Connecting - Welcome to Connecting Archive

Paul Shane <pjshane@gmail.com>
Connecting ­ July 1, 2015
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Paul Stevens <stevenspl@live.com>
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Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 9:16 AM
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July 1, 2015
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Colleagues,
Good Wednesday morning ‐ and here's to the first day of July!
(For the Simon and Garfunkel fans among us, will "she" indeed fly ‐ and give no warning to
her flight? Click here for an explanation, sort of.
Not many of us who elect to retire have their decision recognized to the world by the
President of the United States, but that's what happened Tuesday to Jim Kuhnhenn,
White House and politics writer in the AP's Washington bureau. President Obama gave Jim
a shout‐out during a joint news conference with President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right, we're going to take a few questions, and I'm going to start
with Jim Kuhnhenn, who I understand announced his retirement today. Jim, you're kind of
young to retire, man. Q (Inaudible.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: While you're ahead? Q Yes.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we're going to miss you, but you're going to be here for a
couple of weeks, right?
Q Right.
The file photo above shows Jim asking a question of the president in Chile, which (as
noted below) Jim said was a career highlight, according to AP Washington deputy bureau
chief Terry Hunt, who announced to the staff:
I'm writing to tell you that Jim Kuhnhenn is retiring. I know. I gasped, too, that this high‐
energy, soccer‐playing, globe‐trotting journalist is slowing down.
Everyone knows Jim as a thoughtful reporter and graceful writer who expertly tackles
complicated subjects and makes them understandable. We put him on a politics‐economy
beat where he brought his considerable skills to bear on deciphering some of the biggest
stories of the day: the bank and auto bailouts, the stimulus package and ultimately the
Dodd‐Frank financial regulation bill. Jim joined AP in the summer of 2006 to cover money and politics, just in time for the 2006
elections and the Democratic takeover of Congress. He was assigned to the Hill in 2007
and eventually returned to money and politics as a member of the 2008 politics team. In
2009 he turned to the politics‐economy beat and in late 2010 he started covering the
White House.
Jim has covered many of the big stories over the last five years. But he says a highlight was
returning to his native Chile, standing in the presidential palace in Santiago, and asking the
question for AP during a press conference with Obama and President Pinera.
Jim came to Washington in 1993 as bureau chief for the
Kansas City Star, where he had worked for 10 years. He joined
the national staff of Knight Ridder newspapers in 1997 where
he did stints as politics editor and congressional
correspondent.
In retirement, Jim plans to work less and spend more time
with his wife Louise and two grown boys, often at their place
in Vermont.
We'll celebrate Jim's career at 3 p.m. Thursday July 9 in the
bureau.
Jim told Politico's Mike Allen: "Louise, my two boys and I have been spending parts of
summers in Vermont for nearly 20 years. We finally decided that we needed a better
toehold there, so we bought a small farmhouse in the Northeast Kingdom, about 35
minutes from Montpelier. It's in need of plenty of sweat equity. ... My boys are 26 and 23.
The oldest will be returning after a year teaching in Chile."
More stills from the 25‐Year Club dinner
Retirees Kelly Smith Tunney, left, Jack Stokes, center, and
Charlie Monzella catch up during the 25­Year Club Celebration
at New York headquarters, Thursday, June 25, 2015. (Photos
by Stuart Ramson) Retiree Bernd Helling, right, embraces Brad Martin, Kansas City‐
based senior operations manager who was honored for 45 years of
service. Senior Vice President for Human Resources Jessica Bruce shoots a
selfie with retired colleague Bruce Richardson.
Kate Butler, vice president for membership and local markets, shoots
a photo of AP President Gary Pruitt, left, Travel Services Coordinator
Susan Clark, center, and Paul Stevens, retired bureau chief and
regional vice president. New York photographer Richard Drew, left, talks with Mark
Mittelstadt, former bureau chief and executive director of
APME. Drew, a member of the AP team that received the 1993
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, was honored for his 45
years of AP service. Vickie Cacioppo of Markets, left, talks with Corporate Archives
staffers Eve Rothenberg, center, and Francesca Pitaro. Former New York editor Marty Steinberg, right, chats with current
editor Brian Friedman. Corporate Archives Director Valerie Komor, left, and Sue Boyle of AP
Images. More memories of AP‐UPI competition
Bob Haring ‐ When I became correspondent in Tulsa, my competitor with UPI was Alex
Adwan. We became part of a regular luncheon group which included Phil Dessauer of the
Tulsa World, who had been UPI's stalwart capital correspondent before joining the World.
Competition aside, we became friends if not confidants. but 10 years later, after I had
wandered on through Ohio and New Jersey to NYC, I returned to Tulsa to work for the
World. Dessauer then was top editorial writer and Adwan had shifted from UPI to the
World. The three of us worked together until Dessauer died, prematurely. Adwan and I
remained in contact even after both of us retired from the World.
‐0‐
Carl Leubsdorf ‐ Working for the AP in the 1960s and 1970s, I got used to working
alongside ‐ and against ‐ UPI competitors. But occasionally, I encountered signs their
budgets were more limited than AP's. And that was really fun ‐ for me
The most one‐sided situation I ever enjoyed occurred in December‐January 1969‐70 when
Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was big news after his speeches denouncing the press as
"nattering nabobs of negativism" and "hopeless hysterical hypochondriacs of history,"
made a 25‐day, 11‐nation trip to Asia. I was one of the 10 reporters on board Air Force
Two, but UPI covered it with locally based reporters at each stop.
That was fine on the ground stops, but Agnew got in the habit of coming back on the plane
and talking to us on the air hops, which inevitably took place in midday Asia time. As a
result, when we landed in early afternoon, I was able to hand a full story to be filed in the
prime PMs wire time to AP colleagues, including the likes of Peter Arnett and Mike Putzel,
who were responsible for filing my story. That help was invaluable. The UPI reporter who
showed up when we landed had to ask if anything had happened en route, write a story
and then file it. He was lucky to get some partial quotes at a time when there was no such
thing as a transcript. By the time UPI could file, my story was in the hands of papers and
broadcast stations around the world.
After that trip, UPI decided to staff Agnew's travel. On another trip in 1971, which went
around the world and lasted 33 days, I was joined by my friendly competitor, Steve
Gerstel, who later was my counterpart in Washington as head of UPI's Senate staff, and
the competition evened up a lot. It also meant that, when the rest of the traveling press
corps went out on the Red Sea for a day of fishing and swimming, we both had to remain
behind in case some news occurred (it didn't.) One other recollection: the Agnew staff, especially its mercurial press secretary, Vic Gold,
protected those of us in the traveling press party. Especially me. When we were in
Singapore on July 4th, having been reassured nothing would be happening, I had gone off
to have what proved to be a delightful lunch with the local AP correspondent, Mort
Rosenblum. When I returned, I discovered to my horror that Agnew had held an extremely
rare news conference with the traveling press corps. But the press conference was
embargoed until 3 p.m. (remember that this was 3 a.m. on July 4th back home) so I could
listen to it and not suffer competitively.
Those were the days!
‐0‐
Doug Pizac ‐ Back in the '80s I was covering a Los Angeles Rams game at the California
Angels ballpark. The UPI photographer had been in the business for many decades. The
game came down to a winning field goal. I had the photo of the ball going through the
uprights. The UPI photographer's timing was off and he didn't; but then he did. He made
a print of another kick that had the ball in the air, cut out the pigskin, put two‐sided tape
on the back and stuck it on the last play picture. During the rotating scan the pasted ball
flew off and what the clients got was the original photo with a caption noting a ball in the
air which wasn't. The photographer talked his way out of it saying his eyes were bad and
he thought he had the ball.
Six months later the same UPI photographer and I were covering an Angels game where
there was a big play at the plate with the ball being knocked free allowing for a run to be
scored. I had the loose ball; the UPI photographer did not, but then he did. He used a
hole punch to create a ball with caption paper and this time securely pasted it onto the
photo and transmitted. The problem however was really with his bad eyes this time
because he did have the loose ball in the photo but didn't see it. Now the clients got a
photo with two balls. The photographer retired shortly thereafter.
Then in the late‐'90s I covered President Clinton taking a family vacation at Grand Teton
National Park in Montana with Hillary and Chelsea. The UPI photographer from D.C. was a
nice guy but a bit lost. He was given a new Mac laptop and Nikon film scanner to use on
the trip with no training whatsover. He didn't even know how to turn it on. Photographers from the NY Times and Washington Post helped him out. He and I got
along great so I decided to play a little prank on him. He brought his wife and daughter
along so with the help of his child I loaded a startup macro on his computer. Everytime he
turned it on in the makeshift White House press room his daughter's voice said "It's not
sharp daddy" to the amusement of the traveling press corps. He had no clue how to stop
it. After two days of teasing I confessed and deleted the macro. To make it up to him, on
the last night of the trip I happened to be eating at the same restaurant he and his family
were at. I told the waiter we shared that at the end of their meal to bring them a bottle of
champagne and put it on my tab. Unbeknownst to me, it was their wedding anniversary
and he already ordered a bottle ‐ an expensive one. My joke cost me $150 for a bottle of
Dom Perignon. ‐0‐
Joe Frazier ‐ During a presidential campaign rally on Portland, Or., organizers had set up
a phone bank with one phone labeled for each news organization. I tested the one tagged
for AP. It didn't work and things were starting to get underway. I quickly (unnoticed)
switched the labels on the AP and UPI phones and miracle of miracles "ours" worked and
"theirs" did not. This was 1976.
In the latish 1980s I was in Jackson, Ga. covering an execution and raced for a phone
outside the death house when it was over. UPI was coughing up serious blood in those
days and their staffer, who said he was the only one on duty that day in four southeastern
states, approached me as I was dialing the Atlanta bureau and breathlessly asked
something to the effect "Hey Joe, what do think the lead is here?" I don't recall what I
answered, if I did at all
‐0‐
Joe McKnight ‐ Re AP/UPI competition, did you forget INS, or am I the only one around
who remembers that news service? I think UP absorbed INS and became UPI in the late
1950s. It was not a competitive situation but you might want to use this. In the early 1960s, the
AP office in Birmingham was a room adjacent to the Birmingham (Ala.) News' city news
room. The AP room had a wall of glass panels looking out on the city room. Opposite the
AP door to the city room was a hall leading to the Scripps Howard Post‐Herald city room.
UPI's office was a cubby hole with a desk and a teletype printer just off the Post‐Herald
city room. I was working in the AP office one night when the UPI staffer came in (a rarity)
with a request.
"Can I have a pencil?" he asked, holding up a pencil stub the size of my little finger. I
handed him a pencil and joked about the tight wad UPI. He acknowledged it, saying, "We
have to send these stubs to Atlanta before we can get new pencils." Both of us laughed at
his comment but he said he was serious, as he left to return to his desk. Connecting mailbox
Nothing grumpy about Walt
Marty McCarty ‐ There was nothing grumpy about Walt Stevens (Tuesday Connecting).
It was a facade to conceal his gentle heart.
But he was a fierce guardian of accuracy. I'll never forget the moment Walt called me into
his office to reprimand me for misspelling someone's name. I still have flashbacks of that
episode.
Connecting profile ‐ Claudia Luther
Claudia Luther (Northern Illinois University, 1961) was a
writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times for more than 33
years, including stints as a political reporter, editorial writer,
feature projects editor, acting book editor, deputy op‐ed
editor, acting op‐ed editor and, finally, deputy editor of
obits. Some of her advance obituaries of notable people
continue to appear in the LA Times. She was among a small
group at the Times who launched the Los Angeles Times
Festival of Books, now in its 19th year. After taking a buyout
in 2006, Claudia worked in media relations at UCLA for six
years. Now retired, she continues to do freelance for UCLA
Magazine and others. She's married to a fellow journalist
Tom Trapnell, who was editorial design director at LAT for
many years. They live in Los Angeles. Claudia noted that as a life‐long journalist, "I've long been an ardent admirer of AP and its
amazing reporters. I think I already mentioned to you that Linda Deutsch and I are
longtime friends, having met at a high‐profile trial in LA in the late '70s. Which means that
of course I became friends with Edie Lederer and others among Linda's wide
acquaintance!"
Connecting wishes Happy Birthday
To
Ed Andrieski (Email)
Kent Zimmerman (Email)
Jeff McMurray (Email)
Keith Murray (Email)
Welcome to Connecting
John Liotta (Email)
Stories of interest
AP among Media Organizations Opposing Hulk Hogan's Move to Block the
Press From Sex Trial (recode.net)
Media organizations have countered a move by Hulk Hogan to block the press from
viewing a sex tape and other evidence at the center of his $100 million invasion of privacy
lawsuit against Gawker Media.
A coalition of newsrooms that includes First Look Media, BuzzFeed, CNN, AP, Vox Media
and an ABC broadcast affiliate owned by Scripps Media has asked a judge to deny Hogan's
request to keep the public out of the courtroom, according to a brief filed Tuesday.
(Gawker Media has separately filed a motion against the partial closure of the courtroom.)
Click here to read more/
‐0‐
Arianna Huffington's Improbable, Insatiable Content Machine (New York
Times)
One morning in March, a dozen Huffington Post staff members gathered around a glass
table in Arianna Huffington's office. They had been summoned to deliver a progress report
to Huffington, the site's president, editor in chief and co‐founder, on a new initiative,
What's Working. It was created to help the site cover solutions, rather than focusing only
on the world's problems ‐ or as Huffington explained in an internal memo in January, to
''start a positive contagion by relentlessly telling the stories of people and communities
doing amazing things, overcoming great odds and facing real challenges with
perseverance, creativity and grace.''
Huffington, who is 64, was getting over a cold, and coughed hoarsely now and then. She
sipped a soy cappuccino through a straw as she asked for updates in her purring,
singsongy Greek accent. One by one, staff members went through their story lists:
corporations with innovative plans to reduce water use, a nonprofit putting former gang
members to work, Muslims confronting radicalism. Huffington kept the pace brisk; she
sounded like a person in a hurry trying hard to not sound like one. When an editor hashed
out ways to present a new, recurring feature called the What's Working Media Honor Roll
‐ a roundup of similarly positive journalism from other publications ‐ she suggested that he
launch first and tinker later.
''I think let's start iterating,'' she said. ''Let's not wait for the perfect product.''
Click here to read more. Shared by Sibby Christensen.
‐0‐
Did Nielsen Kill The Radio Star? (fivethirtyeight)
At the start of 2008, everything was going well at Chicago's WNUA 95.5‐FM. The smooth‐
jazz station ranked in the top five in the city in listeners age 25 to 54, and its research
showed that the station had a passionate, loyal, engaged audience. "The arrows for WNUA
were still pointing up," said Rick O'Dell, a former host and program director at WNUA.
But by July, arrows for WNUA and other smooth‐jazz stations started pointing down,
seemingly overnight in some cases. Ratings fell, sometimes sharply ‐ down 20 percent for
WNUA from the spring period. Advertisers fled. Station owners ditched the format, at
WNUA and in just about every other major market.
Click here to read more.
‐0‐
Gannett changes logo, says it's a 'next‐generation media company'
Fresh from a spinoff that saw its print and and broadcast assets separated into two
different companies, Gannett's newspaper enterprise is touting itself as an innovator.
Evidence of the rebrand can be found on Gannett's Twitter page, which recently swapped
its old avatar ‐ a sans‐serif block "G" against a blue background ‐ for a brighter avatar with
a dog‐eared corner that suggest a print newspaper or digital design file.
Also new is a revised Twitter bio, which attempts to position Gannett as a "next‐
generation media company." The company is using a hashtag, #NewGannett, to organize a
series of Tweets relating to an initiative around the relaunch. Here's a sampling of the
posts, which have the flavor of a startup:
‐0‐
Missouri Press Association names new executive director (AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ‐‐ A former president of the board of directors of the Missouri
Press Association has been named the organization's executive director.
The MPA says Mark Maassen, the 2013 president of the MPA's board of directors, will
replace Doug Crews, who retires next March. Maassen, who was selected by the board
June 12, begins work Sept. 1 and will work with Crews on the transition.
Maassen worked for The Kansas City Star for more than three decades and was recently
the newspaper's director of classified, major and national advertising. He's also been a
group publisher of four Kansas City area weekly newspapers.
MPA President Jim Robertson says Maassen's diverse media experience led him to stand
out from dozens of other applicants.
Maassen has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri‐Columbia.
Shared by Scott Charton
‐0‐
Jorge Ramos: USA, the mother of second chances (Fusion)
SPEECH: Jorge Ramos, June 18, 2015; UCLA Extension
Graduation Ceremony. Jorge Ramos, an Emmy Award‐
winning journalist, is the host of Fusion's new
television news show, "America With Jorge Ramos,"
and is a news anchor on the Univision Network.
Originally from Mexico and now based in Florida,
Ramos is the author of nine best‐selling books, most
recently, "A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto."
Once, many years ago‐31 years to be exact‐I was where you are right now. And I was a
happy young man. I think of that moment and I still smile. I had made a bet with my life
and it had paid off.
Just like you, I had enrolled at UCLA Extension to study journalism and television for one
year. But for me it was very challenging. Yes, I know, I have an accent. But just imagine
how my English was three decades ago. Sometimes I couldn't even understand myself.
That's how bad it was. So I started from scratch.
As an immigrant from Mexico, everything was new for me. I had left my home, my family,
my friends and all the expectations that life was going to be easy and predictable. This
country and this university have been incredibly generous with me. They gave me the
opportunities that my country of origin couldn't give me.
Click here to read more. Shared by Susana Hayward.
‐0‐
The Final Word
Today in History ‐ July 1, 2015
By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, July 1, the 182nd day of 2015. There are 183 days left in the year.
This is Canada Day.
Today's Highlight in History:
On July 1, 1940, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state opened to traffic
despite concerns over its tendency to "bounce" in windy conditions, inspiring the
nickname "Galloping Gertie" (four months later, the suspension bridge's main section
collapsed into Puget Sound).
On this date:
In 1535, Sir Thomas More went on trial in England, charged with high treason for rejecting
the Oath of Supremacy. (More was convicted, and executed.)
In 1863, the pivotal, three‐day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in a Union victory,
began in Pennsylvania.
In 1867, Canada became a self‐governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North
America Act took effect.
In 1912, aviator Harriet Quimby, 37, was killed along with her passenger, William Willard,
when they were thrown out of Quimby's monoplane at the Third Annual Boston Aviation
Meet.
In 1934, Hollywood began enforcing its Production Code subjecting motion pictures to
censorship review.
In 1946, the United States exploded a 20‐kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the
Pacific.
In 1965, "The Great Race," Blake Edwards' big‐budget homage to oldtime slapstick comedy
starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood, was released by Warner Bros.
In 1974, the president of Argentina, Juan Peron, died; he was succeeded by his wife, Isabel
Martinez de Peron.
In 1980, "O Canada" was proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.
In 1995, rock‐and‐roll disc jockey Wolfman Jack died in Belvidere, North Carolina, at age
57.
In 2000, Vermont's civil unions law, which granted gay couples most of the rights, benefits
and responsibilities of marriage, went into effect. The Confederate flag was removed from
atop South Carolina's Statehouse (in a compromise, another Confederate flag was raised
on the Statehouse grounds in front of a soldier's monument). Actor Walter Matthau died
in Santa Monica, California, at age 79.
In 2004, actor Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles at age 80.
Ten years ago: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor unexpectedly announced her retirement from
the U.S. Supreme Court (she was succeeded by Samuel Alito). Rhythm‐and‐blues singer
Luther Vandross died in Edison, New Jersey, at age 54.
Five years ago: California lawmakers approved a $20 million settlement with the family of
Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped as a girl and held captive in a secret backyard for 18
years by a paroled sex offender. At least two suicide bombers attacked a popular Muslim
shrine in Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore, killing some three dozen people.
One year ago: David Greenglass, the star witness in the trial of his sister, Ethel Rosenberg,
and her husband, Julius, died in New York City at age 92. (The Rosenbergs were executed
in 1953 for conspiring to pass secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union;
Greenglass served 10 years in prison for espionage followed by years of living under an
assumed name.)
Today's Birthdays: Actress Olivia de Havilland is 99. Actress‐dancer Leslie Caron is 84.
Actress Jean Marsh is 81. Actor Jamie Farr is 81. Bluesman James Cotton is 80. Actor David
Prowse is 80. Cookiemaker Wally Amos is 79. Dancer‐choreographer Twyla Tharp is 74.
Actress Genevieve Bujold is 73. Rock singer‐actress Deborah Harry is 70. Movie‐TV
producer‐director Michael Pressman is 65. Actor Daryl Anderson is 64. Actor Trevor Eve is
64. Actor Terrence Mann is 64. Rock singer Fred Schneider (B‐52's) is 64. Pop singer Victor
Willis (Village People) is 64. Actor‐comedian Dan Aykroyd is 63. Actress Lorna Patterson is
59. Actor Alan Ruck is 59. Rhythm‐and‐blues singer Evelyn "Champagne" King is 55.
Olympic gold medal track star Carl Lewis is 54. Country singer Michelle Wright is 54. Actor
Andre Braugher is 53. Actor Dominic Keating is 53. Actress Pamela Anderson is 48. Rock
musician Mark Pirro is 45. Rock musician Franny Griffiths (Space) is 45. Actor Henry
Simmons is 45. Hip‐hop artist Missy Elliott is 44. Actress Julianne Nicholson is 44. Actress
Melissa Peterman is 44. Rock musician Bryan Devendorf (The National) is 40. Actress Liv
Tyler is 38. Bluegrass musician Adam Haynes (Dailey & Vincent) is 36. Actress Hilarie
Burton is 33. Actress Lynsey Bartilson is 32. Actress Lea Seydoux (LEE'‐uh say‐DOO') is 30.
Actor Evan Ellingson is 27. Actors Andrew and Steven Cavarno are 23.
Thought for Today: "In an age of multiple and massive innovations, obsolescence
becomes the major obsession." ‐ Marshall McLuhan, Canadian communications theorist
(1911‐1980).
Share your stories
Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't
keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye
Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!
Here are some suggestions:
‐ "My boo boos ‐ A silly mistake that you make"‐ a chance to 'fess
up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.
‐ Multigenerational AP families ‐ profiles of families whose service
spanned two or more generations.
‐ Volunteering ‐ benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories
‐ with ideas on such work they can do themselves.
‐ First job ‐ How did you get your first job in journalism?
‐ Connecting "selfies" ‐ a word and photo self‐profile of you and your career, and what
you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.
‐ Life after AP for those of you who have moved on to another job or profession.
‐ Most unusual place a story assignment took you.
Paul Stevens
Editor
Connecting newsletter
stevenspl@live.com
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