Freelance writers are grumbling after California recently enacted a law that restricts their annual output, observes Grumpy Editor.
A controversial 6,700-word bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom limits Golden State publishers from assigning more than 35 stories a year to a freelance writer.
If publishers do not follow the new law, it would be considered a crime leading to legal headaches.
An active writer calls the new law “overreaching and harmful to people who prefer the flexibility that comes with being a freelancer,” adding "media outlets will look out of state, assign work to other California residents who haven’t hit the 35-project cap or slash their entire freelance budgets to avoid the hassle of record-keeping.”
Author of the law is a former labor organizer who originally capped freelancers to 25 submissions a year, before lifting it to 35 after protests.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
DOW ON A TEAR. Investors today are watching the Dow Jones Industrial Average to see if it continues higher into new territory after closing Friday at 28004.89, up 222.93 points. Behind the move are fading recession fears, brighter trade developments and a rosier economic outlook.
ON-POST STORES EXPAND FOR VETERANS. The Pentagon will expand access to discounted, on-post stores for 4.1 million veterans and some of their caregivers at the beginning of next year, says the Defense Department.
CHILD PRODIGY, 9, GETS BA DEGREE, AIMS FOR PhD. A child prodigy from Belgium is set to gain a bachelor's degree next month at the tender age of 9. Described by staff as "simply extraordinary," Laurent Simons is studying electrical engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, then plans to embark on a PhD program in electrical engineering while also studying for a medicial degree (his parents are doctors).
ANOTHER 9-YEAR-OLD CATCHES BIG FISH. On a fishing trip with his father at Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico, Alex Flores, a 9-year-old boy, catches a 42-pound blue catfish after it put up a fight for several minutes.
DESPITE STRIKEOUTS. Baseball's major league minimum salary will rise to $563,500 next season, a hike of $8,500.
OBITUARY COVERS LIVE PERSON.The Northern Echo, an English newspaper, apologizes for publishing an obituary on a person still alive after checking with three independent sources to confirm his passing. "We removed the story from our website and social media channels as soon as we were made aware that it was incorrect," notes the paper.
DOG READY FOR ADOPTION. Lucas, a dog found barely alive in July after plunging off a Santa Barbara, California cliff, is ready for adoption. The canine was rescued after falling more than 70 feet to the beach, breaking two of his legs and damaging his hip. He was lying motionless in the sand for six hours before being discovered by Good Samaritans who called first responders to transport the dog to an emergency animal hospital.
Being sought on many fronts --- especially in Washington, D.C. --- is identification of the writer of an anonymous, much-talked-about New York Times op-ed piece critical of President Donald Trump, notes Grumpy Editor.
The non-byline op-ed focuses on a secret resistance movement at work in the Trump administration that aims to curtail the president's "worst inclinations."
The author, according to The Times is "a senior administration official" as media over the weekend cite about two dozen White House officials that match that title, including cabinet secretaries and their top deputies.
However, Grumpy Editor puts the number of true senior administration officials at about 100.
On Friday, mentioning "national security," Trump declares the Justice Department should investigate and unmask the author and pushes Attorney General Jeff Sessions to move on it. The president also says he is exploring legal action against The Times in publishing the piece.
A Wall Street Journal editorial Friday declares, "Surely the writer knew that such insider criticism in the anti-Trump New York Times would be like waving a red cape in front of a raging bull." The Journal adds,"The U.S. looks foolish before the world, which makes us wonder if the writer's real purpose is to assist the looming campaign for impeachment. This is certainly the New York Times agenda."
Others note the coincidence of the op-ed appearing at a time when Bob Woodward's book, "Fear," also critical of the president, debuts.
Ari Fleischer, who was President George W. Bush's press secretary, says writing an op-ed against the president without resigning is a cowardly tactic. "Support the president or don't work there," he says.
The unsigned essay already is attracting language detectives who use a combination of language usage, statistics and computer science in efforts to identify mystery document writers.
About the only person who knows the ID of "anonymous" is James Dao, The Times' op-ed editor.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...
STOLEN RUBY SLIPPERS ALSO GRABS ATTENTION. Getting almost as much media coverage as the anonymous writer of the New York Times op-ed piece critical of the president, is the recovery in Minnesota of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz." Insured for $1 million, the slippers were stolen in 2005.
SHHH! 2,000 U.S. TROOPS IN SYRIA. Not heavily covered by media is that the U.S. maintains about 2,000 troops in war-torn Syria with Washington pledging they will remain until the "enduring defeat" of the Islamic State group.
SECURITY GUARDS ON DUTY IN FAMED MUSEUM. One aspect media miss in covering the massive fire that engulfed Brazil's largest history and science museum --- home to a collection of 20 million items --- is that four security guards were on duty in the building when the fire started.
NAVAL ACADEMY ALLOWS LONGER FEMALE HAIR. The U.S. Naval Academy is allowing women to wear ponytails and other longer hair styles as the incoming class of 2022 is more than one-quarter female.
DICTIONARY ADDS 840 WORDS.Merriam-Webster adds more than 840 words to its online dictionary and more than a dozen of them are food-related. Examples: “avo” for avocado, “guac” for guacamole and “marg” for margarita. Also debuting: “hangry,” the state of being simultaneously hungry and angry, “zoodle” the term for spiralized zucchini, and “hophead,” beer enthusiast.
COMPUTER SAVVY ANT THRIVES IN APPLE DEVICE.A United Kingdom D.J. in Leeds tangles with an ant trapped inside his laptop’s screen. Seems it was living a great life for five months criss-crossing inside the $6,400 Apple device before it finally went to ant heaven.
PITTSBURGH DAILY GOES TO 5 DAYS. Pittsburgh holds the distinction of being the largest U.S. city without a daily print newspaper after the Post-Gazette, launched 232 years ago, cuts its production schedule to five days a week from seven.
BURGLAR'S GETAWAY THWARTED BY MANURE PILE. A bungling burglar in Hawick, Minn. is nabbed after his pickup got stuck in a large pile of foul-smelling manure in a getaway attempt. Deputies find him standing on the side of the road, covered in manure from waist to feet and smoking a cigarette.
Wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., announced their 42nd annual list of words banished from the queen's English for mis-use, over-use and general uselessness, notes Grumpy Editor.
The keen-eyed word watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from news plus education, technology, advertising and political fields.
Among the latest, with the word watchers' comments:
You, sir- Hails from a more civilized era when duels were the likely outcome of disagreements.
Focus - Good word, but overused when concentrate or look at would work fine.
Town hall meeting - Candidates seldom debate in town halls anymore.
Guesstimate - When guess and estimate are never enough.
Historic - Thrown around far too much. What's considered as such is best left to historians.
Manicured - As in a manicured lawn. Golf greens are the closest grass comes to being manicured.
Echo chamber - Lather, rinse and repeat. After a while, everything sounds the same.
On fleek - Anything that is on-point, perfectly executed, or looking good. Needs to return to its genesis: perfectly groomed eyebrows.
Ghost - To abruptly end communication, especially on social media.
Dadbod - The flabby opposite of a chiseled-body male ideal.
Selfie drone - In what could be an ominous development, the selfie --- an irritating habit of constantly photographing and posting oneself to social media --- is being handed off to a flying camera.
Frankenfruit - Another food group co-opted by "frankenfood."
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
The editorial board at the Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., says “the FBI has some explaining to do" in connection with Friday's shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that killed five and wounded eight, asking, "Given that (the shooter) reportedly suffered mental health problems, that he told FBI agents he was hearing voices about ISIS and that he was held for psychiatric evaluation in Alaska just two months ago, how is it even possible that Esteban Santiago was allowed to fly with a gun?" The board points out "the FBI said Saturday that Santiago wasn't even on the federal no-fly list" and asks, "How many warning signs, red flags and alarm bells does the agency need to recognize that someone poses a danger, deserves ongoing scrutiny and shouldn't be allowed to possess --- let alone fly --- with weapons and ammunition?"
While print and broadcast media are heavy on coverage of a major winter storm hitting the South, most are ignoring an “epic storm” slamming California and other areas in the West with heavy rain, floods and snow. The question now: Will the word “drought” continue in Golden State weather stories?...North Korea declared it can test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at any time from any location set by leader Kim Jong Un, Reuters reported yesterday... For those wondering about Greta Van Susteren's whereabouts since leaving Fox News, today she debuts on MSNBC at 6 p.m. (Eastern) with "For the Record" featuring news and analysis from Washington...Craftsman, the tool brand of Sears Holdings for 90 years, is being acquired by Stanley Black & Decker. Sears also is closing 42 Sears and 108 Kmart stores…ALM Media, which produces a number of law journals, including American Lawyer, cut about two dozen staffers from newsroom, marketing and advertising departments…Talkers, which covers talk radio, says Russia's hacking of the DNC’s email was the most-talked-about story on news/talk radio last week.
A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that nearly half (48 percent) of all likely U.S. voters believe most reporters are biased against president-elect. Donald Trump. Only 12 percent think they are biased for Trump, while 31 percent feel most reporters try to be fair and balanced.
Major media, including most columnists and on-air reporting, in quoting Donald Trump in interviews or at rallies since he announced his run, tend to leave out vital words from speeches by the Republican presidential candidate, observes Grumpy Editor.
Two potent overlooked words that have led to much discussion in print and radio-TV over the past six months are illegals and, more recently, temporary.
In early references to those crossing into the U.S. from the southern border, Trump cited illegals. But media implies all immigrants, thus stirring up a storm. Latest word skipped in reporting Trump’s output is temporary, in connection with banning Muslims from entering the U.S.
Among latest examples are two lengthy Washington Post stories that also made the rounds in other newspapers last week. One, which had a flavor that should have put it on the editorial pages, states, “Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States marked a sudden and sizable escalation…in the inflammatory and sometimes demagogic rhetoric of the candidate…” After posting on the Web, that story --- with “temporary” nowhere to be seen --- brought more than 7,500 mostly harsh comments from readers by the next day.
The other Post story's lead mentions “the GOP presidential front-runner’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States…” and is repeated some paragraphs later --- with “temporary” not appearing in the text.
Smaller dailies also jump in. For example, the Las Vegas Sun, in a long editorial last week, cites “The compelling reasons why Donald Trump is unfit for the White House continue to mount, the latest being his threat to ban Muslims from entering the United States…” “Temporary” is left out.
Not all newspapers skip the “temporary” word. A front-page Wall Street Journal story at the same time leads off with “Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S…”
+ + +
Survey backs Trump on Muslims plan
Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims coming to the U.S. has the support of a sizable majority of Republicans and a plurality of all voters, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Dec. 8 and 9.
Rasmussen finds 66 percent of likely Republican voters favor a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. until the federal government improves its ability to screen out potential terrorists while 24 percent oppose the plan, with 10 percent undecided.
Among all voters, the survey shows 46 percent favor a temporary ban while 40 percent are opposed and 14 percent are undecided.
(See Gallup "confidence" survey taken on same days, below.)
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
CONFIDENCE IN U.S. PROTECTION DROPS. Americans’ confidence in government protection from militant attacks falls to its lowest level since 2003, according to data from a Gallup poll Dec. 8 and 9, the same days as the Rasmussen survey.
HAPPY DAYS? The Federal Reserve reports U.S. households saw a $1.23 trillion drop, or 1.4 percent decline, in net worth in the third quarter. Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center study reveals the U.S. middle class no longer is the majority, now only 50 percent of the adult population, down from 61 percent in 1971.
MOVIES BETTER THAN EVER? In connection with the upcoming Oscars, Stephanie Merry in the Washington Post says, “this time around the movies are more than serious. They’re nightmare-inducing. You’ve got a bear trying to eat a man and slow-motion throat-slitting; a teenager held captive in a shed and dead bodies hidden behind drywall."
KEEPING THE NEWS STAFF BUSY. A San Bernardino “massacre spurs interest in gun buying” story in the Los Angeles Times sports a mighty five bylines.
GETTING THE DATE RIGHT. A Reuters story on gun control activists is accompanied by a Reuters photo showing four handguns displayed side by side with a caption pinpointing the date the picture was taken --- Nov. 13, 2014 --- just in case the weapons changed somewhat with age.
JUMPING TO A CONCLUSION ---
A Fox News headline on the Web sums it up: Burglary suspect hides in Florida lake where gator eats him.
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 areconsuming 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.
Overlooked by U.S. media was an anniversary ceremony at
South Korea’s Osan Air Base last Thursday marking the U.S. Army’s last known
bayonet charge, known as the Battle of Bayonet Hill on Feb. 7, 1951, during the
“forgotten” Korean War --- which remains open ended, notes Grumpy Editor.
The battle --- involving the Army’s 27th
Infantry Regiment’s Easy Company --- pitted Americans against North Korean and
communist Chinese soldiers.
Nine U.S. infantrymen died in capturing so-called Hill
180 while 47 enemy troops were left dead on the slope.
Revised Condé Nast contract irks
writers
Freelance writers are
grumbling over a revised CondéNast master contract that includes a line declaring the publisher owns television
and movie rights to all stories that appear in its magazines.
It could mean a financial loss into six figures for
contributors.
Condé Nast’s two
dozen titles include Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Self,
Golf Digest and Brides. Advance Publications is Condé Nast’s parent.
No Saturday mail affects some publications
The Postal Service’s planned termination of Saturday
deliveries starting Aug. 3 will affect distribution of some publications.
The National Newspaper Association notes about 30
percent of its member papers rely on Saturday mail deliveries.
Time
magazine subscribers receive the mailed weekly on Fridays or Saturdays. Bloomberg
Businessweek, which already is using alternate means to get its weekly
issues to some subscribers, figures a quarter of its subscribers will see mail
deliveries extended to Mondays.
The Postal Service figures ending Saturday deliveries
would help save the agency about $2 billion a year.
In
case you missed these…
The Weather
Channel stirs up its own storm by labeling the weekend northeast blizzard Nemo. Turning thumbs down on the name
include the National Weather Service and independent meteorologists…Look for
President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address tomorrow to work in
the often mentioned-for-months line:
The economy is heading in the
rightdirection…Not a good time
for copy editors. The sharp-eyed word/fact/grammar watchers are
sacrificed more than any other newsroom personnel --- with a 50 percent
reduction in the past five years…No major headlines, as a Navy budget is being considered in Washington, on how the Navy’s fleet is down to 287ships, the smallest American armada
since the early 1900s. A 2010
independent panel called for a fleet of 346 ships…The Washington Post Co. signs an agreement to sell its Herald, in Everett, Wash., daily it has owned since 1978.
Those seeking to give wine
as gifts during the holiday season often are influenced in their selections by comments on the subject from writers whose taste buds seem to be in a world of their own, judging from
some of their descriptions of fermented grape juices that pass through their
palates, finds Grumpy Editor.
Most of the descriptions by wine writers sound like they
should appear in recipes found in newspaper or magazine food sections. Other reviews, with references to
minerals, seem like they should get the attention of chemists.
Note one writer’s portrayal of a merlot from the Tuscan
Coast of northern Italy:
“The wine seems a bit restrained at first, but then opens up
with a barrage of crushed red cherries, black pepper, marinara sauce,
loganberry juice, ripe elderberry fruit, spice box, chewing tobacco and rustic earth-driven
minerals.”
Black pepper teamed with marinara sauce, chewing tobacco and
earth-driven minerals?
That combination triggers thoughts of a quick visit to
the emergency room.
But there is more.
“It is a nice mouthful of a wine on the palate with juicy
black spicy fruit, peppercorns, tobacco, cherry juice, huckleberry sauce, ripe
black plums, toast points and loads of chewy
minerals.”
Chewy minerals give visions of a fast trip to the dentist.
A simple description of merlot can be summed up in one line:
A fruitful red wine, blended with other grapes, for a flavor
with hints of plums and cherries.
Southern
Living magazine’s staff box is adding a familiar name --- former
presidential daughter Jenna Bush Hager, notes Grumpy Editor.
While continuing as a correspondent for NBC’s “Today” show, the daughter of former President George W. Bush joins the
magazine as an editor at large.
In a
monthly column, Paper Napkin Interview, she will cover influential Southerners
and noteworthy places in the region.
The addition of Bush Hager, 30, a Texan living in New
York, is considered a move to attract some younger readers.
With almost 3 million in circulation, median age of the
magazine’s readers is 51.2 years.
She
mentions that she grew up reading Southern
Living and that her mother had a subscription.
Grumpy
Editor hastens to point out that one of the features in the monthly
is the Grumpy Gardener (no relation) who, in his latest column, covers “Give a
Grow Box This Christmas.”
Whew! Looks like a talked-about
byline strike by hundreds of NewYork
Times staffers has been avoided after the newspaper reached a tentative
agreement with the Newspaper Guild on a new labor contract after more than 18
months of negotiations, notes Grumpy
Editor
Times staffers last week were considering
withholding bylines and photo credits to emphasize their unhappiness.
If all goes well, readers no
longer will be “threatened” with looking at stories and photos with missing
bylines/credit lines.
The withholding credits idea isn’t new. Staffers at other news
outlets --- including The Washington Post, The Wall StreetJournal
and Associated Press --- have
employed the tactic in recent years.
What credit-scrubbing news staff participants
failed to realize: most readers --- other than family members, close
friends and fellow staffers --- aren’t even aware of the vanished bylines/photo
credits.
Veteran and
retired newspaper editors will point out that in earlier days not every story
was topped by the writer’s name.
And not every photo carried the lensman’s identification.
Writers or photographers credits were
scribbled in by editors for stories and art that involved exceptional merit. It was a reward for performance above
and beyond routine, often involving difficult work in reporting/writing or
photography.
A no-no on the latest Associated Press list of proper political terms, phrases and definitions designed for journalists is not to use Tea Party but to lowercase it to tea party in referring to “the populist movement,” yet it’s okay to capitalize Tea Party Express because it is a formally-named group, observes Grumpy Editor.
The U.S. Elections Style Guide, compiled by AP, is geared to assist in coverage of the 2012 national elections.
It spotlights correct terminology while mentioning some clichés to avoid.
Use of Obamacare, for example, is frowned on. AP points out Obamacare is the “informal term for the Affordable Care Act...often used by Republicans, so avoid it unless quoting someone.”
First lady, AP explains, is not an official title, so it should be spelled lowercase, unless starting a sentence.
Among other AP guidance:
Election Day is capitalized, while election night goes lowercase.
Political affiliation, indicating the party of a candidate or an officeholder, “is essential in any election or issue story.”
Don’t describe a political race as close “unless polls show it is and you reference polls.”
And no need to be cute with the phrase “pressing the flesh.”
