When was the last time journalism from a free weekly newspaper was cited on the front page of the New York Times? I'm not sure it ever happened before. Credit the nation's most important daily newspaper for singling out Miami New Times, for disclosing the A-Rod juicing story. EOM sent a high five to New Times when the story first popped, and here's another. Plus, a wish that New Times would spend more time tilling the dirt in Miami-Dade and less space on the odd, curiosities and fake gold leaf of Miami. The results won't get the front page of the New York Times, but the tradition of setting journalists to investigative reporting does have a respected place at Miami New Times. A-Rod is taking it on the chin and will live with the consequences for the rest of his life, but the context IS the Magic City.
5 comments:
With all due respect, Eye on Miami, Miami New Times survives on their tabloid stories. Sexual innuendo, bodily functions or dope stories are their mainstays. Which is fine. That is what their average reader wants. And MNT dishes it out in huge quantities.
As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while and that is exactly what happened with this story. MNT should be thanking the heavens that Porter Fischer chose them instead of a traditional news outlet when he decided to exact revenge on his former employer.
Let's be clear. This was no excellence in journalism. It was pure luck.
One story amongst a litany of dick jokes and breathless Khardashian coverage has not elevated MNT out of the cesspool that it swims in every day.
I used to be a faithful reader of MNT. Not any more. The points raised by the reader above are consistent with my views about what drives the content, and my lack of interest. But then again, I'm not a target audience. As far as the "luck" part of it goes, my father had a saying -- you make your own luck. Partly true, here. I believe that if MNT spent more time allowing its journalists to graze in the fertile low-lying swamp of Miami politics, other stories would emerge that would make headlines ... maybe not as big a splash as the A Rod story, but enough to shake the status quo.
I look forward to every issue of MNT. Sure they have their sleeze (sleeze "sells") but when they do an investigative piece it is usually very good. Investigative pieces take more time and resources than quick bites so I am not at all surprised that in-depth stories are few. They have some top-notch investigative writers, like Alvarado, that do a great job.
The NYT's is famous for not publishing negative stories about Miami. The missed the chance to investigate Thomas Krammer even though he was featured in several articles. Everybody is covering up the real estate issues in Miami. Don't even get started on the pension fraud that goes on.
Miami New Times has some excellent writers and from time to time they do great research and they write great stories.
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