Yet another Miami Herald WTF moment re the World Series -their unintentional dig at themselves reveals a shallow, poorly-edited, second-rate newspaper.
"History repeats itself."
How many times have we all found ourselves saying that aloud or thinking that thought silently when we've come across a situation that makes us shake our heads and discern a certain circularity in our part of the universe?
Well, at the Miami Herald -just as is true at Hallandale Beach City Hall for HB's beleaguered taxpayers, who are plagued by sleep-walking elected officials with little concern for public scrutiny of tax dollars going out to cronies- history seems to repeat itself quite frequently, often more than seems either logical or even possible.
At One Herald Plaza as is true at 400 S. Federal Highway, the preponderance of the facts tend to show that when it happens, it's almost always a bad experience for Herald readers wanting to be well-informed, and this past week was no exception.
History repeated itself a few times at the Herald this past week, and this was true despite the fact that I didn't even read Thursday's paper until late today -Friday afternoon, due to an unexpected trip to a local emergency room Thursday night due to a family medical situation.
So, where to start?
Well, first, the predicate.
Last year I shared with you a few stories about the Herald's perfectly dreadful sports coverage in general, and in particular, their half-assed coverage of the 2010 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants in a November 3rd, 2010 post titled, quite accurately, The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers
Well, would you believe that they even topped themselves on Wednesday, even before the First Pitch?
First, you'll notice that they don't mention anything about the World Series above the masthead to lure readers to the sports section.
The sort of thing that in the past would've been a no-brainer.
Check.
Then when you get to the sports section, under the decidedly non-genius editorial leadership of Jorge Rojas, you notice that there is absolutely nothing about that night's Opening Game on the front page.
Check.
This, even while there is something about the Dolphins, Hurricanes and Panther and... oh yeah, a wire story about the Michigan State football team.
Really.
The first three are not so unusual being local teams and all, but seriously, a story on the front page about Spartan football but not the World Series?
Why?
We don't live in East Lansing.
As if to throw salt into the the open-wound that is the Herald sports section, they run a photo of FIU running back Kendrick Rhodes from Tuesday night's nationally-televised football game at Arkansas State.
But they have nothing about the game itself.
Nothing as in nada!
Just like they had nothing in the newspaper weeks ago -the next day- following FIU's biggest football victory ever, against the U of L Cards (Louisville), another game that was nationally-televised.
How f-ing embarrassing!!!
Oh, so you think it's just because the Herald's geniuses make the Broward edition the same as the Keys edition, as above?
Hmm-m... so doesn't that seem like a dis-service to the 40-45% of their readers who want accurate and timely information?
Especially given that the Herald has a printing press in Broward County on Pembroke Road less than four miles from me, where I'm also less than a mile north of the Miami-Dade County line?
Today, as if to show they are beyond redemption -they are, I was being rhetorical- today's sports section had a smarmy so-called "Web Poll" on its second page -at top of this post- with the following question, and I swear they really wrote this, apparently unaware of the irony of a crummy newspaper sports section like theirs that doesn't mention the World Series on its own front page asking its readers: Are you interested in the World Series?
The answers you could respond with are:
With the Marlins and Yankees at home I'm not interestedVery interestedLost interest with the strikesThe World Series is going on?
When did we inherit the Yankees?
The next time you hear someone from a TV network or a national-known sports writer opine on the sorry state of South Florida sports fans, while it's clearly got grains of truth, what they always forget to mention is the dreadful state of their brethren in local South Florida radio/TV/newspaper sports Depts: they are largely awful and yet strangely verbose and testy, an awful combination for readers, listeners and viewers alike.
And full of people from New York who never made the successful transition to making this area "home" even after 20 or more years.
For those of you who live far from South Florida, understand this point and you will understand a lot of why Florida in general and South Florida in particular have so many intractable problems:
The states of California, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia absorbed the vast majority of the genuinely creative/talented or business-savvy New Yorkers who chose to flee that state since the early '80's, due to high taxes and the decreasing Quality of Life, while South Florida absorbed what was left of the emigres.And it shows itself everyday in all aspects of life here, including the low aptitudes and smug attitudes of the South Florida news media.We got stuck with all the Misfit Toys from New York.
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