Monday, January 07, 2008

Journalism "becoming" a consumer product? by gimleteye

I wonder what Victor Diaz, the smart and savvy chair of the Charter Review Commission for Miami-Dade County, has to say about the poor coverage by the Miami Herald of charter review in relation to Ed Wasserman's puzzling editorial about "callibrated journalism".

According to one source of Mr. Wasserman's: "Print media writers ... face the prospect of eventually being tied to their advertising generating power..."

The Herald long ago tied coverage to advertising generating power, succumbing to the influence of production homebuilders and their supply chain-- represented on the charter review commission by Miguel De Grandy (as Eyeonmiami is free to note.)

But I also understand the miserable economics of print media, dragging even the nation's premier newspapers down. It is a shame that important information--like the post below on the Charter Review Commission-- gets blogged here and does not get adequate coverage by the mainstream press. This is exactly the type of story that Mr. Wasserman would categorize as what's important, though not necessarily interesting.

(Although Michael Lewis, at Miami Today, has been a more reliable source on the topic of the charter review commission, he too has been loathe to name, names and confront the underlying forces that propel Mr. De Grandy and Natacha Seijas, the de facto chair of the county commission.)

For the public interest in protecting a free and independent press, a good course of action would for Congress to incentivize the conversion of print newspapers into charitable foundations. That's the reason the St. Pete Times is the best newspaper in Florida: it is not owned by a public corporation or shareholders determined to fatten the bottom line. As a result, the newspaper has been the strongest voice in Florida on the most destructive tendencies of the Growth Machine.

The Knight Foundation has the capacity to buy the Miami Herald from McClatchy. Why not?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the herald were to keep covering the Charter Review Task Force meetngs...the Commission would find it harder to sweep the recommendations under the rug. Thanks to the herald, this Task force will die a slow death, you can tell that, because De Grandy missed a meeting. He realizes it is even a waste of his time.

Geniusofdespair said...

Yes, DeGrandy has found better things to do than to subvert the process with monkey wrenches.

Anonymous said...

As long as the Charter review lies in the dirty hands of the Board of County Commissioners, the Task Force is a waste of time as they can only RECOMMEND but have no decision-making. Do you believe the BCC will follow any recommendation that could jeopardize their stronghold over the citizens of Miami-Dade County? It would be naive to believe so.

Anonymous said...

Yes the Knight Foundation could buy the Herald. I know this has been suggested to foundation president (and ex Herald publisher) Albert Ibarguen by several people. Not sure why the outstanding idea has not gotten traction.

Geniusofdespair said...

Love the idea of the foundation buyout...maybe it will stop the out-sourcing plans.

Anonymous said...

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Geniusofdespair said...

if you are having trouble posting let us know but be sure to scroll down to the orange box and press:

Publish your comment.

Anonymous said...

First, we need better coverage of Charter Review Issues.

Second, the reporters covering the Government Center beat have completely alienated themselves from the commission and administration through ridiculous, off-basis and half truth story telling.

Third, the Herald puts together Headlines that read like movie promos. Let's get back to telling it like it is.

Finally, cheers to Lewis and Miami Today!