In the opinion section of the Sunday paper, Herald ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos writes, "We need to have more context in real-estate stories." Apparently the Herald has registered the public dissatisfaction-- expressed here frequently, on eyeonmiami-- with the Herald coverage or lack thereof of the housing market implosion.
The ombudsman writes, "Herald reporters and editors have been too scrupulous, in that they have been too timid. They have done the timely major stories and done them well, but they have not followed up with enough analysis or perspective of their own." Agree!
The full dose of honesty, however, points in the direction of the publisher and the editors: it is they, not the reporters for the most part, who provide direction to the daily paper. Their timidity has led to failures in coverage and analysis and the loss of readership.
Let's hope that the editorial results in actual changes. So far, if the McClatchy take-over of the Herald has yielded positive results in the anemic newspaper, we're still scanning with a magnifying glass to find them.
Schumacher-Matos writes, "Cynics grumble that The Miami Herald was in the pocket of realtors, who are major advertisers." What is cynical about this view?
Nothing. It is not just realtors, it is the development industry as a whole represented by big downtown law firms whose managing directors rub shoulders with Herald execs. This is factual, not cynical. (Which managing director of which big land use law firm is chairman of the board of the Knight Foundation, whose president is the former publisher of which newspaper?)
It is curious that the editorial appears the same day as a front page story on the novelist, Tom Wolfe, who is in Miami writing a book on immigration, or so it would appear. The story seems to warn the Miami elite that Wolfe can have a nasty bite, too.
Will the newspaper strike back, and call Wolfe, cynical? I predict that the housing markets will not turn around before Wolfe's novel is published, so there is plenty of time to assess whether the Herald publisher and editors take the ombudsman's words as a signal for changes eyeonmiami has been calling in the city's only daily newspaper since we began writing this blog more than a year ago.
10 comments:
Agree.
I just recently learned that the original "gimlet eye" was Smedley Butler. You must be a history buff, gimleteye.
At any rate, the name is appropriate for the work do you here.
In addition to his military career, Smedley Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War is a Racket. His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.
above: Wikipedia
As I said before the Herald is not in the business of publishing the actual news for the public, that day is long past. All the big shots who run the paper care about now is the bottom line. Greed takes over again.
The nail was hit on the head with this one:
Herald reporters not enough "analysis or perspective of their own"
Maybe their hands are tied? However, isn't that the job of the editorial department? Is the editorial dept. at fault?
this particular batch of reporters the county has covering local beats seems particularly lazy and apathetic...they do the minimum required of them, and seem to have little or no initiative. Its sad, really...
thats the herald covering the local beats, sometimes they just SEEM to work for the county, since they get so many free passes....
The reporters are working under poor conditions.
They are not paid a living wage, they get no support, their editor is scrambling to look for a job before outsourcing takes effect...so, how can they focus on being thorough reporters?
They have to mass produce stories like pizza makers in a pizzeria.
We need to get the owners to get serious about quality.
By the way, has anyone looked at the percentage of ads per page vs. actual news and information? Some days, you will have a newspaper page 4/5 ads and one blurb of news. It didn't used to be that way.
Yes, and the quality of the ads is bizarre... it seems like the Herald is giving away full pages to whoever will snap at whatever incentive/ad buy is out there.
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