We continue on our theme: how the Miami Herald see-saws back and forth between relevance and irrelevance and loses readership in the process.
The Miami Herald reports news that can make us all breathe easier in front page and bad news in the back, in the letters section that acts as a tiny release valve for community steam.
In Sunday's Speakup section, one letter writer says: “our continued and seemingly unsolvable transportation problems… do serve as symbols of the culture of corruption that may help give some the impression that we are a Third World country.”
Well, YES. And why doesn't the Miami Herald print investigative reports so that we can all understand this phenomenon is not just a "symbol", but real and compelling stories that connect cause with effect?
Instead, in the news, we read stories like today's breathless cautionary tale, “The decline and fall of a ‘Super Mom’ A Pembroke Pines woman who became a prostitute and addict was among four women murdered near Atlantic City.” What cause and effect does that elucidate? Apparently, that we love misfortune so long as it is not our own.
We get that part.
But on misfortunes we all share in the declining quality of life in Miami, the paper is exceedingly careful what it prints: a few hundred words here and there, an occassional investigate piece.
For the most part, bad news belongs in the section of letters to the editor. But even there, in today's Speakup, we read the milquetoast opinion of Herald executives and editors who can only write a little truth, titling the section, "Miami's future could be brighter." Funny, that's not what any of three letter writers said.
None in this little commentary section, “Third World?” said anything about Miami’s bright future. What one letter writer says--and a point we strongly agree with-- is that the Miami business community itself is complicit in the culture of corruption.
By failing to be honest and forthright with its own constitutents, the business community embraces the same code of silence, omerta, as the Herald.
For instance, despite the fact that the effort to move the Urban Development Boundary this past year--which would have immeasurably increased traffic congestion everywhere--not a single major builder, like the Related Group, would publicly oppose zoning changes that would hurt their own urban infill businesses.
For instance, if the Herald covered the very high stakes of the recall election of Natacha Seijas, the paper would help explain to readers and business leaders alike why the status quo in Miami is unacceptable.
But that is NOT the Herald's position, or the business community's, despite a culture of corruption that could be reported every day and is why the middle class and businesses are evacuating from Miami.
No. Despite a payroll that includes fine investigative writers, editors point writers on stories of local moms turned prostitutes murdered in Atlantic City, not how signature gatherers in Hialeah attempting to unseat the county commissioner Natacha Seijas, who really IS a symbol of political corruption in Miami-Dade, were subjected to intimidation and coercion right from the pages of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Why Miami Herald executives and editors are so fearful of being kicked by advertisers of its real estate section, or, lobbyists and law firm honchos they rub shoulders with, is an even sadder commentary.
8 comments:
Gimleteye:
It is what I call OIL SLICK REPORTING. The Herald rarely goes deep enough - below the surface. There are more than a dozen good columns I can remember in past month that I am still waiting for the followup on: the Zapata story (See previous posts by using our search at top) being one. Also what about the follow-up to the Zulueta story/Mater Academy that reporter Tania Deluzuriaga did. We don't know the outcome HERALD! Report again on these stories. Do a little research Herald!!
You're right, the Herald doesn't go deep. Like the majority of newspapers across the country, it's run like a corporate entity to sell more papers and more advertising. It's all about making people feel good, whether with frothy stories or with "thank God it's not me" soap opera dramas like prostitute mom.
James Burnett's story trivializing the Third World City criticism was pathetic. It sounded like a PR release from the Chamber of Commerce. It was insulting to the reader that the story was given to a reporter who has been here a year.
So why don't you start a letters to the editor writing campaign and let's tell Tom Fiedler to stop being a wimp and put reporters to work on real stories. "Fidel Castro still alive found in Hialeah" That's a good headline for the Seijas story.
We certainly hope that Herald readers will do as the above writers suggests, and write to Tom Fiedler, editor of the Miami Herald.
What ails the majority of newspapers around the country is that executives feel their primary mission is to shareholders, not readers.
So papers like the Miami Herald have been squeezed on the one hand by Wall Street and on the other hand by the perception newspapers must compete with the internet.
It's not working in either case. The quest to return 20 plus percent net profit is absurd. ABSURD!
Newspaper editors need to nut up, and give reporters the space to tell the full story of our communities' plight... when they do so, readership will increase and profits will too.
We can't be the only people to have noticed that with Miami Herald lite, readership has been hemmoraging. It's time for a new direction at Miami's leading daily newspaper, and if the Herald won't take it-- maybe the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel will.
Miami Herald Lite is a good description.
I hate to tell you but the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel is owned by the Chicago Tribune which is even more corporate than The Herald. Just look at what happened at the Los Angeles Times where the publisher and editor were fired/had to resign for refusing to cut the budget further. Defiance is totally forbidden.
Let's face it, Tom Fiedler is a wimp. May I remind you of his firing of Jim Defede? However, he's not stupid. A strong letter writing campaign underlining the important function The Herald plays in the community and that it's up to him to stand by it, might make a difference. Look at the impact that House of Lies had on public policy in a short period of time.
The herald's House of Lies columns has not changed any public policy one iota. They are doing lots and lots of meetings. In Miami they will "meeting you" to death, unitl you get tired of going to the meetings. When the numbers dwindle, then they drop the subject.
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