We'd like to be mum, but sometimes we can't keep quiet... by gimleteye

A lot has happened in Miami, in the ten years since Arthur Teele and Alex Penelas ran for strong mayor. For one the skyline is entirely new. In today’s Miami Herald, staff reporters wrote only four of twenty eight stories in the main section.

Here is something that hasn't changed: voting by ethnic and racial affiliation.

How are voters getting their information?

On Monday, the day before the election, the Miami Herald did not print a single story on the Tuesday's vote despite endorsing the measure and covering the issue at some length in the previous week. Monday provided a moment to cover fraudulent political action committees used by special interests to send out last minute fright mailers to likely voters and into African American communities.

In the absence of facts and information, no wonder fear-mongering prevails. No wonder voters compelled to vote against their best interests.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes into this state of affairs, “The biggest, most far-reaching changes of the past century—the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement—were not primarily the result of elective politics, but rather the hard work of committed citizen-activists fed up with the status quo. It’s time for thoughtful citizens to turn off their TVs and step into the public arena. Protest. Circulate petitions. Run for office. I suspect the public right now is way ahead of the politicians when it comes to ideas about creating a more peaceful, more equitable, more intelligent society.”

But how are people to be thoughtful, when the mainstream media fails to provide the information that people need, or, provide it sporatically and carelessly?

The Herald and other mainstream media need to step to the plate and deliver.

Herbert writes, “The candidates for the most part are listening to their handlers and gurus and fat-cat contributors, which is the antithesis of democracy. It’s not easy for ordinary men and women to be heard above that self-serving din, but it can be done.”

It can be done, only if voters become more aware and more enlightened about politics—and many of the self-serving interests count on ignorance prevailing.

That is exactly the point of the charter referendum fright mailers by fraudulent PACs that presented facts twisted 180 degrees from the truth.

In the 1996 mayoral race, Alex Penelas won with nearly 59 percent of the vote. On Tuesday, the charter referendum measure won by 57 percent. Both elections cut identically: majorities of Hispanic and African American voters split opposite, with the strong numerical advantage of Hispanic voters prevailing.

Two days after the most important election in 50 years—since Metro Dade was established—the top of the fold Miami Herald story is, “The mysteries: What caused the death—maybe 50 years ago—of a partially mummified baby found this week in Delray Beach?”

Back in the in the mid-19th century, mummy shrouds were used to make newsprint for American newspapers. In the early 21st century, it is reversed. That is not progress and it is definitely not good for democracy.