Obama's bad foreign policy from the start shows little sign of improving, as Washington Post Editorial Board lashes out Sunday : "Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria": "So what does the Obama administration propose to do to stop this barbarism? The simple answer is: nothing, other than issue strongly worded statements..."; #stonecoldfacts, @washingtonpost

Obama's bad foreign policy from the start shows little sign of improving, as Washington Post Editorial Board lashes out Sunday : "Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria" 

In case you were still on your summer hibernation when this happened a few weeks ago, the only time that President Obama has brought the country together this year on a policy is when nearly the entire country stood-up in opposition to his ill-considered ideas, plans and policies over Syria, one of his major weaknesses since coming into office in January of 2009.
That hasn't changed.
Think about that for a minute.

The Washington Post
Washington Post Editorial: Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria
By Editorial Board
Published October 28, 2013

ACCORDING TO Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad now is waging “a war of starvation” against his own people. In a robustly worded op-ed column posted Friday on ForeignPolicy.com, Mr. Kerry denounced what he said was “the systematic denial of medical assistance, food supplies and other humanitarian aid to huge proportions of the population.” The regime’s tactics, he said, “threaten to take a humanitarian disaster into the abyss.” They are “intolerable,” and “the world must act quickly.”

So what does the Obama administration propose to do to stop this barbarism? The simple answer is: nothing, other than issue strongly worded statements. 

Read the rest of the editorial at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-kerrys-empty-words-on-syria/2013/10/28/d422b6c4-3feb-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html

More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws

WPLG-TV/Channel 10 (Miami, FL) Editorial: Lawmakers should live where constituents live. 
By Dave Boylan, Channel 10 Vice President and General Manager,
Published July 1 2013 10:56:12 AM EDT
Updated On: Jul 01 2013 11:03:34 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/station/elected-officials-should-live-where-constituents-live/-/1716906/20785606/-/w1ttqnz/-/index.html

Local10's Bob Norman reports: Elected officials welcome investigation into where they live
Florida Gov Rick Scott investigating whether politicians living in their districts
Published On: July 18 2013 05:09:30 PM EDT   
Updated On: July 19 2013 12:44:21 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/elected-officials-welcome-investigation-into-where-they-live/-/1717324/21037320/-/clnmte/-/index.html

More news re Florida elected officials living outside their districts & residency requirements: disingenuous South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board FINALLY writes about this ethical issue that it, editor Rosemary Goudreau and her editorial page writers have completely ignored for YEARS, inc. the case of Joe Gibbons and his strange family living situation; FL Senate Ethics chairman Jack Latvala won't be deterred and wants cold hard facts about pols who intentionally broke state laws

My comments are after this very curious and years over-due editorial.

Glad at least one ed board is giving this matter serious attention. http://t.co/IbVRLCCxp2 #sayfie
— Senator Jack Latvala (@JackLatvala) July 21, 2013

South Florida Sun-Sentinel 

Editorial Board

Resolve question on where politicians must sleep

July 21, 2013

Since becoming the state senator for a newly drawn district covering parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties last year, Sen. Maria Sachs has accomplished quite a bit.

She helped secure $82 million for Broward College, up from $71 million the previous year. She helped land $1.5 million for the new medical school at Florida Atlantic University. And she helped pass the ban on texting while driving, with plans to try to toughen the law next year.

There's just one thing Sachs hasn't done. She hasn't moved — full-time — into her new district. Rather, she continues to reside mostly at her long-time Boca Raton home, just across the road from the new district she now represents.

Read the rest of the editorial at:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorials/fl-resolve-residency-questions-for-lawmakers-20130721,0,5064052.story

So what was NOT mentioned at all above by South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial page editor Rosemary Goudreau and her South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board?

The same one that has NEVER written one word about the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, either before or after the Broward Inspector General started their investigation and their damning report calling-out the city's serial "gross mismanagement"?

1.) why the Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board, collectively and individually, as well as their so-called news reporters, has ignored the self-evident residency requirements violations known by many people in Broward for YEARS, and even worse, has seemingly gone out of its way to NOT mention it, perhaps because of ideological reasons.

That's especially the case with Senior Editorial Writer Douglas C. Lyons who has written only glowing and positive things about Joe Gibbons and Perry Thurston., two of the six FL legislators with a Broward connection whose living arrangements seem to be less than kosher and keeping with the spirit of the Florida Constitution.

Try to find anything with Lyons name on it that mentions the ethical questions involving them or the others.

No, seriously, try to find one.

There's not a single one.

But there is one from 2010 about Lyons suggesting that Gibbons become head of the FL Democratic Party 

This one:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
WHY NOT JOE GIBBONS AS CHAIR OF FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
Posted by Doug Lyons on November 10, 2010 09:18 AM

He may not appreciate me using his name as a trial balloon, but here goes ...

I believe the Florida Democratic Party needs a shot of new blood. So I'm throwing out a name to replace the current party chair, Karen Thurman, since everyone else is. My choice would be state Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach. 

Gibbons brings badly needed energy, something the state's demoralized and darn near moribund political party needs desperately. He can also raise money, something he's done during his brief stint as chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus. 

Gibbons' business background -- made his mark in sales -- should help in that stead, whether he's talking to potential funders in South Florida or along the I-4 corridor. Gibbon's had experience at fundraising. He's raised money for Alex Sink's losing bid for governor and as former chair of the state's Legislative Black Caucus, he brought money to the group it hadn't seen before. 

Gibbon's got enough legislative cred, having served on some of the House's major committees and having worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. 

He'd also help the party with its "base" problem with African American voters. Not only would he be a fresh face, but he has the smarts to help pick and groom candidates to actually appeal to all elements of the party's constituents. 

For the record, Gibbons is supporting Thurman, someone he has worked well with in recent years. Should Thurman decide to leave her post, the party should consider Gibbons as its point man. 

Joe Gibbons and his campaign staff could hardly have written it better themselves.

I know this because I've heard the same curious questions about Gibbons for years that everyone else in Hallandale Beach and southeast Broward has, the reasonable questions that never seem to get good logical answers from him in public.

Still, I'm hardly unique in that respect, just someone who pays close attention to what's going on, and someone with a blog where I can raise questions publicly and give voice to others who are very curious about things that don't add up or pass the smell test.

It's hard to ignore the fact that someone who claims to live in Broward County fulltime actually has as their non-legislative job, one not down here, but actually up in Tallahassee.

It's also hard to ignore the fact that his wife and her job and their kids, until recently moving to Lakeland, lived in Jacksonville, NOT in South Florida with him.

I know because I've followed the issue for years because of my suspicions about Gibbons' 

integrity and have repeatedly gone thru the paper's digital archives actually looking for examples of them mentioning it that I may've somehow missed.

They ignored it as a serious issue until just a few months ago.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-04-12/news/fl-joe-gibbons-homestead-20130406_1_joe-gibbons-homestead-exemption-d-hallandale-beach

So, tell me, how is it that despite all the years this pathetic and rather self-serving charade has been going on, Doug Lyons and Rosemary Goudreau and the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board NEVER noticed it or mentioned it in print?

Until today.

That independent research I've done over the years is why I know that -Teaser Alert for a future blog post- per my previous comments on the blog and these emails about so much of the South Florida press corps' sleepwalking, despite all the grumbling the Sun-Sentinel and their Editorial Board and some of its columnists have done re Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, in 2006, the first full year it was in effect, the Sun-Sentinel only mentioned it in a news article or column... ONCE.

Really.

Not 20 times not a dozen times, not even a half-dozen times.

They mentioned it a grad total of once -on December 10th, 2006, the 50th week of the year,

Yes, that's really quite a testimony to their public concern!

2.) Also, not mentioned above in today's editorial is the residency requirement scandal dogging Broward County Comm. Dale Holness, whose ethical situation is just as egregious as the five state legislators.

To many Broward voters, especially the ones who are represented by him, the ethical cloud over Holness is actually more in-your-face to the public and voters, since he's easier to monitor if Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz  and his Public Corruption unit were actually so inclined.

But they aren't inclined to actually investigate, are they?

Where have you seen any mention of Satz's name and office in any of the recent reporting or public discussion on any of this?

Where's CBS4 News and NBC-6 News and & 7 News and the Miami Herald in any of this?

They're ALL missing-in-action, just like the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board has been all these years, sitting on the sidelines while hundreds of thousands of Broward voters got the shaft.

3.) What is also, curiously, NOT mentioned above in the editorial, but important nonetheless for the most obvious reasons, though known to you if you received my prior email about this subject?

Oh, that's right, Sen. Jack Latvala is the Chairman of the Senate Ethics &Elections Comm.

How does the newspaper's Editorial Board NOT mention that at all?

Well, now maybe you can sense how truly myopic the paper's management and editors have been and are.

----

Links re residency requirements or Joe Gibbons' living situation

JULY 18, 2013

How is Broward County Democratic Party chair Mitch Caesar NOT like a Mother Bear? Unlike this video of a Mother Bear at Brooks Falls in Alaska protecting her young cubs, Caesar has NOT been seen publicly trying to save his six Dem legislators who may be (illegally) living outside the districts they're supposed to represent, and who may well get prosecuted for violating the FL Constitution: Joe Gibbons, Dale Holness, Jared Moskowitz. Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs, Perry Thurston; What was the greater societal good that Caesar thought was accomplished by them drawing a salary for a job that they may NOT have been legally qualified for?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-is-mitch-caesar-not-like-mother.html

JULY 12, 2013

More from Local10's Bob Norrman on the epidemic in Broward County of elected officials living outside districts they represent, contrary to the FL Constitution; FL state Senator Jack Latvala, Chair of Senate's Ethics & Elections Comm., will NOT tolerate this blatant corruption and wants investigations launched into these illegal actions right now!; And let's not forget FL state Rep. Joe Gibbons' strange views on raising a family -putting an elective office ABOVE living full-time with your own kids!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-from-local10s-bob-norrman-on.html

JULY 5, 2013

More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-on-broward-county-politicians.html

JULY 2, 2013

Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/is-kristin-jacobs-poised-to-become-last.html

MAY 29, 2013

Unexpected good news for supporters of Beam Furr's candidacy -look at all the "Usual Suspects" of Broward endorsing feckless, ineffectual, business-as-usual Joe Gibbons for County Commission. Gibbons, the pol who STILL can't answer basic questions about his real job, where he lives and why his life is SO VERY complicated, with a straight face. His job, his wife and his kids are ALL located elsewhere, so are the only things keeping him in Broward his own ego and ambition? How did such a mediocre pol get such lofty ideas about himself? Now THERE'S a question!; same as for Alexander Lewy now that you mention it

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/unexpected-good-news-for-supporters-of.html

May 5, 2013

Calling all Carpetbaggers! Repeat after me, "Requirements, what residency requirements?" Carpetbaggers in South Florida have it easy compared to their cousins in Calif. due to the lack of serious reporters here, but in both places, carpetbagging and ethnic identity politics often go hand-in-hand; LA Times: "Does this man live in San Gabriel or not? A residency challenge prompts council members to hold their own hearing -with sworn witnesses- to decide if the No. 2 vote-getter should be seated"; Is that a preview of things to come in North Miami Beach, where a Miramar resident named Dargenson is running for NMB City Commission, and thinks she'll win -largely because she's Haitian-American?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/calling-all-carpetbaggers-repeat-after.html

JUNE 17, 2012

Today, on Father's Day, where are FL Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons' children celebrating with him? Likely up in the Jacksonville area where they all live, NOT in Broward County where he pretends he lives full-time

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/today-on-fathers-day-where-are-fl-rep.html

March 9, 2012 

2012 Florida Legislature to end on Friday without EVER examining carpetbagger Joe Gibbons' faux residency -he's NOT a permanent Broward County resident anymore.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/2012-florida-legislature-to-end-on.html

APRIL 21, 2011

Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/elaine-de-valles-political-cortadito.html

So guess who fell off the truth-telling bandwagon and got back to his familiar logrolling ways in the Miami Herald? Yes, Maurice Ferre of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority; FL state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez is 100% correct -the MDX is overstepping its boundaries. Facts show they are arrogant and territorial as hell, and it's clear they want to expand their fiefdom!

View Larger Map

So guess who fell off the truth-telling bandwagon and got back to his familiar logrolling ways in the Miami Herald? Yes, Maurice Ferre of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority; FL state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez is 100% correct -the MDX is overstepping its boundaries. Facts show they are arrogant and territorial as hell, and it's clear they want to expand their fiefdom!

My comments are after the spin.

Miami Herald

Letter to the Editor

MDX is doing its job

July 7, 2013

Re state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez’s June 30 letter, MDX is overstepping its boundaries:

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) was created by the Florida Legislature and the Miami-Dade County Commission in 1994 as an agency of the state. Seven of MDX’s board of 13 members are appointed by county commissioners and six by the governor. 

On March 19 and June 18, 2013, MDX held public hearings on the rate issue for State Road 836. The MDX Board voted 7-5 in favor of the 70-cent option over the one for 60 cents. This new rate starts the summer of 2014. 

The toll policy and new toll rate were studied, discussed, debated and publicly aired for several years. We are no more a monopoly than the Florida Department of Transportation or Florida’s Turnpike. MDX staff and I, as chair, visited every county commissioner and as many city mayors as would see us to review plans. We were before several editorial boards, on radio and TV talk shows. The Miami Herald covered the toll issues amply and fairly. 

In the six advertised public meetings, two webinars and two public hearings, there was minimal participation. In the last public hearing MDX received the objection and concerns of seven legislators and five mayors preferring 60 cents rather than the 70-cent toll rate per mainline gantry. 

In the same Miami Herald edition, there were other articles on government expenditures for Jackson Health System’s $830 million “wish list” and the county water and sewer department’s pipe plan. Florida’s Turnpike implemented a $12 million-a-year toll hike recently. 

Freedom is not free, and progress has a cost. Americans, and Miamians, well understand that our infrastructure needs drastic repairs. As painful as toll increases are, doing less than our best would be more painful to travelers. 

MDX gets no money from Washington, Tallahassee or Miami-Dade County. If any of these governments wants to help MDX financially, we would gladly review our decisions. 

For seven years Congress has failed to adequately fund the U.S. transportation needs. Bridges are failing everywhere, even, unfortunately, our own Bear Cut Bridge in Key Biscayne. Many local cities, like the growing Doral, are concerned that traffic pains will slow growth and affect quality of life. 

Good public policy requires difficult decisions for all of us. MDX is not overreaching. MDX is doing its job. 

Maurice Ferre, chair, MDX, Miami

A few weeks ago Ferre seemed to be trying to play the all-too-rare voice of reason in Miami-Dade County by opposing fare hikes of this stealthy body most people in M-D not only DON'T understand, but instinctively hate -for good reason.

Unfortunately for both residents and common sense, that was all a mirage, since he's now back to playing the role of sycophant to the hilt that's been his designated role since he's fallen to the outer fringes of relevant politics and public policy.

It's really great that the Herald's feeble-minded Editorial Board is so bereft of any common sense that despite this being known as one of THE most apathetic and least civic-minded regions in the entire country, they run this piece without any mention whatsoever that Ferre is the former mayor of Miami -and wannabe mayor of M-D County- so that all the legions of 

know-it-alls from Aventura to Florida City who moved down here since Hurricane Andrew hit, and as we know, think they know everything -many of them, Jets fans, of course- can have some useful context to better understand a pol calling for more money for his latest crew of insiders.

Naturally, to make the whole log-rolling effort complete, Ferre compliments the Herald.

How did I know THAT was coming?

Experience!

The original Letter to the Editor that Ferre's spin exercise was trying to undo was this bit of spot-on truth-telling:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/29/3475954/mdx-is-overstepping-its-boundaries.html

Miami Herald

Letter to the Editor

MDX is overstepping its boundaries

June 29, 2013

Miami-Dade County commissioners created the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) in 1994 to ease traffic congestion and establish local control of toll revenues. Two years later MDX took over the five busiest roadways in the county — the Airport, Dolphin, Don Shula, Gratigny and Snapper Creek expressways. While its foundation and the original intentions of MDX were necessary at the time, in recent months, MDX has overstepped its boundaries and taken advantage of its de facto monopoly over Miami-Dade’s major roadways. 

MDX originally approved a fixed toll rate of 70 cents for the Dolphin Expressway in March, and after a 60-cent alternative was introduced, it called for a public hearing where community members and elected officials could voice their opinions on the matter. On June 19, voice them they did. 

In fact, I and several colleagues from the Miami-Dade legislative delegation attended and condemned the toll increase at an MDX board meeting. We asked the board to pass the less costly alternative, a 60-cent toll per gantry. Nonetheless, the motion for the lower toll failed on a 7-5 vote, even in the face of widespread public opposition. 

Therefore, the MDX board went about its business — not the people’s business — and passed the resolution increasing tolls to 70 cents per mainline gantry and 30 cents per ramp gantry. Before this change, the roundtrip tolls from my district in southwest Miami to downtown were $2.50. If the new tolls are implemented, the cost would rise to $4.20. Commuters who use the expressway will see an increase in what they spend on tolls when the new charges begin next summer. 

MDX has vastly overreached its boundaries as a quasi-governmental body and I hope to remedy the situation for my constituents legislatively before the charges come into effect in June 2014. To borrow the term coined by Roll Back Tolls, MDX is practicing “tollation” — tolling without representation. 

Even though MDX is a state-sanctioned agency, there are systemic inadequacies within its structure. I’m worried that MDX is not held properly accountable for its decisions because there are no elected officials sitting on the board and it has not prudently explored other options to finance future projects. I’m also worried about MDX’s apparent monopoly over tolls in Miami-Dade County and its inability to engage in active listening with the public. 

This decision to raise tolls portrays MDX as having little concern for the economic well-being of the resident, and I will remain adamant in supporting my constituency on this controversial issue. 

Jeanette Nuñez, state representative, Miami

-----
As always, you can read much more analysis on other problems associated with the arrogant folks at MDX at Transit Miami, where they've been hip to what MDX has been doing for as long as I've been -expanding their fiefdom.
http://www.transitmiami.com/

Transit Miami @transitmiami https://twitter.com/transitmiami
"Transit Miami is an online web journal dedicated to advancing smart growth oriented land use policies, and mutlimodal transportation in South Florida."

Jeanette Nuñez's profile on the Florida legislature's website:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4524

Bad & unappealing journalism continues at The Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel and their third-rate website: Still SO many longstanding problems!!! Missing Public Notices page, old information about their own Editorial Board, et al. They still list Earl Maucker as an Editorial Board member even though he retired in 2010. How can Howard Greenberg stand all the mediocrity and incompetence around him?

Bad & unappealing journalism continues at The Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel and their third-rate website: Still SO many longstanding problems!!! Missing Public Notices page, old information about their own Editorial Board, et al. They still list Earl Maucker as an Editorial Board member even though he retired in 2010. How can Howard Greenberg stand all the mediocrity and incompetence around him?

For instance, Public Notices, in green

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/www.floridapublicnotices.com/

You click it at the top 

but when the page opens up, it's a page that doesn't exist.

 -------
Another problem is that if you wanted to know who was actually on the newspaper's Editorial Board to know who's actually responsible for their many poorly-thought out and half-assed endorsements last year, like Michael Satz for Broward State's Attorney or ethically-challenged Hallandale beach City Commission incumbent Anthony A. Sanders over my friend, Csaba Kulin, despite the fact that Sanders did such a poor job of answering their questions last October at the candidates meeting -see bottom- often not making sense when asked very simple questions about himself, what you find out is... well, they don't pay much attention to that, either.

Meet the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board, including the person who left and hasn't been there since retiring in 2010, Earl Maucker. 
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-meettheeditboard,0,1206118.htmlstory

What, he's still listed? 
Yes, that info is what you see as the first result of a Google Search.

That information is clearly wrong and yet the fact that it's still NOT been corrected in over two years, i.e. deleted, shows you everything you need to know about how much attention to detail is present under the geniuses there, doesn't it?

That's three things right there, but there's really no need to point out more right now.

You get the idea, plus, as some of you may recall, I still have that forthcoming blog post on the Sun-Sentinel's Rosemary Goudreau where I can pile on more material there, along with thoughts on what the paper's new owners should do after they purchase the paper and thoroughly clean house there.

Another blogger who takes a dim view of the Sun-Sentinel , Man, or Maniac?,
wrote this last year: Howard Greenberg Must Be On Crack
http://manormaniac.blogspot.com/2012/03/howard-greenberg-must-be-on-crack.html

Previous posts of mine re the newspaper's many shortcomings are here:
October 17, 2012

Absolutely pummeled! Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders & ex-Comm. Bill Julian both bomb at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board meeting for HB candidates Monday morning, while Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean shine while enthusiastically making the case for a pro-reform City Hall that actually serves taxpayers to replace the corrupt and unethical one we've been stuck with for years under Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew; Kulin, Lazarow & Dean recount in detail most of the major issues and recent scandals; @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/absolutely-pummeled-hallandale-beach.html

October 29, 2012

re South Florida Sun-Sentinel:When are Broward County residents FINALLY going to get the "whole truth" from the Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel and some public explanation for their continued reluctance to report it and useful context in Broward County news? Their problems with facts & bias are getting worse by the month; Joy Cooper's red-light camera friends and supporters; Sun-Sentinel's pro-Debbie Wasserman-Schultz bias is a continuing insult to readers; @MayorCooper

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/when-are-broward-county-residents.html

October 30, 2012

Their lack of Journalism ethics is hiding in plain sight: In their head-scratching endorsement of do-nothing Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders over civic activist Csaba Kulin, the Tribune Co's Sun-Sentinel said he has "experience." Yes, but it's of the completely ineffective and unethical variety we don't want more of!; Vote Kulin!; @SandersHB

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/their-lack-of-journalism-ethics-is.html

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

Miami Herald vending machine in front of Denny's restaurant, Hallandale Beach, FL.July 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Below is the email that I sent last Friday afternoon to David Landsberg, President and Publisher of McClatchy's Miami Herald, with cc's to Herald Executive Editor Aminda Marques and Managing Editor Rick Hirsch, along with certain Broward County elected officials and activists I keep in regular contact with. 


This is the first of two emails sent directly to him about the Herald's considerably lackluster performance for the year 2011, where sins and errors of the past were neither corrected nor forgiven but merely repeated over-and-over to an inexplicable fair-thee-well. 


In the subject header that day, I wrote: More lumps of coal in your Christmas stocking for such a consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald covering Broward County.
-----


December 16, 2011



Dear Mr. Landsberg:


You're the publisher and president of the Herald, and yet as of 4 p.m., it's now been more than 65 hours since the Broward County Commission formally approved new district maps based on 2010 Census information, and as of right now, your newspaper has printed absolutely NOTHING about it in-print or online. 
http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=redistricting
Nada!


But then the Herald also NEVER wrote in-print about any of the myriad issues arising out of the many public meetings that've been held in the county the past few months about that required redistricting in Broward.
Nothing about what the maps might look like given that some members will soon be termed-out, or even whether or not it was likely that a 'Hispanic-majority' district might somehow be carved-out of it somewhere, which might necessarily change the county's current dynamic.
http://www.broward.org/Redistricting/Pages/Default.aspx


Congratulations!


That's certainly entirely in keeping with the strange and counter-intuitive journalism decision-making that beleaguered Broward readers have continued to see coming out of 1 Herald Plaza the last few years, with enough bad decisions having emerged to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to your remaining Broward readers that you all consider Broward to not just be terra incognita, but almost persona non grata as well, given how Broward barely exists at all in your blogs, too, regardless of the subject area.


To my eyes, among the worst and most unforgivable sins for a media enterprise that still contends that they're RELEVANT now is how week-after-week, month-after-month, NOT a single instance of an article, column or essay written by a Miami Herald employee -or even a Guest Op-Ed- will appear in that embarrassing excuse for a Sunday public policy section, Issues & Ideas, that directly concerns issues, people, pols, government and personalities of and in Broward County.
Month-after-month-after month!


The self-evident facts, the actual newspaper itself, don't lie, and they could hardly be more
glaring or damaging to the newspaper's faltering credibility.


Here we are at the end of the year 2011 and there is NOT a single Broward-oriented columnist appearing in print in your newspaper.
How can you possibly think that's a good idea?


As for your decision to go seven-plus months without an official Reader's Ombudsman, since
Edward Schumacher-Matos left for NPR, and the curious management decision to NOT
replace him, well, there's yet another completely counter-intuitive journalism decision that
further shows the newspaper's lack of seriousness and integrity.
But hey, who's counting all those curious decisions, right?


I mean there's only... well, now that you mention it:


-the longstanding lack of even one South Florida-based conservative columnist with both some historical knowledge of the area and some flair & verve in their writing that could challenge the stagnant South Florida status quo to readers 2-3 times a week


-the complete lack of an Education blog in the year 2011


-the Editorial Board's abject failure to consistently run meaningful well-written dissenting
points-of view in your so-called "Opposing Views," as you instead prefer running columns
and essays that merely replicate the prevailing status quo orthodoxy of the Editorial Board,
even to the point of running crummy columns by Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star that sound eerily like Herald editorials.
But she's even more condescending and patronizing, if that's possible; and she proves it
whenever you deign to put her words into print.


To most reasonable people, Mr. Landsberg, calling something Opposing Views conjures
up a mental image of an actual opposing point-of-view, not merely uttering the same exact
ideological nostrums or cant with someone else's name attached to them.
It's the difference between a voice and a chorus.
A more accurate name for the top of that editorial page in the Herald now would be "The Choir." 


And lest you forget, as we approach 2012, there is NOT a single Broward-oriented blog on the Herald's entire website.
Pitiful!


That said, you sure have managed to corner the market to yourself on useless minutiae on
Cuba, or writing sycophantic stories about commercial and residential real estate 'upturns'
in downtown Miami.
I will give you credit for that, if that's what it is.


At some point in the next few weeks, you might want to avail yourself of a blog post I wrote
on November 27th of last year that connects-the-dots rather well on what I and many other 
well-informed and civic-minded residents of Broward County continue to see as your and the Herald's failings.


How a video of Paramore in Stockholm & Razorlight in London proves the Miami Herald is too damn slow. Iceberg dead ahead!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-video-of-paramore-in-stockholm.html

It's just one of many posts on the decline we've all seen at the Herald, and in particular, your perfectly awful news coverage of Broward County.
I don't know whether you plan on making any meaningful, positive changes to the newspaper and website in the new year or not as part of some collective New Year's resolutions, but if you aren't, you're making a huge mistake.To quote myself from that post:

When specifically is Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg finally going to publicly share with Herald readers what his actual plan is to rescue the newspaper, and make it relevant to readers and news consumers, which it increasingly is NOT by any stretch of the imagination?  It's getting kind of late in the voyage with Landsberg at the helm, and while I'm no expert on icebergs, I can see with my own eyes that the known and unknown icebergs keep getting closer and closer to the Herald's bow as it steers into unchartered waters without a compass or, seemingly, a legitimate plan to get to its destination.  And like you all, I know with absolute certainty that most of an iceberg is unseen -and below the surface.Just like the Herald's myriad problems.But some problems are too big to hide.

Continuing to routinely treat so many of a newspaper's readers with profound condescension and almost child-like indifference is the sort of thing that at other newspapers would quickly get people fired, but is something which at the Miami Herald is simply called business-as-usual or, Sunday.

You can either change that or you can just ignore that.
We'll all see in January which choice you made.


-----


In my original email to Mr. Landsberg on Friday, I made a small mistake.
I called the column on the page opposite the Herald editorial page that, rather than being contrary to the Herald Editorial Board's position as you'd think, based on what they call it, it's usually complementary, "Opposing Voices." 
It's actually called "Opposing Views."


Regardless of what the Herald calls it, the point is not just valid, but still just as sheepishly embarrassing as well.


For those of you who are new to this blog and have never seen it before, when I first started my South Beach Hoosier blog and Hallandale Beach Blog in 2007, I made a conscious point of posting the following as an anchor to the blog -something that would always be present- so that anyone coming to them would know precisely where I stood on the issue of the Herald and its faltering news coverage of South Florida and fleeting influence within it.
I mention this because there are a lot of people in the blogosphere who are Miami Herald sycophants, from whom "seldom is heard a discouraging word..."


The following is what was on South Beach Hoosier in 2008 and 100% accurate at the time it was written, though many changes have taken place since then -just not enough positive ones for South Florida residents who want more 'hard news' coverage in their newspapers more often -everyday.


I hope it provides some helpful context for understanding what I wrote in Part 1 above and
what you'll soon see here in Part 2.


-----



South Beach Hoosier will also examine the latest amusing or not-so-amusing scandals, cover-ups, controversies, contretemps and mis-adventures bedeviling South Florida, something I became used to while growing up in North Miami Beach in the late 1960's and the 70's.
Fortunately, because of my news-junkie DNA and myriad magazine subscriptions, and long-standing relationships with media types in Miami, I was able to keep up pretty well with the South Florida area while living in Bloomington, Chicago, Evanston, Wilmette and Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA.
Communities where sensible civic activism and high standards of journalism were the norm and not the exception.


Due to my own personal/business/political interests and experiences in those cities, as well as my good fortune to have a large number of well-informed and well-connected friends and former housemates while living there, many but not all of whom are or were reporters, columnists, editors, TV/film producers, along with a few who are now well-placed in Statehouses and legal circles across the country, I'll have a deep bench of facts, opinions, point-of-views and fact-checkers to work with. 
That's the goal for South Beach Hoosier.


It's my hope that this'll help me offer up pinpoint criticism, whether of national and South Florida pols, media organizations and sports or show biz personalities, that have heretofore evaded public scrutiny, transparency or accountability -as well as well-aimed brickbats. 
To examine the proverbial case of the latest dog that doesn't bark, or analyze why the latest case of media conventional wisdom has -again- been proven wrong, and why.


This is especially true of The Miami Herald, the morning newspaper I grew-up with and have suffered with since first leaving North Miami Beach for Bloomington in the Fall of '79, as its most talented people jumped ship and the paper become evermore a shell of what it once was: an excellent newspaper with talented and respected reporters and editors telling compelling and intriguing stories of intrinsic value to its readers throughout polyglot and transient South Florida. 


Television news-wise, when I'd return to South Florida from school or work in Bloomington, Evanston, and DC, whether for Christmas vacation, Baltimore Oriole spring training games or visits for weddings, I could still see that Miami had the kind of scrappy and innately curious reporters who make a tangible difference in a community.
The sorts of enterprising reporters that so many of my friends at Ernie Pyle at IU, and Medill at Northwestern were already well on their way to becoming. 


http://www.idsnews.com/
http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/erniepyle/  
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/
http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/ 


Reporters who might have the talent and ability to convey to the waves of newcomers and visitors to the area, a nuanced sense of South Florida's decidedly mixed historical past, by writing with the proper amount of factual research, balanced perspective and sense of disbelief, to describe the events unfolding around them. 
Then, ending the piece by dropping the hammer on whichever local corrupt/incompetent miscreant, pol or agency hack was the target of their ire, for attempting to perpetrate yet another in a long of of dubious acts against the people of South Florida.


Sadly for the people of South Florida, things have gotten so bad now that The Herald's numerous flaws are as much for what they don't publish, as much as for the self-evident mediocre quality of its writing and reporting, lack of thorough fact-checking, and inadequate search for conflicts of interest.
For all the talk of improving the paper by the new McClatchy management, it shows no tangible signs of changing for the better any time soon, a great disappointment to its readers.


It's common knowledge within the industry that The Herald's website is a joke compared to the efforts of many smaller circulation newspapers. www.miamiherald.com


Frankly, the website itself remains a constant source of embarrassment for Herald reporters and columnists, who are constantly besieged by readers and told yet another horror story about not being able to find recent Herald stories that should be on the paper's website but aren't.
The reporters can do little more than shrug their shoulders in response.


Even in the year 2008, The Herald still DOESN'T have a permanent Public Ombudsman to represent the interests of both its readers and basic fairness, like many newspapers with much smaller circulation numbers!
Meanwhile, with much more to fear and lose, The New York Times has an independent Public Editor, currently Clark Hoyt, who weekly takes the Times' policy, owners, editors, reporters and columnists to task publicly, even providing links back to the original story or column in question, unlike the once-in-a-while effort at the Herald. 
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/thepubliceditor/index.html?8qa


Meanwhile The Herald's Sunday attempt at high-minded opinion-shaping and public policy, Issues & Ideas, is so embarrassing and muddled on so many different levels that it's all one can do to not laugh from crying, so feeble is its effort, so low is its aim, so puny the actual result.


Yet rather than seeking the creative input of bright and knowledgeable new faces who are familiar with the real problems of South Florida, The Herald still regularly farms-out the Guest Op-Ed space in the paper on Saturday to people living outside of the area, more than any other newspaper in America I've ever read. They continually run long excerpts in their editorial space from parochial interest groups whose political sentiments echo that of the the Herald's own Editorial Board. 


Even worse, if possible, in many cases these particular guest editorial tangents have already appeared in other forums or publications! And speaking of the Herald's Editorial Board, who's on that exactly, anyway?


It's a great mystery that nobody seems able to fully explain away, yet The New York Times, under the guidance of Andy Rosenthal, has an entire webpage specifically devoted to detailing the background and credentials of its Editorial Board. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/editorial-board.html


Hmmm... call me old-fashioned, but South Beach Hoosier prefers transparency!

-----


By the way, as I write this post on early Wednesday morning, it's now been exactly a week since the Broward County Commission vote on redistricting and the Herald has STILL NOT published anything in print or online.


Part 2, my follow-up email to the above, will be here soon.