journalists is simply that they have not received full journalism basic training.  That includes being fair and balanced or showing neutrality in reporting.

That's because many of those covering politics today are college graduates with political science degrees.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

The 2016 World Series may be over but Las Vegas oddsmakers already are zeroing in on next year's World Series, giving last week's winning National League Chicago Cubs 3-1 odds, followed by 10-1 odds to the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals.  And how does last week's losing American League Cleveland Indians fare?  The team is 12-1...And with this year's World Series, how did the TV viewing audience rate since there was no New York or Los Angeles team involved?  Game 7 in the series reached 40 million viewers, making it the most watched game since 1991.  The World Series as a whole averaged 23.4 million viewers, most since the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004.

Down days in print advertising revenue hit key newspapers.  The New York Times Co. reports third quarter earnings falls sharply as print advertising sinks 19 percent while print ad revenue in the latest quarter for Gannett Co. slips 15 percent and Tronc Inc., owner of Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, among others, reports a 13 percent decline in print ad revenue...The Wall Street Journal next Monday will unveil a new format in its print edition that combines several sections while reducing the size of some coverage areas as the paper copes with an accelerating industrywide decline in print ads.

President Barack Obama last week grants clemency to 72 additional federal inmates. That follows 98 the previous week and ups his clemency to 944 people, including 324 serving life sentences…Thomson Reuters plans to cut 2,000 jobs and take a charge of up to $250 million as the news and financial information company seeks to streamline its business...With media overly occupied with election news, being overlooked is North Korea's plans to launch additional intermediate-range ballistic missiles...People's Viennaline, an Austrian airline, claims it has initiated the world's shortest regular international connection --- an eight-minute hop across Lake Constance, connecting St. Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland with Friedrichshafen in southern Germany…Next Monday Tucker Carlson, 47, takes over the hour slot on Fox News formerly held by Greta van Susteren, who left the network in September.

 

Who's afraid? 

A Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 3 (2016) provides an unprecedented look into the fears of average Americans. Here are the top 10 fears:

Fear	Fear Domain	% Afraid or Very Afraid
Corrupt government officials	Government	60.6
Terrorist attack	Manmade Disasters	41
Not having enough money for the future	Economic	39.9
Terrorism	Crime	38.5
Government restrictions on firearms and ammunition	Government	38.5
People I love dying	Illness and Death	38.1
Economic/financial collapse	Economic	37.5
Identity theft	Crime	37.1
People I love becoming seriously ill	Illness and Death	35.9
The Affordable Health Care Act/ObamaCare	Government	35.5

See the full list of 79 fears at:

blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2016/10/11/americas-top-fears-2016

 

Sad story out of Waco, Texas.

A couple, married for 74 years, died only 10 hours apart last week.

High school sweethearts, Leonard Cherry, 95, had been in hospice care only days before his death while Hazel Cherry, 93, moved into a nursing home next door.

Global warming exaggerated, say most GOP college grads

 

Is global warming, a hot issue with media and politicians, generally exaggerated?

Saying yes to that:  74 percent of college graduates who are Republicans and only 15 percent of college graduates who are Democrats, finds a Gallup poll.

Perhaps that explains why California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, declared Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, now in a presidential run, has “rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office," let alone president, by insisting that humans aren't to blame for global warming.

"Over 90 percent of the scientists who deal with climate are absolutely convinced that the humans' activity, industrial activity...are building up in the atmosphere, they're heat trapping, and they're causing not just one drought in California but severe storms and cold on the East Coast,” added Brown who has irritated some northern Californians by pushing water for smelt, a tiny fish, while holding back water for farmers and others.

Cruz argued that there has been “no significant warming” and over the years the strategy from “alarmists” has been to shout down skeptics and call for massive government control.  “Global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-earthers,” he continued, pointing out Galileo was called a “denier” once upon a time.

Meanwhile, in other global warming development, Breitbart.com reported Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) “proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives that claims women will eventually be forced into prostitution in order to obtain life-sustaining food and water for their families.”  Why?  Because global warming will create “conflict and instability” in the world.

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE… 

Despite the huge media coverage on U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, exchanged last May for five top Taliban prisoners, being charged with desertion, Grumpy Editor noticed no news person asked how the 28-year-old rose two levels in rank to sergeant from private first class after leaving his post in 2009…In an almost 20-minute speech at the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting ceremony in a room full of political reporters in Washington, Hillary Clinton quipped about new beginnings and “why not a new relationship with the press.” Then --- she did not take questions from the note takers on hand…No more committed suicides.  That’s now suggested by Associated Press in an updated AP Stylebook.  New terminology:  killed himself/herself, took his/her own life or died by suicide…Another example of baseball being more lucrative than directing a major U.S. corporation as CEO:  Hector Olivera, 29-year-old second baseman from Cuba, last week got a six year, $62.5 million deal --- including a $28 million signing bonus --- from the Los Angeles Dodgers…The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday ran a front page ad above the masthead.  The one and three-quarters inches message, with white type against a green background across the page, was for Northern Trust…In another print ad, for Air France, rather than tout the airline’s key features, such as seating, comfort, food or wine while flying above the clouds from distant cities around the world, the full-page ad in Bloomberg Businessweek showed a feather dancer, complete with top hat, to promote “Rendez-vous in Paris.”  (Incidentally, U.S. copy editors will point out rendezvous carries no hyphen.)

 

A job pitch aimed at that rare individual with a no-nonsense newspaper background?

A media centric business seeks “a first class business writer who has a corporate grade American English proficiency including great mastery in sentence structuring, grammar, and corporate vocabulary. Your writing style is CONCISE, no verbiage, no wordiness, no useless style effect and straight to the point.”

Gallup poll: confidence in print/broadcast coverage slips

A Gallup poll, out last week --- understandably without much broadcast or print coverage --- showed Americans' confidence in the media's ability to report "the news fully, accurately and fairly" slipped to 40 percent, matching the low two years ago and down from 55 percent in 1999, notes Grumpy Editor.

Gallup found “Americans are most likely to feel the news media are too liberal (44 percent) rather than too conservative.”  That was on par with 2006 and down from 46 percent last year.

One in three (34 percent) said the media are "just about right" in terms of coverage, down from 37 percent last year, while 19 percent thought media were too conservative, up from 13 percent last year.

Summarized Gallup:  “Though a sizable percentage of Americans continue to have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media, Americans' overall trust in the Fourth Estate continues to be significantly lower now than it was 10 to 15 years ago.”

Meanwhile, a major roadblock in reporting news developments fully stems from a growing lack of access and transparency undermining journalists' work.  

Editors and reporters brought out that problem, with some blaming the current White House for setting standards for secrecy that are spreading nationwide, at a convention of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers. 

AP reporter Michael Tarm said Brian Carovillano, AP managing editor for U.S. news, noted, “The White House push to limit access and reduce transparency has essentially served as the secrecy road map for all kinds of organizations --- from local and state governments to universities and even sporting events.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE… 

Here today, gone tomorrow:  House and Senate members, after a five-week recess that included August and a quick two weeks (actually eight days) back on the job in Washington, departed the nation’s capital at the end of last week, returning in six weeks after the November elections.  That’s two weeks of work in a quarter…The New York Times was the latest to switch to Islamic State in referring to the terrorist group also known as ISIS or ISIL, joining other news organizations such as The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal in doing so…Grabbing more TV exposure than the president:  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s 45-minute press conference Friday on off-field player misconduct was carried by all major broadcast and cable networks --- even interrupting CNBC’s financial news coverage…Where are the sleuths to nail the bad guys?  Bloomberg Businessweek detailed an underground Web site that alerted cybercriminals to new stolen credit card numbers available for bulk purchase…While some folks feel a growing financial pinch with higher price tags, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the consumer price index fell 0.2 percent in August, bringing a fresh round of describing inflation as muted, dormant and, yes, even bringing back the long-overused “tame.”  However, inflation did show up with the average price for a pound of ground beef reaching $4.013, a record high…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), trying to boost his newsletter readership, e-mailed three easy questions seeking a yes or no (among them:  Do you believe college graduates should be able to refinance their student loans?).  Alongside an asterisk:  “By answering this survey, you are subscribing to my newsletter”…A press release on a “legendary restaurant” opening in a new Beverly Hills location mentioned it will be “modern and sexy” and “will reflect the sophistication of Beverly Hills” while “housed in a vintage building on Canon Drive”…A touching story with photos on service dogs and their role with those physically impaired, including returning servicemen with missing limbs, appeared in The Dallas Morning News last week.  Read it here.

Summing up the situation in Washington and security, radio talk show host Mark Levin, on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program declared:  "We're surrounded by knuckleheads, and the problem is they’re supposed to be protecting the country." 

 

Gallup poll: journalists sag in honesty, ethical standards

A Gallup poll finds only 24 percent of Americans rate journalists’ honesty and ethical standards as very high or high, notes Grumpy Editor.

That puts journalists a notch below bankers who came in at 28 percent with a very high/high rating.

But the poll ranks journalists way above auto sales people, at the bottom of the list, with only 8 percent.  (Gallup says “car sales people's perceived honesty has never climbed out of the single-digit range in the history of the list.”) 

Second from the bottom is Congress with 10 percent 

The survey also gives journalists a 45 percent rating as average in honesty and ethical standards, and 30 percent with very low/low marks. 

Topping the honesty and ethical standards list are nurses with a hefty 85 percent ranking them very high/high. 

Gallup points out other professions with high honesty ratings include pharmacists, medical doctors, engineers, dentists, police officers, college teachers and clergy.

Along with journalists, professions with honesty ratings below 25 percent include  business executives, lawyers, insurance sales people, HMO managers, stockbrokers and advertising practitioners.

Partisan gap shows in different views on economic news

An interesting Pew poll finds far more Republicans and independents view economic news these days as “bad,” compared with Democrats’ opinions on the topic, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, conducted Sept. 7 to 9, tallies 60 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats label economic news as mostly bad. 

Pew says the poll's authors found “the gap striking” as differences in perceptions of economic news emerged after President Barack Obama took office --- “but they never have been as great as they are today.”

Among the public generally, Pew adds, 58 percent say they are hearing a mix of good and bad news about the economy, while 35 percent feel they are picking up mostly bad news and 6 percent see mostly good news.

For more on the Pew findings, go here.

Meanwhile, views could change before the week ends. 

 Economic news due out tomorrow includes:

The consumer-price index.

Retail sales and industrial production for August.

University of Michigan’s initial reading of consumer sentiment for September.

And, since many look overseas for world economic clues, European finance ministers meet in Nicosia, Cyprus.

 

 

Salty talk in the office grabs spot on ABC radio news

With all the happenings in the world --- ranging from a small earthquake in the Los Angeles area to pre-Olympic Games activities --- what’s a piece on “swearing at work can harm your career prospects” doing as one of the major news events heard Wednesday on top-of-the-hour ABC News on radio, wonders Grumpy Editor. 

Anyone who is on a company payroll or wearing a suit in job hunting should be well aware that repeatedly uttering naughty words is not tolerated in the business world. 

(An exception might be when brass at a major Madison Ave. advertising agency, for example, is notified it is losing a big account.) 

Yet, grabbing the attention of ABC News on a hot July day was a press release from CareerBuilder, Chicago, noting 64 percent of employers say they would think less of a worker who repeatedly uses curse words, while 57 percent say they'd be less likely to promote someone who swears in the office. 

Seeking more information, Grumpy Editor finds the Harris Interactive survey includes more than 2,000 hiring managers and 3,800 workers in companies of various sizes, according to CareerBuilder which describes itself as “the global leader in human capital solutions.” 

Noteworthy, though, is that the survey reports 51 percent of workers swear that they swear in the office.

(Perhaps that’s after they receive their paychecks.) 

Some 95 percent confess they cuss in the presence of co-workers, 51 percent say they do so in front of the boss, although workers were least likely to use expletives while facing senior leaders (13 percent) and their clients (7 percent), according to the survey.

(Saying salty words in front of a vice president is a sure way to get replaced.)

Among other survey findings in modern office culture:  Men are more likely to swear at work (54 percent) vs. women (47 percent); Washington, D.C. (home of Congress, the White House and 13,000 registered lobbyists) is the top-swearing U.S. city, and 35 to 44-year-old workers rank as the top swearing group.