Obama, on Letterman Show, Responds to Romney Comments

September 18, 2012, 7:00 pm

By BILL CARTER

President Obama got his first chance to address the firestorm over Mitt Romney's comments about 47 percent of the electorate being victims who don't have a sense of personal responsibility Tuesday night in a scheduled appearance on David Letterman's late-night show on CBS.

Mr. Obama said Mr. Romney was wrong to categorize nearly half of Americans as people who saw themselves as victims and that he was “writing off a big chunk of the country”” by his statement, which was made at a fund-raiser last May.

Mr. Letterman did note that Mr. Obama made a similar gaffe in the 2008 campaign when he was caught on tape saying that voters in Pennsylvania retreated to their “guns and their religion.” Mr. Obama told Mr. Letterman that he had recognized that as a mistake and quickly apologized for it.

He also emphasized that he had sought to reassure the 47 percent of Americans who voted for John McCain in 2008 that he would be their president as well.

The two men also addressed the economy â€" Mr. Letterman said he still wanted to blame somebody and asked whether it could be Vice President Joe Biden - and the recent attacks on American diplomatic personnel and property in the Middle East.

Mr. Obama, who was the only guest on Tuesday's “Late Show With David Letterman,” received an enthusiastic greeting from the Letterman audience, who gave him a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage.

Mr. Letterman got an immediate laugh by noting the empty spot next to the president and asking: “Is there anything you want to say to the empty chair?” (That of course referred to Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican convention when he spoke to an imagi nary Mr. Obama in an empty chair.

Mr. Obama got a big laugh as well after a discussion of how much in shape each man looked. Mr. Letterman said, “You haven't seen me naked.”

Mr. Obama said, “We're going to keep it that way.”

Steve Sabol of N.F.L. Films Dies at 69

Steve Sabol, who was the creative force behind NFL Films, his father's innovative enterprise that melded cinematic ingenuity, martial metaphors and symphonic music to lend professional football the aura of myth and help fuel its rise in popularity, died on Tuesday in Moorestown, N.J. He was 69.

The cause was brain cancer, said Dan Masonson, a spokesman for the National Football League. Mr. Sabol learned of the cancer in March 2011.

In 1960, pro football was ranked as the nation's fourth most popular spectator sport after baseball, college football and boxing. But over the next decade it rocketed to first place in polls, TV ratings and revenues, and NFL Films, begun in 1962, helped propel it. Sports Illustrated called the enterprise “perhaps the most effective propaganda organ in the history of corporate America.”

Though his father, Ed, founded NFL Films, Steve Sabol - the producer, writer, director and cameraman - created the images and sounds it became famous for: a kicked football floating end-over-end or a pigskin bullet spiraling in slow motion; a row of bruised and dirtied gladiators hunkering on the sideline; the crunch of bodies brawling at the line of scrimmage or colliding in the open field.

And overlaying all of it was stirring orchestral music and, for many years, the ringing narration of John Facenda, a former television news anchor in Philadelphia whose rolling bass was called “the voice of God.”

Art Modell, who owned the Cleveland Browns and then the Baltimore Ravens (and who died on Sept. 6), said NFL Films “sold the beauty of the game.” Chris Berman, the ESPN sportscaster, said the Sabols could make a 49-14 game “seem like some kind of epic Greek tragedy.”

Ed Sabol, who at 96 survives his son, founded the company in 1962 after giving up selling overcoats, a job he hated, to take on the movie game. An early venture, a film about whales, went under after he failed to find any whales.

Soon, perhaps over a legendary four-martini lunch, Ed persuaded Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the National Football League, to hire him to film the 1962 N.F.L. championship game between the Giants and the Packers, even though he had no experience beyond filming Steve's high school football games. It didn't hurt that Ed made the lowest bid: $12,000, split evenly between him and a partner.

Three years later, after the Sabols had established a brisk business selling the league films of itself, Ed Sabol persuaded it to buy his company, originally named Blair Motion Pictures, after his daughter and Steve's sister. The deal called for him and Steve to run it. Ed was president until 1987, when Steve, who had the titles creative director and co-founder, succeeded him.

“I may have started it, but he has been the engineer behind it,” Ed Sabol said of his son in a 2008 interview. “He comes up with these great ideas and is a great student of the game.”

Of the sports Emmy Awards won by NFL Films â€" 107, including two this year -- Steve Sabol was cited by name on more than a third.

The films have impressed Hollywood. The director Ron Howard said in an interview with The New York Times in 2000 that NFL Films highlight reels had had a real impact on how movies are made, “particularly montages.” The director Sam Peckinpah once told Steve Sabol that he got the idea for the classic slow-motion gunfight scene in the 1969 movie “The Wild Bunch” after watching a Super Bowl highlights film Mr. Sabol had made.

NFL Films was not the first company to make game films, but its innovations are widely considered to have elevated the genre. Mr. Sabol put more cameras on the field than others had done and used them to provide new perspectives. One, called “the mole,” was a hand-held camera that roamed the sideline in search of spectacular close-ups. He used different speeds in different cameras.

He used film, not tape, for greater clarity. He interspersed the smacks and whistles with the sounds of a 60-piece orchestra playing Tchaikovsky. He highlighted emotional themes like comebacks and underdogs. He persuaded players and coaches to wear microphones. He made some of the first funny films of players' “bloopers.” And he wrote scripts, often rhyming ones.

With Romney Videos, Mother Jones Keeps Readers Coming Back

September 18, 2012, 2:56 pm

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

It's a good day to be at Mother Jones.

The magazine, which has a circulation of slightly more than 200,000, found itself read by millions of viewers around the world by Tuesday morning after it released a video of Mitt Romney at a fund-raiser calling 47 percent of the public “dependent” and feeling entitled.

Clara Jeffery, a co-editor of Mother Jones, said that after the first story was posted around 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, Mother Jones received just shy of two million page views. She said that was double the magazine's previous 24-hour record.

Ms. Jeffery said the magazine would post another video Tuesday afternoon. Mother Jones decided to release the video in parts for several reasons.

“We felt that there were two main stories. There was Romney's characterization of Obama voters and there was the foreign policy angle,” she said. “We felt that both those stories were to get a full airing.”

Ms. Jeffery said the magazine was also working through some production issues because they were asked by the source who provided the video to blur the surroundings of the room so that only Romney would be identifiable.

“The source has since lifted that restriction,” said Ms. Jeffery. “It's not that much more telling. You see the backs of people's heads.”

NBC\'s \'Revolution\' Is Fast Out of the Gate, but Will Its Audience Stay?

By BILL CARTER

Riding the lead-in from “The Voice,” the new NBC drama “Revolution” posted strong ratings for its debut on Monday night, scoring the best numbers for a drama premiere in three years.

At the same time, the Fox network got much more dismal results for its own drama premiere Monday night, of “The Mob Doctor.”

“The Voice” had its best result of the season, scoring a 4.6 rating in the 18-to-49 age group that determines most ad sales. That was up from 4.2 the week before, the show's season premiere. “The Voice” averaged 12.7 million viewers, by far the best number of the night.

Still, NBC got what might be even better news for the first edition of “Revolution,” a science-fiction drama about a world where the power has gone out. The new series averaged a 4.1 rating in that 18-49 category, the best for any drama premiere since “V” on ABC in 2009. As a cautionary not e, sci-fi shows like “V” and “The Event” on NBC, as well as another ABC show, “Flash Forward,” often burst out fast but then do not last.

And “Revolution” did lose some viewers at its half-hour mark, falling to a 3.8 rating from a 4.4, and to a total viewership of 11 million from 12.3 million.

Still, that was a far more hopeful outcome than what Fox got from “The Mob Doctor.” The show, about a surgeon with a debt to gangsters, averaged just a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 audience, with only five million viewers.

Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.

Does Long-Term Care Insurance at a Young Age Make Sense?

September 18, 2012, 12:00 pm

By ANN CARRNS

The average age of people buying long-term care insurance has been falling, as people seek to balance the possible need for nursing home or in-home care with the considerable cost of the insurance premiums. Even some very young people are buying the insurance, and a few of them are making claims under their policies, according to an industry group.

Last year, 3.5 percent of individual policies were bought by people age 44 or under, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, which tracks industry data and trends. (In contrast, 56.5 percent of individual buyers last year were between 55 and 64, and the average age is now 57, down from 67 about a decade ago, according to the associat ion's data).

The youngest claimant is a young man who bought coverage at age 21 and began receiving payments under the policy at age 24; he has continued receiving benefits for seven years, association research shows. The youngest female policyholder currently receiving benefits under a claim obtained coverage at age 28 and needed care within the same year. She qualified for benefits that have amounted to over $135,000, the association said. A number of insurers reported claims from policyholders in their 30s, the association found.

The association didn't gather information about why younger adults make claims under the policies. But it is likely that they had an accident or were diagnosed with a serious medical condition that required longer periods of care, said Jesse Slome, the association's executive director. (People who already have serious medical conditions are ineligible for long-term care insurance, which requires health assessments before applicants ob tain coverage.)

But does purchasing a long-term care policy at a young age generally make financial sense?

It's true that younger people tend to qualify for coverage more easily and pay lower premiums. A policy that provides for $164,000 in total benefits over time before it runs out, with the option to increase coverage in the future, costs roughly $635 annually â€" or about $53 a month - for a 25-year-old, according to the association's 2012 price index.

Enid Kassner of the AARP's Public Policy Institute said people in their 20s and 30s should be cautious about buying the insurance because while their premium may seem low at a time when they may not own a home or have children, it's very difficult to predict whether they will be able to continue to afford the premiums over a very long period of time. “It's not a product for everyone,” she cautions.

Most policyholders, she noted, don't use their benefits until they ar e in their 80s. If young policyholders later decide that they can't afford or don't want to continue the insurance, they will have wasted all those premiums they paid since they don't accrue to your benefit the way they might with certain kinds of life insurance. (And young policyholders should expect that premiums will go up over time, she said; while most policies are meant to have stable premiums, insurance companies sometimes can impose increases, sometimes large ones, on an entire “class” of policyholders). While Ms. Kassner said that she focuses primarily on policy issues rather than on consumer matters, “The advice I tend to give is, you should only buy if you intend to keep it.”

Another caveat to buying the insurance at a young age, she noted, is that few long-term care policies sold today provide lifetime benefits; they typically are structured to provide specific benefits over a certain period of years. So if a young adult bought a policy and then nee ded to file a claim because of an accident or illness at a young age, the coverage wouldn't necessarily extend for the rest of his or her life. (Mr. Slome of the long-term care association said lifetime coverage is available but is generally very costly because of the unlimited benefits.)

Would you consider buying long-term care insurance before you turn 50?

Usher and Shakira to Join \'The Voice\' Next Season

September 18, 2012, 11:10 am

By BILL CARTER

The judging wheel on television's glut of singing-competition shows continues to spin, with two new superstar-singers, Usher and Shakira, signing on for NBC's next edition of “The Voice” in the spring.

They will substitute for Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green, arguably the two biggest names on NBC's successful show, who announced that they were taking the fourth cycle of the series off to pursue albums and tours, but will return next fall for the fifth edition of the show (assuming, of course, there is one).

The NBC announcement follows only days after Fox completed its own judging panel for the next “American Idol” by adding three big-selling recording artists, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban.

The changes at “The Voice” carry some risk because the stars have been much more the focus of the format, especially in its early audition phase, when they have to select contestants to mentor without seeing them. The “Voice” judges/mentors have also regularly performed on the show, something that the new “Idol” judges said Monday might become part of their series this year.

Usher and Shakira are big sellers and can be expected to perform on the spring session of “The Voice.” But mixing up the judging panel has not had the best track record for the other talent shows.

Ellen DeGeneres did not have a great success in one season as an “Idol” judge; the two stars who did have one strong season there, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, left after the second season; and the first judging group on Fox's other singing entry, “The X Factor,” was blown up after one season, with Paula Abdul and Nico le Scherzinger out, replaced by Britney Spears and Demi Lovato.

This season ratings for the “X Factor” and “The Voice” have both been down, at least in part because they are on the air at the same time.

But there appears to be no hesitation among top singing talent to hitch themselves, at least for a season, to a television contest featuring amateur or semiprofessional singers.

Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.

The Breakfast Meeting: Romney Caught on Tape, and Detecting \'Photoshopped\' Images

September 18, 2012, 9:58 am

By NOAM COHEN

Secretly taped comments, in which Mitt Romney said that nearly of half of Americans were dependent on government assistance and felt entitled, were released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones on Monday and threatened to derail the Romney campaign as it tried to redefine its message 50 days before the election, Jim Rutenberg and Ashley Parker wrote. Speaking to wealthy donors at a Florida fund-raiser in May, Mr. Romney said “47 percent of the people” will vote for Mr. Obama “no matter what,” adding that they are “dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.”

• Late Monday, Mr. Romney decided to respond to th e comments in a hastily arranged news conference that, as it happened, interrupted a fund-raiser in Costa Mesa, Calif., Michael Barbaro writes. Mr. Romney stood by the substance of his comments, but allowed that parts were “not elegantly stated.” Journalists were summoned suddenly, creating an odd scene: “Well-dressed donors, sipping wine, stared at the journalists now traipsing through their event in confusion.”
• The journey of the video to mainstream news included the assistance of James Carter, a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who lists himself as “oppo researcher” on his Twitter bio, Michael D. Shear and Michael Barbaro report. He told New York magazine that he had helped find the videos and connect David Corn of Mother Jones with the anonymous owner of the tape. He is credited with “research assistance” on the Mother Jones Web site.
• On BuzzFeed, there are more details of how the video came to wider attention.

The ve nerable Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to create an archive of all TV news, and on Tuesday visitors to the site will be able to search through 350,000 separate news programs made since 2009, Bill Carter writes. The material will be coded with closed captioning, allowing a visitor to search for keywords within a time frame. Copying TV news is protected under copyright law, and the plan of the archive's founder, Brewster Kahle, is to keep adding older material. Among the many news outlets available are CNN, Fox News, NBC News, PBS and “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Those kinds of shows could benefit, too, Mr. Kahle said: “Let a thousand Jon Stewarts bloom.”

A Dartmouth professor who is the leading expert in detecting the digital manipulation of photographs - so-called “Photoshopping” - has created a start-up with a former executive at Adobe, the maker of the software Photoshop, that will sell products to help analyze photos for manipulation. The core market for such a product, Steve Lohr writes, will be law enforcement agencies and news organizations, who have the keenest need to understand the provenance of a photograph; the Department of Homeland Security and The Associated Press were among the beta testers on the product, which is priced at $890 with an annual fee for updates.

The one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street was celebrated on Monday by a protest march in Lower Manhattan. Marchers went past a police blockade that prevented them from reaching Wall Street, Colin Moynihan reported. By Monday evening, 181 people had been arrested; the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press said that five journalists had been arrested during first-anniversary protests.

Tuesday Reading: Exaggerating Your Race Results

September 18, 2012, 8:09 am

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Benetton Ads Address Youth Unemployment by Offering Help to \'Unemployees\'

By STUART ELLIOTT

For decades, Benetton, the Italian apparel retailer, has been known for provocative advertising that attracts publicity by stirring up discussion of contentious topics like politics, religion and the treatment of AIDS patients.

For almost as long, critics have dismissed the ads as exploitative because they do not offer solutions to the problems or assistance to the causes that could use financial help.

Now, however, Benetton is going to put some money where its mouth is - 500,000 euros, to be exact, or about $650,000. A campaign that begins on Tuesday for the United Colors of Benetton brand, and is devoted to the problem of youth unemployment, includes a contest to find worthwhile projects suggested by unemployed young people, who will receive financing from a Benetton foundation.

Information about the contest, called Unemployee of the Year, will be available at unhatefoundation.org, the Web site of the Unhat e Foundation, which is named after a campaign carrying the theme of “unhate” that Benetton ran last year.

The contest will be open to unemployed people, ages 18 to 30. They are being asked to submit to the Web site ideas for projects - nonprofit or not - that would improve lives in their communities.

Visitors who register at the site will vote on their favorite proposals, and the Unhate Foundation will give the people behind 100 winning projects 5,000 euros each, totaling 500,000 euros.

The money to be awarded the winners is a small sum compared with the estimated budget for the Unemployee of the Year campaign, which is 20 million euros, or about $26.2 million. But it is a major commitment compared with what Benetton has spent until now on the issues addressed by its ads.

The goal is “a new generation of Benetton, a Benetton 2.0,” Alessandro Benetton, who in April became chairman of the Benetton Group, said in a phone interview last week.

The difference now is that when Benetton seeks to “talk about contemporary social issues,” Mr. Benetton said, the campaign “needs to have a practical response to the problems we're raising.”

“Not by ourselves are we going to change the world,” he added. “But we want to set an example.”

Mr. Benetton said he hoped people would be surprised to see the company spending money to promote “values in which we believe.”

“And I hope it's something many other companies are doing,” he added. (Indeed, many are; so many that there is a term for it, cause marketing, also known as cause-related marketing or pro-social marketing.)

The campaign is being created by Fabrica, the internal Benetton agency, in collaboration with the Amsterdam office of 72andSunny, an agency owned by MDC Partners.

The campaign includes a commercial in which young people in countries around the world are shown trying hard to find jobs. Some take part in a demonstration, holding banners with uplifting messages like “Dignity.”

That is meant to counter the widespread complaints directed at jobless youth, Mr. Benetton said, charging them with being “lazy” or being “anarchists,” or that it is somehow “their own fault” they are unemployed.

There are also print ads in the campaign, which present portrait-style photographs of well-dressed unemployed young men and women.

The subjects of the print ads are identified with phrases like “Angel, 29, non-industrial engineer from Spain,” “Valentina, 30, non-lawyer from Italy” and “Eno, 28, non-actor from the U.S.”

The contest is to run from Tuesday through the end of October, with the winners announced soon after, Mr. Benetton said.

Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991. Follow @stuartenyt on Twitter and sign up for In Advertising, his weekly e-mail newsletter by clicking here.