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Stanley Karnow, Historian and Journalist, Is Dead at 87

January 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The cause was congestive heart failure, said Mr. Karnow’s son, Michael.

For more than three decades Mr. Karnow was a correspondent in Southeast Asia, working for Time, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, The Washington Post, NBC News, The New Republic, King Features Syndicate and the Public Broadcasting Service. But he was best known for his books and documentaries.

He was in Vietnam in 1959, when the first American advisers were killed, and lingered long after the guns fell silent, talking to fighters, villagers, refugees, North and South Vietnamese political and military leaders, the French and the Americans, researching a people and a war that had been little understood.

The result was the 750-page book “Vietnam: A History,” published in 1983, and its companion, a 13-hour PBS documentary, “Vietnam: A Television History.” Unlike many books and films on Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s and the nightly newscasts that focused primarily on America’s role and its consequences at home and abroad, Mr. Karnow addressed all sides of the conflict and traced Vietnam’s culture and history.

“Vietnam: A History” was widely praised and a best seller. The documentary, with Mr. Karnow as chief correspondent, was at the time the most successful ever produced by public television, viewed by an average of nearly 10 million people a night through 13 episodes. It won six Emmy Awards, as well as Peabody, Polk and duPont-Columbia awards.

Six years later, Mr. Karnow delivered his second comprehensive book and television examination of a Southeast Asian nation. The book, “In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines” (1989), was a panorama of centuries of Filipino life under Spanish and American colonial rule, followed by independence under sometimes corrupt American-backed leaders. It won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for history.

Narrated by Mr. Karnow, the three-part PBS documentary “The U.S. and the Philippines: In Our Image” traced America’s paternalistic colonial rule in the Philippines, the shared suffering of Filipinos and Americans under a cruel Japanese occupation in World War II, and Manila’s postwar independence under regimes nominally democratic but repressive, corrupt or indifferent to the miseries of its people.

Mr. Karnow also wrote “Mao and China: From Revolution to Revolution” (1972) and was a co-author of or contributor to books based on his years in Asia, including “Asian-Americans in Transition” (1992), “Passage to Vietnam” (1994), “Mekong” (1995) and “Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War” (1995).

Early in his career he lived in Paris for a decade, and in 1997 he published a memoir, “Paris in the Fifties.” A nostalgic reporter’s notebook of life among the cafe philosophers, berated musicians and pseudo-revolutionary artistes, it danced with digressions about taxes, restaurants, the guillotine, Hemingway, Charles de Gaulle and the Devil’s Island penal colony.

In its range, learning and appetite for fun, Bernard Kalb, the former CBS reporter and Mr. Karnow’s friend since Vietnam, told The Associated Press in 2009, the memoir was vintage Karnow. “Stanley has a great line about how being a journalist is like being an adolescent all your life,” he said.

Stanley Karnow was born in Brooklyn on Feb. 4, 1925, the son of Harry and Henriette Koeppel Karnow. He grew up in a city with more than a dozen daily newspapers and decided early that he wanted to become a reporter. He served in the Army Air Forces in World War II. After graduating from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in 1947, he sailed for France, intending to spend the summer. He stayed for a decade.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/arts/television/stanley-karnow-historian-and-journalist-dies-at-87.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Another Look at a Drink Ingredient, Brominated Vegetable Oil

December 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

But before she took a sip, Sarah, a dedicated vegetarian, did what she often does and checked the label to make sure no animal products were in the drink. One ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, caught her eye.

“I knew it probably wasn’t from an animal because it had vegetable in the name, but I still wanted to know what it was, so I Googled it,” Ms. Kavanagh said. “A page popped up with a long list of possible side effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones. I didn’t expect that.”

She threw the product away and started a petition on Change.org, a nonprofit Web site, that has almost 200,000 signatures. Ms. Kavanagh, 15, hopes her campaign will persuade PepsiCo, Gatorade’s maker, to consider changing the drink’s formulation.

Jeff Dahncke, a spokesman for PepsiCo, noted that brominated vegetable oil had been deemed safe for consumption by federal regulators. “As standard practice, we constantly evaluate our formulas and ingredients to ensure they comply with federal regulations and meet the high quality standards our consumers and athletes expect — from functionality to great taste,” he said in an e-mail.

In fact, about 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States contain brominated vegetable oil, including Mountain Dew, also made by PepsiCo; Powerade, Fanta Orange and Fresca from Coca-Cola; and Squirt and Sunkist Peach Soda, made by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The ingredient is added often to citrus drinks to help keep the fruit flavoring evenly distributed; without it, the flavoring would separate.

Use of the substance in the United States has been debated for more than three decades, so Ms. Kavanagh’s campaign most likely is quixotic. But the European Union has long banned the substance from foods, requiring use of other ingredients. Japan recently moved to do the same.

“B.V.O. is banned other places in the world, so these companies already have a replacement for it,” Ms. Kavanagh said. “I don’t see why they don’t just make the switch.” To that, companies say the switch would be too costly.

The renewed debate, which has brought attention to the arcane world of additive regulation, comes as consumers show increasing interest in food ingredients and have new tools to learn about them. Walmart’s app, for instance, allows access to lists of ingredients in foods in its stores.

Brominated vegetable oil contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, used in things like upholstered furniture and children’s products. Research has found brominate flame retardants building up in the body and breast milk, and animal and some human studies have linked them to neurological impairment, reduced fertility, changes in thyroid hormones and puberty at an earlier age.

Limited studies of the effects of brominated vegetable oil in animals and in humans found buildups of bromine in fatty tissues. Rats that ingested large quantities of the substance in their diets developed heart lesions.

Its use in foods dates to the 1930s, well before Congress amended the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to add regulation of new food additives to the responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administration. But Congress exempted two groups of additives, those already sanctioned by the F.D.A. or the Department of Agriculture, or those experts deemed “generally recognized as safe.”

The second exemption created what Tom Neltner, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ food additives project, a three-year investigation into how food additives are regulated, calls “the loophole that swallowed the law.” A company can create a new additive, publish safety data about it on its Web site and pay a law firm or consulting firm to vet it to establish it as “generally recognized as safe” — without ever notifying the F.D.A., Mr. Neltner said.

About 10,000 chemicals are allowed to be added to foods, about 3,000 of which have never been reviewed for safety by the F.D.A., according to Pew’s research. Of those, about 1,000 never come before the F.D.A. unless someone has a problem with them; they are declared safe by a company and its handpicked advisers.

“I worked on the industrial and consumer products side of things in the past, and if you take a new chemical and put it into, say, a tennis racket, you have to notify the E.P.A. before you put it in,” Mr. Neltner said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “But if you put it into food and can document it as recognized as safe by someone expert, you don’t have to tell the F.D.A.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/business/another-look-at-a-drink-ingredient-brominated-vegetable-oil.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Advertising: Manischewitz Creates Kosher Food for Gentiles

December 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

According to Mintel, the market research firm, the growth in sales of kosher products — up 41 percent from 2003 to 2010 and projected to grow an additional 23 percent by 2013 — owes less to the popularity of keeping kosher or to new products than to existing products becoming certified.

Now, as mainstream brands increasingly pitch to kosher consumers, Manischewitz, the 123-year-old kosher brand, is doing the opposite: creating kosher products that also appeal to gentiles.

While Manischewitz items like matzo are popular Passover fare stocked in a supermarket’s kosher sections, new products have no such association.

“Instead of taking the older products we have out of the kosher aisle and forcing them into the main aisle, we’re creating new products that have a place in the main aisle,” said Alain Bankier, who along with Paul Bensabat became co-chief executive of the company in 2008.

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A new line of broths, for example, is being shelved in many supermarkets not with most Manischewitz items but rather in the soup aisle alongside such popular mainstream broths as Swanson and College Inn (Campbell Soup Company and Del Monte Foods brands). A new line of Manischewitz gravies also will be stocked with other mainstream brands. Manischewitz ads traditionally have emphasized Judaism, showing yarmulke-wearing celebrants at, say, a Seder. But new ads, by Joseph Jacobs Advertising in New York, the Manischewitz agency for more than three decades, take a decidedly more secular approach.

“Don’t miss the boat,” says a print ad for beef gravy, which shows it being poured from a sauce boat onto mashed potatoes — no shofar or Star of David in sight.

New ads “make little if any reference to any Jewish holiday,” said Elie Rosenfeld, chief executive of Joseph Jacobs. “There’s a tagline we use, ‘Bringing families to the table since 1888,’ and we want to be part of that family with you whether it’s Rosh Hashana, Hanukkah or Easter.”

Although Manischewitz typically advertises only in Jewish publications, ads for the broths and gravies will be in circulars in Sunday papers, including The Washington Post and The Star-Ledger in Newark.

In all, the company reportedly will spend more than $10 million on advertising and marketing in 2012, but declined to be more specific.

The 2012 Man-o-Manischewitz Cook-Off, now in its sixth year, also aims to appeal to a general audience. (“Man-o-Manischewitz” was first popularized by Sammy Davis Jr. in ads in the 1960s for Manischewitz wine, a separate entity from the food company owned by Constellation Brands through a licensing agreement.)

The cooking contest is being advertised on general-interest cooking sites like FoodNetwork.com and Epicurious.com., and Claire Robinson, host of “Food Network Challenge,” is serving as the judge.

While the contest requires entrants to use both a broth and another ingredient by Manischewitz, and to abide by kosher guidelines, it encourages recipes from Japanese, Italian and Greek cuisines.

Four finalists for the contest, which closes on Jan. 15, will participate in a live cook-off in Manhattan on March 28, with the winner receiving a prize valued at $25,000 that includes Maytag appliances and $7,000.

In 2010, Sarah Freedman-Izquierdo of Miami Beach won with her recipe for Mandarin Dumpling Soup, besting other finalists unlikely to be encountered in a traditional Jewish deli, including rosemary duck cassoulet.

Traditional Passover products like matzo, gefilte fish and macaroons are among the biggest sellers for Manischewitz, and as recently as a decade ago sales tied to the holiday accounted for as much as 80 percent of annual revenues, according to the company.

“Our goal was to really no longer make Manischewitz the Passover brand, to turn the company around to more of a year-round market,” said Mr. Bensabat, the co-chief executive.

Today, Passover sales account for about 40 percent of annual revenues, he said, adding that it reflects “a marketing revolution at the Manischewitz Company over the last three years.”

Along with appealing to mainstream consumers, the company has focused on sprucing up its existing lines with package redesigns that assert more health claims, and new products to appeal to a younger generation of kosher shoppers.

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Manischewitz, which along with its flagship brand owns other kosher brands including Guiltless Gourmet, Rokeach, and Mrs. Adler’s, is in the midst of releasing about 70 products among those brands into 2012, Mr. Bensabat said.

While the company has a tradition of products like borscht and gefilte fish, traditional fare for Ashkenazi, or Eastern European, Jews, Mr. Bensabat and Mr. Bankier both are Sephardic Jews from Casablanca, Morocco, and grew up eating Mediterranean kosher dishes.

This year under its Season brand, the company introduced Moroccan fish meat balls, which unlike more mild gefilte fish has bolder spices including cumin. This month, the Manischewitz brand introduced Mediterranean matzos and gefilte fish, both including rosemary, oregano and olive oil.

Other products the company hopes will appeal to more modern sensibilities include organic matzos, white chocolate-covered egg matzos, gluten-free cake mixes and a red velvet cake mix.

“We want to be able to not only retain our older consumers, but also attract younger new consumers,” said Mr. Bensabat. “What does Manischewitz stand for?” Mr. Bensabat asked rhetorically.

“Many years ago it started as Eastern European, Ashkenazi cooking, but Manischewitz is no longer just that. It’s also anything good that is kosher.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d05d306f2d2a33168f32be0d84b565c1

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Media Decoder Blog: Reduced Role for Rooney on ‘60 Minutes’

September 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Andy Rooney, whose folksy and often curmudgeonly essays have been a staple of “60 Minutes” for more than three decades, will end his regular weekly appearances on the program, CBS said Tuesday.

Andy Rooney will step back from his weekly appearances on “60 Minutes” this fall.John Filo/CBSAndy Rooney will step back from his weekly appearances on “60 Minutes” this fall.

Mr. Rooney, 92, has delivered 1,096 commentaries to the newsmagazine since becoming a regular contributor in 1978, according to CBS. He will formally announce his reduced role in essay No. 1,097 on Sunday night.

His essay will be “preceded by a segment in which Rooney looks back on his career in an interview with Morley Safer,” the network said in a statement.

“It’s harder for him to do it every week, but he will always have the ability to speak his mind on ‘60 Minutes’ when the urge hits him,” said Jeff Fager, the chairman of CBS News and executive producer of the show.

But people close to Mr. Rooney said it was unlikely that he would make many appearances, if any, in the future. The people, who did not want to be identified, said the plan for him to step away from the program had been in the works for some time. Because of the honored place he has occupied on the show, Mr. Rooney’s move is not being characterized in terms of a formal retirement, they said.

“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be,” Mr. Fager’s statement said. “He’ll hate hearing this, but he’s an American original.”

Through CBS, Mr. Rooney declined to comment.

Mr. Rooney was noticeably absent when the newsmagazine started a new season on Sunday night, and he was not quoted in the announcement by CBS.

The change was first reported by TVNewser. In an interview with that Web site last year, Mr. Rooney said that he planned to work for “60 Minutes” until he “dropped dead,” and he added, “Until somebody tells me different, I’m not going to quit.”

For many viewers, Mr. Rooney’s weekly observations on the foibles of life, commerce and politics became a favorite feature of the program, which was for years the most watched on television. But even as his popularity soared, he occasionally ran afoul of some groups, including Hispanics, American Indians and gays and lesbians, because of his comments.

A war correspondent during World War II, Mr. Rooney joined the network in 1949 as a writer for a show called “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” In the 1960s he wrote and produced television essays for the correspondent Harry Reasoner, and when CBS established “60 Minutes” in 1968, he produced some of Mr. Reasoner’s segments for the program. Ten years later he became a regular commentator.

“60 Minutes” remains by far the most popular newsmagazine on American television. The show has weathered any number of changes over the years, including the death of the correspondent Ed Bradley in 2006. Another veteran correspondent, Mike Wallace, retired from full-time work that year.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f3d6cc1e45c41cd0b676470309f8a79d

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Retail Sales Rise, but Consumer Sentiment Hits 30-Year Low

August 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Consumer sentiment worsened sharply in early August, falling to the lowest level in more than three decades, even though retail sales posted the biggest gains in four months in July, separate reports on Friday showed.

Consumer sentiment, which hit its lowest since 1980 when the economy was in recession, fell on fears of a stalled recovery combined with gloom from partisan bickering over government debt, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey reported.

The preliminary August reading on the consumer sentiment index fell to 54.9 in early August, down from 63.7 in July, and has fallen for three months. The August reading was well below the median forecast of 63.0 among economists polled by Reuters.

However, retail sales climbed 0.5 percent in July, the biggest increase since March, after a revised 0.3 percent gain in June, according to the Commerce Department.

“People’s spending doesn’t always correspond with their mood,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Conn. “I doubt things are as weak as the sentiment readings suggest, but no doubt people will be cautious in August.”

High unemployment, stagnant wages and the protracted debate in Congress over raising the government debt ceiling alarmed consumers in the University of Michigan survey even before the downgrade of United States sovereign debt by Standard Poor’s. The consumer sentiment index registered most of the decline before the credit rating downgrade on Aug. 5.

“Never before in the history of the surveys have so many consumers spontaneously mentioned negative aspects of the government’s role,” the survey director, Richard Curtin, said in a statement.

“This was more than the simple recognition that traditional monetary and fiscal policy measures were largely spent. It was the realization that the government was unable or unwilling to act,” Mr. Curtin added.

Bad economic times were expected by 75 percent of all consumers in early August, just below the record peak of 82 percent in 1980. Buying plans for household durables and vehicles declined in early August, falling back to their recession-level lows.

“Obviously this is quite an ugly number,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

“How could you have hopes for anything less than what we got, with the markets being in turmoil, the fear, and the U.S. being downgraded? It took the wind out of the stock market a bit, but I don’t think it will be that meaningful.”

However, retail sales in July posted the biggest gain since March, tempering fears that the nation’s economy might be slipping back into recession.

The 0.5 percent increase was in line with analysts’ forecasts and followed an upwardly revised 0.3 percent gain in June.

Excluding autos, sales increased 0.5 percent, well above forecasts for a 0.2 percent gain. The figures were bolstered by a 1.6 percent increase in gasoline station sales, in part reflecting the higher cost of fuel. Retail sales excluding autos, gasoline and building materials rose 0.4 percent.

In another report, the Commerce Department said business inventories rose slightly less than expected in June, suggesting firms remained cautious about future demand at the end of the second quarter. Inventories climbed 0.3 percent, after a downwardly revised 0.9 percent rise in May, the report said. Economists had expected a rise of 0.5 percent in June.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=84905b19bb7922574605f1dea461c96e

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