March 28, 2024

Helen Thomas | 1920-2013: Helen Thomas, Blunt Chronicler of Presidents From Kennedy Era to Obama, Dies at 92

Her death was announced by the Gridiron Club , one of Washington’s leading news societies. Ms. Thomas was a past president of that organization.

Ms. Thomas covered every president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama for United Press International and, later, Hearst Newspapers. To her colleagues, she was the unofficial but undisputed head of the press corps — her status ratified by her signature line at the end of every White House news conference, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

Her blunt questions and sharp tone made her a familiar personality not only in the parochial world inside the Washington Beltway but also among television audiences across the country.

“Helen was a true pioneer, opening doors and breaking down barriers for generations of women in journalism,” President Obama said in a statement on Saturday. “She never failed to keep presidents — myself included — on their toes.” 

Presidents grew to respect, even to like, Ms. Thomas for her forthrightness and stamina, which sustained her well after the age at which most people had settled into retirement. President Bill Clinton gave her a cake on Aug. 4, 1997, her 77th birthday. Twelve years later, President Obama gave her cupcakes for her 89th. At his first news conference in February 2009, Mr. Obama called on her, saying: “Helen, I’m excited. This is my inaugural moment.”

But 16 months later, Ms. Thomas abruptly announced her retirement from Hearst amid an uproar over her assertion that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back where they belonged, perhaps Germany or Poland. Her remarks, made almost offhandedly days earlier at a White House event, set off a storm when a videotape was posted.

In her retirement announcement, Ms. Thomas, whose parents immigrated to the United States from what is now Lebanon, said that she deeply regretted her remarks and that they did not reflect her “heartfelt belief” that peace would come to the Middle East only when all parties embraced “mutual respect and tolerance.”

“May that day come soon,” she said.

Ms. Thomas’s career bridged two eras, beginning during World War II when people got their news mostly from radio, newspapers and movie newsreels, and extending into the era of 24-hour information on cable television and the Internet. She resigned from U.P.I. on May 16, 2000, a day after it was taken over by an organization with links to the Unification Church.

Weeks later, Ms. Thomas was hired by Hearst to write a twice-weekly column on national issues. She spent the last 10 years of her working life there.

When Ms. Thomas took a job as a radio writer for United Press in 1943 (15 years before it merged with the International News Service to become U.P.I.), most female journalists wrote about social events and homemaking. The journalists who covered war, crime and politics, and congratulated one another over drinks at the press club were typically men.

She worked her way into full-time reporting and by the mid-1950s was covering federal agencies. She covered John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960, and when he won she became the first woman assigned to the White House full time by a news service.

Ms. Thomas was also the first woman to be elected an officer of the White House Correspondents’ Association and the first to serve as its president. In 1975, she became the first woman elected to the Gridiron Club, which for 90 years had been a men-only bastion of Washington journalists.

Ms. Thomas was known for her dawn-to-dark work hours, and she won her share of exclusives and near-exclusives. She was the only female print journalist to accompany President Richard M. Nixon on his breakthrough trip to China in 1972.

“Helen was a better reporter than she was a writer — but in her prime had more than her share of scoops the rest of us would try to match,” Mark Knoller, the longtime CBS News White House reporter, wrote in a Twitter message on Saturday morning.

And, he added, “Pity the poor WH press aide who would try to tell Helen, ‘You can’t stand there.’ ”

Mark Landler contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/business/media/helen-thomas-who-broke-down-barriers-as-white-house-reporter-is-dead-at-92.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Media Decoder Blog: Fake Ads in India Showing Bound and Gagged Women Lead to Firings

The Indian operation of a worldwide advertising agency has fired employees and apologized after an uproar over fake celebrity poster ads that were created for a real agency client, Ford Motor, without Ford’s approval or authorization.

The ads were produced by employees of JWT India, part of the JWT unit of WPP, and depicted well-known figures like Paris Hilton and Silvio Berlusconi behind the wheel of a Ford Figo hatchback. In the trunk of the hatchback in each poster ad were women, bound and gagged; in the ad featuring Ms. Hilton, the women in the trunk resembled the Kardashian sisters.

The ads were uploaded to an industry Web site, Ads of the World, and, according to a post on the adage.com Web site of the trade publication Advertising Age, also entered in an Indian advertising awards competition. They were subsequently withdrawn from both outlets after vituperative comments about the poster ads began appearing in social media.

The ads were “never intended for paid publication, were never requested by our Ford client and never should have been created, let alone uploaded to the Internet,” JWT said in a statement.

The statement included an apology, which called the ads “distasteful” and “contrary to the standards of professionalism and decency at JWT.” The statement also disclosed that, “after a thorough internal review, we have taken appropriate disciplinary action with those involved, which included the exit of employees.”

The statement did not identify the employees or suggest how many were fired. The adage.com post said those dismissed included two senior creative executives at JWT India, one of whom was also the managing partner there.

In addition to the apology from JWT, the Indian operation of Ford Motor also apologized for the ads. The content of the fake ads was deemed particularly contentious because of a recent series of well-publicized sex crimes against Indian women.

The dispute over the poster ads is not common in advertising, but it is not unheard of either. From time to time, there are controversies generated by ads produced by employees or executives of an agency without authorization or approval from clients.

Such ads, known as spec ads, are typically created for amusement or to enter in an awards show in place of actual ads. The rogue nature of spec ads was underlined by the statement from JWT, which said the ad posters “did not go through the normal review and oversight process” at JWT India.

The Internet and social media have made it far easier for unauthorized ads to be seen more widely, beyond the agency employees who create them and the judges of the awards shows in which the ads may be entered.


Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/fake-ads-in-india-showing-bound-and-gagged-women-lead-to-firings/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Shares Dip on Cyprus News

The stock market lost ground Monday as investors worried that a proposal to seize money from bank depositors in Cyprus could cause more anxiety over the fate of the euro, Europe’s shared currency.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.05 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 14,452.06 Monday. It plunged as much as 110 points early, briefly turned positive in the afternoon, then fell again in the last hour of trading.

The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index fell 8.60 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,552.10, moving further from its high of 1,565.15, set in 2007. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 11.48 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,237.59.

European markets recovered most of an early decline and closed with modest losses. Yields on government bonds issued by Spain and Italy edged up, and the euro fell to a three-month low against the dollar.

The market rally that has pushed the Dow to record levels this year has been punctuated by concerns about the euro zone’s lingering debt crisis.

“Europe has got problems,” said Uri Landesman, president of the hedge fund Platinum Partners. “You could get more stuff like this, and the market isn’t priced to handle that.”

Cyprus reached an agreement last weekend with its European partners for its government to raid bank accounts as part of a 15.8 billion-euro ($20.7 billion) financial bailout, the first time in the euro zone crisis that the prospect of seizing individuals’ savings has been raised. The measures are stoking fears of bank runs in the other 16 nations that use the euro.

Cypriot authorities, facing an uproar, delayed a parliamentary vote on the seizure and ordered the country’s banks to remain closed until Thursday while they try to modify the deal to lessen its impact on small depositors.

Markets in Europe and Asia also fell during early trading, before retracing some of their losses later in the day. Germany’s DAX index dropped 0.4 percent and Spain’s main stock index shed 1.3 percent. Indexes in Britain and France each lost 0.5 percent.

The American stock market’s reaction to euro zone developments has eased over time.

The Dow slumped more than 8 percent last year from May 1 to June 1 on concerns that Spain and Italy would be dragged into Europe’s debt crisis. While the Dow initially dropped last month in reaction to the unsettled Italian election results, which threw the country into political paralysis, it has since gained 4.6 percent. Likewise the market recovered much of the early loss on Monday prompted by the Cyprus bailout deal.

Even with the stock market’s pullback Friday and Monday, the Dow is still up 10.3 percent this year, while the S. P. 500 is up 8.8 percent.

The stock market’s resilience suggests that traders consider the Cyprus situation to be contained for now, said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist for Prudential. The threat of rising volatility may also deter the Fed from thinking about ending its economic stimulus program. The central bank starts its second two-day policy meeting of the year Tuesday.

“Absent the Cyprus flare-up, the markets were slowing a bit and it looked as if investors were digesting the gains and waiting for the next catalyst,” Ms. Krosby said.

Financial stocks were among the biggest decliners in the S. P. 500. Morgan Stanley fell 60 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $22.99. Citigroup dropped $1.02, or 2.2 percent, to $46.24.

Goldman Sachs said Monday that it had lifted its year-end target for the S. P. 500 to 1,625 from 1,575. The investment bank is forecasting that the United States economy will grow 2 percent this year and 2.9 percent next year. It also is predicting increases in corporate deals and dividend payments.

Deutsche Bank also said Monday that it was lifting its year-end prediction for the S. P. 500 to 1,625 from 1,600, forecasting an upturn in business spending.

In the bond market in the United States, interest rates slipped. The price of the Treasury’s 10-year note rose 10/32, to 100 13/32, while its yield fell to 1.96 percent from 1.99 percent as investors moved into low-risk investments.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Sirius’s Move to Bypass Royalty Agency Causes Uproar

The flow of royalty payments, counted in pennies and nickels, may be the least glamorous part of the music industry. But because those royalties are the foundation of almost everyone’s paycheck, any change to the system can be controversial.

Sirius XM Radio set off a flurry of complaints from trade groups and labor unions late last month. It was trying to bypass the standard method of paying for digital streams — through a royalty clearinghouse called SoundExchange — and negotiate directly with record labels.

Sirius’s move was only the latest example of a gradual shift in the financial infrastructure of music. Many companies, from major labels to providers of background music, have been trying to reduce costs and gain control by circumventing the large organizations that have historically processed licenses and royalties.

Such direct deals are perfectly legal. But opponents of the move by Sirius say that it could result in less money and more complications for artists.

Mel Karmazin, the chief executive of Sirius, said in a statement Friday that direct agreements with labels offer more flexibility than is available through the basic compulsory licenses processed by SoundExchange.

“We think rights holders should benefit from a more competitive and open environment created by inviting individual labels to set their own value on their content rather than having to follow the industry collective,” Mr. Karmazin said. “We are giving rights holders a choice and, if they are not interested, we will continue to work with them through SoundExchange.”

Michael J. Huppe, the president of SoundExchange, said it was clear that Sirius was also seeking to pay less than the rates set by federal statute. “At the end of the day, what they’re trying to do is get content for less money,” Mr. Huppe said Thursday in an interview. “Our mission is to maximize the value of the content.”

The issue is vital for Sound-Exchange because Sirius is by far its largest contributor of royalties, with about $150 million in annual payments. Sirius pays 7.5 percent of its gross revenue to SoundExchange. That will rise to 8 percent next year by statute. It also pays royalties to other agencies. At the end of November a panel of judges in Washington will begin proceedings to negotiate rates for 2013 and beyond.

SoundExchange, a nonprofit group, was founded in 2000 and is authorized by the United States Copyright Office to collect one kind of royalty for digital music. The royalty, the performance right for sound recordings, pays performers and record companies when their songs are played on digital streams like satellite radio and Pandora. (In a rule that has annoyed record companies and musicians for decades, terrestrial radio pays only songwriters and publishers.)

SoundExchange paid artists and labels almost $250 million in royalties last year. But it has been criticized for its slow progress in tracking down and paying artists. In 2009, it held $154 million that it had called “unpayable,” including $66 million for bad or missing data and $43 million for artists who had not filed paperwork.

The organization, which last year charged a 6.7 percent administrative fee effectively paid by artists and record labels, has also had difficulty getting artists to sign up to receive royalties. A spokeswoman said it has lists of “tens of thousands of artists” who are owed money.

Les Watkins, an executive at Music Reports Inc., a music licensing service that is working with Sirius in its licensing deals, said his company can process the data better, allowing it to reduce expenses. “There are inefficiencies at SoundExchange which result in money going in which does not come out,” he said.

In recent years other major music companies have sought alternatives to the large licensing agencies. EMI now licenses some of its digital rights directly instead of going through ASCAP. And DMX, which provides background music to restaurants and shops, has won federal court cases allowing it to make exceptions to blanket license agreements with ASCAP and BMI.

Proponents of direct deals say that by cutting out the middleman they can realize lower costs and improved information all around.

“This is about transparency and access to information that was not readily available before,” said Patrick Sullivan, whose company, RightsFlow, competes with the Harry Fox Agency in processing mechanical licenses, which pay songwriters and publishers for record sales.

But some worry that the weakening of such centralized organizations could hurt artists. That concern is especially acute in the case of SoundExchange, which pays artists the digital performance right income directly, instead of routing that money through a record company or other third party, as is typical.

In coordinated statements last month, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Federation of Musicians and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the group behind the Grammy Awards) warned musicians that if their labels sign direct deals with Sirius, the payments they now receive directly from SoundExchange could instead be sent to the labels, and therefore be subject to deductions.

“Even a cursory read of American music business history will tell you that oftentimes these deals were fairly onerous, and the deck was stacked against the artists,” said Casey Rae-Hunter, deputy director of the Future of Music Coalition, an artists’ advocacy group.

Mr. Watkins said that artists’ contracts with their labels would determine how they are paid. “What’s offensive about the industry group arguments that this is bad for artists is that they essentially assume that all labels are dishonest or corrupt,” he said.

Mr. Huppe said that SoundExchange would continue to push for higher statutory rates for satellite radio, which would cover all music that Sirius cannot license directly.

“We believe that content is already undervalued,” he said. “We just want to make sure that our constituents get their fare share.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=cc9f1f3dd73f614b9be7c98a410f5401

Scandal Shifts Britain’s Media and Political Landscape

The decision by Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, the News Corporation, to close the paper, The News of the World, seemed to be a calculated move to help protect Mr. Murdoch’s proposed $12 billion takeover of the pay-television company British Sky Broadcasting. But it hardly put an end to the uproar, or to Mr. Murdoch’s connection to it.

The scandal exposes a web of relationships between the Murdochs’ empire on the one hand and the police and politicians on the other. And it poses new challenges for Mr. Murdoch, a media tycoon who has at times seemed to hold much of Britain’s political establishment in thrall, cultivating connections to both Labour and Conservative governments and using the prospect of his support — or its withdrawal — to help drive his political agenda.

In a statement of strikingly self-critical apology, Mr. Murdoch’s son and heir apparent, James Murdoch, admitted that News International, the company’s British subsidiary, had “failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoings that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.” The company’s repeated assertions that the scandal was “confined to one reporter,” had proven untrue, he said, “and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.”

According to several people who have been briefed on the matter, it appeared increasingly likely that Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who most recently worked as the chief spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, would be arrested Friday on suspicion of illegally paying the police for information during his editorship. His arrest, if it does take place, would be a huge blow not just to Mr. Murdoch, but to the government and to Mr. Cameron’s Conservative Party.

The prime minister has always vouched for Mr. Coulson’s integrity and said he believed Mr. Coulson’s assurances that he had done nothing wrong.

By closing the weekly News of the World, which is 168 years old and is Britain’s largest-circulation newspaper, Mr. Murdoch seems determined to try to limit damage from the scandal and remove a possible obstacle to the takeover of British Sky Broadcasting, known as BSkyB.

According to a person close to Mr. Murdoch, the move also gives him an excuse to do something he had planned to do anyway: turn his flagship Sun tabloid into a seven-day operation, preserving his lucrative share in the Sunday newspaper market while decontaminating the brand by removing its association with The News of the World.

Critics of Mr. Murdoch said the move was more expedient than remorseful. “This seems like a cynical rebranding exercise,” said Jeremy Reed, a lawyer for several public figures who have sued The News of the World over allegations that the paper had hacked into, or intercepted, their cellphone messages.

The unfolding scandal also raises new questions about the close relationship between the police and the tabloid news media in Britain.

According to another person familiar with the possible charges, e-mails recently turned over to the police from The News of the World linked Mr. Coulson and half a dozen other people, including high-ranking editors, to payments to the police “in the six figures.”

The payments were said to be not just for news tips, a standard tabloid practice despite its illegality, but also for substantial information, including confidential documents held by the police. Not only would any arrests be a blow to News International, the News Corporation’s British subsidiary, but the company also faces the awkward prospect that any current or former News of the World employee facing prison might be tempted to argue, with specific examples, that wrongdoing was widespread at the paper.

Accusations of illegal behavior at The News of the World have swirled for some time at no obvious cost to the newspaper, whose salacious focus on frothy sex scandals and show-business gossip helps it sell some 2.7 million copies every Sunday. But public revulsion spilled over this week at new allegations — separate from those linked to Mr. Coulson — that the paper hacked into the phones of a 13-year-old murder victim, Milly Dowler, the families of slain soldiers and victims of the 2005 subway bombings.

Reporting was contributed by Jo Becker, Julia Werdigier and Ravi Somaiya from London, Jeremy Peters and Brian Stelter from New York, and Tim Arango from Baghdad.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/world/europe/08britain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss