Friday, June 12, 2009

New Times editor Chuck Strouse swats a flea

Miami New Times editor Chuck Strouse is pissed.

That's not news in itself. Most good newspaper editors are perpetually agitated.

But Chuck's got a bone to pick with his predecessor Jim Mullin, who now publishes the monthly paper Biscayne Times.

In a post today on Riptide 2.0 Strouse blasts a Biscayne Times column by writer Jack King that calls New Times "a mere shadow of its former self."

Says Strouse of Mullin: "I once thought Biscayne Times editor and publisher Jim Mullin was a principled, smart journalist. I don't anymore."

Wow!

The man who wrote the hit piece for Mullin is one Jack King, who's apparently a Miami media scene bench warmer, who flits from one failed publication to another, writing forgettable tripe.

In his BT piece he postulates that Miami's media powerhouses are now impotent because Mullin's paper broke a story last month that no other media outlet in Miami had.

In his BT piece King uses the word "we" a lot, as if he had something to do with Erik Bojnansky's piece.

King apparently believes that Mullin's Biscayne Times is poised to fill a huge Miami media vacuum that's come about because of the declining fortunes of the Herald and New Times.

King neglects to mention that the Herald won its 20th Pulitzer Prize last month and Strouse points out that Miami New Times "has won more awards in the past two years than ever before....What has the Biscayne Times won? Ever?"

It's no secret that I've faulted the Herald for various journalistic lapses over the past few years.

But it still delivers good reporting that's not found elsewhere.

And I've had differing opinions with New Times also.

Jim Mullin is no slouch. He has taken a little-known monthly paper that was once a nothing more than a decent bird cage liner and turned it into a somewhat interesting read.

But now and then, dark forces overtake Mullin's normally sunny disposition and bad things happen.

Jack King's column was one of those bad things. It was a self-aggrandizing cheap shot that served no purpose.

...
Disclaimer: I have known and worked as a freelancer for both Jim Mullin and Chuck Strouse.

2 comments:

  1. I don't disagree, but I do think BT has improved immensely under Mullins' watch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's all hyperbolic. But in my opinion, the New times was much better under Mullin, and he has undoubtably made the Biscayne Times a thousand percent better. I look forward to every issue.

    Chuck Strouse is a good editor and a likeable guy, but for whatever reason, the New Times is just not the exciting, muckracking read it used to be in the 90s.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to comment on anything you read here.

All comments must first be approved. Spam and spam links will not be tolerated or approved.