The Daily Pulp

Daily Pulp Moves!

2006-03-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Daily Pulp has moved to a new site. Click Here To Get There.
Members, the new site is http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/blogs/
Sorry for any inconvenience.
All posts located here will remain here forever, as far as we're concerned. If you have any tips, Bob Norman can still be contacted at the e-mail above (bobnorman@floridapulp.com).
Thanks for your patience.

The Herald's Copout

2006-03-23T05:53:00.000-08:00

In its story on the homeless beating case today, the Herald's Nikki Waller and Sara Olkon led with sort of a Kitty Genovese approach, highlighting the fact that "several people passed up opportunities to find help and possibly save" Norris Gaynor from the baseball bat-wielding teens who killed him.

But there was only one bystander pinpointed in the story who might have actually been able to help , a "Parkland man" who witnessed part of the beating on his way to his truck after a night at bars. I can understand him not intervening -- he didn't want a baseball bat upside his head. But the fact that he saw Gaynor dying and didn't call call police for at least a day -- the Sentinel said it was a few days -- is flat-out appalling.

But here's where it gets galling. Though the Herald's story was dominated by the "Parkland man," the newspaper chose not to name him or even state his age. This despite the fact that he's in public records and will play a major role at the trial, if there is one. Why? Obviously the newspaper got cold feet. Editors must have misconstrued journalistic duty -- naming the guy -- with being insensitive or unfair to the man who let Gaynor die without telling anybody.

To get the Parkland man's name, you have to read the Sentinel's story (both were based on yesterday's release of 450 pages of discovery by prosecutors). It was 33-year-old Anthony Clarke.

What Clarke did was unconscionable. How outraged would you be if that was your loved one this guy saw pummeled and bleeding and dying and then just drove home like nothing happened? I don't know if the state's criminal negligence laws cover what he did, but at the very least he should be held up to public scrutiny. Yet the cowardly Herald let him hide under the cloak of anonymity.

The newspaper also failed to name a 16-year-old who went along for the ride with his buddies who did the beating. Again, the Sentinel did the right thing and named him, helping to earn it Story of the Day honors.

Jimenez Impeaches DBR

2006-03-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

There's an interesting little brouhaha going on between former U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez and the Daily Business Review. Reporter Julie Kay wrote a story about Jimenez's remarks concerning the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping. He mentioned the I word in regards to Dubya and has been trying to live it down ever since. You can get into the guts of the thing at The Southern District of Florida blog.

For the Love of the Game

2006-03-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

Rushed today because I'm on deadline (yeah, I'm still trying to hold down a newspaper job myself), but I have to give the Story of the Day to Sara Olkon for her story about Tank Carter, a man who was sentenced to five years in prison for missing a court date to watch his brother play in the Super Bowl. Judge Stanton Kaplan obviously lost his mind on this ruling, but Tank says it was worth it. I couldn't agree more. He got to party with Snoop Dogg and that alone would be worth five years of anybody's life. You all know Snoop, he's the guy from that Soccer Dog movie and the Chrysler commercial. I think he used to rap, too.

A Kane or a Crutch?

2006-03-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

We've been having a little fun with reporters' repititions lately, from Dan Le Batard's prediliction for repeating the same phrases to Palm Beach Post writer Leslie Gray Streeter's fancy of the word "yummy." Here's a new one:

Buddy Nevins' chronic use of the words "Jim Kane."

In a Sunday story about Congressional candidate Katherine Harris's visit to South Florida, Nevins turns to the "pollster" for his sage political wisdom. Or his nonsensical sputterings, as was the case Sunday:

"Harris's dramatic television announcement was a 'double-edged sword,' said Jim Kane, a Davie-based pollster who teaches at the University of Florida. Kane said the millions would chase away any potential opposition in the GOP primary. 'Nobody is going to run against her $10 million,' he said. 'It also tells the GOP donor world that she doesn't need their money and that puts her out there on her own. That's not good.'"

But Kane is more than a pollster and teacher. He's a lobbyist for the powerful -- and very partisan -- Forman family. There has been much written about his problematic dual roles, but that hasn't slowed down Nevins, who calls him just about every time he needs an inane quote to fill up space in his copy. A Nexis search shows that he's used Kane in 157 stories since 1998. That's one hundred and fifty seven and that verges on downright creepy. It's like a journalistic mind-meld. You can't tell where Nevins end and Kane begins.

Good Night Sunshine

Dara Kam of the Palm Beach Post does a great job today of showing how the boobs in Tallahassee are trying to put a lid on public records. This is something that should spark a lot of healthy outrage out there.

V Is For Vendetta At FLPD

I missed a great crime story in the Sentinel on Sunday (it was in the Palm Beach edition, which I have to read more often). Missy Stoddard's story about a teenaged mother who stabbed her 34-year-old boyfriend in a cheap motel is total Pulp. Stoddard knows it's all in the details, the flipping off of the photographer, the Pall Mall cigarettes, the quotes ("I told her you don't get no abortion"), and she knows how to tell a story. It's a belated Story of the Day.

And while I'm on good crime stories, I have to mention this crazy tale in the Sentinel today about a cop who tried to use the P.D. to go after his girlfriend's estranged husband. The good news: There's no evidence that he was on steroids at the time.

Hippie Freaks, Evil Twins, and Dangerous Feds

2006-03-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

Both the Herald and Sentinel sent reporters out yesterday to cover a local protest on the third anniversary of the Iraq War. And both articles, by Vanessa Blum in the Sentinel, and Shannon Pease and Carli Teproff in the Herald, seemed pretty solid, although the Herald described the protest as having "several hundred" in attendance while the Sentinel minimized it as only "about 200."

Somebody's wrong there. But it was pictures that really told the story. The Herald's photos -- both in the newspaper and on the Web -- seemed pretty representative of the protest, which featured "Raging Grannies" and plenty of political stunts. Here's one that ran in the paper:

You get a sense of the size of the thing and the passion and creativity of those involved. Then we have the Sentinel's photo that ran as the dominant art on the front of the Metro section. Check this out:

Can't you hear some jackass on the desk snickering about this one? That guy on the left looks like he just woke up after a long nap at the Spahn Ranch. Who's against the war? Crazy freaks you can't relate to dancing to Hare Krishna, that's who. And there's only five of 'em.

Gimme Some Truth
I'm starting to dig the Listening Post in the Palm Beach Post by C.B. Hanif, an editorial writer who doubles as the paper's ombudsman. It's sort of like the Earl Maucker column, only with a dab of real brains and a pinch of actual accountability.

Dead Ringers
I just had to point out Joe Kollin's story on this set of twins, one good, the other evil. The good brother named Raymond, the bad seed Raymund. It's a hoot, especially the picture, where the good one holds a picture of, well, might as well be himself. And you know that's got to be one pissed off twin, if he's willing to go public like that on his brother. Sometimes the newspaper business is just flat-0ut fun, man.

And Finally ...
Is this citizen's report about Secret Service agents training their machine guns on a bunch of suburban moms true? And, if so, why the hell haven't the dailies picked it up rather than let it be told only by a vigilant letter writer? If it did happen, and I'm assuming it did, the Bush Administration has truly got some serious bats in the belfry, or to stay true to the reality of South Florida's post-Wilma world, rats in the attic.

Whoray For Hollywood

2006-03-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

It's known as "community journalism," but more often than not it's just pimping out reporters to governments, towns, and businesses. In the Miami Herald, it's called "Neighbors," but this weekend it should have been called "Prostitutes."

The Pulp has already gotten up in the Sentinel's grill for its horrible Sunday Community News section. On Saturday, the Herald managed to surpass the Sentinel in obsequiousness and groveling in Neighbors with a take-out on the City of Hollywood. There were a bunch of stories in the section that were nothing more than public relations articles for the city under the bylines of Herald reporters. I don't even need to get into the content of the articles. The headlines will do just fine (but if you want to see how bad they are, just click it):

"This Hollywood gets it right for residents"

"Hollywood has finally found 'its sense of place'"
(Lede: "OK, what's not to love about downtown Hollywood?")

"A sunny escape"

"HARRISON RENAISSANCE: Through efforts of the downtown Community Redevelopment Agency, Harrison Street has experienced a rebirth, bringing in new people."

"OCEANFRONT REBIRTH"

Okay, you get the picture. It's a Chamber of Commerce and city government wet dream. And, alas, even reporter Todd Wright, who has been doing some of the first good stuff the Herald has run on Hollywood in years, was sucked into the seedy act.

This is nothing new for the Herald; it has performed fellatio on numerous other Broward towns in it's "Where We Live" features. Look, I know the "community news" has always been nothing but an excuse to ingratiate the newspaper with the powers-that-be, a place to pay the piper. Sometimes it's merely bad, other times its a stinking disgrace. The Herald's Saturday coverage definitely falls into the latter category. And it brings down the entire newspaper in the eyes of discerning residents. In case you didn't know it, Hollywood is practically run by lobbyists Bernie Friedman and Alan Koslow, is rife with scandals involving huge "incentives" to developers, is being investigated by the State Attorney's Office for corruption regarding its waste treatment plant, and has a police department in disarray.

People notice those kinds of thing -- and they also notice the Herald's shameful "journalism." NT writer Trevor Aaronson, who has done strong investigative work in Hollywood for more than a year, reports that he received several e-mails from residents about the Herald whitewash of the town.

Here's the text of one of them:

"I read the entire section and wondered what PR man told the reporters who to interview and what nonexistent utopian city the section was all about. One statement I particularly love from Clare Mitchel's column, "This Hollywood gets it right for residents," says "laws have been bent and rules legally altered to ease the limits of the building codes and make them flexible, using common sense." How wonderful is that?"

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
In the same newspaper as the crap above came Peter Bailey's outstanding story about Miami-Dade schools sending more than 2,000 kids to jail for minor fights and graffiti and other ticky-tack offenses. It's called zero tolerance, another term for zero brains, and not surprisingly most of the students cuffed and hauled to the hoosegow are disproportionately black. I mean, why would we want troubled students in school when we can go ahead and get them started on a life in jail. The Bailey piece, our Story of the Day, is illuminated by excellent reporting, common sense, and, unlike the the school system, possesses some real intelligence.

(More later)

Le Batard Leaks In The Pulp

2006-03-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

I can't get serious right now. I just had a good lunch with a good source, March Madness is maddening (I just lost my first Elite 8 team, Iowa, on a last second three from the baseline), it's St. Patrick's Day, and it's the end of the damn week. Reporter folk, it's time to celebrate life a little.

So I'm gonna end this with some fun, perhaps at the expense of Miami Herald sports columnist Dan Le Batard, who I'm sure can take it (unlike a few thin-skinned, humorless weasels out there -- oh yeah, you know who you are). Anyway, you may remember Sam Eifling's little study on Le Batard's weirdly repititious use of phrases concerning Ben Wallace's afro and the 1980 Olympic hockey miracle [you can see it below].

Well, unbenowst to Eifling and the Pulp, a similar study was undertaken back in 1995 in the Miami New Times. A Pulp reader and veteran of the journalism scene remembered the piece, which was in the form of an unsigned "Best Of," and dug it up for me. It's believed to have been authored by the esteemed Tom Finkel, now editor of the New Times-owned Riverfront Times in St. Louis, and it is a thing of strange and hilarious beauty.

"BEST MIAMI HERALD WRITER TO SPRING A LEAK
Dan Le Batard

On January 10, 1994, this babyfaced Herald sportswriter clambered into a literary catapult of his own making and hurled himself toward greatness. “The stink keeps seeping into sports,” he ventured in the topic sentence of a commentary about the recent assault on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, and then proceeded to find his incomparable voice, writing, “You can’t escape to these pages anymore, can’t always find quiet near the boxscores. The poison leaks in from the rest of the newspaper and next thing we know Michael Jordan’s father is dead.”

Thus was born one man’s love affair with a verb.

“The mediocrity begins at the top and trickles down, engulfing the entire Heat organization. It touches everything from the coach to the end of the bench, and it leaks into the front office, too,” Le Batard wrote less than two weeks later.

By spring the budding stylist was courageous enough to broach the gerund: “Magic Johnson is dying. The averages say he’ll be gone in about 11 years, life leaking from his body as predictably as seconds off a scoreboard clock,” he dispatched on April 10, then proceeded to turn in an even more adventurous April 22 entry: “Miami Arena was leaking now, sound being sucked out like air from a deflating balloon.”

In June Mexican soccer players competing in the World Cup “could feel the life leaking from their legs,” while December brought a high school football coach whose rage “leaks out occasionally, with a single word you wouldn’t want your children to hear” and a Dolphins special teams mentor undergoing “nearly six months of chemotherapy that made the life leak out of his body.” New Year’s Day 1995 informed us that “the game was done, clearly, but Joe Montana was behaving as if the life were leaking out of him.”

And only then was Le Batard truly ready. A January 19 article that began with the greatest single sentence in Miami Herald history (“He could barely walk, this strong man the Dallas Cowboys needed to run”) built to this corker: “And just when you thought Emmitt Smith didn’t have an ounce of emotion remaining in his body, just when you thought he had spent everything on the field, you noticed he had a little something left. It came leaking from both eyes.”

He would polish that particular gem in a March 13 epic about golfer Mark O’Meara’s caddie: “‘Yes,’ he screamed, and then he threw his arms skyward, too, so much joy rushing through him that he couldn’t keep it all inside. It came leaking out both eyes.”

No more could possibly be wrought, you say? Wrong. April 16 was occasion for a paean to Glen Rice’s 56-point effort against the Orlando Magic: “And when it was done, when he made that last long jumper...Rice could no longer keep all the joy inside him. It leaked out in a burst, right on the court.”
We say write on, Danny Boy. Let ’er drip!"

You Have The Right To Remain Juiced

2006-03-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we learned from the Sentinel that slain cop Todd Fatta had anabolic steroids in his system when he was gunned down. Also yesterday, the Herald's Charles Rabin told us of the bust of a Miami cop for buying and selling steroids and the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis.

Today, the Sentinel's Peter Franceschina writes about 13 West Palm Beach police officers who were getting 'roids from the same place as Fatta: An online dealer called PowerMedica. BSO has already cleared at least eight deputies who were scoring 'roids from PowerMedica. PBSO investigated four deputies and slapped a couple of them on the wrist. It's outrageous -- and to understand how local law enforcement agencies are justifying it, you have to read Franceschina's strong explanatory piece (the Story of the Day), which was inexplicably buried on page 5B in the Broward edition.

Note to Sentinel editors: Broward County is interested in Palm Beach news when it's this good. So is Miami for that matter. We don't live in such narrowly defined boxes as you seem to think.

(More Later)

Never Trust A Guy Named Molehead

2006-03-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Palm Beach Post reporter Rochelle E.B. Gilken reminds us why we should all wish to be put on the Belle Glade beat. I mean where else would a mayoral candidate get arrested for trying to keep some hothead named "Molehead" from harassing his daughter? On election night, no less. It's a real place for real people and today Gilken did a wonderful job telling us about it.

In the Can
Malcolm English is back and this time he's calling B.S. on the Pulp's own turf. Here's what he, or perhaps she, says:

"You seem to get a great deal of pleasure reporting the gaffes by South Florida's major daily newspapers. Well, here's one a little closer to home. This missive was part of your New Times' "Tailpipe" column. (It's an unsigned "news" column, but that's an issue for the media ethicists to debate.)

New Times writes: 'Yes, except that at 12:30 p.m. on February 26, 2006, another woman was raped at FAU, the circumstances of the assault suspiciously similar to the first. This time the crime alert was emailed to the student body two days after the fact.'

Trouble is, Mr. Norman, there WAS NO RAPE. The cops declared it a hoax and knew it was such from the beginning. This is the exact kind of mistake that you chide the dailies for making, yet New Times--which doesn't even have the strain of daily deadlines -- can't get it right. It will be interesting to see if you have the guts to post this on The Daily Pulp. To not post it would be hypocritical."

So there it is: Proof that I'm no hypocrite. As for the newspaper, it posted an update to Tailpipe today on the Internet. To wit:

"As New Times went to press Tuesday, Tailpipe learned of a breaking development in the FAU rape case: According to an e-mail from FAU President Brogan, sent at 5:30 p.m., the February 26 rape never happened. 'It became clear to the investigators that the reported sexual assault never occurred,' Brogan noted.

The Palm Beach Post reported that the alleged victim of the rape admitted to police that the intercourse was consensual, FAU Chief of Police Will Ferrell said."

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Our New Leader
Daunte Culpepper hasn't even padded up yet for the Dolphins, but he's already doing the Miami double-talking two-step. He did nothing wrong and, for that, he is sorry.

An Error For The Books
Sorry I'm so late with this, since it ran on Sunday, but I haven't found the space for it until now and I'm betting most of your Broward and Miami-Dade folk haven't seen it. It's an explanation of a really strange Palm Beach Post error and correction over the headline, "Colleagues joshed while chief lay dying." Well, Martin County fire battalion chief Charles "Chip" O'Hara's friends and co-workers weren't really joking around while he was succumbing to injuries from a boating accident. At least the newspaper now says they weren't. With such a horrendous error, I'm with the reader on this one. It's not enough to say you're wrong. How the hell did it happen?

Sentinel Scoop

2006-03-16T05:55:00.000-08:00

Didn't get to post yesterday afternoon due to actual work. So for the first time, didn't get to post a story of the day. I'll atone for that later, but first let's jump into today's top story, written by Sentinel reporters Vanessa Blum and Paula McMahon.

They report for the first time that BSO deputy Todd Fatta had anabolic steroids in his system when he was shot down by a terrible scumbag named Kenneth Wilk during a raid on a home in Fort Lauderdale.

Cops pumped up on steroids -- a society's nightmare. I've known people on steroids who say it made them ten times more aggressive. A bouncer once told me in vivid detail how the things made him want to crack skulls -- and he said he did so on a regular basis at the club where he worked. Wilk seems guilty as hell, but the revelation will undoubtedly play on a jury's mind, as will the chaotic nature of the raid itself.

Hats off to Blum and McMahon. My only question: Why the hell wasn't this on the front page? And why is it next to impossible to find it on the Sentinel web site?

Driving Down
Herald reporter Jennifer Lebovich did an outstanding job on this story about a woman who took matters into her own hands. Which were on her own steering wheel. The woman, named Suze Telfort, became so frustrated in traffic that she slammed into a bunch of other cars to get onto Federal Hwy in Fort Lauderdale.

Unfortunately for the woman, an FBI agent and insurance investigator were in the area to make sure she was taken down. I just really dug the way Lebovich wrote the thing, so much so that I was inspired to drive to Telfort's house to follow the story. There, I met Telfort's husband, who said he worked in the "defense industry." The man was highly distraught and seriously disturbed. At one point, he reflexively referred to me as "Bob," and that really angered him.

"Why am I calling you by your first name? I don't know you. I call my boss 'mister' after years, but I walk in here, a stranger ... and I' m calling you Bob like we' re in an AA meeting. I don't want to be your buddy, Bob. I just want a little breakfast."

Breakfast? I knew nothing about any breakfast. He rambled on.

"Take me, for instance. You know what I thought paradise was? Making babies. Ain't that a kick? Making babies."

I realized I was in the presence of a very sick man at this point. I sort of stammered something and he came right back at me.

"You come to my country, take my money, and don't even have the grace to learn how to speak the language?"

I tried to bring the conversation back to his wife, who was in jail at the time. Then he just said, in utter disbelief, "I'm the bad guy? How did that happen." It was time to go. Thankfully, he let me snap this photo of him before I left.

And Lastly ...

The Sentinel still has Larry Masters prominently displayed on its website as being a 51-year-old man who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, when he was 14 years-old. I don't think they realize that the longer they keep it up, the more insulting it is to real veterans out there.

Visible Lies

2006-03-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

No wonder Larry Masters is homeless. The poor fellow was sent off to Vietnam to become a “tunnel rat” -- one of the most dangerous and traumatic duties in that horrible war -- when he was just 14-years-old.

Or maybe, just maybe, he duped the Sun-Sentinel in one of the most common tricks played on reporters: The ol' fake Vietnam Vet con.

A sharp Palm Beach Post reporter gave the Pulp the heads-up on a slight discrepancy in photographer Robert Mayer's homeless photo gallary, titled Invisible Lives, that was published in the Sunday paper. Larry Masters, who is 51 years-old, told this story:

“I'm a Vietnam veteran. I served from 1969 to 1971. I was a tunnel rat because I'm small. But I got out in '71. I came home, and I messed up. Then, I met my wife and we moved down here. … I worked in roofing, carpentry and [Hurricane] Andrew and all that. I made money, I got us a house, and we lived together."My wife, she went out and she got on dope, so then she was ripping off dope dealers. … They gave her some corrosion off a battery of a car. She had a brain hemorrhage, and she died. It ruined my life. …"

It's an interesting story, but if he’s telling the truth, he went to Vietnam at 14 and left the jungle at 16 as a grizzled veteran. Either Masters got his own age wrong, or he's lying about his service in Vietnam. The Pulp is putting its money on the latter. And there are few things that piss off real Vietnam vets more than a poser.

You sort of expect this kind of thing if you're a reporter. In fact, my editor didn't believe it the day it came out and told me so. Neither of us noticed the date discrepancy -- but you'd think the Sentinel would have done it before so prominently publishing Masters' story.

We Ain't Ignert

2006-03-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

So a columnist at the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader in northeastern Pennsylvania went off on Miami Herald Leonard Pitts for pointing out in a column Friday that "people are ignorant in Appalachia."

"I think Pitts is lower than a coal mine, meaner than a mountain winter, sneakier than a Pennsylvania politician voting for a pay raise," wrote Casey Jones. "How dare Pitts paint the mountains with such a broad brush?"

Pitts was criticizing so-called Christians for bashing gays instead of helping people who need it (aka, doing something Jesus would do). But let's be glad that Casey Jones, whose column is on Romenesko, sets the record straight. Now we know that Appalachia doesn't have rampant abject poverty anymore -- whew, that's a relief! -- and everybody there is educated to the nines.

Hell, forget about the mountain folk. They aren't hillbillies anymore, they're Hilfigers.

The fact is, though, that in the heart of Appalachia -- in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and parts of West Virginia -- the poverty rate is still ridiculously high. America should be concerned about it. And that's the truth no matter what some scribbler from uppity Wilkes-Barre might say.

Newspaper Games
I don't think it was a coincidence that the Miami Herald ran the report, "BSO Brass Escape Scandal Blame," in today's paper. It's one day before New Times hits the streets -- and in that will be reporter (and unofficial Pulp correspondent) Wyatt Olson's in-depth report on the same topic.

Yes, it has all the hallmarks of a pre-emptive strike.

"And damned annoying," Olson adds. "But ahh, the sport of it all."

Olson knows that's the way the game is played. All is fair when it comes to getting the story first. Relentless and well-sourced Herald reporter Wanda DeMarzo was perfectly within her rights to beat him to the punch. She did a good job and she clearly had been gathering this information for a long time. We'd all have done the same and the Pulp tips its hat to her.

But Olson's story will have plenty of exclusive information in it yet.

Story of the Day
Carol Marbin Miller is striking again with another report on state Medicaid cuts to programs that provide feeding for the sickest and poorest folks among us. It's a crime and state bureaucrats are pulling out nothing but excuses while critically ill people literally starve. This the same day big news broke about Miller's other baby, the boot camp death.

Rattling the Democratic Cages

2006-03-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

They invited me last night to speak at the Young Democrats of Broward County club at the Downtowner Saloon. We all know from recent events how dangerous those kinds of things can be for newspaper types.

I first met Amy Rose, a past president of the BYDs who is now running for state house seat in north Broward. She told me that Diana Wasserman-Rubin was going to be there. I thought that was great and told her so.

"That's funny, she had completely the opposite reaction," Rose said, laughing.

I couldn't understand why. Unless it had something to do with this story and a few others. Surely she still wouldn't be sore about that, would she?

Even after the meeting started and Wasserman-Rubin swore in new club president Andrew Torres, an impressive fellow who is oddly reminiscent of Vin Diesel, I didn't really know what I was going to talk about. But when I got up there, it came pretty easy.

I looked out at the room -- about 30 people were there -- and said I bet most of them opposed the war in Iraq. A bunch of people nodded their heads. And then I said most of them didn't do anything about it and that Democrats as a whole totally failed the country.

Wasserman-Rubin, who was sitting in the front row and who I've written about in the past, sort of raised her finger and said she opposed the war.

"Really? I didn't know that," I said. "You sure?"

"I did."

She looked a little sheepish as she was saying it. There isn't a published report in the world, as far as I can tell, to show that she spoke out against the war, at least not before it turned into a debacle.

Whatever. The Democratic Party as a whole was scared to move on the war -- and the Young Democrats were definitely part of the problem. Why? Because they were too busy attending little functions like this one. And because they allowed pragmatism and political calculus and their fear to get a little dirty at demonstrations to silence them on one of the most important issue of their lives.

Yeah, I was feeling a little hostile. The truth is I've never gotten over the failure of the grassroots or the cowardice of senators like John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Nelson when it came to Iraq. And I told them that even as they're schmoozing it up at their function and getting caught up in the game of politics, they need to use their minds sometimes. I told them to beware of lobbyists and understand that they are standing in a hotbed of Democratic political corruption. (I know Wasserman-Rubin loved that one). And I said that they need to retain their individualism and not be afraid of doing the right thing, even if the party is against it.

There was a lot of interaction throughout the thing, with people making their own observations about Iraq. Some nodded their heads as I spoke, agreeing wholeheartedly, and a couple of guys, including a young Iraq War veteran sitting in the front row, disagreed. There was some decent debate.

"I liked it," said one Young Democrat after the show. "We usually sit here and pat each other on the back for an hour. You didn't do that."

No. I guess I didn't.

(More later)

The Terrible Drewth

2006-03-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

I always found the presence of sports agent Drew Rosenhaus on Channel 7’s Sports Xtra nauseating. Having an agent as a regular to give pro football news and opinion is akin to having, say, a defense industry lobbyist on the Nightly News every night talking explaining the Iraq War to people. How the hell can you trust anything he says?

There have been reports of Rosenhaus’ conflicts of interest on the show (Robert Andrew Powell did a high-larious one in Miami New Times back in 1999), but the agent is apparently glued to Fox like a fly in leftover waffle syrup. Last night broadcaster Steve Shapiro spent a good deal of the show with Rosenhaus, who was in a studio in Phoenix, where he’d just completed a $30 million deal for Edgerrin James to join the Cardinals.

Rosenhaus wore a black and red Rosenhaus Sports Representation shirt, which has a Superman-style S in the middle of it. “I’m wearing my [Cardinals’] colors!” he said to Shapiro, pulling on the company logo.

“Enjoying the red shirt, Superman,” said Shapiro, who trails only Jimmy Cefalo in the sports broadcasting smarm sweepstakes.

Question: What the hell does South Florida care about the stinking Cardinals? And why is our local Fox affiliate allowing Rosenhaus to advertise his stinking agency – where he is renowned for dirty stunts that sully the game of football -- on network time?

But that’s not all – there’s also special graphics with Rosenhaus posing in a suit with a cell phone for the segment, “Drew Or False.”

“I’m just trying to figure out your commission,” Shapiro said at one point during the show about the James deal.

I'm trying to figure out how much Rosenhaus is paying WSVN.

Hemorrhoids Rule
S.V. Date had a good story about a power play in the Florida Senate between Jeff Atwater and Alex Villalobos. A number of Republican Senators switched allegiance from Villalobos to Atwater and the Post included some of their excuses. The best excuse, perhaps of all time, came from Steve Wise, of Jacksonville: "I'm home, I'm sick, I'm under heavy medication for pain (for hemorrhoids), and I thought it was a done deal. ... I wasn't thinking clearly."

For once, a politician admits his head was in his ass.

My Old Beiruty Home
Ethan Skolnick, a sturdy sportswriter for the Sentinel (and once my venerable softball coach), succumbed to exaggeration this weekend in an otherwise compelling feature story on new Miami Heater Derek Anderson. Describing Anderson’s tough childhood, Skolnick wrote:

“Dodging daily disasters in Louisville's drug-infested Southwick Projects, which have since been torn down. Seeing someone shot once or twice a week. One of his closest friends shot and killed someone, then was shot and killed himself. It was common enough to become normal.”

For a guy with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anderson has got a nice jumper. Hear about people getting shot once or twice a week? Maybe. See them? Flat-out impossible.

This Just In ...
Chris Kovanes took a bowel movement at Davie City Hall six months ago and failed to flush. Will update whenever close to fathomable.

Crocodile Jeers
From the Sentinel Lifestyles section today, we get a feature story on shoes.

"They're colorful. They carry celebrity cachet. And they're everywhere. Those comfy Crocs shoes have walked into our hearts and onto our souls."

Then they reached their finger down our throats and triggered our gag reflexes. Them's some talented shoes.

Gary Pruitt Takes Over Miami

2006-03-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

McClatchy. Some call it the new owner of the Miami Herald, I call it a big fat new target. But we'll just have to mourn Gannett's failed bid for KR. God, those would have been good times, watching that awful corporation slowly transform the Herald into a tidy little disaster and reporting every awful step of its zombie-walk into oblivion.

No, instead we wind up with the 149-year-old McClatchy company, which, dang it all, is probably the best big journalism corporation going. Definitely a notch up from Knight Ridder. And apparently the Herald isn't on the list of 12 KR newspapers that McC is going to sell again. Talk about dull.

But this Gary Pruitt fellow (photo left). I'm not sure about him. Too perfect. He looks too nice, a little bit like the Easter Bunny or something. AJR called him a wunderkind, and I never trust anybody who is dubbed one of those. He's also a lawyer. Here's what Susan Paterno wrote about him in that AJR article back in 2003:

"Pruitt presented himself at the Ritz as he often does, a modern Candide, always positive, always on message, always looking as though he stepped from the pages of a Ralph Lauren catalog, running a company as trim and fit and athletic as he is. He has a smile that probably broke a hundred hearts in high school and an endearing goofy charm, stumbling over Hegel and rattling off Rolling Stone lyrics in the same conversation, likening his Wall Street strategy to a Lenny Kravitz tune for analysts, talking as guilelessly about journalism as he does about redecorating his office from the dark wood paneling of the previous regime to a streamlined modern gray and blue, with matching Expressionist paintings and a light fixture that his mentor and predecessor Erwin Potts told him looks vaguely pornographic."

I don't know. This could get interesting. Anybody with vaguely pornographic light fixtures can't be that boring. The big question about Pruitt is: Is he more beholden to shareholders or great journalism? He's been walking a tightrope between the two. But when the chips are down, I think we can all guess which way he'll fall. And the rope just got a whole lot higher.

Homeless Hypocrisy

I'm starting to think those punks who beat the street people deserve a medal along with life sentences. I've never seen the Sun-Sentinel take so much interest in homeless people. The beatings prompted photographer Robert Mayer to shoot a series of portraits of homeless people that is undeniably powerful. It's the Story of the Day in pictures.

But I have to say that Mayer's work sure does resemble the stuff done by Mike Stocker on survivors of the Holocaust (reportedly a finalist for the Pulitzer this year). Black and white faces, similar lighting, same exact power. Actually I think the homeless stuff is the better of the two. The subjects of the photos are on the streets right now and they are, more than anyone else, the people society doesn't want to look at. Also it clearly took a lot more work getting homeless people into the studio than a bunch of seniors from Century Village.

And it's about time the Sentinel paid a little bit of attention to homeless people. After all, the Sentinel sends them in the middle of traffic to hawk their newspapers, a management decision that has led to a truckload of carnage and numerous deaths. But when the newspaper is involved in a homeless death, it gets a brief inside the Local section, not front page treatment.

So it's nice to see the sudden compassion.

Wilson To Replace Judy Miller

2006-03-10T12:10:00.001-08:00

Dave Wilson will take over the Managing Editor reins at the Miami Herald from Judy Miller, who is leaving to work for a private investigation firm.

It's not a surprising promotion -- as Managing Editor in Broward County, Wilson was basically the heir apparent to the controversial Miller. The announcment was made to staff earlier today and the promotion took effect immediately.

And he tells the Pulp he's ready to go.

"The best thing about it is that I have more fabulous people to work with than I do now which is good," he said, adding that Miami is "special and wonderful and weird and corrupt and a great place to live and to be a daily journalist."

But with the impending sale of Knight Ridder, is it a difficult time to take over the day-to-day operations of the newspaper?

"I don't think there's ever an easy time," Wilson said. "The sale will work itself out in due course. There's literally nothing than I have to do with it. We have to wait for what happens. I am absolutely convinced that no matter how it plays out, not matter what the staffing levels, the Herald will be the largest, deepest and most talented newsgathering operation in South Florida."

He said he doesn't have a dog in the fight between the two leading contenders to buy KR, McClatchy and a Gannett partnership, but did talk mention that he admired the McClatchy company. "But I've heard good things from people at the [Gannett-owned] Detroit Free Press, too," he added diplomatically.

Wilson began working at the Herald in 1976, at the age of 18, as a copy boy and later as a sports writer. He worked a stint at the Orlando Sentinel before regurning to the Miami newspaper in 1986. In 1995, he was promoted to the position of executive sports editor, replacing Paul Anger (current editor of the Detroit Free Press). At the time, Anger said of Wilson:

"Dave is one of the most creative editors I've ever been around. He has a great knack for coming up with something different, something that will make the reader say, 'Look at this.'

"Often in brainstorming meetings there would be an impasse, a frustration level that would be erased when Dave, deep in thought, would say, 'What if we . . . '"We'd all look at him and say, 'That's it!'"

During the past decade he has also overseen the Neighbors sections and is currently serving as the managing editor for the Broward Bureau and sports.

He said he met with department heads today and assured them he would let them do their jobs.

"I told them I'm here to brainstorm with you, to try to find resources, to bust through obstacles and to create great newspapers," he said. "I'm here as a collaborator and co-conspirator with the department heads, not to try to do their jobs."

Go to Main Page for more South Florida media news and criticism.

Terry Stiles Is Just Super

2006-03-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

The Sentinel -- thanks to good stories by Burstein (about an actor turned loser), Wallman (about a politician turned loser), and Mayo (about a flat-out loser) -- had a strong newspaper today. But bringing down the whole operation was a feature story in the Business section by Paul Owers, the same reporter who brought us the Huizenga Jr. debacle a few weeks ago. This time he's doing P .R. for Terry Stiles, downtown's mega-builder. Here's some choice Owers lines:

-- "Stiles' unassuming manner belies his status as a South Florida business leader."

-- "He also established himself as an aboveboard businessman who avoids controversy."

Controversy? Did you ever hear about Stiles involvement in an insider North Broward Hospital District building deal with Austin Forman that was investigated by the feds and would have wasted taxpayers $100 million? And I guess that whole airport expansion thing that Stiles is pushing with the Broward Alliance has universal appeal.

But it's the quotes, from a lineup obviously handchosen by Stiles himself, that take this thing beyond the pale.

-- From a Broward Workshop muckety muck named Kareen Boutros: "He's got a sterling reputation. He's not a snob. Everybody can relate to him."

-- Wayne Huizenga endorses him -- and we all know what that endorsement means: "I trust him ...".

-- And from Broward Mayor Ben Graber, who is becoming more and more schmuck-like (that's him grinning there at the left): "He's a guy to do business with."

It might not have been so bad if there was one -- oh merciful god, just one -- critical view of the most powerful developer/builder in town. But no. Not surprising, really, considering that he's an unassuming, aboveboard, trustworthy, guy with a sterling reputation that everybody can relate with.

Odds and Ends

-- A spiritual message to Heraldites: Pray for McClatchy.

-- The Herald had this ditty by Dan Christensen and Nikki Waller on former Davie manager Chris Kovanes. Okay. Great. Can we all promise to stop writing about this thing now? Kovanes is a thief. We all know it. It's been proved many many times. Save the rest of it for the trial. Please.

-- The good folks over there at the FrontPageFlorida website have an intere sting piece on an ongoing newspaper turf battle. Only it's not the one between the Post and the Sentinel. It's the never-ending war between the St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune. The story is by Joe Registrato, who was apparently a Blues Brother in another life.

-- Just when you thought Carlton Moore was a potential nominee for "Good Samaritan of the Year" (the State Attorney's Office "cleared" him of wrongdoing in his little house-buying adventure) his nemesis, the Broward Times' Elgin Jones, comes up with more dirt. I'll call this the Story of the Day.

-- You can only imagine how hard that FEMA team from the Sentinel is gonna celebrate tonight. After getting the news about the Pulitzer, it was announced today that they won a Scripps Howard Foundation award. Not bad, but the best part: It comes with good cash. From the press release:
PUBLIC SERVICE REPORTING South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, receives $10,000 and the Roy W. Howard award. "FEMA: A Legacy of Waste" uncovered a trail of fraud and waste in federal disaster aid that cost taxpayers more than $530 million. The Sun-Sentinel reported that after Katrina, the agency gave $172 million in emergency aid to people never displaced by the storm. Reforms are underway. Finalist: Joy Blackburn, The Virgin Islands Daily News.

Cheers.

Prizing the Pulitzer

2006-03-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

The Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel have both fared very well in the Pulitzer contest, if the early scuttlebutt is to be believed (and it almost always is).

According to E & P, the Miami Herald was named a finalist in the explanatory reporting category for its series, anchored by Debbie Cenziper, on breakdowns in the hurricane warning system (which also just won a National Headliner's Award).

And the Sentinel was named a finalist in an impressive three categories -- breaking news for Wilma coverage, investigative reporting for its FEMA reports, and feature photography for a Holocaust survivor thing (if someone can please send me info on this, I'll post a link).

The news prompted South Florida Business Journal reporter Susan Stabley to cajole the Pulp:

"Hey, let's give props where props are due. The local rags are all right, at least if the leaked information about the Pulitzers is true. ... Say Bob, ain't that worth a blog...and an happy fuzzy, furry puppies one at that?"

Okay, Susan, here's your wish. And I think it's also worth mentioning that the Sentinel was a finalist last year for hurricane coverage as well in the breaking news category, a prize driven by pity that usually goes to whatever place was unlucky enough to have the most horrible disaster you can imagine (the Times Picayune in New Orleans is a lock to win the thing this year, by the way). In fact, every single writing nomination for both the Herald and the Sentinel is hurricane-related. Just keep your fingers crossed that we get a direct hit from a Cat 5 this season so the Sentinel can finally win that ever-elusive Pulitzer.

Yes I'm complaining. The Sentinel's Wilma coverage was undoubtedly excellent. It made Fort Lauderdale proud. But I kept wishing the newspaper would show that same greatness in covering its everyday beats. There is huge corruption in Broward County that goes ignored while the newspaper trains its best reporters on a federal government bureaucracy. Why? Because going after local corruption takes more courage and is far more unpopular than beating up on a flabby faraway agency. Digging into local corruption is basically shitting where you eat and it would hurt the Sentinel's oh-so-cozy relationship with the fine folks at the Broward Alliance and their political sources.

I'm not saying the Sentinel shouldn't have gone after FEMA. Reporter Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz, Jon Burstein, and John Maines did great great work and deserve every award they get (and I think the conditions are right for them to win the Pulitzer). And God knows the Herald's "Blind Eye" series was worthy -- it dug damn deep in a way only a big newspaper can and it found journalistic gold (though, ironically, the forecasts were AMAZINGLY ACCURATE throughout the season, especially for Wilma).

But it would be nice to see more of that same spirit when it comes to covering, say, Tamarac city hall. Or the Broward County Commission. You might get a black eye, but it's just as important as a hurricane.

(More Later)

Hear The One About Ben Wallace's Afro Yet?

2006-03-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

You know, before the post on Herald sports columnist Dan LeBatard yesterday, I hadn't paid much attention to him. Read his column occasionally was all. But I was inspired to check out his radio show on AM 790 yesterday for the heck of it. Talk about a guy with a voice for newspapers.

The man is silly as hell. I haven't heard so much giggling since the seventh grade when I used to feel up out-of-the-way-girl Jennifer under the stairs at the school gym.

But while I'm on the topic, I thought I'd share with you some research dug up by unofficial Pulp correspondent Sam Eifling. He went through LeBatard's columns and inadvertantly found that Dan has "a funny tendency to recycle some of his material."

(Yeah, that's the kind of thing New Times reporters do with their spare time. It's sort of sad and beautiful at the same time.)

Here's the examples, beginning with Ben Wallace's afro:

"Ben Wallace, all fast-twitch muscle fiber and cartoon biceps, might be the league's best defender. But Shaq dropped 36 points and 20 rebounds on his Afro in one Finals game last season when Larry Brown tried to guard him one-on-one."
* April 11, 2005

"It was less than 20 months ago that [Shaquille] O'Neal dropped 36 and 20 on the Afro of Ben Wallace, the league's best defender."
* Jan. 22, 2006

"Detroit doesn't have any answers for this O'Neal, as three-time Defensive Player Of The Year Ben Wallace learned recently when O'Neal dropped 31 on his Afro."
* Feb. 26, 2006

Mind you, that's in the space of about less than a year. As is the next recurring theme concerning the 1980 Olympic hockey miracle thing:

"The greatest and most moving upset in the history of American sports was a 1980 hockey game, and we don't even care about hockey as a country."
* March 20, 2005

"I don't want him (Castro) to even have the chance to feel the way our triumphant country did with the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team. That was only the biggest and most emotional upset in the history of American sports. And America doesn't even care about hockey."
* Jan. 21, 2006

"What is the most emotional sports event in America's history? The underdog United States hockey team defeating the Russians in the 1980 Olympics. That's a pretty staggering thing when you consider that America doesn't even care about hockey."
* March 5, 2006

Sam hastens to add that he'd probably be guilty of the same thing if he wrote all those columns and did all that ESPN and was babbling on the radio half the day at the same time. Only his tics would concern The Simpsons, George W. Bush, and "sexually based analogies."

Story Of The Day
Nothing left me awestruck today, so I'm going back a couple days to something I failed to mention: Fred Grimm's column concerning the voting process. A buddy urged me to post it and he was dead right. It's spare and powerful and includes this instant-classic line: "In Florida, real heroes just catch hell." I've seen more people crucified for doing the right thing in South Florida (Jose Touron and Lee Hillier are two that come immediately to mind) than I care to remember. Thanks Fred.

Oh Katherine Harris, You Slut

2006-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

I just had to steal this from Interstate4Jamming who picked it up on a meesage board on the Daily Kos. More pictures like that and we might be able to overlook the fact that she's a GOP shill, that she lied about dirty campaign contributions, and that she's partially responsible for George W. Bush's disastrous presidency. Okay, that's not going to happen, but we still can't complain that she's whoring it up a little the old-fashioned way.

No Fellowship Of The Ring

2006-03-09T04:54:00.000-08:00

I got an e-mail yesterday with the the subject line: "Post rips off Sentinel." The claim was that Post reporter Sofia Sontana had blatantly stolen Jerome Burdi's life-confirming story from March 3 about a Boynton Beach firefighter who found an extremely valuable ring in his home and returned it to the former owner of the home, who was grateful as all get-out. The e-mailer, who went by the name Malcolm English, wrote:

"And look at how the Post backed into the story -- talking all about the national media attention but not mentioning until deep in the story that the reason the guy is getting national media attention is because he found a couple's ring that had been missing for decades. Perhaps you should link to both stories and let your readers decide who is purloining from whom."

Okay, here's Santana's story, which ran five days later. I'm siding with Mr. English on this one. Because so much of Santana's article was about the impact of the Sentinel exclusive, she should have cited the original source. But let's face it, that ain't gonna happen between those two newspapers. Not here. Not now. Not ever. It's a low-down dirty fight -- and it'd be disappointing if it weren't.

Speaking of Credit

For all I write in this thing about newspapers not giving credit to other publications, I honestly don't get very mad when the Sentinel and Herald steal my stuff. Low expectations, I suppose. But I still don't like it when they follow my stuff and then mislead their own readers about how the information came to the surface. It's happened more times than you would think -- including today. The Sentinel's Ihosvani Rodriguez did this story about the state ethics commission's ruling on Southwest Ranches' private town manager John Canada. In it, he writes: "[Town Attorney Gary] Poliakoff was asked for his opinion after a number of residents and council members questioned Canada's actions."

In the words of Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, "Bullshit!"

An investigative piece I did on the town called Cash Cow led to that ruling and everybody who knows the Ranches knows that, including Herald reporter Amy Sherman. She cited New Times in her article today, which was actually far superior in every way to the Sentinel flop. But that was only because Sherman made the same mistake as Rodriguez while following the Cash Cow fallout last year. I told her about it and that prompted the Herald to look at the issue.

"From talking with Amy, it sounds like your report played a significant role in bringing some of the town issues to a head," assistant city editor Scott Andron wrote me last year. "I can see how it might have been helpful to our readers to mention this in our story. Your note prompted some internal discussions here, and we will be clarifying our guidelines on when to mention an article in another publication."

Why, that ... no, it can't be ... I don't know, but that looks like responsible leadership.

The CJR Nails FitzSimons. Hard.

The latest edition of CJR came in the mail yesterday and I'm betting that most of you haven't seen it. That's why I thought I'd post this stinging rebuke of Tribune Co. CEO Dennis FitzSimons' December speech to Wall Street analysts in New York. Though it doesn't mention the Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune bastard child when it comes to national attention, it brings much-needed context to the company and gives us a clue as to what is really valued behind the walls at 200 East Las Olas. Click on the page there and then blow it up to read it.

Bob Marley's Nine Mile

2006-03-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

In today's Herald, there's a story by Jacqueline Charles about Bob Marley's home and final resting place in Jamaica, a beautiful spot on this earth called Nine Mile. Don't get the Pulp wrong, it's a decent story, but it leaves the single most interesting aspect of the place out: The fact that, at Nine Mile, giant spliffs are smoked aplenty by all, including the tourists.

How do I know this? Well, I've never had the distinct pleasure of going, but a friend of mine did and told me all about it right after he returned. He told me about Yoto, the excellent tour guide, who smoked the biggest gnarliest joint he'd ever seen during the tour. Once there, local townspeople sell marijuana to tourists from outside the walls of Nine Mile. My buddy partook and said American tourist families -- parents and their teenaged kids -- were smoking together. That's called bonding, people.

In other words, it may be the greatest tour in the world. Unfortunately my friend couldn't get me his picture of Yoto on the toke for this post (it's coming people), but a fellow named Matt Hall has a great photo tour on his website. There's Yoto above on the left and on the right is a local townsman selling his wares over the wall.

Bob Marley is dead. Long live Bob Marley.

The Bastard
I'm no Dan LeBatard basher. The Herald sports columnist has made his mistakes, huge ones (see breaking stories about Ricky Williams' "early retirement"). But he's not always terrible. In fact, sometimes he's downright entertaining. Today, though, he was definitely terrible.

I've gotten a couple of e-mails about his piece (of garbage) today belittling Sport Illustrated's explosive story about Bonds' cheating with steroids (an issue that, as the father of a 10-year-old baseball player, means a lot to me). LeBatard compares Bonds steroid use to Kirk Gibson's use of cortisone to mute the pain of his injury when he hit the homer heard round the world. That's a B.S. argument. First of all, cortisone is legal. Secondly, it's not cheating. And thirdly, it's a completely different class of drug as anabolic steroids. LeBatard should know that.

LeBatard basically endorses the cheating and use of steroids by ball players and that makes it the most idiotic drug piece that's come out since the San Luis Obispo meth debacle. Shame, the Pulp says. Shame.

The Key West Citizen's Pulp Debut
Speaking of competing publications, check out this this story in the Key West Citizen. As the journalist who alerted the Pulp to the story put it, it's "in the great tradition of 'public officials spending taxpayer money with the competition to refute stories they don't like in the newspaper' stories." You'll have to read it to see what that means.

Judy Miller Stays In Florida

2006-03-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

This just in from Romenesko: Judy Miller isn't taking the AP job after all. Instead she's going to the shady world of Kroll & Associates, a giant mercenary outfit of private investigators. Read her e-mail about it -- it'll just about have you second-guessing your breakfast. Like this line: "When it comes to investigations, Kroll is second to none." She's already doing P.R. before she walks out the door.

There's probably some interesting subplots here, but I'm done talking about Judy Miller and wish her only the best of luck. I made a mistake when I invited y'all to sound off about her. It turned the Pulp into a gossip site rather than the vibrant media news and entertainment forum that it has become. I learned more about Miller than I cared to know and almost none of it wound up on the blog. In the end I found out that she's possessed of strengths and flaws, like the rest of us. Big f-ing deal.

Courageous Doc Does Nothing!

2006-03-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

Just when I think I got nothing to write about in terms of local news, the Sun-Sentinel drops a gift in my lap. Check out the front page story by Jerome Burdi. It's accompanied by a great overhead photo (at right) by Lou Toman of flaming wreckage on U.S. 27 (Toman, btw, also scored big yesterday with a great trial pic). The story focused on the potential heroics of Dr. Pedro J. Gonzalez, who was coptered to the scene to amputate a man's arm caught in wreckage. A hint of the letdown comes in the subhed: "Trapped man almost needed roadside surgery." After a huge 11-paragraph build-up, full of dramatic "Oh God, I hope I don't have to do this" quotes, the doctor gets to the scene and ... sits around and watches while paramedics ultimately saved the man's arm. Burdi does an admirable job with his material. It's just that the material was ultimately lame and the thing ends up smelling like some concocted hospital P.R. deal.

The editors buried the general story on the wrecks on U.S. 27 on page 5B. Done by Andy Reid and Brian Haas, that article was sturdy. Any report with a wreck victim who says "next thing I see, I was driving into a split trailer full of meat" can't be all bad. Problem: Not a single person died. So rather than the "huge pileup but nobody died" story the editors went with the "heroic doctor who did nothing" story. The beauty was they could trick the reader, before the jump, into believing that it was actually a great article.

A look at the website indicates how proud the editors must be today of the bait-and-switch. The original AP story on the U.S. 27 pileups, however, is the No. 3 most e-mailed article of the day. Toman's photo is No. 4. The front page story is nowhere to be found on the home page at all.

So what should the Sentinel have done? Well, they should have called up the editors at the Palm Beach Post and gotten some advice. This morning's Post also put the U.S. 27 mess on the front page with an equally compelling photo. But it led headlined the news -- three truckers cited -- and the Story of the Day, written by Kelly Wolfe and Rochelle E.B. Gilken, begins with the crash and combines a little bit from the do-nothing heroic doctor in a complete and very well-done article. This is the starkest example I've seen so far of the Post running circles around the Sentinel. And it has nothing to do with the reporters (the Sentinel has just as much talent as the Post in that department). It's all about leadership.

Pray for Little Noah

2006-03-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Broward County has a new star: 9-year-old Noah Applebaum, who is starring in a new series called Sons and Daughters. Sure y'all noticed the stories in Herald (by Diana Moscovitz) and the Sentinel (by Robert Nolin -- I can't link his story right now because the Sentinel web site, for the first time I've ever noticed, is down right now). Noah told Moscovitz what he did when he found out he'd landed the part: "'We screamed and said `Oh My God'"

An appropriate reaction. Obviously he was terrified as the images raced through his mind. Here's just a few of the spectres haunting the poor boy:

May God -- and Elizabeth Taylor -- be with him.

Shaw and Cheney Hang Up Broward County

This from Florida News: Not only did Clay Shaw show he is out of touch with all but the 18-percent who actually approve of the job that Dick Cheney is doing by campaigning with him, but now add to that the traveling problems that just got a lot of people in the area pissed off at Clay Shaw. Steve Clemons at The Washington Note has the story:

"Air Force Two flew into Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport late this morning and just shut the ENTIRE airport down.Nothing could leave. Nothing could land.I was there, one of those stuck while our imperial and imperious Vice President and his team, shut down an entire airport.Don't we have enough military bases that Cheney can leave the private sector runways alone?

Cheney was stumping for Republican Congressman Clay Shaw who represents parts of Palm Beach and Broward Counties in Florida's 22nd District. He is considered by National Journal to be the most vulnerable incumbent in Congress.

CLAY SHAW everyone. Cheney was there shutting down the airport, the highways, making many miss connections, at huge cost to the private sector and to taxpayers on behalf of Rep. Clay Shaw."

What I want to know is why neither the Herald nor the Sentinel included the airport closedown today. Why do we have to go to the Washington Note for this info?

Free Yanni

2006-03-07T05:55:00.000-08:00

It was the spring of 1990 and it was time to move on. I was 20 and our relationship was dragging, so I told my long-time girlfriend that I wanted to break up with her. That was 8 p.m. Thirteen hours later, she finally dragged her ass out the door. Thirteen hours of sheer hell, of her screamed profanities mixed with soft pleadings of love. Every mental disorder and insecurity splayed at your feet. Threatened violence, maybe a smack or two from her. Most of you have been there, on one or both sides of that equation.

Two years later, I was sort of going out with an insane girl from England. She was basically living in my apartment and I kept trying to get her out, but she wouldn't leave. I had a squatter on my hands. Now this is all part of the worst (or maybe best in some weird way) day of my life, which starts in the morning when the electricity was cut off in my apartment for not paying the bills, which made me late to work at my waiter job, where I was fired. I drank the better part of a bottle of whiskey, wound up at the U-Club, ended up back at my apartment with another girl. Then at like midnight the British girl storms into the apartment in a rage and attacks me. (Oh, I forgot to mention that I put all her belongings in a pile outside the door, too). I'll never forget it. To keep her from biting me I had to grab her nose. We were rolling around on the kitchen floor and I was playing twister just trying to keep her from killing me. During the tussle, her shoulder pops out. It happened all the time. She had a plastic shoulder from falling off a horse as a child in jolly old England. It was a good thing, because it calmed her down. Instead of screaming bloody murder she was now sitting motionless and wailing in pain. But she couldn't pop it back into place. Sobbing, she asked me if I could take her to the hospital. As an upstanding fellow, I had to do it (and left the other girl, who was sitting there in stunned silence, in the apartment by herself). And the British girl was happy and right at home as we headed to the hospital in her huge, creaking Oldsmobile; it was like we were back together.

There's a lot more to that story (I wound up spending the night in jail on a fucking traffic charge -- not DUI) but I've made my point: Breaking up is hard to do.

Yanni found that out in a big way on Friday night, according to the Palm Beach Post. And he wound up in jail not on a traffic charge, but on misdemeanor battery charges. The scenario, as written up by the Post's Andrew Marra, is that Yanni takes his girlfriend, Silvia Barthes, out to dinner to break up with her. Very smart on Yanni to drop the B-bomb in a public place. I'm guessing that she was cool in the restaurant. Then they went back to Yanni's Manalapan mansion. That's where it got dicey. The story from Barthes: He became abusive at the house, grabbed her by the arms, threw her on the bed, and slapped her on the face.

The only problem with that is it makes absolutely no sense. I mean, I know Yanni has this reputation as a vicious out-of-control outlaw-artist type (almost as bad as Kenny G), but there's no way he's the aggressor here. Yanni, at that moment, just wants her out of the house as quickly as possible. His story is that he had to retaliate after she kicked him in the balls. That sounds more like it. Think about it. This woman is getting evicted from the luxurious ocean-front home of one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world. She's pissed. Real pissed.

But when police arrive, she's got a mark on her lip and he doesn't have any marks on him (that would have to have been one hell of a shot to groin to leave a mark). So in a knee-jerk move, the cops put him in jail and probably left her sitting in his house.

Unless the prosecutor doesn't file the charges, Yanni'll probably wind up without anything on his record and go through some kind of court-ordered program. I really doubt he'll fight it in court. We all know that Yanni is no fighter, after all.

Story of the Day
This was easy. It's Michael Vasquez's most excellent article in the Miami Herald about a corrupt land deal that the reporter learned involves not only Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and a commissioner, but also city manager Joe Arriola. As I've always said: Arriola happens.

Blogging Panel Madness

Those of you who don't check in here a couple times a day missed my very nice post about a planned SPJ panel on blogging. I took the posting down last night after sturm and drang developed over whether the Pulp had actually been pulled from the lineup. I'm 99 percent sure it was true, but out of respect to friends involved in the issue, I put it to the side yesterday evening. I'll update you on it soon.

Huizenga Family Secrets

2006-03-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the mother of billionaire garbage and sports magnate Wayne Huizenga died a few weeks ago in Fort Lauderdale? I didn't. And when somebody mentioned it to me recently, I wondered how in the hell that could gave got past the Pulp. I looked up the coverage and found that the Sentinel didn't report the death; it just ran a paid obituary for Jean Huizenga, who was 87, on Feb. 12.

The Herald ran a six-inch story by Ashley Fantz buried in the back of the newspaper about the death in the obits. A clue as to why the Sentinel didn't publish anything at all is contained in Fantz's story: "The Huizenga family declined to talk Sunday for a story about Jean Huizenga."

So Huizenga didn't want a story about his mother's death ... and, surprise-surprise, the Sentinel didn't publish one. It's undoubtedly news, but when the biggest paper in town makes Huizenga -- a buyer of politicians who is one of the great civic vampires of all time -- a sacred cow, you don't get news. You get a paid obit instead.

And you get fluff pieces about H. Wayne Jr. The Sentinel had not one, but two, feature stories the week before Jean's death about the heir apparent. First came Paul Owers' glowing and unquestioning feature about Junior on Feb. 6. Trust me (because I can't find a link), it was bad in a head-exploding way, with mushy quotes about how great the son is from stinking lobbyists. Two days later, religion writer James D. Davis wrote a similarly gushy piece about the kid, who is now 44. It was about how Junior was becoming a proselytizing evangelical Christian. Good news: His faith made him realize that his employees are people too. "The Bible says to `be kind to your slaves," Huizenga explained in the article. No joke.

So why do you think Huizenga Sr. didn't want any stories done about his mother? Well, that's where this thing gets interesting. Let's harken back to a 1994 story in Miami New Times by Steve Almond, who is now a successful author, about Huizenga.

"Harry was not an easy man to live with. In a divorce petition filed in 1954, Jean Huizenga accused her husband of ongoing mental and physical abuse that eventually landed her in a mental hospital. He would demand sex and when she didn't comply, he beat her, she stated.

Police records indicate that she filed a complaint alleging that Harry terrorized her on New Year's Eve 1953. He moved the family to Florida soon after, hoping to salvage his marriage and make a killing in the Florida real estate market. Both plans failed.

On July 26, 1954, a deputy from the Broward County Sheriff's Department arrived at the family's modest home off Federal Highway to serve a complaint filed by Jean Huizenga, accusing Harry of "extreme cruelty" and seeking a divorce after eighteen years of marriage. The deputy left the papers with fifteen-year-old Wayne.

The divorce unfolded in a flurry of nasty motions that laid bare the extent of the brutality in the Huizenga home.

"This past July, he came into the room," Jean recounted in court. "And when I asked him not to wake the children and go back into his own room, he hit me. He walked around the other side of the bed and hit Bonnie and when Wayne came to the door to try and stop him from hitting me, he hit him, he hit Wayne too."

"I don't think we ever got one night's sleep around here," young Wayne testified. "[Harry] was always getting up in the middle of the night and would come in the bedroom and monkey around with my mother and wake us all up…He would push us down on the floor, hit mother, Bonnie, and myself."

After the divorce, the rancor dragged on for several years. Harry, who had buried himself in debt building three homes he couldn't subsequently sell, was reprimanded by a judge for failing to make child-support payments. Jean also accused him of breaking into her home and assaulting a male friend of hers. Harry retaliated by attempting to have custody of his children transferred to his relatives in Chicago, accusing his ex-wife of being a mentally unstable adulterer. (The couple eventually remarried in 1978.)"

If you want to read the rest of Almond's awesome story (which also includes the tale of a business-related altercation during which Huizenga was accused of grabbing a man's testicles and squeezing them to the point of injury), it's here (the Miami New Times' archive didn't have it in there for some reason).

You just have to wonder. Is Wayne ashamed of his past? Does his mother's story not jibe with his tycoon image? Is that why he refused to publicly memorialize his mother?

I don't know but I can guarantee one thing: The Sentinel won't answer those questions.

Story of the Day
Look, it’s not my business to lead you somewhere that will engross you for way too much of your morning. But if you haven’t been reading Larry Keller’s coverage in the Palm Beach Post of the James Sullivan murder trial, you’re missing some pure Pulp. I'm going to give it a collective Story of the Day.

Taste of Medicine, Anyone?

2006-03-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Via Romenesko, we see the shoe being placed firmly on the other foot in a memo from two Knight Ridder editors about the NYT and Washington Post failing to mention that KR had beaten them to the punch of a big story. To wit:

"First, in this post-Jayson Blair era, we believe newspapers must be more transparent then ever about the sources of their stories. That includes acknowledging when others have beaten us to a big story. The Washington Post and New York Times each failed this standard in recent weeks.

... So, why do we harp on this? Because the reporters who do the groundbreaking work deserve the credit. Because Knight Ridder, which invests substantially in this kind of original journalism, deserves the credit, even -- or perhaps especially -- in these trying times for all of us. And because the integrity of our profession, already under all-out assault from partisans, requires that we and others be honest with readers about how news originates."

Oh thank you Lord thank you! I'm having my ceremonial Friday Margaritas early. What? I can't hear you anymore 'cause I'm jamming at full volume. Yeah that's Van Halen's Dancing In the Street coming on right now. Sure y'all can come in. Pass that around, man. Whoa slow down. Sorry, I'm a married man. Hey come back, that's my wallet!

Ah well, it was still a good time. Herald editors and reporters, I hope you're taking this memo thing to heart. It cuts both ways. And it gives me ammunition. Oh, yes, sweet ammunition.

Speaking of Magnolias

In a Herald story today by Ashley Fantz, Steel Magnolia Ellyn Bogdanoff pushes a ridiculous idea to outlaw "cyber-bullying." It of course harkens back to the St. Thomas Aquinas/MySpace mess, wherein the school trampled all over their students free-speech rights. Fantz writes, "Private schools have more freedom." Yes, more freedom to crush freedoms. Why are the Sentinel and Herald -- and their reporters -- so knee-jerk in favor of persecuting kids on the Internet? I really don't get it.

The Story of the Day

Check out the opening paragraph on this Herald story today by David Ovalle: "Two teenage runaways thought they found a place to crash in Coconut Grove. But they ended up being forced to have sex around the clock for weeks with dozens of men for money and drugs, Miami police say."

So which was it? Did they do it because they were forced or because they wanted money and drugs? I suppose since it deals with confused teenaged girls it was a bit of both. And since they are underaged, it's a bit of a moot point. Later, Ovalle hits us with this stellar quote, from one of the suspect's brothers: ''I told him, `Bro, you gotta get rid of that girl.' He didn't listen.'' Alright, Story of the Day time, especially since it reminded me of the movie Thirteen, a flawed but undeniably compelling little flick I saw one late night on IFC. Hey, there wasn't much in the Big Three newspapers to choose from. Give me a better one.

Kane and Able II

2006-03-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is late, but have been on a REAL deadline and was on Steve Kane's radio show this morning. It was all about Buddy. It was decent, but I was off my game for the most part. Why? Because this isn't that much of an issue for me anymore. Buddy did a huge no-no at that Republican Club gathering and I reported it. Is Buddy some kind of corrupt demon that must be rooted out? No. But Kane has been railing about this because he's a friend and a source to Buddy (which might help explain those comments about gays in the newsroom).

Here's a few lights, both high and low:

-- Steve opened up by claiming that I wanted Buddy fired. I never wrote any such thing and I pointed that out. So I'd say I got a leg up right out of the starting gate.

-- Steve went after his favorite target, Sentinel columnist Mike Mayo, bringing up that he'd contributed on a few news stories in the past few years. He argued that Mayo is an avowed lefty, so he's in the same situation as Buddy only on the other side. I know what you're thinking, it's a silly argument, since Mayo is 99.9 percent columnist and only occasionally contributes to the hard news side once in a blue moon. I tried to clear it up for the listeners.

-- Kane veered way off course and implied that I was going after Buddy so that my wife could become political reporter. I basically made a joke about it ("Are you listening Earl Maucker?" I said into the mike) and said it wasn't true. It was so absurd I couldn't take it seriously. But I should have pointed out that my criticisms of the Sentinel certainly don't help my wife. If anything it's the opposite. But Kane didn't push too hard because I think he sensed it was a ridiculous point from the get-go.

-- Mary Fertig, a bonafide Steel Magnolia, called in. This may have been the most interesting part of the show. She didn't like it that I said that Ron Bergeron was the Magnolias' "chief political pimp." Kane asked me if I wanted to apologize for that and I answered, "Um ... no." I did tell her that I was mainly talking about fellow Steel Magnolia Ali Waldman, who is extremely close to Cowboy Ron and lobbies for him. But Fertig also acknowledged that she's been allied with Bergeron in the past. On the show, I said the Magnolias supported Crist, based on Bergeron's $8500 spent on Crist's campaign to date. Fertig claimed that she didn't personally support anybody for governor yet. I told her I was sorry if it wasn't the case. Kane then kept on saying that I would have to correct that in the newspaper and I kept telling him that I never wrote that anywhere. Look, this is all going to come out in the wash, but no matter what the truth is, I made an assumption on the air on the Crist-support issue that I shouldn't have made and would never have made in print. Again -- sorry Magnolias.

-- After Fertig was finished, former Fort Lauderdale commissioner Tim Smith called in and said he agreed with me and commented on conflicts between Buddy's two hats as columnist and political reporter. Kane pretty much shut Smith down after that, impying that it was sour grapes for things Buddy had written about him.

-- I told Kane that if the Sentinel political writer had, say, come out as a Socialist and called out the Republicans for bankrupting America for a criminal war in Iraq, he would be going crazy on the issue, calling for the guy's head. Kane, to his credit, didn't really deny it.

The truth is, though, that if Buddy had changed from a Republican to a Democrat and said publicly he did it to support Jim Davis in the governor's race, I would have written the same damn thing, only with different names.

End-all be-all I think it was a fairly interesting show. Now let's move on. Hopefully there's better stories out there, for Buddy, me, and everybody else out there committing journalism.

(And by the way, sorry for the technical difficulty -- I don't know why the site is on the fritz. Or maybe it's just on my end).

Cal's Deal About Buddy Nevins

2006-03-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

-- The Fort Lauderdale Observer, a website run by a former Sentinel editor and current political activist Cal Deal, sounds off on Nevins/GOP story here. I have to say that Deal is a damn good graphic artist. Probably has something to do with the fact that he does it for a living. Good headline, too.

-- Little known fact: Cal Deal wrangled Jim Morrison's auto graph in Asbury Park back in 1968. And that reminds me of a Herald story published yesterday that I failed to mention about Morrison's infamous 1969 concert in Miami where Morrison allegedly exposed himself in a different way than Nevins. Luisa Yanez delves deeply into the lingering -- and wonderfully pointless -- controversy about whether Morrison really pulled out his jimmy during the show. Yanez procured this great quote from a retired police officer: ''He pulled out his business and started whirling it. He should have been arrested right there.'' Thank you Luisa and congratulations for receiving a belated Story of the Day award.

-- On a much more serious matter, I found this editorial in the Tallahassee Democrat via Mark Lane's Flablog. It's a crucial issue facing journalists who don't want to be subjected to the whims of "false light" libel findings (remember the Pensacola News Journal ruling a while back?) I know journos tend to shy away from political action, but the ass this new bill will save might be your own.

And lastly:

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Duane Christensen, a mayoral candidate in Wellington, is waging a campaign to banish The Siren to obscurity. Dwayne Robinson, in yesterday's Post, write s of Christensen's prudish plans to relegate the buxom mermaid statue to the trash bin of history. Reports Robinson: "First thing I would do is pack that thing up and send it to Playboy magazine," said candidate Duane Christensen, a board member in Palm Beach Polo who is challenging longtime Mayor Tom Wenham. "I would not have that as a symbol of this village."
I have no idea why I care so much about this. I'm reminding myself of the late, great Darrin McGavin in A Christmas Story. The Siren is my Leg Lamp.

Hairy Fairies and Exploding Heads

2006-03-02T05:37:00.000-08:00

You know how they say that behind every digest or brief in every newspaper is an incredibly moving feature story? (Okay, I've never really heard that before either, but for the sake of the point, let's just move along). Well that might not be the case of this recent brief in the Sentinel:

"Driver dies when speeding Camaro hits tree in Hollywood
February 27, 2006, 10:03 AM EST
HOLLYWOOD - A 25-year-old driver was killed over the weekend when he lost control of his Camaro and crashed into a tree, police said on Monday. Wade Brown, of Hallandale Beach, was killed around 6:40 a.m. on Sunday while driving southbound on the 1600 block of South Park Road at a high rate of speed in a 2000 Chevy Camaro, Detective Carlos Negron, police spokesman, said. Brown lost control of the vehicle for an unknown reason and crashed first into a fence, then into a tree. He died at the accident scene."

Asa Boynton, a citizen crime fighter and hairy fairy who lives in Hollywood, sent me and others the digest item with this coda: "This is one of the drug dealers we have reported over and over again selling dope in the parking lot of Badcock Furniture at Pembroke Rd. and 22nd Ave. He will be greatly missed."

Sure enough, a court search showed Brown did have a couple of felonies under his belt (one involved evidence tampering and a small amount of marijuana and the latest one, just 17 days before his death, wasn't specified). Boynton's words might seem a bit cruel (talk about kicking a man while he's down), but the man is dedicated to eradicating the drug trade from Hollywood and if you have a bunch of sympathy for the scumbag dealers preying on communities, you wouldn't be very good at snuffing them out, would you? And Asa is a true South Florida character. He's a telegram singer who dresses up as a pink gorilla and/or the "hairy fairy" (yes, that's Asa there in the picture) to the delight and slight discomfort of small audiences throughout the region. He may be the only vigilante telegram singer in America, and for that the Pulp salutes him.

A Move South?
Whitey Fraud, a Pulp anonymous who was creative enough to come up with a clever moniker, says that Beth Reinhard is leaving the Broward political beat to become the Herald's political writer in Dade County.

Some Stories
Julie Kay of the Daily Business Review wrote about an investigation into whether Juan D'Arce, a judicial assistant to Miami-Dade County Court Judge Ivan Hernandez, extorted judges to hire him as a consultant. If true, D'Arce is the biggest arse in South Florida. (Correction: The Herald broke the story on the same day and followed today on Kay's detail that D'Arce's computer was seized by investigators. Apologies to Joan Fleischman).

And the Elgin Jones Effect is alive and well in today's newspapers: Today we see in the Herald that Davie Town Attorney Monroe Kiar agreed not to do private work for council members and department heads. (Gee, thanks, Monroe). And the Sentinel picks up on West Park's financial woes, caused in part by a faulty feasability study. Jones busted both of those stories in the Broward Times.

Raising Kane
Speaking of Elgin, I'm gonna be on the Steve Kane radio show with him tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. on WWNN 1470-AM. Kane has been railing about the Buddy Nevins GOP-conversion story on the show and implying that I'm on a mission to destroy the Sentinel's political writer. We'll squash this one in the studio.

(More Later).

Remembering Mike Hoyem

2006-03-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

I was planning to post a few silly things this afternoon, but then the real world has intruded in a very tough way. Mike Hoyem, a friend, died early this morning. Mike was a veteran reporter with the News-Press in Fort Myers, my former newspaper. He was a way-too-young 51.

When I first started at the News-Press as a rookie crime reporter in 1993, Mike was in his late 30s and had already covered everything under the sun. And he'd spent a lot of time under it. With his hard-burnt tan and easy-going style, he seemed like the classic Gulf Coast guy. He didn’t need to be kind to me. He just was. He’d offer gentle and always on-the-mark critiques of my work. Even after I left the newspaper, he would contact me every now and then with story tips. We'd catch up, but it was always quick, the way things are when life is flying by you at 85 mph.

Mike smoked a lot, which is almost surely the reason he got lung cancer in the late fall. I last saw him a few weeks ago at a party at his home. It was supposed to lift his spirits, but people there knew it was also a goodbye celebration. As a great local blues ensemble jammed outside his door, Mike sat on his couch inside. He looked like he'd aged 30 years. When my wife and I walked in to see him, his eyes perked up just a bit, but there was no smile. He'd recently gone through chemo and was clearly suffering. It was just as clear, though, that he appreciated everyone around him that night. I took his hand, felt its grip, got close to him, and said, "Be strong, Mike, stay strong. It's gonna be okay, man."

I didn't tell him he was going to beat it. Nobody was going to beat that. As we drove back across Alligator Alley in the dark of midnight, I thought of Dylan Thomas and that Do Not Go Gentle poem about rage to the bitter end. I hoped Mike wouldn't follow that piece of advice and I wished that I would have said one more thing to him: "Smile in its face one time for me. Just one time."

Mike definitely knew how to smile. A Louisiana native, he was a regular at Mardis Gras. At parties he would cook the best gumbo you ever had. His last day on this earth was Fat Tuesday. I've heard there will be a party to celebrate Mike this weekend in true Hoyem fashion.

Cheers, Mike, you're going to be missed.

Forget About Credit -- How About A Byline?

2006-03-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

I came upon an apparent case of plagiarism a little while back. Several lines from Palm Beach Post reporter Stephanie Slater's stories last year about a brothel bust were clearly lifted by Linda Marx, a freelance reporter who used to work for People magazine, in a spread in the glossy Boca Raton Magazine. What's interesting is that the Post editor John Bartosek was more than willing to forget about what was an obvious transgression rather than "pick a fight" with the magazine. The full story is coming out in the New Times today and I'll post a link as soon as it's available. [Here's the link].

ALSO: See comments under John Grogan post about Ana Menendez's column on Donna Shalala and the UM janitor imbroglio. Oh, and yes, it's the Story of the Day.

Jim Naugle Takes His Shot

2006-03-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

Recently received this e-mail via New Times from Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle about my column on Buddy Nevins’ conversion to the GOP:

SUBJECT:
Bob Normans attack on Conservative Columist [sic]

LETTER:
Bob left out the most glaring example of political activity by a reporter over at the Sun-Sentinel. City reporter Brittany Wallman wrote most of the campaign material for Mayoral Candidate Dan Lewis in the recent city election. Gosh Bob, how could you leave out Brittany?

PERSONAL INFO:
Jim Naugle

Ah, this is Mayor Jim at his rascally best. Let’s break down this little communiqué. First, in the subject line, Naugle, who is perhaps the most Republican Democrat in America, takes a jab at me for liberal bias. Then he comes an uppercut, when he accuses me of failing to expose the “political activity” of Sentinel reporter Brittany Wallman, who wrote "campaign material" for Naugle’s opponent, Dan Lewis. Then he asks sarcastically how I could “leave out Brittany,” whom he knows is my own long-suffering wife.

Now for some reality. During the past six years, Wallman has been pointing out the mayor’s mistakes, which have been many. That would be the nature of her job, of course. When Lewis, who is nothing if not a resourceful politico, went up against Naugle, he culled just about every negative story Wallman and others had done and laid them out in his “Campaign Insider” e-mailers. One example cited by Lewis:

"Naugle Known as Hot-Tempered, Treating City Employees Abusively. 'Mayor Jim Naugle has always been popular in this city, except with some of the people who know him best,' wrote the Sun-Sentinel in February 2003. 'City employees say Naugle's reputation for being a friendly, folksy guy ends at City Hall's eighth-floor commission offices, where he is demanding and hot tempered. His public comments criticizing employees... haven't been taken kindly.' [Sun-Sentinel, 2/4/03]"

It was an interesting story that brought City Hall to life and it was one of a long list of blurbs Lewis, whom Wallman has also exposed in print, put in the "Campaign Insider."

So how did Wallman react to Naugle's e-mail? Would she comment for the Pulp? Well, she generally supports me and my efforts, but she’s not exactly thrilled (to put it lightly) that I’m a regular critic of her newspaper. And she happens to be one of the most loyal employees the Tribune Company has. I’m sure her bosses realize that, but I still worry that my Pulp and New Times work might adversely affect her.

Naugle knew he was hitting a soft spot. When I asked her about the mayor's e-mail, she said, “I just saw a movie where a guy said, ‘What kind of sycophant are you?’ And the other guy answered, ‘Well, what kind of sycophant do you want me to be?’ I guess that’s what Naugle wants me to be like.”

She allowed me to quote her on that, but nothing else. It was enough.

John Grogan Dogs The B.S. List

2006-02-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

I swear to God on a stack of King James-version Holy Bibles that I was already calling John Grogan’s book “Tuesdays with Marley” and was planning to post about it today or tomorrow. But Romenesko showed me this morning that Philadelphia Magazine beat me to the punch.

I noticed on Sunday that Grogan, a former Sun-Sentinel Metro columnist, was No. 1 on the New York Time bestseller list. His book is titled "Marley and Me" and it's a cute little heartwarming story about his now-deceased dog that he began writing about in the Sun-Sentinel in 1993. The subhead of Jessica Pressler's article in the Philly Mag sort of sets the tone: "How a not-so-good Philly columnist became America's best-selling author." Pressler points out that in his newspaper work he doesn't do a lot of reporting and tends to state the obvious (an actual quote: "murderers = bad, especially men who murder women and children"). And she describes his weird 1950's sitcom aura. Put it this way: If the Body Snatchers came back, Grogan would quickly be writing about the joys of putting his children to bed in their new pods.

He was a Sentinel columnist when I got to town. He wasn't horrible, just not-so-good. Take this line from a 1994 column: "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and most of us have more blessings to count than we may realize. Sure, things could be better; they could also be a lot worse."

Okay, that is horrible. But Grogan always was a mix of Reader's Digest and Family Circus. And when you think of it like that, it's not surprising that he's captured America's heart. Now if only the damn place would grow a brain.

Feeding The Beast

Been negligent on keeping an eye on Herald Web duty. Looks like reporter Theresa Bradley has taken over for Jasmine Kripalani on the popular morning Internet beat. This morning she had a hot one though: An ice cream guy gets shot by robbers in Miami Gardens. Naw man, that's cold.

Story of the Day

I liked the story by Elinor J. Brecher in the Herald about the smoking guy but I'm giving it to Bill Hirschman's little ditty in the Sentinel about protesters picketing a new spoof called Date Movie, which depicts a young couple beating a homeless man for kicks and giggles. It's nothing more than a serviceable short article but Hirschman is damn near heroic in his description of the homeless protesters' tools of destruction: "Picketers held electric pink and chartreuse signs urging a boycott." That's writing, people. I mean, he could have used a simple and identifiable color like "green." Or maybe it was more yellowish, as some variations of chartreuse can be. And the other signs weren't just pink. No, they were electric pink. This wasn't a demonstration, it was a disco. Who knew a small mob of angry street people could be so fabulous?

A Blast From the Past

2006-02-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

The main post is coming up later, but thought I'd give you this to chew on this morning from unofficial Pulp correspondent Wyatt Olson:

Your Gregg Fields postings reminded of something I wrote back in September 2002. Well, "wrote" is too strong a word. We reprinted some of the postings from the Herald's internal message board about the arrival of Mario Garcia to make over the paper's design. Fields' reaction was a beautiful thing, and you can almost hear him banging on the doors of academia. Here's his post:

"The Herald has hired consultants numerous times since I've been here, ostensibly to 'brainstorm' about ways to 'improve' the newsroom. In each and every instance, it has resulted in cuts to staffing, salaries, and news hole. If these outside instant experts on journalism want to see what we'd do with fewer resources just recount to them the joys of that wonderful downsizing/buyout that occurred last year. Mention to them that we've experimented with salary freezes, hiring freezes and shoving good people out the door, and it turns out those approaches do nothing for quality.

Just a suggestion: Maybe when we play this camouflage game, someone could say: 'It's impossible to envision fulfilling our journalistic mission with even one less dollar or one less person than we now have.' Sorry if it sounds cynical, but I've been to this parade before, and the emperor still isn't wearing any clothes. Happy brainstorming."

Also, somebody asks below in a comment that we "compare and contrast" this story in the Sentinel (by Ian Katz) and this story by John T. Fakler in the Daily Business Journal. I see that both stories deal with these dubious television production companies in Boca Raton and a shady deal with Michael Douglas (showering at right). But the compare and contrast thing sounds too much like an essay question to me, so I ask the poster: Go ahead and tells us your point.

Bruce Springsteen Used To Be Cool

2006-02-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

From the worth-reading file:
-- This story (Of the Day) by Tal Abbady in the Sun-Sentinel about a man who was murdered in his brother's trailer in West Palm Beach. He'd complained about the quality of his crack cocaine to a drug dealer. Abbady gives us great details -- a "pint-sized Virgin Mary" in front of the trailer, a neighbor in his "Sunday church suit" consisting of a pink blazer and striped tie" -- and this quote: "It's like the Night of the Living Dead here," he said of times he's found people roaming the block late at night strung out on drugs. "We had a guy living here who used to ignite a bottle rocket to announce that his shipment had come in."

-- I was tipped by a distinguished reader to this weekend story in the Herald by Andres Viglucci. It's a great piece of reporting on apparent manueverings by the City of Miami to thwart a bid to stop a condo project on the Miami River. What I like about Viglucci is that he understands the nature of politics.

-- The stories about the man who killed three people for their money in both the Herald and Sun-Sentinel were right up the Pulp's alley and have been pretty well done. But in the inaugural article by Brian Haas on the Sentinel's front page Sunday, the fellow is called a "serial killer" by an FDLE guy. The Herald used the same term. From the Internet (which is never wrong):

"Definitions of serial killer:
-- someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short interval wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

-- Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were generally unknown to them beforehand. Their crimes are committed as a result of a compulsion that, in many but not all cases, has roots in the killer's (often dysfunctional) youth, as opposed to those who are motivated by financial gain (e.g. contract killers) or ideological/political motivations (e.g. terrorists). Many times, this compulsion is linked to the individual's sexual drive."

This guy only has three under his belt (that we know of) and he did it for money. He's no serial killer. Just a particularly virulent sociopath and thief. And his girlfriend (pictured right) is promptly being added to my "Scariest-Looking Bitches of All-Time" file.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
And for the Headline of the Year (So Far) Award, we go to the story on burglary (yeah, it's that general) in the Sentinel on Sunday: "Burglars know all the ways of getting into your home." The lede, by Nicole T. Lesson: "It can take a burglar less than 10 minutes to get in and out of your home -- taking along some of your most valuable and sentimental items." Let your mind play with that one the next time you're having trouble getting to sleep. Incidentally, Lesson is the same scribe who penned the story last month under the headline: "Report Unusual Activity." It's all part of the Sentinel's new "How can we increase your vague sense of paranoia?" ad campaign.

Lastly, I also had to include this photo that was published in the Palm Beach Daily News (and which I saw via the illustrious Stuck On The Palmetto). He's definitely not in Nebraska anymore.

The Miami Herald's Man In Iraq

2006-02-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

Say hello to the Miami Herald's newest foreign correspondent, Dexter Lehtinen, who is writing dispatches from "the front lines" of Iraq and Afghanistan for the newspaper. The first deception is that Lehtinen isn't on the front lines: He's traveling with a Congressional delegation that isn't about to see a glimpse of combat. But there's bigger problems with Lehtinen's work for the newspaper.

Ol' Dex is a former state house member and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the husband of Republican Miami congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ileana was a cheerleader for the Iraq War and her husband also happens to be a right-wing ideologue who played a key role in the dirty campaign to paint John Kerry as a traitor for his anti-war stance in the early 1970s.

Lehtinen, a Vietnam vet and retired commando, spoke at politically charged rallies (the photograph above shows him on C-Span at a "Kerry Lied While Good Men Died" event) and spent more than $50,000 of his own money to publish anti-Kerry advertisements in military publications. "This is the portrait of a man who has failed to come to terms with his treacherous past," Lehtinen wrote in the ads.

It's a free country -- and Lehtinen certainly knows the value of good propaganda. Only now the Herald is publishing his jingoistic crap as journalism in its pages. In its "About Dexter Lehtinen" explainer, the Herald doesn't mention his political activity or his wife's support of the war. So the uninformed reader sees the piece headlined "Detainees Treated Well In Facility" and lines like "This is a military to make America proud," without knowledge of his extreme political bent. It's the Herald's equivalent to Fox News' "War Stories with Oliver North." Who's the Herald's next hire, G. Gordon Liddy?

But I've got to say that some of Lehtinin's writing is hilarious. The piece posted Sunday was all about the importance of roads in Afghanistan. To illustrate his point, Dexter wrote: "The 1960s movie The Graduate will always be remembered for one word -- 'plastics.' The new college graduate was told the future was in 'plastics.' So, too, Afghans see their future in one word, and the recent [congressional] visit will be remembered for that one word -- 'roads.'"

He must have missed how that line about plastics was meant to sum up the corruption and pointlessness of adult life in America.

Mostly, though, Lehtinen's stuff is just depressing. He passes almost all of his observations on the Iraq War through his Vietnam prism, which is sadly appropriate. Unfortunately this stuff isn't appropriate for the Herald.

(More To Come Today)

The Siren is Calling

2006-02-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to point you all toward a blog entry at one of my favorite Florida sites, FLA Politics, for the past few days. It's about GOP lobbyist Justin Sayfie's supposedly non-partisan political news site, The Sayfie Review. Both Sayfie and FLA Politics are listed on the blogroll at right, by the way.

Co ugars? I know them by another name, and it doesn't stand for Mighty Interesting Lady Friends.

Also, there's one more story for grown-ups that I think needs to be read today. It's an intelligently written ditty by the Sentinel's Chris Kahn and it's about evolution, baby.

And finally, in the spirit of the weekend, I present to you a gift courtesy of Norman Gitzen, the creator of The Siren. It's a photo of the new, surgically enhanced mermaid. Gitzen sent it to the Pulp specifically for your wonder and enjoyment. Sadly, the new additions will be removed when it's returned to its home at the Wellington Community Center.

Ain't she purty?

FAU Newspaper Editor Steps Down

2006-02-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

Sticking to the subject of college journalism in South Florida, the Florida Atlantic University newspaper -- the unimaginatively monikered University Press -- is about to get a new editor. FAU grad student Jake Smith, who works part-time at New Times, has stepped down because, as he told me, "it is inundating my entire life, and I can't afford it anymore." He says the job takes 20 to 30 hours a week and pays just $150, making it almost untenable for someone working their way through school. A recent power play made by student government, which oversees the newspaper, didn't help matters either. Read the basics about it here (a story by Palm Beach Post reporter Kimberly Miller but now can only be linked at the Miami Herald. Go figure). Realize as you're reading the story, though, that things are much more contentious than the article makes it appear.

The newspaper's advisor, the matchless Michael Koretzky, is handling things at the University Press and Smith tells me that two students -- Jason Parsley and Rachael Joyner -- are now vying for the position.

Speaking of Koretzky, he's overseeing the First Annual Media Job Fair for SPJ tomorrow afternoon at the Hard Rock Casino in H-wood. In what is an unmistakable sign of the apocalypse, I'm going to be there to talk with the students, along with a bunch of other "media professionals." Hey, Koretzky promised me free drinks and I'm going to hold him to it. It starts at 1 and there'll be a panel discussion at 3 featuring WPLG-Channel 10 political reporter Michael Putney among others. For more details, click here.

While I'm pimping journalism gatherings, thought I'd give a warm Pulp plug to the upcoming Florida Press Club-and-SPJ-sponsored enterprise reporting seminar to be held in Fort Lauderdale in a few weeks.

Worth reading today:

-- Kevin Deutsch of the Post fills us in on the other homeless beating, the one that occurred in Riviera Beach. An arrest warrant was issued for the 17-year-old suspected ringleader in the Feb. 7 attack of 36-year-old Thomas Kotowski, who remains in critical condition. But this wasn't a planned attack on the homeless -- it was just a random thumping on the street. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise it would have been a little bit disturbing. Also, it was three black teens involved, which makes it stale news. Right?

-- Canker story in the Herald by Noah Bierman, Dan Christensen, and Phil Long (how's that for a power trio). A sentence that never should have had to have been uttered, ever: They're going to let people plant orange trees in Florida again. Let's call this one Story of the Day.

-- Nikki Waller's well-done article in the same paper about Davie's decision to keep town attorney Monroe Kiar, despite his conflicts of interest. I may be wrong, but I think it's the first story to repeat Elgin Jones' scoop about Kiar's private work for councilwoman Lisa Hubert (no credit was given, for those of you keeping score).

-- And in the Sentinel, we have Scott Wyman's story about how millionaire rental car company CEO William Lobeck got hit with a $130,000 tax bill. Why? He took homestead exemptions on two mansions, one in Tulsa, the other off Las Olas. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to dig what Lori Parrish is doing.

-- Talk about things I never thought I would do: I'm actually going to recommend a Dave Hyde column. It's here and it's about Sasha Cohen. That's all I can bring myself to say about it at this time.

Fields: Impending KR Sale Influenced Decision

2006-02-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

Senior Herald business reporter Gregg Fields, who is leaving the newspaper to start a business journalism program at Florida International University, graciously sent me the Pulp this note on his impending departure from the Herald. As might have been guessed, Fields can be counted as at least a partial casualty of the Wall Street games being played on Knight Ridder:

"I will be leaving the Herald in August, altho' I hope to write guest columns if they want them on economic subjects. And I may even do some freelance editing during breaks, etc., if they're short-handed.

I will have been at the Herald for 19 years as of March 9. As I recall, I wrote a story my first day -- about the problems Chalk's airline was having. My first front-page story was later that week, about how the phone cable to Cuba was disintegrating. For either of those stories, I'm pretty sure not much has changed.

Obviously, the impending sale of Knight Ridder played a part in my decision. The Knight brothers and Alvah Chapman produced an incredible corporate culture, and Jim Batten was just a profound CEO and person. But Wall Street doesn't seem to put much value in journalistic values, I suppose. [Ital added by The Daily Pulp].

On a personal level, the Herald's newsroom is ten-foot deep with bright, funny, talented people and working there provides an intellectual stimulation that probably only a university can match. So my plan is to love my new job as much as I loved my old one. And I'll continue going to Mike's restaurant at the Venetia Plaza every Tuesday for the cheeseburger special, to get my fix of calories and the even more delicious newsroom gossip."

Go to Main Pulp Page for more on Fields, journalism news, opinion, and humor.

Herald's Gregg Fields Headed To FIU

2006-02-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Senior business writer Gregg Fields is leaving the Herald to head a new business reporting at Florida International University. And Fields crafted some hellacious, Pulp-worthy quotes in a pair of press releases sent out by FIU to promote the new student mill.

First the requisite "It's all about the people" line:
"I believe business journalism is exciting because, in the end, it's all about people," Fields notes. Whether it's Donald Trump announcing a skyscraper, a shopkeeper concerned about a new mega-store coming to town, or a single mother trying to juggle a job and day care, business journalism has the power * and the responsibility * to delve deeply into social and economic issues, bring injustices to light, and never forget that the ultimate impact is on people. In serving them, we achieve journalism's highest calling.''

And he fulfills global corporate gobbledy gook requirement:
"In an era of globalization and rapid technological change, journalists must be prepared to cover the economic trends that are reshaping society and the world."

How could he forget about promoting the university while he's at it:
"FIU and Miami are the perfect setting for a business journalism program," says Fields. "They provide a multicultural exposure other schools can't match. We're one the country's most diverse universities, in one of the world's fastest-growing hubs of international business. That means our students get an early glimpse of America's destiny * and the professional skills to cover it.''

And, lastly, the hardcore journalism cred quote:
"Whether you want to cover health care, the arts, banking or politics, the first step is knowing how to follow the money, '' says Fields.

The Pulp wishes Fields great luck. A program like that can only be good for newspapers in South Florida and I think that Fields, who has a reputation as an intelligent and thorough journalist, was a good pick.

Lois Frankel And The Ice Dancers

2006-02-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

A few stories worth reading in the papers this morning:

-- Buddy Nevins does a good job of detailing the outrageous severance package the North Broward Hospital District is giving outgoing CEO Wil Trower. He's not only going to continue to get his half-million-dollar salary, but he's also getting raises and holiday and vacation pay for not working. Honestly, I try to get away from the district, but they keep pulling me back in.

-- The Miami Herald's Fred Grimm's take on the BSO stats-rigging trial. This is one of those slow-motion car wrecks that nobody can seem to stop (read the courtroom dailies by Wanda DeMarzo and Paula McMahon, too). And it proves that neither Sheriff Ken Jenne nor State Attorney Michael Satz are fit for office. That may sound extreme, but it's just plain true.

-- The Post's Pat Beall and Sonja Isger prove that Mayor Lois Frankel -- or Finkel as I Freudianly mistyped in the original post -- has become a tyrant. Or perhaps she's hitting Division Street. Finkel is trying to make a deal to sell city hall to a hand-picked developer and use the money to buy a new governmental palace. And she formulated the plan during stacked, secretive meetings. Hell, I'm going to go ahead and make this the story of the day. Unbelievable.

Also, check out this correction from yesterday's Sun-Sentinel.

Let's see, two Olympic skating couples get their ID's switched on photos in Monday's Sports section. Standard mistake on the surface. Still, something drove me to dig into it and my investigation uncovered a tape of the phone conversation between skater Maurizio Margaglio and the editor who answered his phone call from Turin.

MM: Hello, Sun-Sentinel?

SS: Yes.

MM: Maurizio Margaglio from Italia, the ice dancer. You had a picture of me and my partner dancing in the Olympics. But it was wrong.

SS: Oh, I'm sorry. Give me a moment. Let me see, oh yes, I see the page here. What's wrong with it?

MM: Well, you got the couples mixed up.

SS: Yes, you're the fellow falling on his face, right?

MM: No, that's not --

SS: -- Actually, you're doing a faceplant into your partner's armpit. Where the poor girl looks as if all her fragile hopes and dreams have just been shattered?

MM: No, you see, that's not me.

SS: Oh. Okay. So you must be the one trying to hold up a young woman you just dropped to the ice like a sack of beef quarters?

MM: Yes! That's me.

SS: So let me make sure we get this right. You're the one whose head is getting twisted in the angry hand of your partner after you threw away four years of incredibly hard work with one slip of the hand?

MM: Exactly! I don't want anyone to be confused. I'm Maurizio Margaglio of Italia, not Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania and I'm dancing with Barbara Pusar Poli, also of Italia, not Margarita Drobiazko, who, like Povilas Vanagas, is from Lithuania. My head is being nearly twisted off my neck by a furious Pusar Poli while Povilas Vanagas is crushing his nose into an utterly devastated Drobiazko's armpit.

SS: When you put it like that, it seems amazing we ever made the mistake at all. I'll correct it immediately.

MM: Ciao!

SS: Sayonara!

Stories of the Day

2006-02-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Stories of the Day

This is the first Story of the Day not going to a reporter who is employed by a South Florida newspaper. At least not technically. Maya Bell is the South Florida bureau for the Orlando Sentinel. It's an envy-producing gig to be sure. She basically works solely on big stories and issues that interest her. But if anyone deserves such a wonderful job, it is Bell (whose husband, Robert Nolin, waxes poetic for the Sun-Sentinel). She's a dedicated reporter and talented writer, easily one of the best journalists in South Florida. And the story of hers this week (yeah, I'm a little late with this one) is an insight-inducing look not only at what's happening now but also at what the future holds for the area. It's about people who commute five hours a day to work menial labor jobs in the Keys.

The basic theme is continued in this article by the Sentinel's Brittany Wallman (see previous posts if you don't know her connection to me). Wallman writes about Fort Lauderdale's dabbling with the idea of extending housing welfare subsidies to people making up to $70,000 a year. It's the Californication of South Florida.

Honorable mention goes to Robert P. King of the Palm Beach Post, who wrote a great piece on "radical animal activists" who go after people and companies who hurt animals during research with a vengeance. They even stoop to gluing people's doors shut, those scoundrels. King got this great quote from the reputed mastermind: "I hope our movement doesn't cross that line into actually killing somebody," Atwood said. "I just don't shed any tears if he had a bump on his head." This would have been story of the day had it not been a follow-up to an article in the London Times. But if you want to see an example of how good a folo can be, read King.

Judy Judy Judy

2006-02-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Recently received correspondence from someone in the news business up north who was disappointed about the Pulp's silence on the AP's hiring of the Herald's Judy Miller as its national editor. Here's what the fellow, who didn't want his identity disclosed, wrote:

"No coverage of Judy's departure? It's as welcomed by the Herald's staff as her namesake's was at the Times, despite the blind item in Miami New Times a few weeks back. Try to find an actual working RESPECTED journalist at the Herald who has something good to say about her. You won't. She was given a head's up so that she could find a job before she was frog-marched out the door, and she did. The Associated Press? Puh-lease!!"

Then another to-remain-nameless journo-writer sent me this:

"Here's a subject I'd love to see the Pulp sleuth into: the "promotion" and odd AP lateral career move of the Herald's Judy Miller. First the heir apparent to the paper's editor-in-chief-ship gets bumped upstairs and out of the Miami newsroom in the wake of the Art Teele/DeFede fracas. And now she jumps ship altogether. I've heard so many opposing opinions over the past few years, from folks who saw her rise as a possible return to the Herald's Eighties glory days to writers at their wits end. I'd be interested to hear DeFede's thoughts, since she reportedly went to bat for him."

Yes, the Miller's move is weird to those of us who don't punch a time clock at One Herald Plaza. I've heard all kinds of things about Miller. That she backed DeFede, who handed that fateful tape recording of the Teele phone call to her. That she's a real journalist. That she's a terrible corporate crony. She's good. She's bad. She's honest. She's corrupt. Let's air this out (in a respectful way, pls) and bring her into focus. Who is the real Judy Miller and what's the story behind her exit from the Herald?

Closing CenterOne

Where there is suffering, where there pain, where there is a need in the night -- there are rip-off artists. Today's stories by Scott Wyman and Erica Bolstad on the Broward County commission vote to close CenterOne, which cares for AIDS patients, help prove it. But there was something in the Bolstad article that caught my eye. This quote: ''I looked at your client list and people who are serviced by your agency, and the sad thing is, a lot of those people I know,'' said Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion.

What, do privacy laws go out the window when it comes to elected officials? Did all the commissioners see the list of AIDS patients? That sounds wrong to me, considering the cut-throat nature of politics and the sensitive nature of that information.

A Haunting Picture

I'll have the Story of the Day a little later, but today there's a very special photograph to honor. The dominant art on the Sentinel's front page was heartbreaking. It shows the mother of BSO Deputy Ryan Seguin, who was killed during a traffic stop last week, crying on her son's casket. But what is absolutely eerie and amazing about the photo is that the blurred badge on the arm of a deputy standing guard at the casket looks distinctly like one of those Greek tragedy masks. It's one of the most amazing things I've seen in a long while. Congratulations to Sentinel photographer Anastasia Walsh Infanzon. You can see the picture below, but it's much more striking in the actual newspaper.

And One More Thing

If you haven't seen Romenesko, this just in about Jim Mullin. He's leaving the San Luis Obispo newspaper after the Meth madness. But what's crazy is he wasn't even there. The guy was editing the newspaper from Miami Beach. Running a newspaper from 3,000 miles away? That may have been the first mistake. But Mullin has overseen amazing work in his career. I'm betting he lands on his feet. Good luck, Jim.

Look At All This Nasty Fat!

2006-02-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

Nothing really turned me on this extended weekend (Monday was a holiday for NT). Carol Marbin Miller keeps firing on all cylinders. Andrew Marra's story about a 16-year-old murder case was interesting as hell, too. But I'm going with Daphne Duret's article, also in the Post, about a drunk mother assaulting her 12-year-old son outside a Winn-Dixie Stuart. According to the arrest report, the mother "turned to her son and told him that everything was his fault and he was a weak piece of (expletive)" before attacking the boy physically and calling him "fat" and "weak."

The story resonated with me because I always hate to see mothers yell and smack their children around in grocery stores. I was so moved that I drove to up to Stuart to find the family and, thankfully, found them in peaceful repose. I even took this picture:

Bad Credit

And this in from unofficial Pulp correspondent Wyatt Olson:

“How about a companion category to your Story of the Day? Perhaps you could call it Stifle of the Day. Case in point: The Sentinel's choke on the Martin Lee Anderson beating video. The story covered the front page of Saturday's Herald, but nary a graf was to be found in the Sentinel, despite the video's release making national news on Friday.

Sure, this story was Carol Marbin Miller's baby, but the Sentinel's blinkered approach is hardly a service to readers. Not that the Herald is above the same thing. As the Sentinel made hay about the FEMA rip-offs in Miami-Dade County after the 2004 hurricanes, the paper of record in that county never dug into that story. Strange thing is, the editors of both papers routinely feel the need to send reporters for day-late follows of picayune stories published by the competitor.”

It’s just more evidence pointing to the fact that newspapers are way too territor

ial, petty, and stingy when it comes to dishing out credit or sharing big news broken by local competi

tors, large and small. And all it does is cheat readers.

Shooting Harry

I thought y'all might want to see how easy it is to shoot Harry Whittington in the face.

Onward Cristian Soldier

2006-02-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

Silence in Buddy Nevins' Saturday's column on his conversion to the GOP and his being saved as a (Charlie) Cristian. But today, Buddy and the Sentinel sent a strong message about what they think about criticisms of the political writer's speech to the Lauderdale Beach Republican Club:

Speech? What speech?

Nevins did his first "straight" story on the governor's race this morning, writing about the Gallagher camp's anger over the Broward County GOP's endorsement of Crist. Didn't mention that Nevins had done the same thing. If this isn't dripping with irony, then I'm Alanis Morissette.

The Sentinel is proving itself once again to be a strictly amateur operation. I want y'all to consider if a real newspaper's political writer made a similar speech (like, say, the New York Times' Adam Nagourney). He'd be reassigned in a NY minute.

But it could be worse for the newspaper. The Herald's Beth Reinhard could be writing for the Sentinel. The best way I can describe the effect of Reinhard's lightweight ramblings on politics is to advise you to listen to this song, "If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode)." If I read too much Reinhard, my head threatens to crack open. Take this Saturday's column on Ben Graber's imminent departure from the Broward County Commission. We have rampant corruption in Broward County, okay? Special interests and lobbyists are plotting to make fortunes on taxpayers' backs and most of the commissioners are bought and paid for in one way or another.

It's an ugly situation, but here's Reinhard's giddy take:

"The music began to play and politicians throughout Broward started moving from chair to chair, sizing up their chances. Dominoes will fall when a city commissioner or School Board member decides to campaign for Graber's seat and give up their own. But everyone's waiting to see who will go first.
And finally the dance, when some brave person flings a sombrero into the ring.
Let the games begin!"

It just went. My head exploded.

(More to come today).

Pacenti Headed To Rehab

2006-02-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, you can throw out the idea that Palm Beach Post investigative reporter John Pacenti may have been doing “research” for a hard-hitting report when police nabbed him for trying to buy crack cocaine.

And forget any romantic notion that police framed Pacenti because he was getting too close to corruption in the force.

No this one is simple and straightforward: Pacenti has – or, hopefully, had -- a drug problem and his arrest Thursday after work is probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

The reporter, who is out of jail on bond after being charged with a felony, phoned me this weekend and told me he is going to get help. “I’m taking family medical leave and I’m going to seek treatment,” he said, adding that he’s thankful to his newspaper for its support. “I’m taking it one step at a time. I just want to get healthy for my two girls and my wife Charlene and I’m pretty dedicated to that right now.”

Pacenti, whose wife works at the Miami Herald and whose two daughters are ages two and six, didn’t want to discuss his arrest on Division Street, where police say he asked an undercover officer for twenty dollars worth of crack cocaine (or “twenty hard”). He just wanted to tell everybody that he’s devoting his life to healing himself and saving his family.

“My depression took a nasty turn in January and that’s how I got to this point,” Pacenti said.

I'll keep an eye on this, but there's not much else to say. Hopefully the law will allow him to clean up and care for his family. Hopefully the Post will stand by Pacenti all the way and he'll be back writing soon. And hopefully he'll never return to that hellish shit ever again.

Olympic Metals

Who redesigned the medals? Why did someone say, "You know what, Olympic medals need to look like donuts."
And why did someone else have to say, "Great idea, but I think they should look more like CDs, only with giant holes."
"You mean like junk? Brilliant!"
Seriously. I have photographic evidence. Here's what they used to look like:

Regal, classic, beautiful. Right?

And here's what they look like now:

A piece of junk, no? (Okay, this is a "photo illustration," or, to be even more literal, a "picture of a metal washer," but it inarguably helps make the point).

PB Post Cocaine Charge

2006-02-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Palm Beach Post investigative reporter John Pacenti, one of the star journalists in that newsroom, was charged by the West Palm Beach Police Departent this morning with attempting to purchase cocaine, a felony.

Post Editor John Bartosek is on vacation this week, but Managing Editor Bill Rose did talk briefly with the Pulp about the arrest of the 39-year-old reporter, whose booking photo appears at left.

"We are aware of the arrest and I don't think we can talk about a personnel matter," Rose said, adding, "John is a very good reporter and has done a lot of good work for this newspaper."

There will obviously be more to come on this. I just hope that Pacenti, who I have found to be an excellent journalist, is okay and that everyone can withhold judgement until the facts come in. The Pulp wishes John only good during these trying circumstances.

UPDATE:
West Palm Beach Lt. Chuck Reed just faxed over the probable cause affadavit on Pacenti's arrest. According to police:

Pacenti was arrested in a sting operation Thursday during which both West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach officers posed as street dealers. Pacenti pulled up in his silver-colored 1999 Infiniti at 6:40 p.m. on the 700 block of Division Avenue, near an intersection that Post crime reporter Andrew Marra described as the "heart of the inner city where drugs and guns are common" in a story published this past November. (That story was about police use of surveillance cameras and their plan to install one at that intersection). He pulled up to one of the undercover officers and asked for "Twenty hard," which police described as "street terminology for twenty dollars worth of crack cocaine." Pacenti then handed the officer a $20 bill and was given fake crack in return. The officer gave the 'Go' signal to the arrest team and Pacenti was apprehended. Police found the cocaine in his left shirt pocket and he was taken to jail.

He Hate Me

2006-02-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Just for some fun, I thought I'd share a charming little note some unnamed human-like pile of electrified meat sent to my New Times e-mail address yesterday evening. I have no idea which story prompted it:

DATE/TIME:February 16, 2006, 5:16 pm
SUBJECT:How Yellow is your Spine Norman?
LETTER:
May your mother die a horrible death for shitting out genetic scum like you.You have no right to breathe let alone live as an American. The day they eliminate "journalists" is the day real Americans will be safe.Now go fuck your daughter or the nearest infant. That is, after all, what you liberal euro-whores prefer.
PERSONAL INFO:
spit on youdeadliberals ca
liberalsfucktheiryoung@killaleftydaily.com
666-666-6666

I know this is an old-hat criticism, but why does it seem that everyone who sends veiled death threats or hate letters claiming that I'm a coward do so anonymously? I'll tell you why: They know I'd take them down. Oh yeah.

In The News

The state of the Sentinel was strong today, but the front page was a little nauseating. Dominating above-the-fold territory was a story about waits for Wilma-related auto repair. Don't get me wrong, it was a fine story, written by Mc Nelly Torres. But it was obviously overplayed and too do-goody and pandery (uh-huh, the Pulp makes up words when it feels like it). Over the package was the phrase: Consumer Alert. And then a box (you know how we love boxes) titled: "News You Can Use." Why don't they just break into our houses and stick a spoon down our throats? Yuck. And another thought: Don't you think everybody who had car damage after Wilma knows they're waiting?

On the Local front, Jon Burstein and Sean Gardiner had a good scoop about Adam Kidan visiting Big Tony Moscatiello after the mobster was arrested for killing Kidan's business rival, Greek dynamo Gus Boulis. The question: When is Kidan going to be charged with murder? He's the only connection between Moscatiello, the ringleader of the hit, and the murder victim. What does the prosecution think, that Moscatiello pulled off the best-executed and most elaborately planned hit in recent Broward County history as a favor to Kidan. I don't know what's going to happen here, but it's Pulpalicious.

The Sentinel also had the story, written by Buddy Nevins and Bob LaMendola, about the ouster of North Broward Hospital District CEO Wil Trower. But it felt a little rushed and sort of slapped together. The Herald, behind Beth Reinhard, Erika Bolstad, and Samuel P. Nitze, did a much more thorough job on the sorry Trower's long overdue pink slip. And that makes it the Story of the Day. The Pulp isn't for chest-beating, but I uncovered more stinking corruption in that place than you could shake a stethoscope at. And give Jeb Bush credit: He cleaned house. Now, when is the state attorney going to finish his investigation into Dorsey Miller?

Two last things: The Herald's Ashley Fantz had a weird (in a good way) story about apparent "space junk" hitting a house. And on page 3B, Scott Wyman and Buddy Nevins shared a byline. I'll leave it at that for now.

Done Herald Plaza

2006-02-17T05:31:00.000-08:00

Got an e-mail from a homey in the business yesterday urging me to do an in-depth piece on "life now at One Herald Plaza." To wit:

"With an impending sale, the place is more depressing than ever. I would imagine that many of the writers still feel sold out by Fiedler for DeFede’s firing, and it would be interesting to see the overall mood of the place. As well, publisher Jesus Diaz would be a very interesting profile – he is really a numbers cruncher, and no media has attempted to understand his vision and leadership at the Herald. I think the Teele suicide/DeFede firing still casts a long shadow over that place, and an examination of life at the Herald now would serve the South Florida community well."

Journalists seem to expect the worst. DeFede told me he expects the Herald to be sold twice and basically dismantled over the coming months. And people tell me that Buddy Nevins, at the infamous GOP meeting last week, predicted that the Herald would become a tabloid.

As it happens, I've been trying to get some accounts from Herald writers about what it's like these days, with the sale looming. I've received a couple of responses from reporters saying that everyone is worried. Wrote one, "I suppose my biggest concern is over the anxiety that this has created in the newsroom (more than the usual, anyway) and the possibility that some of the paper’s very talented reporters and editors may be scared away from the paper or the profession all together."

There were other comments about a de-emphasis on hard news and an emphasis on radio and Internet reporting.

The feeling of powerlessness is palpable. The paper may have gone down in quality since its heyday, but all things considered, it's still one of the better daily newspapers in America. I would hate to see what would happen if a Gannett got ahold of it. What are other people thinking?

Barry and Me

2006-02-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

Heads-up: Gonna be on the Barry Epstein Show this morning at 10 a.m. Or at least that's the plan. The bloggy beast is making it impossible to get to the studio in Boca at that time, so I hope good ol' Barry is amenable to a phone interview. Epstein's show is on WWNN 1470 AM not long after conservative sparring partner Steve Kane. But Barry, an always working political consultant who has a political gossip column in the Boca News, isn't interested in a fight -- he just likes to tackle issues. We'll rap about politics, the Pulp, and, alas, most likely Buddy's conversion as well.

(As an aside, I'm digging the snowboard cross in the Olympics. The purist in me has pretty much resisted the X Games influence on the winter games but this is just flat-out racing. No judges, no cute loop-de-loops, just guys flying down the hill crashing all over the place. What's not to like? Seth Westcott's pass to win the Gold was sweet).

What Was He Thinking?

2006-02-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

Got the story on Sun-Sentinel political writer Buddy Nevins’ speech to local Republicans. Lauderdale Beach Republican Club founder and former president Bob Wolfe told me he invited Nevins to the club on Feb. 6 to speak and was “stunned” by what the columnist said at the meeting, which morphed into something of a Nevins-led GOP pep rally.

First he announced that he’d abandoned the Democrats for the GOP, which led to cheers. A member of the audience asked him why he’d made the switch. According to Wolfe, Nevins’ answer was, “To vote for Charlie Crist in the primary.”

Crist, of course, is running a pitched battle with Tom Gallagher in the Republican gubernatorial race to replace Jeb Bush. I don’t need to explain here the implications. Nevins’ spends most of his time doing straight political reporting for the Sentinel rather than his weekly nuts-and-bolts, non-ideological column. And now he’s publicly backed a candidate in the state’s most important campaign -- which he has covered as a reporter this year. To say he’s compromised his stance as an unbiased reporter would be an understatement. The Gallagher folks and the Democrats will feast on that little tidbit.

But Nevins wasn't nearly finished. He then told the Republican room that there was a “liberal” bias in the Sun-Sentinel newsroom. To prove it he pointed out that there were a lot of gay and lesbian employees working there.

“But he took a lot of questions from the crowd and he basically made comments that the media is liberal,” Wolfe told the Pulp of the meeting, which wasn’t recorded. “And he made some comments about how people wore their sexuality on their sleeve in this community and especially in the newsroom and that it reflects the liberalism [at the Sentinel].”

To illustrate his point, Nevins mentioned that he used to sit next to the president of the gay and lesbian journalists’ association.

Wolfe said that as Nevins was making his comments, he worried that a member of the Log Cabin Republicans who was in attendance would be offended.

“I didn’t personally view it as a bigoted remark,” Wolfe said. “I think Buddy was just playing to the room. I just don't like to see sexuality brought into the discussion at all.”

The Sentinel, by the way, does employ numerous gay and lesbian reporters and editors. While Wolfe is forgiving, I wonder how this will play in the newsroom.

When it was over Wolfe, a moderate Republican, said he was waiting for Nevins to break it to the room that it was an April Fool’s joke. “I think his comments stunned a lot of people in the room,” he said.

I asked Buddy for a response yesterday afternoon and haven't heard back from him. In some ways I admire Nevins for speaking his mind. And I know he has integrity as a reporter, no matter which party he belongs to. But I also think the speech was a terrible lapse of judgment, especially considering the audience.

And I think it’s a pretty good bet we’ll find out more in his column this coming Saturday.

Story of the Day

Once again, we have a no-brainer today, though it's buried on page 6B of the Sentinel. Reporter Angel Streeter does a pitch-perfect job telling about recent developments involving the The Siren statue in Wellington. In case you don't remember The Siren, I've added a pic. Streeter writes that artist Norm Gitzen, or "her maker" as Streeter puts it, has "added enhancements: nipples." Now that's what I call a, um, twist in the story. "Now, she will be complete," says Gitzen, who is apparently a mix between Frankenstein and Larry Flynt. But Gitzen will have to remove the nipples before it returns to its regular roost at the Wellington Community Center. Said Krisztine Ergas, who works there, "[The nipples] would not be appropriate." Any guesses as to what Ergas actually called them?

To Main Page

Sunset Lounge Revisited

2006-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

Well, the Palm Reader stirred up a little dust in her debut yesterday. Some people didn't think PR's (what an unfortunate acronym) criticisms of the Post were particularly fair or relevant. Look, don't jump on me. This is a professional -- and sociological -- experiment, an inside look at the war being waged in Palm Beach County between the Post and the Sentinel. I'm just here to document it.

And today the Palm Reader brings up another interesting issue. A few days back, I got a little humorless and complained about the lack of attribution by the big newspapers of the smaller press in South Florida. But what about the Big Three? They rip each other off mercilessly. The Palm Reader points to yesterday's story about the storied Sunset lounge by the Post's Eliot Kleinberg that is headlined "Can Sunset reclaim glory?"

Basically the same story ran in the Sentinel two months before, on December 15, penned by Leon Fooksman under the headline "Will the sun set on Sunset?" Here's what P-Read said about it: "Eliot did a good writing job on this, though. I just wonder whether the Post would have known about it had Leon not done the story first."

I agree that Kleinberg's story is very well-told, which isn't that surprising if you're aware of his work. But the stories are also very similar. Is there a legitimate gripe here? Or is it just the nature of the beast?

The Story of the Day

The Story of the Day was pretty easy to choose -- it's Jose Lambiet's column in the Palm Beach Post about Ann Coulter. The hate-sprewing, Joe McCarthy-loving propagandist apparently voted in the wrong precinct in Palm Beach County and certified a false address to do it. As the inimitable Lambiet reports, lying on voting forms is a third-degree felony. Mind you, this is the same woman who incessantly made fun of Palm Beachers for being too stupid to vote correctly on the butterfly ballot of 2000. She's so tough on crime, then give her a taste of her own medicine. If she certified a false address, a place in which she had never lived, then charge her with a crime. Then she can strategize with Abramoff and Libby in the big house.

Buddy Strikes Back

2006-02-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

Before posting Monday about Sentinel political columnist Buddy Nevins switching parties to the GOP, I sent him an e-mail asking him why he’d done it and if state Rep. Bogdanoff, the Republican who has employed Buddy's his son Aaron for the past two years, had anything to do with it. Turns out the columnist was out of the office through Tuesday and didn’t get my message until yesterday. And he answered the e-mail, asking if I was still interested in his answer. I told him my latest prediction: That he would leave the Sun-Sentinel by the end of the year to work for a Republican politician (we can only hope it's not Dick Cheney). And, since he’s covered more politics than any single reporter in recent Broward County history, I challenged him to shake up the town until the day -- whether it be six months or a decade from now -- that he departs from the Tribune Company.

Here’s what he sent the Pulp:

“If I reveal why I became a Republican, I'm going to do so in my column for my South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Sun-Sentinel.com readers.

You are welcome to continue to speculate. Just spell my name right and mention I work at the Sun-Sentinel.

I will answer two questions:

(1) I have no plans or thoughts about leaving the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and I have talked to no one about leaving.

(2) The conversion has nothing to do with my son Aaron Nevins. Aaron doesn't live at home and doesn't discuss his work with me. He's got his own life. His job with State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff was a major surprise to me since she had complained about me to Sun-Sentinel Editor Earl Maucker on more than one occasion.

Keep on blogging.”

There you have it. Now personally, I wouldn't want my son working within 1000 yards of any South Florida politician, Democrat or Republican. It’s a dirty, soul-sucking business. But Buddy is embracing party politics more than ever, according to a couple of sources. I’ve heard he recently addressed a Republican gathering and took the opporturnity to skewer Democrats.

Hopefully he'll write that explanatory column soon -- and let's hope that he takes the challenge seriously.

Release the Tape!

2006-02-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Good on the Miami Herald for suing to get the videotape of the beating of the youngster who died at a boot camp in Bay County. And I think it's an open and shut case -- as soon as they let two legislators see the tape, everybody should see it and I think case law backs that up. When this comes out, it's going to be everywhere (as foreshadowed by CNN joining the case with the Herald). And when it's released, the inestimable Carol Marbin Miller should get a few First Amendment awards.

The Palm Reader's Debut

2006-02-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the anti-Palm Beach Post person has come forward, with an example of allegedly bad journalism from the paper up North. The source says that this story about Scripps from Post reporter Thomas R. Collins is nothing but a piece of biowaste. The source, who we'll code-name "Palm Reader," says this about the article: "The thing I found particularly bad about this story is that it seems to push a management agenda -- it's not in the Post's interest to have Scripps in Boca, because they long ago ceded Boca coverage to the Sentinel, and Jupiter (the other horse in the Scripps race) is in their backyard. The Sentinel doesn't care either way, since they're looking to follow Scripps to grow circulation."

Well, I suppose you can guess where Palm Reader is coming from. But it's definitely an interesting take -- and the Pulp is a sucker for a good dust-up.

Story of the Day

Nice report by Susannah A. Nesmith in the Herald today about a bunch of school employees -- including some teachers -- in Broward and Miami-Dade who were involved in a grade-fixing scandal at Florida Memorial University. I love ironic shit like that. But the story of the day goes to the Sun Sentinel for the tag-team coverage by Jon Burstein and Mike Mayo of the freeing of Broward lawyer Adam Katz. Katz was the poor fellow -- and father of six children -- who was sentenced to 60 days in jail by Broward's Chief Prig, Circuit Judge Cheryl Aleman. It's official: We all just have to hate this bitch.

Boca Spews

2006-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

You've got to read this about a mix-up in a Boca Raton News story pro wrestling impresario Vince McMahon. Co-editor Dale King reported on February 3 that McMahon had been accused of groping a tanning salon employee. In it he also reported that McMahon was seeking a divorce from his wife. Well, that was only true in wrestling la-la land, apparently. The Long Island Press broke the story in this week's edition about how the News had mixed up fact and TV fiction. What I find most interesting is that the other News co-editor, John Johnston, told the Press that it wasn't the newspaper's fault because it had been reported on -- ugh -- TV. So the News just lifted it and then refused to correct it because, Johnston said, you can't do a correction on a "farce."

Tut-tut

2006-02-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

In my personal e-mail box, I got a promotional ad from the Miami Herald about a new "King Tut After Dark" exhibit. The subject line was "Have you seen Tut yet?"
Quoth:

Two incredible Tut offers from The Miami Herald.
"Florida's Hottest Ticket"- ABC Miami
“A Breathtaking Experience"- J.C. Mena- Miami, FL
The King Tut
The King Tut exhibition has received rave reviews and has already set a new attendance record for Fort Lauderdale. Over 400,000 people have already purchased tickets for this once in a lifetime collection. King Tut will be leaving soon. Take advantage of one of these two incredible Tut offers!

The only problem with the Herald ad: It's full of stinking lies. King Tut (pictured right) is NOT HERE. He has never been here. Nobody around here has seen him yet. And the Boy King won't be leaving either. Because he is not here. King Tut is in Egypt. There have been huge advertising campaigns in the Herald, Sentinel, and New Times, but this is the most blatant lie I've seen about Tut yet. It just goes to show: Don't ever trust the Herald.

(More to Come Today)

The Party's Over

2006-02-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

It’s official: Sun-Sentinel political columnist Buddy Nevins is a Republican. He recently changed parties and admitted it to Elgin Jones (a check with the elections office found that Nevins made it official on February 2). I guess it was only a matter of time. I mean, who can resist the charms of George W. Bush? His brilliant rhetoric and unmatched wit, his partiality to the rich, his turning the surplus into the greatest deficits ever … it’s appealing, dammit.

And if all that didn’t ensnare Nevins, there’s the rampant corruption, ala GOPer Jack Abramoff, who has also been caught up locally in the SunCruz battle that ended in the murder of Gus Boulis. And, in the coup de grace, there’s the Iraq War. It’s like Mortal Kombat, only in real life. All that meaningless death and destruction has magnetic power, I tell you. And the beauty of it: It’s going to cost America a thousand billion dollars, a lot of it going to Bush’s favorite contractors. That ties into the deficit – see how cool it is?

Yes, if ever there was a time for a thinking man to become a Republican, it is now. But cynics might suggest that Nevins has cozied up to the GOP because his son, Aaron, is gainfully employed by Republican state legislator Ellyn Bogdanoff (pictured at right), whose 91st District cuts a swath through Nevins’ stomping grounds of Broward County. Aaron has been working for Bogdanoff for at least two years, but that hasn’t kept Nevins from writing about her, usually without disclosing his son’s employment position.

Before Aaron got the job in 2004, shortly after graduating from the University of Florida, his pappy had already seemingly fallen in love with Bogdanoff, one of the “Steel Magnolias.” What's a Steel Magolias? I’ll let Buddy answer the question from column in 2002:

“The Steel Magnolias are a trio of tough women who have made a specialty of running low-budget, grass-roots political campaigns against candidates well-funded by the lobbyist crowd. The name comes from a 1989 movie about friendship among women in a small Southern town. Flowers sent anonymously are their calling card. It's their way of crowing that they have once again beaten the special interests. Their message is simple:Money isn't everything in politics. Good candidates can win with hard work. The three-piece suits with the fat billfolds can be beaten.”

Yeah, Buddy loves him some Magnolias, even though they’ve played the same dirty political games as everybody else. Hell, Nevins himself wrote about Bogdanoff’s dirty tactics in a 1998 state Senate race against Steve Geller. He gave her a “Turkey Award” for claiming Geller was soft on crime and sending out ads that were criticized as racist. Before that he wrote about how she’d changed her moderate views to conform to the GOP, embracing school vouchers, stopped calling herself “pro-choice,” and was running “one of the slipperiest campaigns seen here in decades." He outlined every one of her dirty tricks, too.

But hey, but that was back when Nevins was a Democrat and his son was still in high school.

The change thing seems a part of Nevins' steady decline over the past several years. Don't get me wrong -- Nevins is an institution in Broward County and has a long history of great journalism behind him. His work has been invaluable. New Times named him "Best Daily Newspaper Columnist" in 1999. But more and more Buddy, who has been at the Sentinel since, like, the end of the Vietnam War, doesn't delve into the deep dark spots of Broward politics. That kind of journalism is a tough and trying business and he's lost the drive for it. In a way it seems he's given up -- and there's no better place for a resigned suburbanite than the GOP.

Olympic Pain
Send Dave Hyde to Turin, Italy, and all he does is carp like he's at Dolphins Stadium. In today's
column, emblazoned on the Sentinel's front page, he whines about America's losses (by the aptly named Ohno and drunken master Bode Miller) just like he does after football losses. I'm surprised he didn't mention that he almost threw up, one of his recurring techniques. And he did it through the eyes of a couple from Denver, Co. That's right, Hyde traveled overseas to interview a couple from Colorado. Thankfully, the Sentinel also sent Mike Berardino to the Winter Games. Berardino is sort of Hyde's Jeckyl -- he brings sensibility and humanity to Hyde's ghastly journalistic sprees. I recently said I would mention the area's good sportswriters. Well, Berardino is one of them.

Palm Beach Blackout
To the person who keeps complaining that I don't do enough to criticize the Palm Beach Post: You're right. It's a weak spot in the Pulp's early days (but soon there will be a barnburner about the Post that I've dug, so be a bit more patient). Here's what I want you to do: When the Post commits a journalistic crime, you send it to me and if it holds up, it'll run in the Pulp. Think of all the raw power you'll have. It boggles the mind. Seriously, I'm not too proud to admit a need for help. And don't worry: I won't say who you are (though I think I already know). We'll come up with a pithy nickname and start calling out all the imPosters on a regular basis.

Story of the Day
It comes not from any journalist, but from an Air Force sergeant from Pompano Beach named Douglas Herman, who wrote an op-ed in the Sentinel speaking truth to power. It's a beautiful and courageous thing and it should be required reading in the high schools. Because if this illegal "preemptive war" shit doesn't stop, the kids will pay the price.

Fiddling Fiedler
This just in from unofficial Pulp correspondent Wyatt Olson:
Friday's Herald story about Ana Veciana-Suarez. The judge really threw the book at her for lying under oath about her father's drug conviction.

According to the Herald story, the judge called her offense "extremely serious" because "she lied under oath, noting that Veciana-Suarez regularly wrote a column that focused on values such as honesty, trust and integrity. He said her position as a Miami Herald columnist was like that of a clergy person or a school teacher, making her a member of a 'special class.'"But it was no big deal for Herald management.From the story:

"Miami Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler said he will not take any action against Veciana-Suarez.'Ana's record of integrity spanning more than 25 years with The Miami Herald has been without blemish," Fiedler said. "This single act, for which she has expressed genuine remorse, did not occur in the course of her duties or responsibilities as a journalist. As a result, this isn't an issue in which The Miami Herald needs to become involved.'"

A "single act" and "genuine remorse" sound mighty familiar to Jim Defede's post-Teele suicide comments. Obviously Fiedler is tacitly defending firing Defede in this statement, but it's absurd on its face. How is lying as a juror less egregious than flipping on a phone recorder? I'm not arguing that Veciana-Suarez should be fired, but the executive editor has clearly painted himself into a corner with such glaring inconsistency.

Credit Is Due

2006-02-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

No question the Pulp is focused on the Sentinel, the Herald, and the Palm Beach Post. But there are a whole lot of other publications in South Florida and the Pulp, unlike the often myopic and arrogant Big Three, isn't going to ignore them. You have a lot of quality journalists out there, many of whom simply don't fit into the often colorless, official, corporate world of the MSM.

I could go on and on about the New Times, for instance, but since this isn't a navel-gazing operation, I won't. Suffice it to say, the Big Three often, um, borrow our stories without attribution. (Actually, I'm not sure that is has happened so much with the Post, so I'll call it the Big Two for now). Look at the Daily Business Review, which routinely busts out news that the Big Two habitually rip off. Reporter Julie Kay is one of the cogs of that machine. Check out the Se nt ry in Pompano, where Ross Shulmister (pictured left) and JP Bender (forebears to the legendary Ed Foley and his Ledger) are continually calling out the powers-that-be on their ridiculous shenanigans. Even the Plantation Forum, one of those Sentinel-owned community rags known more as a Chamber-of-Commerce vehicles, has been doing a good job covering the city's union-busting tactics against paramedics. (Please send in other examples of good "small journalism" in town if you have them).

But today the Pulp especially honors the Broward Times, which is the best black newspaper in Broward County (see this about its ridiculous rival, the Westside Gazette). The BT's star reporter, Elgin Jones, runs circles around your average daily newspaper reporter. The man is relentless and resourceful as all get-out, a walking primer on the power of will. He's sparked a handful of State Attorney's Office investigations and turned upside-down the City of Fort Lauderdale. He's always controversial, from his mostly right-wing political views to his eternal muckraking. I could write for a week about Jones, so I'll leave it for the curious to look him up on the Internets, as our commander-in-thief calls it.

As it happens, our Story of the Day comes from Jones, who filed an excellent report about Davie this morning. The article is so hot, it's not even on the Internets yet, so I'll link it as soon as possible. It's another Chris Kovanes-related ditty, but it focuses on Town Attorney Monroe Kiar, who did legal work for one of the accused embezzler's shell companies. Jones dug deep and found out that Kiar has also done legal work for a company owned by city councilwoman Lisa Hubert. Here's what Hubert told Jones: "I paid him [Kiar] that work and I only wanted an attorney I could trust."

Yes, and, good for her, it was also an attorney with whom she holds sway over hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay. I wonder if that has anything to do with why Kiar has been so zealously supporting Hubert in her reelection campaign and got into a news-making fracas with her opponent, Bryan Caletka.

A note to the Sentinel and Herald: Please try to cite the Broward Times when you follow the story. It's the right thing to do.

This Just In: Jim Mullin, former editor of Miami New Times, can't catch a break. After the Teele controversy in Miami, he heads to San Luis Obispo New Times (which, oddly, isn't owned by NT/Village Voice) and immediately stirs up a hornet's nest by publishing a "how-to" story about crystal meth. Here's his apology, which was just posted on Romenesko.

The Stepford Sentinel

2006-02-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

In a prickly little screed, the Sun Sentinel editorialists write today of the St. Thomas Aquinas/Myspace.com suspensions thusly: "... someone has to protect kids, and St. Thomas Aquinas High School deserves credit for stepping up."

It'd be nice if the Sentinel would explain what precisely they were protecting the kids from. All the newspaper has printed is a half-baked story that a dozen students were suspended for putting "mean" stuff on Myspace. And from this, the newspaper is calling for public schools to start punishing kids over Internet postings. How can the editorialists make such a judgement if they haven't seen the offending material? And if they have seen it, why the hell hasn't the Sentinel published it to let its readers form their own opinion? The Sentinel is not only disgracing itself, but it is insulting its readers.

Thank goodness that a teenager, on the same page as the awful editorial, brings some intelligence to the witch hunt. David Hall, who is described as a 2005 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas, writes in a letter to the editor that the "mean" stuff was actually about teachers. "The actions taken by [Principal Tina] Jones and the rest of the administration show a massive abuse and an intrusion into the privacy and freedom of speech of individual students. How can a school continue to teach American government and preach the merits of constitutional rights if it violates them itself."

Better than anything the editorialists have done all year.

Free Ana!

In yesterday’s Miami Herald, columnist Ana Menendez called out an editor. Or at least that’s the way I read it. Y’all know Ana. An author of a couple of well-received books that harken back to her parents’ Cuba, she weaves poetry in fish wrapper. Ana brings some much-needed intellectualism in South Florida and has some fun at it, too. How can you not like the opening line in yesterday’s offering:

“Remember Piss Christ?”

Later in the same column she writes, “Ever since Thomas Paine published The Age of Reason, the modern era has been marked by tension between those who defend the idea of the sacred and those who would transgress the boundaries of the acceptable.”

That’s the kind of sentence you would have written in college if you were worth a good damn.

Here’s the part of the column that really got my attention, though: “I have been harshly criticized for poking fun at George W. Bush's intelligence. How far are my rights infringed upon when a reader asks that I be fired for this transgression? What if an editor asked me to cool it?”

Oh, so a Herald editor told Ana to lay off that war-starting, filthy rich-boosting, health-care-stealing Bush? That’s just the kind of thing the Pulp can’t abide. I wanted to know what no-good scalawaging washed-up corporate gasbag tried to put the clamps on true talent. So I asked Ana about it in an e-mail. Here’s her reply:

“As I recall I mentioned the editor as a theoretical, no? Hmm. That's as far as I'll go until my book The Inside Story comes out...I'm kidding, a little. I wish I could help you out more, but I have a policy of not expanding or explaining the columns. There's a reason they only give me 600 words and I think it best all around if I let each column speak for itself.”

So close. For a second there I thought I was going to score a Pulp exclusive. But I’m still taking that thoroughly endearing rejection as a concession that some brow-beaten mid-management mugwump gave her the ol’ slow-down on the president.

It’s all quite obvious. So, “editor,” don’t you make me come down there. Leave Ana be.

Little Bastards

Looks like it happened again. Dedicated crime reporter Andrew Marra writes in the Palm Beach Post that a 36-year-old homeless man was pummeled at a phone booth by three assailants described as "young men or teenagers." That's one reason they need to lock up the three baseball batterers in Broward for the rest of their lives. Simply as a deterrent for other punks.

Release the Tape

Speaking of vicious beatings, Carol Marbin Miller, the "Miami Herald Watchdog," does a bang-up job -- in our Story of the Day -- covering the release of a videotape showing 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson in Bay County juvenile facility. It's a powerful story that's going to explode nationally when the tape is released to the public.

The Pulp Fends Off Sidewindermans

2006-02-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

It's not everyday the Pulp is going to consume itself with the previous day's post. In fact, this will almost surely be the last. But the Ira Winderman post drew a lot of comment on a variety of issues. I responded to a lot of it yesterday, but that was pretty much futile. And after today, I'm not going to spend much time at all commenting on what people say. So have at it.

That said, most of the pro-Winderman comments were racked with the "deeply flawed logic" referenced by the first commentator. Now I'm going to tear apart the criticisms of the Pulp's Winderman post:

1. I only picked a couple of critical posts from Winderman's blog to use in my case, but ignored a post that called Winderman a "Riley hater." First off, this isn't Fox News -- I don't need to be balanced and don't aim to be. God help me if I ever aspire to "objectivity." I'll leave that for tables, chairs, and "pro" beat writers. Whoever called Winderman a Riley hater (I'm assuming it's true since I haven't actually seen it) is obviously an idiot. You see, on the Pulp we don't parrot people who are both stupid and blind. Winderman routinely treats Riley -- who could have him fired from his job at Sun Sports in a heartbeat -- with kids' gloves. Anybody who says otherwise has issues that can't be dealt with on the Pulp.

2. One angry poster mentions that other sportswriters have similar deals. I was glad to see some examples. I could be wrong, but I think everybody mentioned -- Vescey, Stephen A. Smith, Wilbon, etc. -- works for ESPN. That's apples and oranges. ESPN is, of course, a huge national company that contracts with the NBA, not a specific team. Winderman is a beat writer who works for Sun Sports which has a contract with the very team he covers. ESPN has commentators who trash teams and players all the time. Sun Sports, because it is so beholden to the teams it contracts with, is purely a booster operation. To compare the two is assinine.

3. The idea that I'm somehow jealous of Winderman or going after him because I compete against him is silly. Number one, I don't compete against him. Number two, I don't know Winderman and wish him all the best personally and in his career. But his work for Sun Sports is ethically indefensible and a conflict of interest. It's that simple.

Look, the be-all end-all is that the guy shouldn't be working for Sun Sports. Anybody who gives a damn about ethics in journalism feels the same way. There's a reason every single post for Winderman was anonymous: Nobody wants to put their name to a corrupt idea.

And so I've used up most of my Pulp time this morning. A couple things that stand out in today's papers: Chan Lowe's editorial cartoon is a gas (you can check it out from a link on the home page of the Sentinel) and the Story of the Day is this terrible tale about the apparent murder of a Curious George writer. Just more proof that the enchantment of youth, as the Pulp always says, leads inescapably to violence and despair. But it reminded me warmly of the good old days, when our cartoon characters crashed after smoking reefer in the evening time.

Winderman's Side Scratch

2006-02-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

While watching a Miami Heat game a while back, I actually took in the half-time show for some reason. And there, holding a Sunshine Network microphone in his hand, was Sentinel beat writer Ira Winderman. My first reaction was all Moe Szyslak. “Whaaaaaa?”

What is the Sentinel’s Heat writer doing moonlighting for Sun Sports, which pays the Heat millions of dollars each year for the rights to broadcast its games? It's no secret that the announcers at Sunshine work essentially at the team’s mercy and act as boosters for the team. Don’t you think that contract must loom in his mind when he’s writing about the team?

Winderman must know there’s a line he can’t cross or his gig with Sun Sports will go kaput. And that, to me, constitutes a conflict of interest.

So I called Winderman to ask him about it. He wasn’t especially pleased with the line of questioning, especially since he's been doing it for years apparently without any resistance.

"The Sentinel has a financial relationship with the Heat, too,” he said, irritation seeping into his voice. “The team advertises in the paper.” He also said so said that part of his deal is that he only does an NBA round-up at halftime and never talks specifically about the Heat. He wouldn’t disclose the terms of his contract. I asked him if any of his readers had ever questioned his Sunshine contract. “No, not until right now,” he said.

When I kept asking questions, he finally snapped, “Who do you write for again?”

I looked at Winderman’s blog and found that a couple of readers had questioned his relationship with the Heat, though no mention of Sunshine was made.

“Ira, I have defended you many a post, but now you are deteriorating into a homer not a journalist (I hope it gets you the interview you need),” wrote a Jeff H last week.

“Does Ira Windbag compromise honest reporting for access?” asked another poster in December.

Now I’ve found Winderman to be neither a terrible homer nor an especially hard-hitting reporter. He's competent and does solid work, especially his NBA roundups. But he does seem reverent to Pat Riley, the man who veritably holds Winderman's Sun Sports gig in his hand. Like most of the sportswriting corps, he was easy on Riley during the whole Van Gundy exit sham. The problem is that sports writing has gone downhill in every way. Call it the ESPN effect. Used to be the best writing in most newspapers. Today, the average sports reporter seems to have the imagination of a poodle.

I wondered what Edward Wasserman, the best media ethicist I know, would think of the situation. Wasserman used to run the Daily Business Review and is now a professor at Washington and Lee University. He’s also a contributing columnist at the Herald. Here’s the highlights of his gracious response to the Pulp:

“Interesting case. My first impression is that, sure, this guy benefits financially from helping Sun sustain a harmonious relationship with the Heat. In principle, if he annoys the team in print and Heat management raises a fuss with the network, he could find himself without what is presumably a nice supplementary income. So when he writes for the SS he's feeling that hot breath on the back of his neck. He has, in that respect, a classic conflict of interest -- a problem of divided loyalties.

“But on further reflection what's disturbing is how much does that differ from the pressure he's already under as a typical beat reporter? Even without a side-deal with Sun what incentive would he have to displease the Heat's management? How many nanoseconds would the paper keep him on that top-tier beat if the Heat people declared they couldn't stand Winderman's unfair, negative, carping coverage, and wouldn't let him in the locker room or cooperate with him on stories in the future? The relationship, in short, is already corrupted.”

Wasserman’s point about the problem with beat reporting is on the money. At New Times, we don’t have that problem, so we can call it as we truly see it and then move on to another village that needs burning. (Pardon the awful Vietnam metaphor – good God, what have I become?). Wasserman concludes:

“Getting back to the Winderman case -- I'd suggest that anything that deepens the dependence of reporter on the people who are central to his/her beat is a bad thing, so I'd have grave concerns about the situation you've described.”

Agreed. Be interested to know what y’all think about it and also wonder if sports writers in other cities have similar deals.

More on Herald Web Duty

Here's an anonymous comment just received. Thought it was the best and, seemingly, most informed thing written on the matter so far:

"Traffic jams, water main breaks and cop press releases make for bad journalism, even at 7 a.m. The Herald used to put out six editions a day, and had the staff to do it. No longer. Now Knight Ridder has ordered them to make the web site more current -- a minimum story quota by 9 a.m. -- without spending a cent. If a reporter gets tapped for web duty it just means more work for them -- they've still got to cover their beats and real news, after spending a wasted morning trying to imitate the breathless irrelevance of live TV. Don't criticize the reporters for whining. Criticize management which puts cost containment ahead of readership."

You Have the Right to Remain Totally Hot

The Story of the Day comes from the Palm Beach Post and is pure Pulp. Written with a deft hand by reporter Jill Taylor, it's about a Martin County deputy who was fired for using his vehicle's camera to zoom in on girls at the beach.

Investigators wrote about the deputy: "It is clear that you intentionally manipulated your camera so as to capture an inappropriate view of this female. "

Yeah, and that wasn't all he manipulatin'. Ba-da-bop. (How sad. I'm actually writing rim shots.) This, by the way, is the second good creepy cop story in the past ten days. Writing with a winking eye to detail, Taylor gives us a lot of material to work with here, but alas, I don't have the time to spiel. Read the story, instead.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mike Mayo's column this morning, which the Sentinel smartly ran as a banner across the top of the Local section. It's about a mysterious death at the Broward jail and the sheriff's office despicable silence on the matter. Mayo's onto something -- and it's called good journalism.

Spy (On) Kids

2006-02-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

Got an e-mail from New Times stalwart Wyatt Olson on Saturday.

“Dear Mr. Pulp,
It would warm my heart greatly if you could posit an entry about the top-of-the-fold article in the today's Sentinel concerning the scourge of our private schools: ‘mean postings on Myspace.com.’ While no specifics about the nature of the meanness were fit to be printed, I'm sure you understand the dangers of this newfangled ‘internet.’ It's a slippery slope; first comes the mean writing, then comes the beating of homeless men.”

Olson is of course referring to Karla D. Shores’ article – which happens to be our story of the day -- about St. Thomas Aquinas High School suspending students for posting, yes, “mean” stuff on Myspace.com. The best part was the giant graphic teaching parents how to search surfing histories on their kids’ PCs. I thought, brilliant, but why stop there? Here’s some other tips:

1. Rifle through drawers and closets when the little buggers aren’t home. No telling what you might find, and when you discover something incriminating, make sure wave it in their faces and tell them they are doomed to burn in hell for eternity for it.

2. Bugging their rooms is cheaper and easier than ever. Catch them coughing from that bong hit or exchanging precious bodily fluids with that boyfriend or girlfriend you never approved of anyway. Then take all the freedoms away that they’ve come to cherish.

3. If you’re lucky enough to find a diary or journal, read it. And don't forget to steadfastly condemn the child for everything they’ve confided in those dirty, dirty pages.

4. Get a key for the bathroom lock and the next time Junior is in there for too long, spring in on him. Remember: Nothing scares a kid out of self-annihilation quicker than a good dose of extreme shame and humiliation.

Baseball Batterers
In a Herald story yesterday, a quartet of reporters – Wanda DeMarzo, Ashley Fantz, Darran Simon, and Nikki Waller -- made the same judgment as a lot of Plantation kids: Ammons was the worst of the lot, Hooks was edgy and seemed capable of violence, and Daugherty seemed the least likely of the three to have done it. For the first time in one of the dailies, the Herald brought up the issue of drugs, though only briefly and contained within a single quote. My column this week delved into the widespread rumor, emanating from people very close to the defendants, that they were “barred up” on Xanax pills when they did the beating.

Speaking of that column, the Daily Business Review took issue with it in today’s edition. The Review’s law editor, Harris Meyer, a New Times alum, intimated that Carl Hiaasen and I (God do I hate being lumped in with that guy) empathize too heavily with the punks because we’re a couple of white guys with ties to Plantation (I live there, Hiaasen grew up there). Meyer complained that nobody is talking about the death penalty for these kids like they would if they were black defendants.

“Perhaps the avoidance of the D word is because white, middle-class people are a little too close to the situation to make contemplation of the death penalty comfortable,” Meyer wrote.

For the record, I don’t believe I’ve ever called for the death penalty on anybody. Not a big fan, especially after what happened to Frank Lee Smith. I think those three should go away for life in prison. What’s really disappointing is that I confessed to a string of drug-crazed felonies and all I got was criticized for being too suburban.

Victor Fortune is Back!
Remember the boy who didn't fail after all [see "ATTN: This Story Is Crap" below]? Well Victor is back. In one of the strangest decisions I've ever seen a newspaper make, the Sentinel ran a reworked story, again by C. Ron Allen, on Victor on the Community News front that was extremely similar, right down to identical quotes, to the one that ran last week. Only difference: The false information about Fortune failing the FCAT and being held back was excised. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the new story, but the old one is still up on the Sentinel site, full of the bogus information and without any mention of a correction. What's the matter with these people?

It Must Have Been the TruCoat
Our story of the day is this gem from Herald reporters Aldo Nahed and Carli Teproff. A government official goes berserk, crashes a new SUV into a car dealership and sets it all on fire. What could make a good bureaucrat do something like that? Well, I obtained a transcript of the conversation the suspect had with a salesman just moments before he went off the deep end.

Suspect: I sat right here and said I didn't want no TruCoat!
Salesman: Yah, but I'm sayin', that TruCoat, you don't get it and you get oxidization problems. It'll cost you a heck of lot more'n five hunnert -
Suspect: You're sittin' here, you're talkin' in circles! You're talkin' like we didn't go over this already!
Salesman: Yah, but this TruCoat -
Suspect: We had us a deal here for nine-teen-five. You sat there and darned if you didn't tell me you'd get this car, these options, WITHOUT THE SEALANT, for nine-teen-five!
Salesman: Okay, I'm not sayin' I didn't -
Suspect: You called me twenty minutes ago and said you had it! Ready to make delivery, ya says! Come on down and get it! You lied to me, Mr. Lundegaard. You're a bald-faced liar! A fucking liar. Oh, for Christ's sake, where's my goddamn checkbook. Let's get this over with.

It was only minutes later that the dealership was set ablaze.

Marvin Loves Tommy -- Pass It Along

2006-02-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

Was just alerted by a friend to the fact that former TV news giant Marvin Kalb and the New York Times' Thomas L. Friedman discussed your humble Pulp servant on the Kalb Report radio show at a National Press Club event on Dec. 12. Found the transcript on Kalb's Web site about a column I wrote for New Times slamming Friedman's support of the war. Here's a portion of the transcript:

MR. KALB: I was going through the blogosphere -- you'll forgive me --

MR. FRIEDMAN: Please.

MR. KALB: -- and came upon a really dreadful critique of you written by some guy named Bob Norman of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, which I don't normally read.

MR. FRIEDMAN: You and me both.

C'mon Tommy, that' s no way to treat a fellow Livingston Award winner. We're supposed to be members of a genteel club, right?

MR. KALB: But it had -- really, I'm not even sure I want to go through all of this. But it was very, very negative, and the whole point was that you're a big-shot journalist and you supported these people going into Iraq. You thought it was a necessary thing to do.

MR. FRIEDMAN: Right.

MR. KALB: And you wrote many columns, and I want to brief some of these here. You wrote many columns about this. So you're a no-goodnik and it's quite clear that you are. What is your feeling as you look back over the last couple of years? You said you don't want to, but I would like you to. Do you feel that what you were writing about in 2002 has been more or less borne out by the reality of what has happened?

MR. FRIEDMAN: ... I thought there was a justified reason for the war. I felt it then and I feel it as strongly today, Bernie, as ever. And whether you're from the Broward paper or anywhere else -- first of all, this war, this was a hard call. This was the hardest call I've ever had as a journalist. ... I believed we had a strategic interest and a moral obligation to test -- and I always knew it was a test, a long shot -- to see if we could partner with the Iraqis in the very heart of that world to change the context of what was going on out back. So to all those on the left, to all those in Broward County, all right, I don't happen to think that that has changed. I believe -- you can disagree with that, but you have no right not to think seriously about this war and about what was going on out back.

Invading and bombing a country without provocation or imminent threat was the "moral" thing to do? And he knew it was a long shot? And who the hell is Bernie? Also, is it just me, or is there a note of condescension in Friedman's repeated use of the term "Broward." The NYT columnist's dissertation ends with this priceless back-and-forth with Marvin:

MR. FRIEDMAN: I felt I had a responsibility as a parent, as an American, and as a columnist to think this through as best I could. That's how I thought it through. I don't regret a single thing.

MR. KALB: Good for you.

Had it only been as good for America, Iraq, and the world.

Crimes and Misdemeanors

2006-02-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

This is what we were talking about?
When the Pulp busted the story about the controversy at the Miami Herald over early "web duty," it seemed like a serious debate. But looking at an early posting on this morning's Herald site, you get a whole new understanding of why the rotating work is despised by reporters. The following was prominently posted at 8:23 a.m., presumably by the poor chump who had to get up early to make these calls. I'm going to post the whole thing because I think y'all should read every word of it:

Posted on Fri, Feb. 03, 2006
BSO hunts for handcuffed suspect who got away
BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF
browardnews@MiamiHerald.com
A drug suspect fled from deputies at a Tamarac apartment complex, leading to a two-hour manhunt that ended with the suspect getting away.
Broward Sheriff's deputies were checking the apartment complex at 4401 Treehouse Lane around 8:30 p.m. Thursday for signs of unlawful activity.
The deputies spotted a group of men who appeared to be smoking marijuana to the rear of the apartment building. The deputies moved in on the group and began to take them into custody. After being handcuffed, one unknown suspect ran southbound through the complex.
K-9 teams, the BSO helicopter and road patrol deputies scoured the area but were unable to catch the handcuffed suspect.
It is unknown whether he managed to flee from the area or whether he hid inside another apartment within the large complex, according to BSO.
BSO ended the search around 10:30 p.m.
The unknown suspect is described as about 5 feet, 10 inches and weighing 180 pounds with a short 'dread' style haircut.
He was last seen wearing a white shirt and handcuffs.
Anyone with any information regarding his whereabouts is asked to dial 911 or call Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-TIPS.

I would call this bad reporting, but it's really reprinting a bad police release masquerading as bad reporting. It leads promisingly with a "drug suspect" and a "manhunt." But then you find out the suspect was apparently smoking weed with a group of people at an apartment complex. Not exactly man-bites-dog caliber. The sheriff's office reports that the deputies were there checking for "signs of unlawful activity." What does that mean? At a real newspaper, a reporter is supposed to find out. Then that same newspaper's editor says, "Quit wasting your time."

It's garbage, people. Worse than that really, since some garbage has its uses. This does not.

And so are the rest of the early postings this morning. "Masked men flee after stealing ATM," a blurb filed at 8:08 a.m. It's a tiny little thing, but reporter Jasmine Kripalani, who I suppose is the poor soul relegated to this duty for the moment, did get an incisive quote from the shopkeep whose place was busted into: "Can you imagine? It's a great setback."

Before that, Kripalani filed this gem about a rollover on the Turnpike. "Drivers should expect delays." Indeed, but they're on the road listening to the RADIO not online with the Herald.

This isn't Kripalani's fault. It's just a sorry state of affairs.

Hyde Arrested
Sun-Sentinel sports columnist Dave Hyde was arrested this morning and charged with simple assault. Apparently police took umbrage when Hyde used italicized words as blunt instruments to bludgeon his readers with in this morning's column. "It's perfectly okay to use italics for emphasis occasionally," explained police spokesman Whitey Strunk. "But Hyde abused it -- and us -- terribly in this piece. I mean, the same word three times in consecutive sentences? In the lede no less? Then tying the whole sordid mess together in the end with yet another offense? It's heinous."

Story of the Day
Nothing really catches the eye today, news-wise. So the Pulp had to go with Jose Lambiet's "Page Two" in the Palm Beach Post. When in doubt, it's never a bad thing to fall back on the tenacious gossip columnist.

The Sentinel Takes A Holiday

2006-02-02T04:58:00.000-08:00

Herald reporter Todd Wright keeps up his surprisingly strong Hollywood coverage (compared to the newspaper's past performance) today with a piece on the ethically challenged consultant Bernard Zyschovich. Not surprisingly the dysfunction Hollywood city commission voted to keep Zyscovich even after Wright reported that the consultant had been working for private developers in the town that could benefit from the paid advice he was giving to the city. Quote of the day from Mayor Mara Giulianti: ''Serving two masters is the nature of this kind of thing. We all wear two hats up here, and when we work in our private practices we serve multiple masters. I don't see the conflict."

More generally, we find that the Herald is, on this day, far superior to the Sentinel even on the latter paper's home turf in Broward County, which unfortunately for the Tribbies is not a rare occurrence. In addition to Wright's strong Hollywood story, we get a good in-depth article about the unique corruption of former Davie manager Chris Kovanes. It was done by Nikki Waller and relative Herald newbie Dan Christensen (yes, a bonafide Christensen sighting!). Christensen is an old-school reporter extraordinaire who left the Daily Biz for the job at the Herald. I was afraid the Herald's bureaucracy might swallow the tough and independent Christensen. Hope that doesn't happen, since he's one of the best this place has to offer, as today's piece hints at. And while we're on the Herald, check out Amy Sherman's story about Pembroke Pines. Got to love the way she challenges the overpaid consultant in the lede.

Yes, the Herald had a strong day, but the Sentinel? Nothing, really, in terms of strong local government reporting. Nothing. I would complain about it, but that kind of apathy has kept us over at New Times in business for years.

The Pulp Gets Juiced
Yesterday, the Pulp was posted on Romenesko, the King of All Media Blogs. Specifically, it was the thing about the conflict at the Herald over 'web duty.' We got several comments here and Romenesko also recieved some letters on the subject. A lot of the opinions voiced here boiled down to this: The Herald staff is full of whiners who are living in the past.

I don't agree with that. First of all, nobody is saying the Internet isn't vitally important. It sort of boils down to the difference between detectives and street cops. Journalism is a tough thing and the best and most important stories, like cracking a case, involve a whole lot of work. Getting yanked off of that kind of thing to do morning traffic checks is ludicrous.

At the same time, Rick Hirsch is obviously right that the Herald needs to keep its site current with breaking news. The problem isn't the idea, it's the execution. Either hire a part-timer to come in and do it (there are lots of good free-lancers and former reporters out there who would like to have the work) or create a new position that incorporates the early duty. Or make it a part of day cops, though I think that would be a big mistake. As has been stated before, the Pulp is partial to good crime stories and relegating crime writers to web updaters is a bad idea.

Speaking of good crime stories, it's time for the Story of the Day. By Jay Weaver, it's your standard "cute-little- puppies-sliced-open-and-used-as-drug-mules" story. But it was told better than most.

'Web Duty' Has Herald Staff Clicked Off

2006-02-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

Once again, the Internet is clashing with old-school reporting -- and this time the Miami Herald newsroom is up in arms about it.

The newspaper instituted a “web duty” program last week where staff writers will rotate coming into the office at 7 a.m. to make cops calls, do traffic checks, and feed the information to the Web editor. Why? Here’s how Rick Hirsch, the Herald’s 'director of multimedia/new projects', explained it to the Pulp:

“Philosophically, the newspaper you get in the morning is news and analysis of what happened the day before and the website needs to reflect what is happening now. That is what a news website is, a very urgent thing. When you look at when people go on-line, it is when people get to work, about 9 a.m. A lot of people get our newspaper and we’d like them to check our website and they ought to see something there they hadn’t seen in the paper. To do that, we need an early reporter every day so we can have more fresh content.”

Reporters will rotate on web duty on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, said Hirsch, a Herald veteran who used to run the Broward bureau. Staffers are none too happy about the development. Reporters let Metro Editor Manny Garcia (an excellent old-school journalist himself) feel their anger at a staff meeting about web duty two weeks ago. The gist of their argument: We’re one of the best-trained and educated newspaper staffs in the country. We can do great dailies, in-depth news and investigative pieces, and features. But web duty is a colossal waste of our time -- grunt work that could be done by a part-time clerk.

Hirsch, a Herald veteran, acknowledged that the program had been met with some, um, resistance. "Everybody recognizes the need to provide this reportage -- but that doesn't mean they want to do it," he said. "It requires a change in the routine."

And management is marching forward.

“They’ll come in and do police calls. If there’s a horrendous accident that’s causing thousands of people to be stuck in traffic, they’ll find out what caused it,” Hirsch explained. “Things happen in the morning. We’ve had guys climb up on our antennae in the morning. Every day is different when you’re working general assignment, sometimes you’re writing for the front page and sometimes it’s 3B.

"I was a reporter for a long time and I worked the 9-6 shift and worked weekends and there were days when it was the best job in the world and there were days that weren’t that memorable. The reality is that there is a need to provide coverage about two hours earlier than we typically started our day before.”

Here's an idea that should ease the tension: How about editors join in the web duty rotation? Fair's only fair.

Story of the Day
Another slow one, but Larry Keller's reporting in the Palm Beach Post of an escort service run by a married couple that pulled in $3 million is a wonderful thing. I mean haven't all married couples at least considered running an escort service at one time or another? Well, turns out they're enormously profitable. Until you get ratted out by some of your best customers.

From The Mouths of Babes

2006-01-31T06:50:00.000-08:00

My colleague Wyatt Olson has been adamant for months that the King Tut exhibit is basically a sham. His argument: They’re making it sound like you get to see King Tut, but the boy wonder is, in fact, nowhere to be found. And the Sun-Sentinel and Herald haven't gone out of their way to make that clear. Instead, they've hyped the thing to death with more than 150 stories during the past six months. For a time there was a huge billboard on Broward Boulevard (it might still be there for all I know) that said, King Tut Is Here. This when the King was never even in the building.

Well, a while back, my ten-year-old son told me that a friend of his had gone to the exhibit and that he’d heard it was a rip-off. King Tut wasn’t there! Yesterday, the little guy finally went to the Tut exhibit on his own during a field trip. This is his description of the event in his own words, unsolicited by me:

“The artifacts aren’t even real, they’re models. It’s stupid. And you’re walking around for three hours. And the people that didn’t go on the field trip went to P.E. and got to play games. It was horrible. They don’t show the real King Tut. They don’t even show you pictures. It was weird. You just walk around listening on headphones looking at a chair and a flute. And it was 21 dollars to go there. It was not fun. We never have good field trips. Last time we went to Cinderella. It was horrible, too.”

Why can't we get that kind of honesty out of our newspapers?

License To Ill
Here's unofficial Pulp correspondent and fellow New Times scribe Sam Eifling’s take on the license plate story that was the centerpiece in yesterday’s Sentinel. His basic take was that story began with a prudish tone. Here's the beginning of the story:

"Some Floridians have a naughty streak, and they want the world -- or at least everyone driving behind them -- to see how clever they are.
They try to curse in code or express their hate for rival colleges or sports teams in just a few letters. They might try to boast about their anatomy or hurl insults.
But five people meet once a month in Tallahassee to stop those with their minds in the gutter from taking to the roads with a nasty nickname or a rude message on their personalized license plates. ..."

Here's Sam's new and improved lede:

"Some Floridians have some damn fun once in a while, even on that most staid of billboards, the license plate. But five people meet monthly to put the Fun Police kibosh on jest, wordsmithing and celebrations of natural human pleasures such as drug use, sex and heckling the Florida State Seminoles."

The Braunstein Factor
Well, actress Natasha Lyonne (of American Pie and The Slums of Beverly Hills) just can’t seem to make it to court in New York. I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t want to face the music. I mean all she did was threaten to sexually molest her neighbor’s dog. But her legal problems began in Miami a few years back, when she drunkenly ran her rented Dodge off the road. What’s gone wrong with this girl, what has prompted her to, as the New York Daily News put it so artfully, go "from a Hollywood golden girl to a volatile slob"? Well, a clue might come from her real last name. Braunstein. Could Natasha be related to the accused Halloween-Firefighter-Rapist, Peter Braunstein? Both showed great promise, Braunstein as a journalist and Lyonne as an actress, before they shot off the track. Have a look at those mugshots. There's definitely a resemblance. Isn't there? Doesn't this merit an investigation? Are there evil genes at work here? No? Gawker?

And now: The Story of the Day.
Not a great day for either the Sentinel or the Herald or the Post, so we'll have to go with the most interesting and sensational tale, that of the pawned-off three-week-old baby. (The Pulp is partial to crime stories). It's an outrageous scenario and I have to think the mother should be charged, too. She gave her baby, that beautiful little boy there in the picture, to an obviously unstable woman with a criminal history.

So which one of the three newspapers will win the coveted honor? The winner is ... Jennifer Lebovich of the Herald. Her story seemed the most cogent and complete. The Sentinel was disqualified for somehow missing that Stacy Counes, the 19-year-old woman who received the baby from the mother and then gave him away at a damn bus stop, had multiple battery charges in her past. I suspect the Sentinel held the info because it was on a juvenile record, which would make it another instance where touchy-feely editors deprive the readers of important information out of misplaced magnanimity.

Attn: This Story Is Crap

2006-01-30T05:56:00.000-08:00

On the front page of the Sun-Sentinel’s always daring Community News section Sunday, a story by staff writer C. Ron Allen leads this way:

“When Victor Fortune failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and then eighth grade, he didn’t get reclusive or bitter, his teachers said.
Instead, he channeled his efforts to helping his classmates who needed help in mathematics.
“I already had the class, I am learning the same thing I learned last year so I felt I should help someone to improve instead of getting mad,” the 13-year-old West Pine Middle School student said.”

Aren’t you glad the little feller helped classmates who needed help? The story then goes on to laud little Victor as one of the Sentinel’s “Kids of Character,” which is tied to the Broward school board’s character education program. Unfortunately for Fortune (and the Sentinel), a correction ran in the very same newspaper: “Victor Fortune passed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and was promoted to the eighth grade.”

There are two things extraordinary about this correction. First, it is the first pre-emptive correction I can remember. It appears on page 2A in the very same newspaper in which the mistake was made. Why? Because the Sentinel pre-publishes the Community News section before it prints the rest of the paper. In fact, the same bad information ran in a promotional box in Friday’s newspaper (so it was actually a double-correction, too).

The second unique aspect of the correction is that the entire story is based on the false premise that little Fortune is a great tyke because he didn’t let failure keep him from being a model student. Allen quotes the student, two of his teachers, and a school resource officer. The resource officer actually references the (bogus) fact that Fortune was held back. What the hell is going on here? Could it be that the kid of character duped the newspaper? Or was it all based on some colossal assumption by the reporter?

And, as you can see by the link above, the bogus story is still on the website. The Pulp is on the case. But while we’re on the Community News section, let’s look at the two other stories on Sunday’s front. The lead story is headlined: “Report unusual activity.” Okay. But what exactly is unusual activity? I mean, I have a neighbor who bleaches his sidewalk every week. That’s pretty weird. Should I report him?

Here’s how Nicole T. Lesson ledes her article.
“Crime prevention starts with you.
“Residents need to know what is suspicious activity and how to report it to police.”

So pray tell, what is suspicious activity?
“[Plantation Police Officer Bob] Wilkins says that if something piques your curiosity, it could be a suspicious incident.”
“If it doesn’t look right, it’s time to call the police,” Lesson adds later.

Still confused. What we need, of course, is a Tips Box. And the Sentinel didn’t let us down. In a box on page 2 is a box with the question that haunts us still: “What Is Suspicious?”

Answer No. 1: “Anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or seems out of place.”
That guy Joe in the office does that to me all the time. Finally I know what to do. Call the cops on his ass.

Another suspicious thing: “A loiterer who doesn’t belong in the area.”
That’d be Uncle Ray. He comes around uninvited all the time, wanting to eat our food and drink our beer. Now the jail can feed him.

Then the wise box tells us to be suspicious of “Someone carrying a weapon.”
Oh man, so that guy who was running through the neighborhood last week with a Glock in his hand was suspicious? If only I had known.

Then, and I’m not kidding, the Sentinel instructs us to beware of people in your neighborhood who might be carrying something that is stolen, “such as an electronic device.”
I can hear it now.
“Maude, there’s a feller with one of them fancy new cell phones walking down the street. Call the police!”

To top off a newspaper section that is, without a doubt, one of the greatest journalistic abortions of the year, there’s a story about a private school’s “Best Buddies” program which mingles disabled students with “college-bound students.” (Sorry, couldn't find a link to it on S-S site).
Did you say you want treacle? Cause I got some treacle for you:
“The chief goal is tolerance,” Lisa Huriash begins. “Then again, it’s also love. And acceptance. Really, all of the above.”
And let’s not forget vomitus. Lots and lots of vomitus.

Channeling DeFede

Wonder what former Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede is up to these days? Well, things are crackling. On the airwaves. The man is on his way to radio and TV stardom. And his role model in the radio game?

Don Imus. That right, DeFede wants to be the Imus of South Florida.
But before I get into the latest news, let me give you the background on DeFede, just in case you've been living under a pier the past year: He’s the Herald (and former Miami New Times) columnist who was fired in July (my God, has it really been that long ago?) after he tape-recorded a conversation with Miami-Dade Commissioner Art Teele just before Teele shot himself in the Herald lobby. Since he was so well-respected in the biz, hundreds of journalists rallied for him. I still believe the hasty and cruel firing was an excuse to get rid of DeFede because he rocked too many boats, most notably Tony Ridder’s (see “Knight Riddance”).

Now he’s finalizing a contract with the Herald’s news partner, WFOR-Channel 4, to do three commentaries a week. That’s just about a full-time job. “I want to do with it what I used to do with my column in the Herald,” DeFede told me.

That means he’ll be riffing about politics and, if I know DeFede, digging up some breaking news while he’s at it. DeFede is also doing a Saturday morning AM radio show on 610-WIOD. I had the pleasure of being on the show Saturday, and we talked a bit about the Pulp during the segment. DeFede isn’t about spouting off some political ideology or party line. It is, as he said, “all about the facts.” Not that he doesn’t have some fun, too. DeFede happens to be hilarious. He spent a good deal of time talking about the recently deported Dorismar (see “Open the Door for Dorismar” below). “Give me your teeming masses, yearning to breathe free … but occasionally let one of them be hot,” he said.
He said it will be part cultural, part political, and all local.
“I want it to be like Imus,” he said.
If that goes well, and it certainly seems to be, the show will go to weekdays and DeFede will have completed the transition to the other mediums. God knows, radio and TV desperately needs first-rate journalists like DeFede to raise them up a notch. But that stuff also has a tendency to disappear in the ether once it’s aired. So I hope he finds a way to keep writing -- or at least documenting his radio and TV work for posterity -- while he conquers the airwaves.

Speaking of Dorismar
Casey Woods, the reporter who did such a great job telling the story of the deported Argentinian bombshell, is a “she,” not a “he,” as I reported below. The mistake was the result of general ignorance and perhaps a slightly sexist assumption. We apologize to Casey for implying that she possesses male genitalia and ask her to keep up the excellent work.
By the way, this is a bit of history, as it is the Pulp’s first correction. Hopefully there won’t be many more.
And we take this opportunity to restate our position on Dorismar: Open the door for her, America. Please.

And lest we forget, our story of the day is Jon Burstein's muckraking look at swindling charities, published on Sunday. It's just the type of reporting the Sentinel does too little of. It was a toss-up with this story by Brittany Wallman (my industrious wife, I should disclose) about the whitewash investigation of a cop accused of sexual misconduct. It includes the cop's claim that, no, he wasn't exposing himself, he was reading a magazine about "swordfishing."

I'll let you fill in your own snappy one-liner.

Pigs and More Pigs

2006-01-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

On this baseball bat beating thing, relentless crime beat reporter Wanda DeMarzo had this story in the Herald about the homeless beatings. She reports that Hooks and Daugherty left town on the morning of the beatings between 9 and 11:30 a.m. Here's my question: When did the videotape of the beating first air on TV? What I want to know is if it was videotape that prompted them to leave town. I assume the answer is yes. Wanda?

DeMarzo also had this article about another BSO deputy fired for falsely clearing crime reports. Another day, another scapegoat. Powertrac generated a culture of fears and lies -- and it was meant to produce low crime numbers to advance Ken Jenne's political career. Quit ruining lives, Michael Satz, you coward, and arrest the top brass that were responsible for this debacle, including the sheriff himself.

Give it up to the Seminoles ... these guys know entertainment when they see it. First airboat rides, then the casinos, and now this: Dog-Pig Fights. Depends on the individual dog and pig, but all things equal, I'll put 20 on the oinker, man. Those things are wily and tough as mules. Can I get a hells-yes?

Pretty slow news day locally, but the story of the day goes to Wanda's counterpart at the Sentinel, Brian Haas, for his report on the shooting of a crazy old man. Listen, if a naked old man in a nightgown winds up in your house looking confused, try not to shoot him. The next one could be your own grandpappy.

(Sorry for the late post: Had a morning stand-off with Steve Kane. See comment below "Kane And Able.")

Kane And Able

2006-01-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

If you're up in the morning, I'm going to be on the Steve Kane Show at about 8 a.m. That's 1470 AM. It should be good, especially since I'll be on with Broward Times reporter extraordinaire Elgin Jones, who has busted up many a scandal in this corrupt burg.

Kane, you might know, used to be on the school board's diversity committee where he kicked up a lot of dust over gays. I don't agree with him on much, but I got to admire the way he speaks his mind. All the time. I just got off the phone with producer Brian Craig and he was like, "Uh, is it fair to characterize you as a liberal?" I told him I don't like either party and am conservative on some issues, but I probably fall on that side of the ledger more often than not. He was like, I'll take that as a yes, so you two will have a lot to talk about. Let's get ready to rumble, then.

Was It A "Set-Up" Or Just A Damn Beer?

2006-01-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

On Monday came a post about the kids on southfloridaracing.com going off on the media after Sun-Sentinel reporter Brian Haas e-mailed them to request information on the teens accused of the homeless murder [see "What Goes Around" below].

One of the posts came from the nephew of Rick Robb, an editor at the Palm Beach Post, who used to be metro editor at the Sun-Sentinel. The nephew said Sentinel columnist Mike Mayo once "set [him] up" for a column. Below is Mayo’s first-hand account of what happened (which he permitted to run in the Pulp). It involves one of the most controversial trials in recent South Florida history.

“[Robb’s nephew] is Rich DeBerardinis and he served as a juror on the David Farrall wrong-way driving DUI/manslaughter trial. Because of his connection to Rick, who was the Sun-Sentinel's metro editor at the time, we had agreed to sit down and talk once the verdict was in. Naturally, it was big news, a high-profile case and 1A story, more so when the jury acquitted former FBI agent Farrall of the most serious manslaughter charges in the crash that resulted in the deaths of brothers Maurice Williams and Craig Chambers.

After the verdict, we went to a place on Las Olas (the Italian joint Across from the Floridian, I think it's changed names a few times since then) and I interviewed him for about an hour. I went back to the newsroom and banged out the deadline column, a juror's-view perspective/explanation of how they arrived at their decision. Rick Robb recused himself from editing the story (he was my usual line editor), because of the family connection.

I decided to lead with what I thought was an ironic touch: after a nerve-rattling DUI case, when we sat down and I asked what he wanted, Rich said he wanted a drink. He ordered a beer and we talked, and he showed himself to be an intelligent and conscientious juror. Needless to say, Rich took a lot of grief for the verdict (he eventually left one job after his boss had to order some black co-workers to stop hassling him about the decision in the racially-charged case). He also ridiculously took some grief for drinking that beer, with the Sun-Sentinel printing a letter to that effect from some prudish scold.

If I was in his shoes, I would have done the same thing -- except I probably would have had a double Kettle One on the rocks, not a beer. Because I was on deadline and we don't live in the good old days of Jimmy Breslin and Mike Royko knocking back a few before heading into the newsroom, I stuck with club soda. Nevertheless, Rich always resented me for using that opening. I guess he saw it as a cheap shot. I thought it was ironic and human.

Unfortunate that he thinks I "set him up." That wasn't my intention, I simply took him to a restaurant, as I do with many of my sources/interview subjects, and I paid the bill. I didn't even realize he'd be so upset with me including the beer anecdote.”

And there you have it. Below is the column Mayo wrote (I couldn’t link to it because the Sentinel hordes their old stories in an archive you have to pay for). Judge for yourself. As for me, I think Mayo wrote a fair column. The juror even said knew he was going to be "shredded" for it -- a lot of people were pissed to see an FBI agent get cleared in the outrageous case -- and that he was prepared for it. But when it happened, he lashed out at the messenger.

It's also pretty interesting that a street racing enthusiast sat on the Farrell jury.

My only criticism is obvious: I don’t think there’s any question that the editorship at the Sun-Sentinel should have done more than just “recuse” Robb from Mayo’s column. They should have disclosed in the column to the readers that Rich was, indeed, Robb’s nephew. Sure it might have made readers see it differently – and that’s precisely why it should have been disclosed.

By the way, Mayo is coming back full-time to the Sentinel next week after some blissful paternity leave. His pain will be our gain.

Here’s the Mayo column, in its entirety:

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
November 26, 2002 Tuesday Broward Metro Edition
BYLINE: MICHAEL MAYO
BODY:
The hardest six weeks of his young life were over, and he wanted a drink.

"A drink drink, or a soda?" I asked.

"A beer," Rich DeBerardinis said.

A few minutes later, he sipped a Budweiser and explained how he and five others reached a verdict that is sure to cause as much controversy as the case that spawned it.
Concluding that David Farrall was legally drunk on the night he crashed Into brothers Maurice Williams, 23, and Craig Chambers, 19, was the easy part.

"That took two minutes," DeBerardinis said.

Concluding Farrall was going the wrong way on Interstate 95 and thuscriminally responsible for two deaths was a leap they just couldn't make based on the evidence. It took three grueling days of deliberations for one holdout to switch, according to DeBerardinis.

"I know some people are going to shred us for this," DeBerardinis said. "But I'm prepared to deal with that. We did everything right, and we took this very seriously. This took a toll on everyone."

He said the six jurors felt a heavy weight from the case. Upon entering the jury room to start deliberations last Thursday, one woman broke down and cried. When DeBerardinis awoke Monday after a mostly sleepless night, he said he threw up from the stress.

He turned 21 during the trial, a full-time student at Broward CommunityCollege who has a full-time job with a medical monitoring company. He was acutely aware he was between the victims' ages, kept imagining his mother in the place of Florence Thompson, the victims' mother, who attended every day.

"I feel so bad for her," DeBerardinis said. "The first thing I wanted to do when it was over was give her a hug. I know she's probably angry with us and I can understand 100 percent. I wish I could have given the family closure and said this man did it, but legally I couldn't.

"We saw this as the prosecution had to prove two separate cases -- that Farrall was drunk and driving, and that he was going the wrong way. Thefirst case was a slam-dunk. But on the second, there was lack of evidence and a mishandling of evidence."

In the end, only Farrall and his attorneys walked out of the courtroom happy. He won't get his FBI career back, but he won't be spending the next three decades in jail. For everyone else, the ending was murky and unsatisfying.

"It's annoying," DeBerardinis said. "So many unanswerable questions. We're all searching for logical explanations, because two people who by all accounts were good people are dead and it doesn't make sense. I wish we could say definitively what happened that night but we can't."

This much is known: At 12:43 a.m. on Nov. 23, 1999, there were reports of a car hurtling southbound in the northbound lanes of I-95. A few minutes later, Farrall's dark green Honda and the brothers' beige Kia collided. Both were supposed to be heading north. Farrall was going home to Coconut Creek after a night of drinking, eating and watching Monday Night Football at the Quarterdeck restaurant in Davie. His blood alcohol level was .14 percent, above the legal threshold.

The brothers were heading to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton from Lauderhill after a night of church choir practice. They were sober. DeBerardinis said the jury discounted Farrall's testimony that he wasn't impaired and didn't believe him about the amount he drank.

"He sounded like a guy in denial," DeBerardinis said.

He also found it curious that Farrall didn't have any family on hand at the trial to support him. Still, they couldn't take the leap to DUI manslaughter.

"It's like [defense attorney Bruce] Udolf said: If you're drunk and sitting at a red light and somebody hits you, that doesn't mean it's your fault," DeBerardinis said. "We heard a theory that Farrall was more likely to have been going the wrong way, but it wasn't proved beyond reasonable doubt. There was just no way I could send somebody to jail for maybe the rest of his life based on 'more likely.'"

DeBerardinis had the harshest criticism for the Florida Highway Patrol,which initially blamed the brothers and then Farrall for the crash. He said the jury wasn't satisfied by the investigative and accident reconstruction methods.

"It reinforces the old knock against them -- unless it involves a radar gun, don't expect FHP to solve it," DeBerardinis said. "There's just no excuse for some of the sloppy work they did."

He said the stalemate in the jury room came to an end just after lunch On Monday, when the holdout juror, Manny Lugo, decided "there might be some doubt here."

"There was an eerie silence," DeBerardinis said. "Then we realized it was over."

He felt especially bad about the confusing manner in which the verdict was read. There were six counts against Farrall, and when the clerk started ticking off "guilty" to each many in the courtroom -- including Thompson -- didn't hear the part that said "to a lesser charge."

Believing her sons were exonerated, she began to cry and mouthed, "Thank you, Jesus."

"At first it sounded good," Thompson said later.

DeBerardinis said he was "shocked" the jury didn't include any blacks, but said the jury did not talk about the racially sensitive nature of the case until the verdict was reached.

"Somebody mentioned the Rodney King case," he said. "It's an easy thing to say and throw out there, that it was an all-white jury, but it didn't have anything to do with the outcome." As untidy and ambiguous as it feels, the outcome was the only oneDeBerardinis could support. "

There's a little anger, because he might have done this and killed two people," DeBerardinis said. "But we'll never know for sure."

IMAGINE IF HE'D SPENT MORE THAN A MINUTE ON THEM

In a story running today about John Lennon's "art" -- not music in this case, but drawings -- being shown this weekend in Delray Beach, Sun-Sentinel writer Ivette M. Yee describes the Walrus's work as "quick sketches" and explained: "With music being his meal ticket, Lennon indulged in art during his free time, but didn't fool around with it."

Ah yes, the quick strokes, the simplicity ... wait a minute. This is doodling, people. Doodling. Can somebody stop Yoko, no stranger to dubious art, from marketing the great man like he was some kind of Rembrandt?

SISTRUNK TIE-UP

The story of the day is Scott Wyman's piece on the controversy around knocking down Sistrunk Boulevard to one lane. This is a huge issue and John Rodstrom is totally right on this one. Sistrunk can be improved without jamming up downtown like a stuck cork.

Don't Give up on Beauty and The Geek

2006-01-25T05:39:00.000-08:00

For the second day in a row, the Sentinel has a ridiculously overplayed front-page story. This time it's Tom Jicha's article about a merger between UBN and WB. It basically dominates the front page. Toward the top of Jicha's little masterpiece, we South Floridians get this this chunk of can't-miss news:

"UPN series such as Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model, Girlfriends and the new comedy Everybody Hates Chris are strong candidates to make the cut. WWE Smackdown, UPN's two-hour wrestling show on Friday, is also expected to be part of the combined lineup.Probable WB holdovers include Gilmore Girls, Smallville, the new sci-fi series Supernatural and the comedy Reba. Borderline candidates include Everwood, One Tree Hill, the reality series Beauty and the Geek and the first-year series Related."

Rest easy, people, the Gilmore Girls will be saved.

How can that not be our Story of the Day?

Housing Frenzy
Speaking of ridiculously overplayed stories, when the Sentinel ran that huge headline on the front page yesterday, “More of us can’t afford home prices,” it sounded like deja vu.

Looking back at housing headlines in both the Sentinel and the Herald during the past year, it became terribly evident why. Some highlights from the research:

For the first few months of the year, all the stories were about prices “soaring,” “surging,” and “leaping.” Then all the sudden, on April 20, the Herald reports: “South Florida housing starts plunge.”

But that was only crap. Six days later, the Sentinel reported, “Home prices take another leap.” Five days after that, the same newspaper confirmed, “Housing stays hot.”

So that's good? Or is it bad? Later that month, on May 26, the Sentinel began hand-wringing: “The median price for resales is putting housing out of reach.”

That seems bad.

The next day, the Herald weighed in: “Housing prices raise concerns.”

Not to worry, though, on June 2, the Sentinel assured those with raised concerns that “Market May Be Peaking.”

Thank goodness, at least for those whose concerns had been raised. Oops. Sorry. That was crap, too. Four days later, the same Sentinel reported: “Dream out of reach, low-income people are left out as prices soar.”

But would the bubble burst? On June 22, the Herald seemed to think so. “Miami’s housing ‘bubble’ biggest in nation.”

Scratch that as crap. Six days later, the same Herald reported: “Bubble discounted by officials.”
The day after that, on June 29, both newspaper went back to crisis-mode. "Floridians’ incomes not keeping up with prices of homes,” said the Sentinel.

“Gap is between home prices, incomes,” the Herald told us.

I'd been wondering where that gap was.

Through August, there were numerous headlines about home prices “rising,” “sizzling,” and “soaring anew” from both newspapers. Headline writers really love the word sizzle, by the way. It’s an onomatopoeia, you know. Finally, on September 27, the Herald gave us the good – or bad? – news: “Home prices show sign of leveling.”

So ease your head. Nothing was going to burst. It would just level.

But that was, of course, crap. Five days later, the Sentinel told us: “$1 million doesn’t go far; with home prices soaring ….”

Hold on. Two days later the Sentinel came around, informing its readers, “Single-family home prices drop.”

So now it’s established. Both the Sentinel and the Herald have told us it's cooled off. Then came October 18. “Cheap homes vanish; a crisis looms,” the Herald blared.

Oh God, this isn't a boom, it's a crisis. But wait. On another page of the same newspaper on the same day, there is this headline: “Housing frenzy continues to boom.”

You see, one man's boom is another man's crisis, meaning it all depends on who's writing the headline.

Three weeks later, on November 13, the lagging Sentinel came around … again. "Affordable housing need is now urgent … crisis looming."

At least it was only looming. The next day, however, the Herald made it official: "Governments set to discuss laws to address housing crisis."

The crisis was here. On November 20, the Herald came out with: “Ouch! Cost squeeze tightens; rapidly rising prices are pinching South Florida consumers.” The next day, there was a story in the Sentinel about how “blended families” – I don’t know what they are, either – are finding the dream of owning a house “not easy to achieve.”

Which leads seamlessly to yesterday's giant headline on the Sentinel's front page -- “More of us can’t afford home prices.”

See, it all makes sense after all.

UPDATE
Posted just today on the Herald's website, no crap: "Home prices fall in Miami-Dade and Broward."

Does this amuse you?

2006-01-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

Let's see, Joe Pesci comes to South Florida for a getaway. Joe Pesci orders a wheatgrass drink at Jamba Juice in Boca Raton on Sunday. A Broward Community College student spots Pesci, runs to a nearby Circuit City, buys a camera, returns to Jamba, and takes a shot of Pesci. Pesci then takes a shot at the student, punching him in the face. The college student then turns the camera on himself to document the evidence (a fat lip) and goes to the police.

Was it really Pesci? We're not sure, but it sure seems likely, according to the Sun-Sentinel article by Leon Fooksman (that's a great name). People heard things. And saw things. Pesci made himself known to the good people at Jamba before the incident. And the Palm Beach Post's Stephanie Slater reported that Pesci was also recently spotted dining at Gotham City in Delray Beach.

Fooksman's piece is, without a doubt, the Story of the Day, especially after he got from the student that he's still a huge fan of Pesci, even though the great actor (underrated comedy-wise, I think -- you seen Easy Money lately?) went all Raging Bull on his ass. "I may have gotten him on a bad day," the student said.

It's sort of disapppointing, though. Whatever happened to stabbing a guy to death with a ballpoint pen? Or putting a poor sap's head in a vice until his eyes pop out? Hell, Pesci once beat a man to death for telling to go get his shine box. He's slipping. He's definitely slipping.

Open the Door for Dorismar

This is Dorismar. She's a former Playboy Playmate and, according to this morning's Miami Herald, a "sexpot ... blessed with copious curves and a seemingly boundless capacity to promote them." The problem: She was deported back to Argentina for overstaying her visa. The solution: She's vying to get back in as an "alien of extraordinary ability." One can only imagine. Here's the point though: Reporter Casey Woods' story about Dorismar is the kind of article you get occasionally in the Herald and the Post but almost never in the Sentinel. A story that, in the broad scheme of things has little importance, is a bit obscene, might tick off a religious conservative or two, but is damn fun to read. Woods virtually wallows in Dorismar and he's got himself a real good read to show for it.

On a Sad Note

It's not all fun and games. I direct you now to to this story by Carlos Frias in the Palm Beach Post that ran Sunday. It's about former star MLB pitcher Jeff Reardon, who went off the deep end and robbed a jewelry store in Palm Beach Gardens last month. That's normally something I'd have some fun with -- it's total Pulp after all -- but it's too weird. It's a bad day when you can't make fun of a rich jock gone off the deep end, but damn, damn, damn, it's sad, man. Sad and weird.

And the no-shit headline of the week (from the top of the front page of today's Sun-Sentinel): "More of us can't afford home prices."

What Goes Around ...

2006-01-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

Wonder why so little of the back story of the homeless beatings has appeared in the Sun-Sentinel or Miami Herald? Wonder why we know so little on the teens who turned in the three suspects? Or why we know next to nothing about what really happened the night three homeless men were beaten, one of them to death?
Well, a clue comes from the website, southfloridaracing.com, where friends of the suspects were on-line on January 12 and named Tom Daugherty and "Brian" as the culprits. This a day before Daugherty and Brian Hooks were arrested by police.
Two days after the posts appeared, Sun-Sentinel reporter Brian Haas sent one of the knowledgeable youths on southfloridaracing.com -- a 19-year-old boy from Plantation who uses the name "WannabeSS" -- an e-mail soliticing information. To wit:
"Hello. My name is Brian Haas and I am a writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper. I'm interested in speaking to you about the beating of the three homeless men. I'm particularly interested in talking to you about Mr. Daugherty and any other people you're hearing were involved in this. Please call me as soon as you can to discuss this if you're interested. It's Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and I'll be here until about 8 p.m. Thank you. Brian Haas South Florida Sun-Sentinel."
Well, WannabeSS didn't cotton to that at all. He posted the Haas letter on the website at precisely 8 p.m. that day, commenting, "What a fucking loser ..."
The next post came from "BewstAdd1ct," who added this satirical quote to Haas's request: "I'm interested in fucking you over in print."
WannabeSS returned, "Yea, his name is sunsentinalreporter or something ... i think you should ban him."
Later, a poster going by "Classic Chrome" wrote, "Never trust the media. Never ever ever. It is not their job to help ANYONE but themselves. They wouldn't even display Amber Alerts if it didn't boost their ratings."
When WannabeSS learned Haas had quoted the web site in the Sentinel, he wrote, "he should have quoted me saying 'fuck off' ... "
A lot of the underlying rancor comes from years of newspaper coverage of the young drag racers, who believe they've been unfairly portrayed as a menace to society, or lumped in with a few members of their ranks who are. The racers have long believed reporters are nothing more than parrots for cops.
"You know, I wish these bullshit piece of shit reporters would actually do something to HELP us instead of exploit us. Fuck you, Mr. Reporter," wrote "Jason."
Some of the kids were less cordial, making lewd comments about what they'd like to do to Mr. Haas, but I won't dignify them here. But even kin of the press turned on the media. A boy who said he was the nephew of Rick Robb, an editor at the Palm Beach Post, wrote: "Actually my Uncle (Rick Robb) used to work for the sun-sentinal, now he works for the palm beach post. And a warning to any who might give up interviews, I know [Sun-Sentinel metro columnist] Mike Mayo in particular will set you up for stuff in his story. He did it to me for an opening to his story a couple years ago."
On Saturday, the Sentinel published a story about southfloridaracing.com that left out their own prominent role in the posts and ignored some of the more interesting clues to the crime contained within the site. Instead it focused on the predictable "more and more police are using the Internet to solve crimes" angle. Later that day, Classic Chrome wrote, "The media is a speakerphone for law enforcement, but of course this is not news."
Now all of this comes from a subset of teens who are especially bitter (and familiar) with mainstream media coverage, but you think maybe the sentiments are representative of the way a lot of young America looks at the press? Right or wrong, the perception is helping to keep the real story from being told, leading to headlines like "Attacks on homeless: baffling," which appeared in the Herald yesterday. We'll call that our story of the day.
Stay tuned.

Tom Gallagher Loves Boobies

2006-01-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to love the Republican gubernatorial race. Yesterday, Tom Gallagher was spouting about how much he loved Jesus, clearly trying to enamor himself with Florida's Christian Right. In this morning's Herald story on Gallagher's campaigning, reporter Mary Ellen Klas writes, "Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, focused on the value of family and the importance of staying the course on education policy, and repeatedly mentioned assets he has that Crist doesn't: a wife, a son and a brief military career."
That's Gallagher's code for, "I LIKE WOMEN!!!" You see, there have been rumblings for years that Crist is, well, you know. Last year at the beginning of the campaign, a radio talk show host in Tampa asked him, point-blank, "Are you a homo?" He answered: ``No, man. No. I love women. I mean, they're wonderful." I know what you're thinking -- that's a pretty gay-sounding response. A lot of political insiders don't buy it and Gallagher's camp is playing up Crist's confirmed bachelor status on the campaign trial. Klas writes that Clearwater Christian Club president Matt Scobell "summed up Gallagher's political strategy" with this line: "Tom is a family man, the oldest of eight children and not a lawyer."
Gallagher said, ''Of all these jobs, the one I care most about is Dad. When you have a child, your life changes. You just don't know it unless you have your own.''
Translation: "I'm a normal, complete man while Crist's gayness makes him a stunted freak."
And Gallagher also called Crist "a nice guy ... probably one of the nicest guys around."
Translation: "He's so nice he might even do you a favor in one of the bathrooms at the park."
This is going to get more interesting as time goes on.

The story of the day was a no-brainer. It's the Sentinel story on one of the homeless beating victims. Turns out Raymond Perez, who was the third man battered last week during a night of the old ultra-violence by a few wayward teens, had disappeared from his family 14 years ago. The family tracked him down when they saw a story about the beatings up in Long Island in Newsday. It's a damn interesting story, and reporter Bill Hirschman does a good job of telling it, but it seems to have come through a stroke of good fortune. The family happened to contact the Sentinel instead of the Herald, which has been spanking the Sentinel on coverage of the beatings. Just goes to show that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

The Pulp Gets a Plug

2006-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have come in after hearing of the site on the great Tabloid Baby, tune in tomorrow for a full dose of The Daily Pulp. There will be a lot less of this autobiographical navel-gazing and a lot more news and criticism from South Florida.
While I'm at it, I'd like to note the breadth of Burt Kearns' post about this site and Florida Pulp Nonfiction, which is coming out in March. In a quick take on the Sunshine State, he got in Deep Throat, Baghad Boy and Lobster Boy. He mentioned the Eden Roc Hotel, the Sheraton Clipper, and the Mai Kai. He touched on Elmore Leonard, Edna Buchanan, and, most wonderfully, the great Charles Willeford. Throw in Roxie Pulitzer, William Kennedy Smith, Jose Lambiet, and the Count de la Moussaye, and you've got the fabric of South Florida covered. Wonderful stuff from one truly brilliant fellow.

Robert Mitchum is a God

2006-01-19T08:30:00.001-08:00

I'm kind of delaying the daily media commentary that I plan to begin. Too busy with other stuff. Short observation: Herald is kicking the Sentinel's ass on the homeless beating story. Quote of the day, from a high school kid who knows the assailants, including Tom Daugherty, the bushy haired kid who did most of the beating: "Tom was fairly new to beating up bums."

So I watched "Out of the Past" last night, a great film noir from 1947 starring a 30-year-old Robert Mitchum. After seeing this and The Night of the Hunter recently, he's becoming one of my favorite actors of all time. He's got this strong male presence, but underneath it is this raw emotion and pure child-like reaction to things on the screen. Out of the Past also had Jane Greer, who played the most deliciously amoral femme fatale ever, and more cigarettes per frame than any movie I've ever seen. I went back and determined that Mitchum smoked 17 cigarettes in the picture, and I didn't count any of them twice. Caught one cut-to when the cigarette grew a bit in his hand, though. He must have lit up a couple hundred smokes doing that movie.

And yes, people, this is what I do at midnight, meticulously research Robert Mitchum's smoking habits in a 60-year-old flick.

My Fox Debacle

2006-01-18T16:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, I was on Fox News Live this afternoon with Bill Hemmer, that pretty little vapid fellow who used to be so cozy with Soledad O'Brien on CNN.

It had to do with a column I'd written about "Baghdad Boy" Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old who went to Iraq over the holidays. I opined that his father, Dr. Redha Hassan, should be charged with child endangerment for orchestrating his 16-year-old son's trip to Iraq and looked into his checkered background that included an arrest in 1985 for conspiracy to produce thousands of false Iraqi passports and military identification cards. One of his co-defendants was a pro-Khomeini activist named Schubbers. I talked to the informant in the case, who was Dr. Hassan's next-door-neighbor at the time, and he told me the FBI's investigation into Hassan went international and wound up spoiling a plot to kill Rajiv Ghandi, then prime minister of India. I mentioned offhand about rumors in the neighborhood that the father had a terrorist background and was sending little Farris to join al Qaeda. But I wrote that off as unrealistic and said he was actually more like an Ahmad Chalabi Jr.-type. I pointed out how Farris' writings sounded like they were written in Dick Cheney's office, etc etc. And I ended it saying that Farris would fit right in at the CIA.

Yesterday I told the producer, a guy named Jason Robinson, that I didn't think Farris was a wannabe terrorist, especially since his family had gotten so filthy rich in America.

So this morning, I'm sitting in this little studio in west Broward waiting for Hemmer to ask me some questions when I see the promo: "Sinister Trip?" on the television sitting beside the camera. And I'm thinking that I'm going to start this thing off with a disclaimer -- "No, Bill, I'm not saying this was sinister, just that there are a lot of unanswered questions about it."

Hemmer starts the questioning and I get going. I'm slow out of the gate, but every time I start to get to something interesting the beauty-marked host in the New York studio interrupts me. I can't get into rhythm, but I stay patient, answering his disconnected questions. At the end he says he's confused. I try to tell him that this is complicated, just like everything in the Middle East that the media is always glossing over. It's over and I go home.

It wasn't really a debacle. And it wasn't any good either. It was just average bad Fox television.
And to think I may have missed a chance to get on Keith Olbermann for that mess (Countdown was interested and called me a couple of times, but didn't put me on). Olbermann, I suspect, would get some of the subtler stuff and possibly have a good time with this thing.

But the truth is that I can't put it all on Hemmer or even Fox. TV is not my medium. I'm a writer, not a talker. But that doesn't change the fact that Fox sucks. Here's my vow to all you Pulpers out there (all three of you): I will never, ever go on Fox again. Unless, of course, it's bald publicity for a book, etc etc.

Who am I kidding?