Just to prove a point that I've proven so many times in the past on this blog: Snapshot of the Twitter feed of the Miami Herald shows its complete obliviousness to Broward County and the people who live there -like me; @MiamiHerald, @MindyMarques, @rickhirsch

Just to prove a point that I've proven so many times in the past on this blog: Snapshot of the Twitter feed of the Miami Herald shows its complete obliviousness to Broward County and the people who live there -like me; @MiamiHerald, @MindyMarques, @rickhirsch

Above is a snapshot of the Miami Herald's obliviousness to Broward County, the land it treats like terra incognita in its new HQ in Doral -on the way to all the dumped bodies in The Everglades- even more so than when they were in downtown Miami and lumped Broward in with The Keys edition, withy older news, even though the Broward edition was printed in Broward.

At the top are the tweets appearing on the Miami Herald's Twitter page as of 6:16 p.m. on Monday night.

How many do you think have to go thru before coming across the second reference to a person, place, issue or topic that is of particular relevance to Broward County and the people who live here?

What's your guess?

The correct answer is 63.

62 tweets before the second item of particular relevance to Broward residents comes up.

The next time you get a phone call from a Herald reporter or editor, you ought to ask them

if they're sure they really meant to call someone in far-off Broward County.

If you're interested in seeing all the tweets that came before it, drop me a line and I will send it to you.

Republican votes for the Gang of Eight immigration bill continue to fall away even as the Miami Herald continued their news blackout for a third day regarding Ryan Lizza's New Yorker column and the truth about S.744, and the bad news for Marco Rubio and the newspaper continues apace, as the truth about both continues to seep out over the Internet

Republican votes for the Gang of Eight immigration bill continue to fall away even as the Miami Herald continued their news blackout for a third day regarding Ryan Lizza's New Yorker column and the truth about S.744, and the bad news for Marco Rubio and the newspaper continues apace, as the truth about both continues to seep out over the Internet

The stridently pro-amnesty Miami Herald is STILL refusing to end their news blackout and mention anything at all re the Ryan Lizza column and the role of Rubio and his staff in S.744 since news about the column began. 

The Tampa Bay Times ended their news blackout Tuesday afternoon. 

As of 1 a.m. Thursday morning, absolutely nothing's changed at McClatchy's under-performing Miami Herald -nothing in print and nothing on their blogs- since my post of yesterday bringing this to everyone's attention.

But in the Miami Herald that's run by Executive Editor Aminda Marques Gonzalez, while there wasn't space for real news about Marco Rubio, there was plenty of space for faux news about imaginary polls and imaginary candidates, him and Hillary Clinton, that are the very picture of the word meaningless.

When the history of how bad this once-decent newspaper got before there were either big corporate changes that respected readers expectations, or they merely allowed the female captain of the S.S. Herald to crash into the iceberg like The Titanic, and slowly receded into insignificance, we now know the name of who will get the lion's share of the blame locally:

Aminda Marques Gonzalez.

Yes, the same woman who never responded to my two fact-filled emails in 2010 and 2011 to her, Managing Editor Rick Hirsch and others in position of power at Herald management in Miami and at McClatchy HQ in Sacramento, pointing out a whole host of tangible problems that weren't being solved or mentioned in any other forum or venue.
Despite how specific I was and even giving concrete examples, Aminda Marques never did anything to fix the problems -and here in 2013, still STILL hasn't. 

I know that we've all been taught that, theoretically, there's a wall between editorial and news, but if there was one there, it's crumbled under the present crew working for McClatchy..

At that newspaper now, on a matter of great public policy, especially to this area, IF you aren't supportive of the newspaper's editorial point-of-view, pro-amnesty, you don't see the light of day there, and their lopsided, one-sided "news coverage" has reflected this the entire time that Marques has been in charge.

It's not your imagination or mine, it's the truth, and the record is clear.

The Hill

Right rips Rubio as Republican immigration votes slip away
By Alexander Bolton
06/19/13 08:05 PM ET
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/306717-right-rips-rubio-as-gop-votes-slip-away

Even while Miami-area TV stations also continue to completely ignore the Ryan Lizza story, too, Rubio's short-term future within the party is being decided as people decide that he is simply too naive and untrustworthy to have the large public role he has.
once.
And the reporters and columnists around the country who know what Rubio has been up to also know what the Herald has been doing, too, which is all to the good.

Note: Reid failure="we get issue" calculation works best if bill loses (<60) or gets only 61 and House blocks.
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 19, 2013

Is it really such a coincidence that heyday of US middle class was also time of lowest immigration? (6)
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) June 19, 2013

Wish more American liberals would read the careful study by thoughtful Brit liberal, David Goodheart http://t.co/iPdvYLzWCq (9)
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) June 19, 2013

EPI: During 90s tight labor mkt black h-hold income made big gains-greatest since 60s. W/ Gangof8 won't happen again http://t.co/4YCZMFo0Zq
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 19, 2013

CBO says S. 744 would allow illegal immigration to build up all over again. Polls should start asking if voters want a "path" every 10yrs.
— Roy Beck (@RoyBeck_NUSA) June 19, 2013

Sen. Portman on Gang of Eight: 'I don't think the bill is going to hold together without real enforcement.'
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 19, 2013

#amnesty fallout RT @scontorno: Paul cheered, Rubio jeered by Tea Party protesters rallying at the Capitol http://t.co/f7ndnU4rMh
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) June 19, 2013

The Gang of 8 immigration bill is a disaster. Hear why in my discussion with @RushLimbaugh from earlier today: https://t.co/QrkUEU43gO
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 19, 2013

"Right rips Rubio as Republican immigration votes slip away" http://t.co/5UhCWi8PfS
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 20, 2013

"We need seventy"--@ChuckSchumer in @ryanlizza NewYorker piece http://t.co/5UhCWi8PfS
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 20, 2013

Gangof8 preening/bragging *is* obnoxious. Wonder if costs them votes/"Ted Cruz unhappy w/ Gang of Eight ‘bragging’" http://t.co/LTJTMlhs2v
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 20, 2013

Why is the McClatchy Company's Miami Herald continuing to ignore media reports the FBI has emails detailing activities of Herald fave, "Cuban-American" Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, repeatedly having sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic -at a resort owned by his Miami pal? No story's complete without a South Florida angle, so why are they acting like ostriches?; This cover-up is exactly the sort of thing that causes reasonable people like me to seriously question the future of the Herald, since their longstanding political bias and sheer laziness are both cancers in the digital era

Updated on Monday January 28th, 2013  5:15a.m.

Why is the McClatchy Company's Miami Herald continuing to ignore media reports that the FBI has copies of emails in its possession detailing unflattering and illegal globe-trotting activities of Herald favorite, "Cuban American" Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey?
The allegation is that Menendez has repeatedly flown-down to the Dominican Republic and had sex with underage prostitutes, and that one of the persons who facilitated these activities was his pal, a Miami surgeon and resort owner named Salomon Melgen.

This unwillingness to report seems especially curious given that there is the requisite South Florida angle, since no scandal in this country seems complete without some connection to this area.
And once you know that the behavior is alleged to have taken place at a resort owned by Melgen, and yet as you can see for yourself above, the Herald has published nothing about him or Menendez related to this story, it becomes especially obvious.

The newspaper has ignored this story for quite some time, even before the election three months ago, when people at ABC News were investigating it, an election which made incumbent Menedez one of three Hispanics in the U.S. Senate, and the presumptive choice for Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if John Kerry becomes Secretary of State, which is a scary-enough prospect on its own, given how consistently unsound his judgment has proven to be over the years.

So ask yourself, is this an example of a an old-fashioned media cover-up by a Miami newspaper that has come to be well-known across the country for ignoring negative news about specific "pets" of its management and Editorial Board, or just the latest example of the arrogant laziness that's been going on for years at the Herald, which has so many predicates over the past few years?

Among those predicates is one that this part of Broward County is especially familiar with , that of the Herald iignoring for well over a year the facts surrounding an affair conducted by former Broward School Chair Jennifer Gottlieb with an individual with business before Broward Schools, a story that investigative reporter Bob Norman deconstructed so well. 

Here's my post of July 26, 2010 on the subject of Gottlieb that remains one of the most-read posts I've had in over five years:

Weeks later, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel & Miami TV newscasts STILL consciously ignoring Bob Norman's spot-on story re School Board's Jennifer Gottlieb

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/weeks-later-miami-herald-sun-sentinel.html

and
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-perfect-end-to-perfect-wednesday.html

So as you can see, this behavior of putting their head in the sand like an ostrich is nothing new
by the current news crew at the Herald.
It's just more of the same that nobody likes.

I sent a version of the above and what's below to Herald publisher David Landsberg,

Executive Editor Aminda Marques and Managing Editor Rick Hirsch asking just that very

question.

Menendez has been a favorite of Herald management and the Editorial Board because of his

political views towards Cuba, not because of any great original policy ideas of his, or even 

anything of particular note that he's said or done.
-----

And as indicated above from my screen grab of a few minutes ago, you have posted nothing at all on Menendez's Miami surgeon pal and connection?

How come?

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Bob+Menendez = nothing

The Daily Caller                                                                                                      
Emails show FBI investigating Sen. Bob Menendez for sleeping with underage Dominican prostitutes
By David Martosko, Executive Editor 
1:52 AM 01/25/2013

http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/25/emails-show-fbi-investigating-sen-bob-menendez-for-sleeping-with-underage-dominican-prostitutes/

Thinking that this story will eventually go away on its own if you don't report it, is NOT really much of a 21st Century strategy for managing news, and is exactly the sort of thing that causes reasonable people like me to seriously question the future of your newspaper if it continues to show that it can't be relied upon by readers to honestly report the news without personal or political favor.

Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim

A Miami Herald vending machine in front of the Denny's restaurant on West Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach, FL, right near one of the city's two infamous red-light cameras. (Now the daily price for a Herald is 75 cents, of course, not the 50 cents depicted in photo.) July 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

On Sunday morning, in going thru the Miami Herald's crummy and uninspiring website, mostly  making mental notes about all the stories that should've been present eight weeks before national, state and local elections take place -but WEREN'T-  rather than looking for something in particular that I was expecting to be there, I came up short when I clicked "Opinion" and saw something there that was as objectively false as anything I'd seen in the paper this year. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/#navlink=navbar

You see it was there that I first came across Herald Executive Editor Aminda Marques' piece about the Herald's coverage of education policy, and in my opinion, bragging about something she had no business bragging about. That is, IF facts and reality matter.
They still do to me, what about you?

If I'd had a few minutes to really think it through, I'd have actually posted the knowing response below to my blog right away instead of placing it on the Herald's website, since more people would likely see it here sooner than in that Herald article, since depending upon how many comments the original article garnered, my experience in talking to other people is that most people won't read more than whatever comments happen to be on that particular page, depending upon whether your default setting is Most Recent or chron order of first comments to most recent. 
Me, I read all comments of articles I find of interest in chron order.


Now perhaps it was because I'd already had more Hazelnut-flavored coffee than I should've yesterday morning, while lisitening to the network TV morning chat shows on in the background while checking out my usual Sunday morning media breakfast buffet on the computer. 

The only thing that was different this time than the past few months was that I had to be sure not to get too engrossed in something I was reading once This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney ended, since I needed to swing by the store and pick up some bags of ice on the way to catch the Dolphins 2012 season-opener in Houston at my sister's place out in Pembroke Pines, and not be late for the 1 p.m. kickoff.

(As usual, the part of the drive from Hallandale Beach to Flamingo Road in Pembroke Pines via Pembroke Road that was the worst stretch, even on a Sunday afternoon, was between Washington Park in Hollywood and  University Drive in The Pines. The reason? The number of speeding drivers who ride-on-your -bumper when you're doing the speed limit out-numbers safe drivers like me by a factor of 3:1. Some day, I know I'll see a cop on that stretch giving speeding tickets, but after all these years, still nothing as of yesterday! Some day though...)

Miami Herald

Why everyone — parent or not — should care about education coverage

By Aminda Marques Gonzalez

In Print September 9, 2012

Two weeks into the school year and The Miami Herald education team has as much on its to-do list as most children returning to school.

The Miami-Dade school system is putting a $1.2 billion bond referendum before voters, money that would be used to repair aging schools and upgrade technology. The Broward school district is struggling with a troubled transportation system that has left scores of children without rides. The embattled Florida education commissioner resigned weeks before the start of a new term.

Few topics we cover have as broad an impact as education.

“Anyone who has a child in school feels so close to the news,” said Charlene Pacenti, The Miami Herald’s education editor. “Does my school have a leaky roof? Does my child’s classroom have the technology it needs? Is my child’s bus going to come on time? — these are the issues they care about.”

Beyond the parents of school-age kids, what happens in the classroom and at the school district touches the entire community, from the homeowners whose property taxes support our educational system to the business community, which has made education a touchstone of economic growth.

No one is better poised to provide substantive, unbiased schools coverage than The Miami Herald education team. Our coverage is led by Pacenti, a 20-year news veteran with school-age daughters. She also oversees MomsMiami.com, which she helped launch.

Reporter Laura Isensee covers the Miami-Dade school district and Michael Vasquez covers Broward schools and higher education. Both bring years of experience in government reporting to the education beat, as well as an ability to explain how local, state and national policies affect children, parents and teachers. For live coverage, follow Isensee on Twitter at @LauraIsensee and Vasquez at @mrmikevasquez. Pacenti tweets using @MomsMiami.

Parental engagement in education issues has risen dramatically, Pacenti said, fueled by cuts to school budgets across the state.

“Parents are getting involved like I have never seen,” she said. “They have an appetite for this news. They are sharing it and they are acting on it.”

This year’s coverage will focus on three key issues: the Miami-Dade bond referendum and the state of schools in Broward; the introduction of new federal “common core” standards as the FCAT is phased out; and the role of technology in education.

“Education is fundamental,” Isensee said. “It’s so important how well we’re educating students and preparing the next generation. I care about those things. It’s why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place, to tell stories that shape people’s lives.”

-------

My response, such as it was on the spur-of-the-moment is here:

Ms. Marques, how many emails have I sent you and Rick Hirsch and other key Herald managers and editors over the past few years, and posted on my blog, asking a simple question of you all: WHY do you all persist in using the personnel and technology you have in the strange way you do that does NOT take full advantage of either the personnel or technology, which regularly cheats readers out of useful content? Here are some facts that you seem to want regular Herald readers to ignore:

In the year 2012, the Herald STILL has no Education blog. Is there a newspaper in this country with your circulation size that DOESN'T? I doubt it. Now, if something important happens involving Education, especially up in Tallahassee, it appears on the Naked Politics blog, which while slightly better than it had been for years, is NOT the place that anyone goes to read about Education policy news. But because you lack an Education blog, you stick it there. Bad idea.

You've STILL never replaced the former Public Ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, who left well over a year ago for D.C. and NPR, someone whom you NEVER gave a blog to so he could update columns and comment on breaking stories or controversies. Because he was NOT even a regular Sunday feature, often, entire MONTHS would go by in between columns, and at that point, the stories he wrote about were either forgotten -or hidden behind the Herald's archives pay-wall. How is that any way to engage the public???

While you DO run a Gay blog on the website, it seems more like a pep squad or bulletin board for Gay interests rather than an objective news outlet that shows Gays here are like everyone else in South Florida: some good, some bad, most apathetic like everyone else down here. Unfortunately, on that blog, Gays are either heroes or victims but they're never anything else. It's unrealistic.

For reasons that nobody can figure out, you persist in posting Spanish-language blogs on the Herald's website instead of having them at El Herald.

I could go on... and have gone on with lots of specificity in those emails I've sent you and others at One Herald Plaza. And yet you do nothing...and the unsatisfactory status quo persists. 
Honestly, it's time you folks making the final decisions look in the mirror and figure out a way to make the Herald's print and website content better and more useful to readers who want to be engaged before you become even more irrelevant to South Florida.

------

By the way, just for the record, on Sept. 24, 2010, I sent several members of the Herald's management team an email noting that the Herald had neglected to effectively report on the search for a replacement for then-Broward School Board General Counsel Ed Marko -in place since 1968!- and had yet to mention the candidates being considered as Marko's replacement for that important and high-paying job.
I noted in that Sept. 24th email that the last time the Herald even mentioned Marko leaving was Nov. 3, 2009.
Nearly 11 months!

Some of you newer readers to the blog might never have seen my past emails to Herald management -and my subsequent posting to my blog- taking them to task for the downward spiral that prevents real news from ever appearing in print like it used to, especially local government stories.

You might want to read the following to consider yourself brought up to speed.

May 21, 2012 - What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-at-miami-herald-more.html

December 21, 2011 - For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

December 21, 2011 -Part 2 of More lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza for another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/part-2-of-more-lumps-of-coal-in.html

What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...

What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...


Those of you who come to this blog regularly will recall that back in December and January, I sent a very thorough letter to the top management of the Miami Herald -Publisher David Landsberg, Executive Editor Aminda Marques and Managing Editor Rick Hirsch among others- and some folks at parent company McClatchy Company regarding longstanding problems that I'd been aware of and had observed both in the newspaper and on their website. 


Problems that, from my perspective, at least, they seemed to be expending precious little time, energy and resources on resolving any time in the near-future, judging by the physical product they continue to churn out and what you continue to see on their crummy static website.


Clearly, that doesn't speak well of what's going on down at One Herald Plaza, but then that's not breaking news, either.


After sending those emails, I later re-purposed them and posted those comments here on December 21, 2011.


For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

Part 2 of More lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza for another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/part-2-of-more-lumps-of-coal-in.html

I heard via email from several other concerned media watchers in South Florida -some of them with names you'd instantly recognize- who also don't like the look of things at the Herald -or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, either, for that matter.


People who, like me, feel that that given its enormous resources, even with a smaller staff, the Herald is not only short-changing the community in its geographical area, but has actually abdicated many of its basic reporting coverage responsibilities in critical ways, and yet can't even point to better and more nuanced reportorial coverage of the places it will actually deign to cover. 


While many people who wrote agreed with me just about 100%, others admitted that they hadn't personally noticed certain things I brought up to Herald management, but that once I mentioned it and they'd had some time to think about it, they found themselves largely agreeing with me that in a competitive marketplace, there was no logical reason for failing to resolve some of these longstanding problems that Herald readers have with the newspaper.


That was especially the case with the Herald's atrocious coverage of Broward County people, places and government, both local and county, where almost every night of the week, you can go to the Herald's Broward homepage, and yet consistently find that less than 40% of the listed stories have anything to do with Broward County.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/#navlink=navbar


Who deliberately runs a newspaper like that? 


In any case, besides some small initial response that first week after they were sent, which came just before the holidays, six months later, nobody from the Herald's management has since followed-up with me or gone public in the newspaper about what and when the Herald is going to do something to prevent the slippery-slope from becoming "the new normal."


A good first step, though long overdue, would actually be hiring an Ombudsman, one who actually lives in South Florida and who not only has a weekly column, but is also equipped with a daily blog.


Someone to better represent readers with deep concerns about the Herald's reporting and editorial bias, misrepresentation of facts, consistent curious choice to leave some key facts out of certain stories, and the perennial concern about Herald flackery on behalf of South Florida's business interests and the personally powerful & privileged -like the newspaper's love affair with M-D Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho, of whom seldom is heard a discouraging word.


But it's been more than a year now since Edward Schumacher-Matos left for NPR and the Council for Foreign Relations, and nothing is happening, even though that's actually something fairly easy to fix on that laundry list of unresolved problems there...
When are we going to see some tangible signs of positive change at the Herald?


And have you seen how weak their offerings are on their YouTube Channel? http://www.youtube.com/user/MiamiHerald/ 


Without naming names, I know for a fact that there are twenty-something female bloggers in Scandinavia who are so popular that they produce more original video content and get more eyeballs seeing their original content on their YouTube Channel than the Herald gets for their's. (And they do it themselves, too.)


In fact, I know one such blogger in particular who has produced a number of videos within the past six months, most of which have been seen more times than ALL the Herald's videos for the past nine months combined. 


You'd think that by now, the folks locally at the Herald and in Sacramento for McClatchy, would have the good sense to be embarrassed at having all the resources they have, in a large market like this with so many interesting, bizarre and controversial things going on, yet posting such feeble content.
But, apparently, they're not.
------

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/01/2194496/looking-back-on-4-years-of-critiquing.html

Miami Herald

Looking back on 4 years of critiquing The Herald

By Edward Schumacher-Matos

May 1, 2011

Nearly four years ago, I wrote my first column as ombudsman. This is my last. I leave having learned a lot about you, the readers. I leave having failed you, too, in one promise.

I learned foremost that you care — about your community and your newspaper. You write a daily avalanche of e-mails to me and others at The Miami Herald or post comments online, often with passion, over issues in South Florida and the state.

When you don’t like how your point of view was treated in an article, you often threaten to cancel your subscription. Few of you actually do, at least for reasons of coverage. If anything, your reaction shows that you are reading the newspaper. And while most of my columns have been critical of something The Herald has done, you and I share this secret: For every article we disagree with, there are many, many more that we like. No other local news outlet keeps us as well informed.

I also learned your hottest buttons: Cuba, Israel, immigration, taxes, gay rights. And, of course, party politics. Your antennas are acute for any indication that The Herald might be tilting pro-Republican or Democrat.

But whatever your political inclination, the stories you like the most are investigations that ferret out local corruption. As The Herald has redefined itself through smaller staffs, shrinking paper size, and online expansion, you have overwhelmingly implored that it continue investing in the investigations that it does so well. After that, you most like local stories, though the Caribbean Basin and Middle East are local for you, too. You are sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

Few places in the country are so interesting. I am leaving to take up a new post as ombudsman of National Public Radio. I look forward to the political sensitivity of that role as NPR and the media nationally wrestle with how to finance responsible journalism and serve communities. But I will be sad to leave you.

So, how did I let you down? I announced in the beginning that in passing judgment on The Herald’s coverage — on whether it was one-sided, for example, or unfair or incomplete — I would tell you my position on the issue being covered in the original article. It was a revolutionary idea. Here is what I wrote in my first column:

“I’ll tell you upfront, and I’ll tell you my biases, for in the end what I write will necessarily be my own reasoned judgment. But I promise you it will be as fair as I can make it, never cynical, but sometimes irreverent. I strongly believe in good professional journalism, but I don’t think it’s Holy. You are welcome to agree, disagree or demand to kill the ump.”

That first column had to do with the coverage of the Gomez brothers, two young Colombians who were popular students but unauthorized immigrants detained for deportation. Their saga and the proposed Dream Act that might legalize them remains ongoing. Once a Colombian illegal immigrant myself, I wrote that I was sympathetic toward legalizing the unauthorized immigrants in the country.

Still, I criticized The Herald’s coverage for being slanted in favor of the boys. It largely overlooked legitimate questions held by many readers about the fairness of the Dream Act and legalizing the brothers.

But if I lived up to my promise in that first column, I found as the months went by that to state my position on the issues distracted from my critique of the coverage. I became the issue, instead of the reporting and editing by The Herald. As a mechanical matter, it also made the columns too long, especially if I wanted to explain the nuances of my views.

I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop the practice, but my promise somehow just slipped away.

I still wonder if there is a way to revive the idea, not just for ombudsmen, but for reporters.

We know that journalists are human and have opinions and political preferences. There also is no such thing as pure objectivity. We all see through the lens of our upbringing.

Most reporters stretch mightily to set aside their biases and follow basic journalistic rules. Editors further scrub stories for objectivity and fairness.

But we as a society are now in a cynical “post modern” age in which we have been taught to “deconstruct” articles in search of the writer’s supposed underlying intent. Trust in the news media is low. Would transparency about a reporter’s personal views help recover trust then? Is there a practical way to make it work? Or would it be a distraction from the news itself?

I don’t have the answers but would appreciate knowing your parting thoughts. As the news media fragments into many slivers of opinion, we risk fragmenting as a society and a nation. We need to have at least a common base of facts.

Thank you for the privilege of having been allowed into your homes and your considerations these past four years.

Part 2 of More lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza for another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County

This is the follow-up email sent yesterday in a recent series to Miami Herald President and Publisher David Landsberg, with cc's once again to Herald executive editor Aminda Marques and managing editor Rick Hirsch, plus the same discerning elected officials and activists in Broward County -with a few more thrown in for good measure- regarding the Herald's continuing unsatisfactory news coverage of Broward County, which so often is either invisible when it should be anything but, or obtuse and condescending when it should be penetrating and hard-hitting.
Neither is acceptable.

I also detail some thoughts and suggestions about rapidly changing the dynamic there, using examples at the Washington Post and Aftonbladet, before, like the Titanic almost 100 years ago come April, the McClatchy-owned Herald hits the iceberg and goes under.

Be assured, time is NOT on Mr. Landsberg's side.

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December 20th, 2011

3:30 p.m.

Dear Mr. Landsberg:

A follow-up to my email of last week, owing to the fact that last night, I once again saw yet another one of the glaring longstanding problems at the newspaper you run, and not for the first or even second time.

Just as I've already written about previously a few times on my blog when the Herald ran a multi-weeks old story about Donald Trump in the "Breaking News" section, this is what appeared on the Herald's Broward homepage 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/#navlink=navbar on Monday

December 19th at 11:21 p.m. under "Breaking News"

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Breaking News 

Teen becomes Deerfield Beach school’s Santa Claus 

Forfeits cost Boyd Anderson district title 

Boca’s Lynn University to host final presidential debate of 2012 

K-9 injured in Plantation crash to be released from hospital 

BSO plans to stop dispatching Fort Lauderdale 911 calls 

Former Broward sheriff Nick Navarro dies 

Blackout of Miami Dolphins game averted 

Teen boys charged with friend's murder expected in court » More

Just a few minutes of investigating reveals that of the so-called eight "Breaking News" stories, the most recent one is from two weeks ago, and only half were written by Herald reporters.

These articles, whatever else they may be, are nobody's reasonable idea of "Breaking News" in Broward County. 

Story #1, Teen becomes Deerfield Beach school’s Santa Claus, is from December 8, 2011, and was written by Alysha Khan

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/08/2548494/teen-becomes-deerfield-beach-schools.html

Story #2, Forfeits cost Boyd Anderson district title, is from November 8, 2011, and

was written by Andre C. Fernandez and Manny Navarro

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/08/2491571/boyd-anderson-forfeits-seven-games.html

Story #3, Boca’s Lynn University to host final presidential debate of 2012, is from 

October 31, 2011 and was written by "Miami Herald Staff"

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/31/2481007/bocas-lynn-university-to-host.html

Story #4, K-9 injured in Plantation crash to be released from hospital, is from October 10, 2011 and was written by Linda Trischitta of the Sun-Sentinel 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/10/2447354/k-9-injured-in-plantation-crash.html

Story #5, BSO plans to stop dispatching Fort Lauderdale 911 calls, is from September 30, 2011 and was written by Scott Wyman when he was still with the Sun-Sentinel.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/30/2432468/bso-plans-to-stop-dispatching.html

Story #6, Former Broward sheriff Nick Navarro dies, is from September 29, 2011, and was written by Michael Vasquez.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/28/2429614/former-broward-sheriff-nick-navarro.html

Story #7, Blackout of Miami Dolphins game averted, is from September 15th, 2011

and was written by Craig Davis of the Sun-Sentinel

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/15/2409135/sunday-dolphins-blackout-averted.html

Story #8, Teen boys charged with friend's murder expected in court, is from August 17, 2011, and was written by Sonia Isger and Alexandra Seltzerof the Palm Beach Post

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/17/2362940/teen-boys-charged-with-friends.html

In short, Mr. Landsberg, nothing remotely resembling LIVE, LOCAL and Late-Breaking...

And the Herald still hasn't written anything in print or online about the new Broward County redistricting map voted upon last Tuesday by the County Commission, which in large part prompted that email of mine to you in the first place, even though I'd been thinking about sending you something for well over a year.

Yet not surprisingly, there was something online by Martha Brannigan about Miami-Dade's new map the same day, yesterday, at 7:24 p.m. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/19/2553831/miami-dade-commission-approves.html

But almost exactly a week after the redistricting vote here in Broward County, NADA about the same issue, affecting roughly 40-45% of this media market's population?

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=redistricting

This gets to my -and other's- longstanding contention that more than is either logical or reasonable, far too much of the Herald's reporting is based on geography, NOT actual news value or impact.

That is to say, geographical proximity to you and your HQ on Biscayne Bay.

Witness the embarrassing debacle in March with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and how abysmally slow the Herald (and Sun-Sentinel) was to wake-up hours after-the-fact, which I wrote about here:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/sun-sentinel-miami-herald-snooze-for.html

Mr. Landsberg, I wasn't joking about what I said to you in my email last Friday about hoping

that you were busy working on that "plan" to change the dynamics of both the Herald's physical copy and the website, because if I can notice all this within just a few minutes of looking at the Herald's poorly-designed website, so heavy with ads at the top and right column, imagine what I would find if...

http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/10/30/proof-by-mask/

Look at the DAILY measures the Washington Post goes to get its execs, editors, reporters, columnists and bloggers in front of the public in their community -where I lived for 15 years- so that they are more than a little aware of what's going on in the minds of their savvy readers, esp. what's bothering them, via community forums and their very popular LIVE online chats.

Chats that I've even participated in myself and which have readable transcripts archived on their website, making them great resources.

http://live.washingtonpost.com/

Not that you're probably aware of it, but consider what the largest national daily in Sweden

-Aftonbladet- based in Stockholm, did when they wanted to think outside-the-box.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/

I eagerly read their website everyday and can tell you that they created a place on their own website where they challenged their readers and critics to look at what their tentative plans were for re-designing the site, a tabloid-sized paper that in many ways largely sets the daily conversations and talking points that will take place that day in offices, homes, schools, trains and coffee shops across the country.

And they dared their readers to improve upon their own plans.

Now anyone can dare someone, but what they did was actually put something on their website that gave readers a means to show management -and Aftonbladet's 2.5 million daily readers- what their suggested 'better mousetrap' looked like.

Not surprisingly in a well-educated and talented country of news readers, some of those suggestions WERE BETTER than management's.

See Hur skulle du bygga om aftonbladet.se?

http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/redesignbloggen/2011/09/hur-skulle-du-bygga-om-aftonbladet-se

So tell me, Mr, Landsberg, what's wrong with letting the best ideas win in Miami?

Sometime on Thursday afternoon, unless something else comes up that prevents it, I'll be posting to my blog just some of the valid criticisms of you and your management team, editors and reporters that I and other well-informed Herald readers I know are painfully aware of, as well as mention stories that you all have either foolishly ignored, given short-shrift to, or otherwise marginalized for inexplicable reasons.

The logical result of that attitude at One Herald Plaza was giving the South Florida public -especially the readers in Broward County, my friends and neighbors- considerably LESS than what they were reasonably entitled to expect from the Herald in the year 2011.

A LOT less.


------


The Donald Trump-related blog posts of mine that I reference above, in describing Herald management's longstanding unawareness that they have been and continue to describe stories as Breaking News on their awful website when they are, in fact, old stories -which I meant to link to in the email but forgot to!- are described here:
July 21, 2011, Miami Herald grave robbers at it again! Herald's threadbare Broward homepage runs 15-day old story as Breaking News to fill-up space!, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/miami-herald-grave-robbers-at-it-again.html

I can't emphasize enough that if you care about the interplay of journalism, technology, innovation and the 21st Century news media, you are making a big mistake if you don't subscribe to The Monday Note newsletter edited by Frédéric Filloux.

http://www.mondaynote.com/

In its own way, it's consistently interesting and amazing in the same ways that the late and much-missed manhattan, inc. magazine and Spy were, both magazines that I was a charter subscriber to when I lived in Chicago and Evanston in the mid-'80's, and which I devoured from cover-to-cover upon arrival in my mailbox because of their consistent quality writing and insight. 

Oh for those days of penetrating stories on the people and personalities behind LBO and hostile takeovers and "short-fingered vulgarians.")

I actually reference The Monday Note above in the paragraphs about what was going on this year in redesigning Aftonbladet. http://www.aftonbladet.se/

Unless something crazy happens between now and then, always possible when you live South Florida, I will be posting those promised examples of Herald nonfeasance and journalistic apathy from above, tomorrow afternoon.

Trust me, just like Santa Claus, I've been keeping track of who's been bad.