Media Navel Gaze: September 4, 2012
The Week Unpeeled
Clint Eastwood made our day at the Republican National Convention with a rambling (?) performance/dialogue with an empty chair representing our sitting president that left many a bit puzzled and showed from a PR perspective that safe bets may sometimes be the best bets. Romney went from presumptive to nominated but USA Today headline writers went even further in all-bets-now-off front-page photo caption for the new running mates that may have resulted in one empty chair in the newsroom.
Elsewhere:
- Barclays announced the promotion of retail banking boss Antony Jenkins to replace chief executive Bob Diamond;
- The S&P “Takes Sears Out of Its Catalog” (WSJ), removing the retailer from its index, which was one of 500’s founding companies;
- Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole, Wyo., meeting, signalled more support ahead if needed, especially to help revive jobs;
- The Dow ended August 0.6 percent higher to close Friday at 13,090;
- The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, diest at 92;
- London Metropolitan University was stripped of its right to teach all non-European Union students leaving more than 2,500 foreign students facing deportation after their visas were cancelled. The students have been given 60 days to find alternative courses or face deportation;
- The Paralympic Games kicked off on Wednesday, the games had a theme of “enlightenment” and were opened by the Queen and included appearances by Stephen Hawking and Sir Ian McKellen; and
- NBC is facing backlash after refusing to show the Paralympics opening ceremony live and will only broadcasting five-and-a-half hours of the Games.