Grumpy Editor

Another whodunit: Who gave okay for illegals release?

Imagine, more than 5,ooo jailed illegal aliens are being released --- after the Obama administration announced only “a few hundred” were being freed because of sequestration, notes Grumpy Editor.

What is interesting, and worthy of further investigation, is that both the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano deny any involvment with the illegals being turned loose.

Those released are required to appear at later court hearings (if they can be found).

Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press writer, did some digging and finds Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “released roughly 1,000 illegal immigrants from jails around the United States each week since at least Feb. 15” and 3,000 more are set for release this month.

 

Sequestration also grounds Thunderbirds

Not too much has been reported by national media about sequestration being blamed for clipping the wings of the Air Force's Thunderbirds, the aerial demostration team that flies six F-16s at air shows in the U.S. and around the world. 

 

The Thunderbirds' last performances before the team's grounding will be in Titusville, Fla., March 23 and 24.

Seems strange to cancel the Thunderbirds precision aerial exhibitions that thrill young and old folks plus all in between, boosts interest in flying and is simply patriotic.

 

Something for TV, film producers to consider 

With television and motion picture producers always seeking nifty stories, one they should consider (but without the now overused multi-car crashes or shootouts aimed at attracting 21-to-35 year olds), would include true World War II action and survival:

The story would follow a navigator on a B-25 aircraft, part of the Doolittle Raid to bomb Tokyo just a little over four months after the Dec. 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Bombers in the daring raid took off from an aircraft carrier, a very unusual "runway" for large aircraft at the time. 

After the effective April 18, 1942 bombing run (and U.S. morale booster), the navigator's B-25, as with others, lacked fuel to reach safe territory.  Some made forced landings, others crashed.

The navigator had to bail out, parachuted into a tree but managed to elude Japanese capture.

He returned to action in bombing runs on the other side of the world in North Africa but was shot down in 1943 which led to spending two years in a German prison camp.

The navigator, Major Thomas C. Griffin, who later lived in the Cincinnati area, died Tuesday at 96, leaving only four surviving Doolittle Raid members out of the original 80.

Services will be held Saturday --- with a planned B-25 flyover, hopefully with coverage by national TV and print media.

 

In case you missed these:

Wrong number:  Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), with 22 years in the House and ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, faced print and TV media to declare (a highly inflated) “over 170 million jobs” could be lost because of federal spending cuts…Chicago-based Tribune Co. is exploring the sale of its eight newspapers that include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel…The New York Times Co. plans to drop the name of its 125-year-old International Herald Tribune, distributed in more than 160 countries and territories, and rechristening it this autumn as the International New York Times…This just in:  The Washington Post reported an asteroid hit near Decorah, Iowa --- about 470 million years ago…Warren Buffet acquires his 28^th daily newspaper, the Tulsa World, second largest newspaper in Oklahoma…Variety will discontinue its daily entertainment print publication March 18 but has launched Variety.com providing free access to breaking news and analysis…Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California governor and noted for action roles in films, returns to being executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines.  

TV documentary details WWII Marine aviation disaster

Sometimes it’s a long road getting a “never-before-told” documentary on a World War II event to the television screen, finds Grumpy Editor, in the airing Sunday of “The Flintlock Disaster” involving the loss of 22 Navy aircraft in the Pacific when bad weather was encountered. 

How difficult was it? 

Los Angeles-based Leon Furgatch 15 years ago started work on the true story involving the Marine squadron in which he served as an aviation mechanic on F4U gull-winged Corsairs. 

Furgatch, an executive producer of the documentary, says he didn’t learn about the Jan. 25, 1944 tragedy until he attended a reunion of VMF-422 squadron mates in the early 1990s. 

“I was smitten with it and decided to break it to the American public because it was the greatest disaster in Marine Corps aviation history, where not a shot was fired in anger, and it also involved a cover-up by the general in charge of the Marine Air Wing," he relates.

The planes were lost on a flight from Tarawa to a safe haven.  The central Pacific atoll had been taken two months prior by Marines. 

Six pilots, including the squadron commander, died in the disaster, with remaining fliers rescued after several days at sea in one-man life rafts, notes Furgatch.  One pilot managed to get his aircraft through to the final destination 750 miles away. 

Narrated by veteran NBC newsman Tom Brokaw, the one-hour documentary airs at 5 p.m. on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, on KOCE, the Public Broadcasting Service TV station that covers Los Angeles and Southern California. 

Hopefully, the full PBS network, or others, will get around to airing the program produced by Triple Threat Television. 

Furgatch says in an attempt to go the motion picture route, he ran into roadblocks “because producers or their reps informed me that WWII was out of style with the 18-to-49 age group who were the principal moviegoers.”

He adds, “Another excuse was that it was a ‘period’ piece and it would be too costly to film.”

Media miss UPI report on Russia hypoing missile defense

While print/broadcast media, focusing on a four-month old video, were wrangling yesterday over Mitt Romney’s correct mention that 47 (actually 46.4) percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2011, editors let interesting word out of Moscow --- relating to missile defense --- slip by, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Russia announced it was reactivating a ballistic missile defense system around Moscow as part of a modernization program, reported UPI.

(Yes, United Press International --- perhaps unfamiliar to some young editors --- is still around, feeding information to media outlets, businesses, governments and researchers worldwide.)

The former head of Russian Strategic Missile Forces told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that missile silos positioned to defend the Russian capital would be reactivated, UPI added.

The A-135 system is being thoroughly modernized with missiles and other elements, including upgrading of detection and tracking components, the news service amplified.

In addition, two other interceptor missile systems, deactivated in 2007, will be re-equipped, part of the modernization program.

Getting back to UPI, for those unfamiliar with the news service established in 1907, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Santiago, Seoul and Tokyo.

Among its famous alumni:  Long before becoming anchor of CBS Evening News on television, Walter Cronkite was a front-line war correspondent in Europe during World War II when the news service was known as UP or United Press.

Burma or Myanmar? Media still split on identification

Is it Burma or Myanmar? 

Media confusion continued this week in identifying the often-in-the-news southeast Asia nation, this time in connection with its government ending direct media censorship, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Labeling it as Myanmar were the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, among others. 

Going with Burma included the Washington Post and Associated Press. 

AP seems as confused in identifying the country as some other news outlets. 

That’s because AP adopted Myanmar into its 2006 Stylebook after weighing such factors as widespread international use and its recognition by the United Nations. 

The New York Times began referring to Myanmar in 1989, the year the country’s name officially was changed. 

Some media solve the country’s identification in news stories with phrases “Burma, also known as Myanmar” or “Myanmar, also known as Burma.” 

The country was a province of British India from 1886 to 1937, then a separate crown colony from 1937 to 1948.  After a military coup, the ruling regime renamed the country Myanmar in 1989.  Opposition groups in the country continued to refer to Burma.

U.S. old timers, war veterans and historians remember the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II.  The famous Burma Road was constructed to supply Chinese forces in the fight against Japan during World War II. 

The periodically-seen (on TV) 1945 movie, “Objective, Burma!” starring Errol Flynn, was a highly rated WWII thriller depicting a company of U.S. paratroopers assigned to wipe out an enemy post.

That film wouldn’t sound right as “Objective, Myanmar!”

Stars and Stripes newspaper quietly marks its 150th year

Newspaper editors love anniversary stories.  But one they overlooked related to their own industry:  The Stars and Stripes, the newspaper primarily for the U.S. military, marked its 150th year on Nov. 9, observes Grumpy Editor.

Ten Union soldiers started it in 1861 during the Civil War.  That was 10 years after the founding of the New York Times. 

Initial editions rolled off presses in the abandoned newspaper office of the Bloomfield Herald, Bloomfield, Mo.  (Returning to its roots, The Stars and Stripes Museum/Library is located in that city at 17377 Stars and Stripes Way.)

The publication attracted increased attention during World War I. 

Printing was suspended between World War I and World War II but resumed in Europe in 1942 when editions were published in London, Italy, Sicily, France, Germany, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Honolulu.

Pacific editions started in 1945.

Printing facilities and geographic regions covered changed with the movement of American troops.

The number of editions touched 35 during World War II.

The Stars and Stripes has since been a prime source of daily information for U.S. forces from the Korean War, Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War to Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The estimated 350,000 readers today equals its readership during the Korean War when the Tokyo-based daily Pacific Stars and Stripes turned out editions covering Japan, South Korea, the far Pacific plus a Tokyo street edition that competed with other newspapers --- both English and Japanese. 

Today’s online audience averages more than 3 million page views per month. 

Authorized by the Defense Department, The Stars and Stripes is editorially independent.

While in past years most staffers wore U.S. uniforms, its publisher and most of its employees today are civilians.

The newspaper currently publishes four daily editions:  Europe, Japan, Korea and the Mideast.

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Andy Rooney’s books included one on 'Stripes'

Among the many journalists who wound up as staffers on the military newspaper was Andy Rooney, CBS’ “60 Minutes” commentator who died Nov. 4.

From his three years as a World War II correspondent in Europe for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney later wrote about war experiences in his first three books, including “The Story of The Stars and Stripes.”

Although movie rights were purchased by MGM and Rooney went to Hollywood to write the script, the film was never made.

 

Reno P-51 plane crash stories put pilot's age in spotlight

Print and broadcast news coming out of Reno following Friday’s crash of a World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft all reported --- within the first three paragraphs --- that the pilot was 74 years old, implying age was a factor in the incident that left 10 people dead, including the pilot, and scores injured, observes Grumpy Editor.

However, images captured as the aircraft spiraled out of control and crashed showed a chunk of the tail section was missing. 

Experts identified the missing part appeared to be an elevator trim tab that affects control of the aircraft.

Pilot Jimmy Leeward, of Ocala, Fla., was a veteran airman and movie stunt pilot and participated before in the National Championship Air Races.

The Reno event operated under stringent Federal Aviation Administration regulations.  That included examinations of pilots’ qualifications, their aircraft and records plus a requirement that participants complete rigorous training prior to the annual competition. 

Meanwhile, reporters disclosed that the Reno airport where the air race was conducted was then closed while officials conducted an investigation. 

Not one mentioned that the crash occurred at Reno-Stead Airport, not at the unaffected larger Reno-Tahoe International Airport, eight miles away. 

 

Newseum adds WWII Stars and Stripes reporter’s name

More than 66 years after Paul V. Connors, a Stars and Stripes reporter died in the line of duty, he was honored with 76 other journalists at a Newseum solemn ceremony this week, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The 77 names were added to the Newseum’s Journalists Memorial that pays tribute to reporters, photographers and broadcasters who died while on news assignments. 

Adding Connors name was achieved after more than a decade of investigation, persistence and paper work by people connected with the military newspaper.  Connors entered the Army in 1942 when he was a Boston Globe reporter. 

The ceremony at the Newseum, Washington, D.C., on Monday commemorated 59 journalists killed in the line of duty last year plus 18 others who lost lives in prior years. 

That expanded the list of names, etched on glass panels, to 2,084. 

Connors was a special case, going back to World War II when, as a Stars and Stripes reporter working out of London, he accepted an assignment to fly on a B-24 in a 303 Bomb Group mission to Germany.  The four-engine, heavy bomber went down in the Alps on Jan. 28, 1945. 

Confusion on whether Connors was a regular crew member, rather than a reporter, caused the long delay in adding his name to the honored list at the Newseum.

Gerald Brekke, who worked alongside Connors in the WWII Stars and Stripes newsroom, initiated what was to become a lengthy effort to honor Connors.  It started with an August, 2000, visit to the Newseum when Brekke noticed his friend’s name was missing from the Journalists Memorial.

However, in 2006, during the long process seeking to correct the omission, Brekke died. 

Frank D. Praytor, of Albuquerque, a former Stars and Stripes staffer from the Korean War period, picked up and renewed the effort with information from letters, military reports and flight records, aided by research assistance from Sue Mayo, archivist and librarian at the Stars and Stripes Museum/Library, Bloomfield, Mo.; Max Lederer, publisher, Stars and Stripes, Washington, and Joe Schneider, San Diego, editor of the Stars and Stripes Association newsletter.

The 250,000-square-foot, seven-level Newseum displays five centuries of news history with modern technology and exhibits.

 

Record N.Y. snow puts ‘global warming’ phrase on ice

With the record, and disruptive, snowstorm that swept from the mid-Atlantic to New England this week, Grumpy Editor noticed one phrase was missing in the heavy coverage by print and broadcast media:  global warming.

 Nobody, it seems, sought to contact Al Gore for comment.

There also was silence from usually talkative global warming “experts” who regularly grab chunks of newspaper space and airtime at other times during the year.

From Washington, D.C., to Boston and beyond, schools closed, planes were grounded and government workers stayed home.

This week’s storm left a total of 19 inches in New York City, with 12.3 inches falling on Wednesday, breaking the day’s snowfall record of nine inches in 1871.

The storm elevated the month’s total snow to three feet in New York City --- making January the snowiest on record.  

New York City also was hit by a blizzard one month ago, marking the first time on record that two storms dropped 18 inches or more of snow in the same winter.

New York City, during the full winter, usually records a total of 21 inches of snow.

The same storm brought 17 inches of snow to Philadelphia, a foot to Boston, and sleet and snow to Washington.

And more snow is predicted for next week for a wider area, including the battered East Coast, just in time for Groundhog Day on Wednesday.

That’s when Punxsutawney (Pa.) Phil --- with media in attendance --- will emerge from his burrow.  If he casts a shadow, according to folklore, it means winter will continue for six more weeks.

 

History Channel gives scant coverage of Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day yesterday, marking the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii that triggered America’s entry into World War II, received minimal attention on the History Channel which devoted its prime time to sports cars between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. in both Eastern and Pacific time zones, notes Grumpy Editor.

Only TV programming focusing on the event was "Tora, Tora, Tora:  The Real Story of Pearl Harbor" (not to be confused with the 1970 movie) which aired at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time .

Also airing (8 a.m. and 2 p.m.), but not tied directly to Pearl Harbor Day, was “Dogfights: Kamikaze,” relating to Japanese aircraft with suicide pilots that attacked American warships in the last year of World War II.

The channel’s prime time was set aside for “Top Gear,” a popular series in Great Britain since 1977.

Wrapping up the day, Modern Marvels at 11 p.m. spotlighted hazardous shipments.

The History Channel’s Web site, however, contained basic details on the Pearl Harbor attack under “This Day in History.”

Text on the Web site pointed out, “The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, ‘Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy --- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan’.” 

Fourteen two to four-minute videos on the Web site contained clips relating to the Pearl Harbor attack and later World War II events.