Biggest journalistic scandal re Rep. Andre Carson's comments in Miami is So. FL reporters snoozing while news 'breaks' right in front of them!; Rep. Frederica Wilson, outlier at her own meeting, lets jobs meeting degenerate

WISH-TV News, Indianapolis video: Andre Carson's remarks create tea party stir

http://youtu.be/JEq9jRkl29s

Since I know that nobody else will mention it to you, the biggest journalism scandal involving Rep. Andre Carson's ridiculous comments about Tea Party supporters at a Congressional Black Caucus Job Fair/Town Hall meeting last week in Miami, is that there was not a single representative of a South Florida news organization that was there who reported on it the day it happened.

Or the next day.

Or the day after that.

Or...

And neither did any other reporter or columnist or editor who wasn't actually there, but heard about it later.

Until Wednesday, nine days later, it was like it NEVER happened.

The Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Channel 4 (WFOR-TV) - a CBS O&O, Channel 6 (WTVJ-TV) -an NBC O&O, Channel 7 (WSVN-TV) -Fox affiliate, and Channel 10 (WPLG-TV) -ABC affiliate (Post-Newsweek) ALL ignored it or never knew about it.

Which is worse?

As I write this:

Channel 4 still has ZERO.

Channel 6 still has ZERO.

Channel 7 posted an AP story out of Indy at 10:45 p.m. Thursday

http://www.wsvn.com/news/

articles/politics/21005253405445/

Channel 10 posted a story by Deirdre Walsh of CNN on Wednesday morning.

http://www.local10.com/news/

29038364/detail.html

Later on Wednesday they posted a wire service video of Herman Cain responding to Carson's remarks

http://www.local10.com/video/

29039774/index.html

On Wednesday morning they also posted another CNN video of Rick Perry, updated Thursday

morning -that doesn't work.

http://www.local10.com/

politics/29044236/detail.html

That's it for Channel 10.

The Miami Herald's first mention of the controversy -at events they had one of their own reporters at!- was Wednesday around Noon when they posted an AP story out of Indy.

http://www.miamiherald.com/

2011/08/31/2383788/fla-lawmaker-carson-comments-reprehensible.html

Six hours later they ran an eight-sentence AP story out of Indy.

http://www.miamiherald.com/

2011/08/31/2384346/ind-lawmakers-lynching-reference.html

That's it for the Miami Herald.

The Sun-Sentinel's first mention of the controversy was in a Broward Politics blog post Wednesday morning that focused on Rep. Allen West, who represents part of Broward.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.

com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/08/congressman_allen_west_may_quit_congressional_black_caucus.html

Later Wednesday, they posted a 7:52 p.m. AP story.

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

news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-congressman-lynching-comment,0,497192.story

That's it for the Sun-Sentinel.

It's not for nothing that I have joked here in the past that if Fidel Castro dies overnight, esp. a Friday night/Saturday morning, the Miami Herald will be completely scooped and be the last media organization in South Florida to report it.

Like they were on the Japanese tsunmai...

And the 2010 Polish air disaster in Belarus...

And the Moscow Metro bombings...

And...

Rather incredibly, nobody down here among South Florida's largely sleep-walking professional press corps seems the least bit chagrined that they got totally scooped on what has turned out to be a a national news story, nor do they seem to be the least bit interested in asking any questions of Rep. Frederica Wilson, whose FL-17 CD this all happened in, and who hosted the events last week that have echoed across the country this week, no thanks to the local press corps.

Apparently, there's no extant videotape or audio of Wilson's demeanor or comments during or after Carson's heated uncivil rhetoric.

Pity!

But then again, consider the lack of an appropriate follow-up story about Wilson's recent trip to Israel -along with dozens of her colleagues- that was paid for by AIPAC, as I mentioned here on the blog recently when it happened, a congressional gravy train which was first reported by the Washington Post, whom I cited.

Yet not a single South Florida-based news organization, of the less-than-a handfu who even mentioned the trip, felt the need to mention that salient fact, in their mentions of the trip tells you plenty about how dreadful serious news coverage in South Florida in the year 2011 is.

(Oh, in case you forgot, I live in FL-17.)

Weeks later, that fact is, in fact, still missing: no postscripts.

Down here, they just don't believe in them.

Context may be king elsewhere, but not in South Florida.

U.S. House Ethics chair Jo Bonner blasts predecessor for idling of lawyers in Maxine Waters probe; postponing of Waters’ trial until AFTER election?

Not that this story ever got the attention it deserved by South Florida's news media in the first place when it actually happened -despite it involving the former U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas from 1994-'98, and his very prominent wife, Rep. Maxine Waters- but one of Congress' s most vocal liberals, Zoe Lofgren of California got a tart smack-down this month on her efforts while House Ethics Comm. chair to help fellow liberal Calif. lawmaker Waters make it thru one more election cycle, and silence Ethics Comm. staff lawyers investigating Waters' personal efforts to help her husband's business and financial interests, despite numerous examples of conflict-of-interest rules being broken -over-and-over.

Yes, it's as if Waters got a Hall Pass from the principal who was supposed to be investigating and punishing her for her egregious behavior.
Conduct that led to this Washington Post headline on August 3rd: "Rep. Maxine Waters of California probably broke ethics rules, House panel finds"

And the person who did it is Jo Bonner, the new Ethics chair who succeeded Lofgren in that position in January and who was among the committee members who prevented Lofgren from actually firing the attorneys for, perhaps, being so good at their job.
But she did unilaterally punish them.

I definitely want to hear and see more about this story and am particularly interested in seeing how the non-Beltway media handles the story.
Poorly I'm sure, despite how telling this story is about how things really work in Washington if you have power -and influential friends.


The Washington Post
House ethics chair blasts predecessor on idling of lawyers in Waters probe
By R. Jeffrey Smith,
Monday, March 14, 7:05 PM

The Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee has accused his Democratic predecessor of violating House rules and acting without cause in forcing two staff lawyers to take paid leave amid a contentious committee probe of alleged misconduct by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) last year.

Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who moved into the chairmanship in January, made that claim about former chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in a letter he sent early this month to the two lawyers, who played lead roles in the Waters probe. They were idled just as Waters was to be tried by the committee over her actions involving a bank in which her husband had a financial interest.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-ethics-chair-blasts-predecessor-on-idling-of-lawyers-in-waters-probe/2011/03/14/ABWZVqV_story.html