How stories re Al Lamberti and Louis Granteed show the smug hypocrisy among South Florida's news media, esp. the unsatisfactory coverage of actual news in Broward from the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Below is an email I sent on Wednesday to reporter Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in which I use her story about Broward Sheriff candidate Louis Granteed swinging by The Cheetah strip club in Hallandale Beach to connect it to previous  actions of the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes towards current Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti, a Republican, and a matter I've previously discussed on the blog -smug hypocrisy among South Florida's news media, and unsatisfactory coverage of actual news in this county from the NewTimes.


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re your post titled "Sheriff calls news story on his campaign website "spam''
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/12/sheriff_calls_news_story_on_hi.html


You know what would really be great?
If the Broward NewTimes actually joined the 21st-Century and posted the office email addresses of all of its top editorial staff, just like the Herald, Sun-Sentinel, local Miami TV station news operations and most reputable blogs do, even ones I criticize and find overly-sycophantic, local and nationally, of which there are plenty.


Like, perhaps, Eric Barton's official office email address.
Nope, that's top secret!
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/about/staff/


Instead, as I noted many months ago in blog posts about the NewTimes' abject failure to cover many subject areas that they ought to be right on top of, but aren't -like anything about FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson, and her near-invisibility in south Broward, before and after the election 13 months ago; her trip to Israel being paid for by AIPAC; her failure to ever sign-up to co-sponsor the House companion bill for Obama's Jobs Bill despite continually criticizing the GOP for not supporting it, just like DWS has done, et al- the NewTimes continues to rely on a corporate gatekeeper/walled-off email system that ensures that readers writing comments can't tell whether or not their email to NewTimes personnel was actually ever received by the individual(s) they wanted to receive it, and, of course, you CAN'T cc or bcc anyone else with the concerns you're sharing, whether over the merit of something, bias, wrong info, need for a correction...


Very basic stuff, but the NewTimes has continued to fail that "comment" test.
Eric Barton needs to look in the mirror, perhaps then he'd find out himself why so many former readers like myself have abandoned it in droves.


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Speaking of Louis Granteed, in case some of you didn't spot it in a post of mine from Wednesday December 14th titled, Dr. Judy Selz zeroes-in on wasteful city spending, angering Comm. Lewy; Keith London's take on Hallandale Beach City Comm. meeting of Dec, 7 2011
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/dr-judy-selz-zeroes-in-on-wasteful-city.html

Some free advice to 2012 Broward Sheriff candidate Louis Granteed, currently Assistant Hollywood Police Chief, per conversations he's had with friends of mine in Broward at various events:

You might want to strongly reconsider constantly praising Lewy to the hilt when you meet citizens from Hallandale Beach. If they are an informed person, chances are great that they are already more than hip to Alex Lewy and what he is all about.Your praise only serves to draw attention to how little you know about him.

Just saying...

ZERO: Number of times this year that Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL-17) has been written about in the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes regarding her job in D.C.

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?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/still-waiting-for-south-florida-news.html

I reminded some of you all over again what sort of short shrift anyone in DC not named Debbie Wasserman-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 Frederica Wilson'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.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index/collection:all/keywords:%22Frederica+Wilson%22/sort:dateDesc/

Here's the scoreboard for the MiamiNewTimes

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/search/index/collection:all/keywords:%22Frederica+Wilson%22/sort:dateDesc/

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?

Do you even have to ask?

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/search/index/collection:all/keywords:%22allen+west%22/sort:dateDesc/

Those of you who think that the BrowardPalmBeach or Miami NewTimes are 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.

Hats, hats, 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!

She may soon be yours!