FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Roll Call'sJoshua Miller throws some cold water on Dem's rose-colored view of Florida 2012 as a target-rich environment.
One 2009 study from professors at Stanford University and the University of Michigan found that because of the nature of the geographic distribution of Democratic voters in Florida, the GOP would have a natural edge in a purely nonpartisan Congressional map.
Roll Call
Democrats Betting Big on Florida Redistricting
New Fair Districts Law Will Prevent Major GOP Gerrymander, but Huge Gains Are Not Likely
By Joshua Miller, Roll Call Staff
Nov. 8, 2011, Midnight
Florida is a state where, as millions of Disney World-bound children know, dreams come true.
But for national Democrats who hope a new redistricting law will help them pick up five or six House seats — and boost their prospects for winning back the House — the Sunshine State reality won’t be so warm.
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Steve Schale's infrequent blog is at http://www.stevenschale.com/and is subtitled, Observations on the Land of 29 from one of its leading political strategists.
Since I know that nobody else will mention it to you, the biggest journalism scandal involving Rep. Andre Carson's ridiculous comments about Tea Party supporters at a Congressional Black Caucus Job Fair/Town Hall meeting last week in Miami, is that there was not a single representative of a South Florida news organization that was there who reported on it the day it happened.
Or the next day.
Or the day after that.
Or...
And neither did any other reporter or columnist or editor who wasn't actually there, but heard about it later.
Until Wednesday, nine days later, it was like it NEVER happened.
The Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Channel 4 (WFOR-TV) - a CBS O&O, Channel 6 (WTVJ-TV) -an NBC O&O, Channel 7 (WSVN-TV) -Fox affiliate, and Channel 10 (WPLG-TV) -ABC affiliate (Post-Newsweek) ALL ignored it or never knew about it.
Which is worse?
As I write this:
Channel 4 still has ZERO.
Channel 6 still has ZERO.
Channel 7 posted an AP story out of Indy at 10:45 p.m. Thursday
The Sun-Sentinel's first mention of the controversy was in a Broward Politics blog post Wednesday morning that focused on Rep.Allen West, who represents part of Broward.
It's not for nothing that I have joked here in the past that if Fidel Castro dies overnight, esp. a Friday night/Saturday morning, the Miami Herald will be completely scooped and be the last media organization in South Florida to report it.
Like they were on the Japanese tsunmai...
And the 2010 Polish air disaster in Belarus...
And the Moscow Metro bombings...
And...
Rather incredibly, nobody down here among South Florida's largely sleep-walking professional press corps seems the least bit chagrined that they got totally scooped on what has turned out to be a a national news story, nor do they seem to be the least bit interested in asking any questions of Rep. Frederica Wilson, whose FL-17 CD this all happened in, and who hosted the events last week that have echoed across the country this week, no thanks to the local press corps.
Apparently, there's no extant videotape or audio of Wilson's demeanor or comments during or after Carson's heateduncivil rhetoric.
Pity!
But then again, consider the lack of an appropriate follow-up story about Wilson's recent trip to Israel -along with dozens of her colleagues- that was paid for by AIPAC, as I mentioned here on the blog recently when it happened, a congressional gravy train which was first reported by the Washington Post, whom I cited.
Yet not a single South Florida-based news organization, of the less-than-a handfu who even mentioned the trip, felt the need to mention that salient fact, in their mentions of the trip tells you plenty about how dreadful serious news coverage in South Florida in the year 2011 is.
Give the devil her due, nobody in Florida demagogues & obfuscates like the dreaded Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) -Politico: "Wasserman Schultz says GOP seeks ‘dictatorship..."
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Wednesday that House Republicans are trying to impose “dictatorship” through their tactics in the debt-ceiling negotiations. She said the GOP rhetoric could “spark panic and chaos,” which she called “potentially devastating” to the economy.
Meanwhile, north of here in the Panhandle part of Florida I've never ventured into, Tallahassee DemocratSenior Political Writer Bill Cotterell weighs in on the recent contretemps between DWS and Allen West that I wisely avoided writing about since it was everywhere you looked, and you could onlyNOT know about it if you lived in... well, no, you'd know about it there, too.
The above piece by the very insightful Bill Cotterell, is an exception to what I've often written here of the hagiography that goes on in the Florida press corps with regard to DWS, esp. at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and local Miami TV stations.
The female reporters in South Florida are especially reluctant to ask DWS questions that are either hard or original, just the same softballs, year-after-year.
It's monotonous with a capital "M."
But then that's why so many female reporters here are simply not taken seriously by well-informed people regardless of gender.
Simply put, too many of the reporters are personally shallow ANDhappilyuninformed and really ought to be in much smaller media markets.
But like DWS -and most of the female sideline reporters atESPN-they are gerrymandered into their current positions.
In some cases by virtue of this area's low-pay and need to have a certain demographic group represented on TV, regardless of how unappealing they are -dopey women who really do think stories on plastic surgery ARE imp0rtant, and ought to be on within the first ten minutes of a newscast- but nothing short of video of them shooting someone will get them off the air or off the newspaper beat.
The joke is on us, the readers and viewers who have to tolerate the towering mediocrity.
Here's a recent example of the sort of hagiography I meant, which actually compelled me to write in and comment because it sounded so much like a puff piece from her own paid govt. flack.
St. Petersburg Times
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz uses her resolve to fight cancer, lead DNC.
Is there no end in sight to the number of articles that can be written about this woman and cancer? Are there so few compelling political or government stories in the fourth-largest state in the country that this sort of filler must continue to be churned out, over-and-over? Simply put, there is nothing here that hasn't been written a dozen times before -and better. And I surmise THAT is something that both liberals and conservatives can agree on.
For instance, how about writing about the number of State House and Senate members that DON'T live at the addresses they claim they do, both before and after the election, and how the legislature just looks the other way, despite the fact that it's illegal? There are three of them in just South Florida alone! Just saying...
Alex, what happened to you? You used to show such promise. Is this how it ends, with a banal whimper?
So, did you see the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes stories on what Reps. Alcee Hastings (FL-23) and Frederica Wilson (FL-17) are up to with congressional redistricting, with those State Senate meetings in Broward and Miami-Dade just a few weeks away?
Or, who they're using as consultants? (Is it Tony Crapp, Jr., the recent fomer City of Miami city manager?)
Or the articles on the same subject in the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel?
Actually, there hasn't been one.
Back on June 4th, in a post titled, Still waiting for South Florida news media to mention that Frederica Wilson was only FL Rep. to vote YES to increase debt limit?
I reminded some of you all over again what sort of short shrift anyone in DC not named DebbieWasserman-Schultz gets in terms of media coverage in South Florida, even though most of hers is almost entirely too flattering -almost sycophantic- as many prior posts of mine over the years have pointed out.
So today, with that same federal debt limit still in the news and nobody down here other than yours truly even publicly mentioning FredericaWilson's seeming disconnection to the country and her district and her very dubious achievement, could you tell me the number of times this year that she's been written about in the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes regarding her job in DC?
The answer is that the Miami-based congresswoman -who, unfortunately, represents me here in my part of Hallandale Beach - has been mentioned in that regard in the South Florida alternative news weekly ZERO times.
Number of times this year that Rep. Allen West (FL-22 ), who represents north Broward and south Palm Beach counties has been mentioned in the Miami NewTimes?
Those of you who think that the BrowardPalmBeach or Miami NewTimesare going to do anything of substance to fill-in the gigantic information gap caused by the self-evident retreat on local news coverage of the rapidly-declining Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, need to wake-up from your sleepwalking before you hurt yourself -or others.
Your false hope and naivete is going to costs you someday when you least expect it.
And have you seen some of the online pieces in the Broward NewTimes the past few months?
To call them paltry is to overstate the number of character spaces.
Really.
Oh, and you recall my blog post of last year in which I noted for the record that despite the generally poor-to-below average job done by the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel reporters, columnists and editors, they at least have their media email addresses in their pieces or on the company website, so they can be contacted diirectly -but don't count on replies, per Herald ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos- but the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes management team doesn't.
They still don't.
And just as an aside, why are South Florida's overwhelmingly White and Cuban-American press corps so deathly afraid to ask Black elected officials, local, state and national, hard questions about budgets and govt. funding?
It's very, very patronizing.
Instead, almost every article about Wilson after she was elected was about her f-ing hats.
And since then, nothing about any of her votes to continue funding unsuccesful programs and policies.
As I've stated previously, I hope under the new redistricting plan drawn up under the Florida legislature, she can represent just Miami-Dade voters, so get familiar with her, Aventura!
Still waiting for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes or any local Miami TV newscast to actually mention that FL-17 Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was THE only U.S. Rep. in Florida to vote YES for increasing the national debt Tuesday? (Wilson was on the losing side of a 319-97 vote.)
Don't hold your breath!
Fox News Channel: U.S. Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on the House of Representatives rejecting a debt ceiling increase http://youtu.be/y3FYXnYswnQ Since February 1st, over four months ago, Wilson's name has been mentioned in the Sun-Sentinel exactly TWICE, and neither time in relation to anything that's an important every day issue to South Broward residents like me who have the great misfortune to be mis-represented by her in Congress.
As for the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes -whose Daily Pulp blog people are positively deserting in droves ever since Bob Norman left for Channel 10, WPLG-TV, leaving only the name of his blog, not the spirit of it- they've mentioned Wilson exactly... ONCE.
And THAT was about something that was originally reported in the Sun-Sentinel!
Compare and contrast that paucity of useful information with the NewTimes' very creepy stalker-like behavior and observation of Rep. Allen West's every move and word, examined and then re-examined at theNewTimes -can you really even call them reporters?- as if they were amateur Kremlinologists trying to keep all their competing theories for what's 'really' happening, straight in their own heads.
Well, I mean besides thinking of how many times they can use the phrase 'tea party' as a pejorative. You'd think that at a certain point they'd realize that no longer rankles adn just comes across as annoying... but no.
From my perspective, I've always found it such a huge turn-off to see people with resources and opportunities to inform completely squander their time and resources, and even worse, compound that fwrite in so self-evident a biased fashion, and that's true whether you're talking about the Herald, the Sun-Sentinel or NewTimes, all of whom are GUILTY of this everyday to varying degrees -from perfectly awful-to-perfectly dreadful.
Seriously, those three are our print media choices in South Florida the year 2011?
Sadly, yes.
And when are the top management at the Broward NewTimes going to FINALLY post their public email addresses on their website, like the much-maligned and ridiculed Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel, which I originally mentioned here on January 11th, with the headline, A longstanding question about the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes that nobody else ever asks publicly at http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/longstanding-question-about.html .
It's almost halfway thru the year 2011 and the NewTimesSTILL doesn't list theirs so that readers can directly contact people with complaints about mistakes, errors and examples of apparent bias, and cc or bcc others with their comments.
Pretty backwards if you ask me, and not exactly the sort of thing that imbues people with confidence about sharing confidential information.
It's already June, when exactly are Wilson's Town Hall meetings with residents in SE Broward this summer, including Hallandale Beach?
Perhaps you should call her office and ask her staff, since it's clear the local news media aren't the least bit curious, even while thinking nothing of printing Allen West's, attending his meetingsand then publicizing professional misfits who want to draw attention to themselves at his meetings, not attention to issues.
For a publication that in its articles and columns makes a big deal about accountability and transparency, why doesn't the the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes management team ACTUALLY run their work email addresses on their website, so that readers can contact them directly about either complaints, compliments or suggestions, instead of hiding behind one of those preposterous walls of anonymity as they currently do? It's the year 2011 for God's sake. http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/about/staff/http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?to=614131
Despite alltheir myriad longstanding problems, which I've chronicled on my blog at great length, the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-SentinelACTUALLY run their management's email addresses on their websites and in the newspaper, since as you all know from what I've written and posted here over the past few years, I heard more than a few times from former Herald Senior VP and Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, so why won't the NewTimes?
You already know the maxim about the goose and the gander, there's no need for me to repeat it here. But it IS very noticeable that the NewTimesdoesn't practice what they preach.
And just out of curiosity, how much money do you think the NewTimes make a year from their escort/sex ads?
And why do the Herald andSun-Sentinelnever take anyone there to task when they make self-evident factual mistakes, or seem to conspicuously leave out pertinent facts from a so-called article, even though it so often reads like a personal or political screed, which had pretty much been the situation at The Juice blog since Thomas Francis left?http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/ Though I have been listed on their blog roll for a few years, I haven't read it since Thomas left, since it seems to be nothing but shallow screeds preaching to the choir, of which their current offering is par for the course. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/tucson_shooting_gabrielle_giffords_olbermann.php
And if you guessed that they used Allen West's name in the headline -again!- go to the head of the class.
In that sense, they're like the oddball guy who keeps showing up at the beach or park with a snake on his shoulder, so desperate to get attention that he'll do anything. It's sorta funny, but mostly, it's just sad, and a waste of space. Personally, I'd much rather pay a dollar or two every week and have more well-written stories and less schlocky articles and ads. But that's just me.
Above, September 9, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel & Miami Herald newspaper vending machines in Hallandale Beach, FL.Neither newspaper's Editorial Board endorsed FL-22 GOP candidate Allen West and he won anyway, with momentum on his side at the end. Yes, media 'payback' is going to be a bitch. And also fun to watch!
Above, September 10, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier of just some of the Ron Klein congressional campaign signs on Hallandale Beach Blvd., west of U.S.-1/Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL. Unfortunately for Kleinand his supporters, the areas where these signs were placed by his supporters are not only NOT in the FL-22 CD he was running for re-election from, but are actually quite far from it. Yet they were there for weeks.
Contrary to what Lisa Rab of the the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes wrote on Wednesday -below- Congressman-elect Allen West's win over incumbent Ron Klein will cause "Unsettling Two Years" for lazy, know-it-all South Florida reporters, NOT voters.
And West and his staff will REALLY, REALLY enjoy getting the news media's goat now, and even baiting them occasionally. This is really great news for South Florida residents and news junkies alike, since the one thing that all civic activists and elected officials I know in South Florida are in complete agreement on, whether they are conservative, liberal or libertarian, is the overwhelming sense of mental and physical laziness of the majority of the South Florida news media, print and electronic.
And in many cases, theiralmost complete lack of curiosity, causing you to wonder why they are in that profession.Some are like ciphers.It's one thing to have a detached sense of professionalism, another to act like you just don't careor are above it all.
As I've stated here previously, there are a lot of print and TV reporters in South Florida who I believe ought to be in smaller media markets but are here for reasons NOT having to do with either quality or talent.
Oh, and did I mention how many want everything on a silver platter, when THEY want it? So many show-up for events not really having a good understanding of what previously happened -or didn't- that necessitates another public meeting to take place. Is it really too much to expect that they do some research and homework before showing-up? Not that this sounds at all surprising to anyone who comes to this blog regularly, since I'm forever decrying how much worse the South Florida's news media's curiosity and work ethic is now compared to when I was growing-up down here, despite the advent of technology that makes their jobs easier than ever. The thing is, nobody I ever meet at public policy events ever disagrees with that sentiment. It's the dispiriting consensus opinion.
Showing-up really matters, as is showing-up on time, and the current crop of reporters, by-and-large, prefer to do their reporting by telephone -or by calling me or other people after-the-fact to find out what happened. That is simply NOT a satisfactory way to cover news in such a dynamic-if-corrupt part of the United States. Not by any stretch of the imagination. If you don't think Allen West and his staff know exactly which members of the South Florida news media were crass, patronizing, punky, condescending and less-than-professional in their months-long coverage of his race against Ron Klein, and some of thenuttier elements of the liberal South Florida establishment, and were phoning-it in from the get-go, guess again. http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/AllenWestForCongress
You don't have to be a friend of Allen West or even someone who voted for him to know that he is one person who is NOT at all interested in being South Florida's or the national MSM's"pet," like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who has STILL never run in a competitive congressional race.
Thanks to Amendment 5 & 6 passing on Tuesday, we just might see such a thing in a few years, and that would be good for everyone concerned. Plus, competitive races generally (but not always) prevent the sort of endemic lapdog journalism DWS has enjoyed in South Florida for years. We need more watchdog reporting and less lapdog!
The latest news on Allen West is here:http://www.google.com/search?q=Allen+West Meanwhile, a year ago... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lthfkdb0Gs Minority GOP Candidates Make History http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2RBqiNlho
Below, an example of what I'm talking about:opinions masquerading as journalism.
----- Allen West Wins Congressional Seat, Voters to Deal With Unsettling Two Years By Lisa Rab Wed., Nov. 3 2010 @ 6:18AM
Well, it's only two years. But with Allen West serving as the congressman for the coastal congressional District 22 that spans Broward and Palm Beach counties, those years could be rather unsettling.
Read the rest of the screed at http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/11/allen_west_wins_congressional_seat.php
