Guys, c'mon.
You want to take on The Miami Herald for its Marlins ballpark coverage, we're fair game. But do it fairly then. Which of course you don't.
I'm getting really tired of your grievously reductive assessment of the newspaper's handling of the stadium issue, which seems to focus almost exclusively on the edit board and a sports columnist or two. Fine as far as that goes. But surely you know better. There's a lot more to this than you all let on, but then that would spoil your tidy black-and-white storyline.
The sometimes implied, sometimes explicit claim that the reporting staff was in the bag or disengaged or whatnot is absolute, one-sided horseshit. And I've just gone through dozens of clips in our archive (yes. it's publicly available) going back several years because I am royally pissed off on behalf of my hardworking colleagues in the newsroom.
Andres Viglucci
The reason everyone knows the Marlins deal was not a favorable one for the public, down to the decimal point, is through extensive in-depth reporting and analysis done before the contract was approved, and afterwards, too, by Chuck Rabin, Jack Dolan, Adam Beasley, Matt Haggman and others who laid bare the financials, the questionable assumptions and claims and their consequences in excruciating detail.
Not to mention numerous columns by Fred Grimm (who took the Herald edit board to task, in print, in early 2009: "Magical thinking was not just confined to county commissioners or Marlins fans. The Miami Herald's editorial page seemed to ignore the hard work of its own reporters to embrace the dream.'') and sports columnist and consistent stadium skeptic Linda Robertson (OK, she's my wife), and assists by others (including, not patting myself on the back since my contribution was minor, me, who wrote a long time ago that the stadium would do absolutely nothing for economic development in that neighborhood).
Be glad to provide you chapter and verse if you're all too far up your own asses to look it up.
So to write that our reporters somehow dropped the ball when the truth is the exact opposite is unjustifiable, not to say unfair to the beat people who did loads of original reporting -- matched by one else in this town, by the way -- by going through hundreds of pages of contractual crap, financial statements and so on to dig up facts, talking to experts, confronting bureaucrats and politicos, etc etc., i.e., doing their damn jobs.
So, do yours, too, dear bloggers, if you're going to claim some blogging mantle of all-knowing superiority.
And please note that I write this as someone who considers at least one of you a friend, reads you all regularly and to a great degree respects what you do. Except when you fuck up. Which you've done here.
Cheers to all,
Andres Viglucci
The Miami Herald
To: Aminda "Mindy" Marques, Executive Editor, Miami Herald
Rick Hirsch, Managing Editor, Miami Herald
From: Bill, Random Pixels
Hi guys!
Hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving.
The reason I'm writing is to ask about Sunday's page one story on the hunt for the "Man-eating Croc."
Did you guys hire a headline writer from the National Enquirer? Because that was my first thought when I saw it. Either that or someone wrote the headline as a place-holder and then forgot to change it before the paper went to press.
Or maybe you guys got punk'd!
I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw it. I hope you don't mind, but I put together a little parody and posted it on my blog. (You know me and my sense of humor.)
But some aren't laughing. Someone - and I suspect it may be someone from the fifth floor - left this comment on my post:
[When] I saw that piece in the paper this morning and then the photo on the website, I thought, 'THAT'S the man-eating croc?' It speaks volumes about what's left of the Herald - not the sensationalism but the sheer fact that no one at any level in what's left of the newsroom said, 'Wait a minute. Let's not run THAT photo - not if the story is taking THIS approach.'Oh, and just today, the American Copy Editors Society blog singled out the headline for a special mention.
It's profoundly saddening and embarrassing to see the Herald do what it did today (and far too often) while its circulation craters as other newspapers pass it by with better and smarter...everything and, consequently, less loss of readership.
By the way, I thought I'd mention that while your people were scaring the hell out of the readers with that headline, a couple of other papers in Florida actually had some journalism on their front pages yesterday.
Did you guys happen to see the Palm Beach Post story yesterday on how the Republican Party of Florida conspired to suppress voter turnout?
And did you catch the excellent story in the Tampa Bay Times on Florida's vanishing springs?
Both are examples of top-notch journalism.
You guys at the Herald should try doing some of that again. Like you used to do many years ago.
And leave the tabloid stories to the Star and the National Enquirer.
Sincerely,
Bill
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| Click to enlarge. (Image via The Newseum) |
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| Joe Wasilewski with the Nile crocodile he captured. |
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| Click here to enlarge image. |
Deep beneath the ground we stand on, below the strip malls and the condos and the lush green of the golf courses, runs a river of water that makes life in Florida possible. The underground aquifer rushes through Swiss cheese caverns, its hidden flow bubbling up to the surface in Florida’s estimated 1,000 springs -- the greatest concentration of springs on Earth.Read the rest of Pittman's story by clicking here and read other articles in the series here.
A century ago Florida’s gin-clear springs drew presidents and millionaires and tourists galore who sought to cure their ailments by bathing in the healing cascades. Now the springs tell the story of a hidden sickness, one that lies deep within the earth.
• The water in many springs no longer boils up like a fountain, the way they have for centuries. The flow has slowed. In some places it has even stopped or begun flowing backward.
• The water that does come out is polluted by nitrates.
• The pollution fuels the growth of toxic algae blooms, which are taking over springs and the rivers they feed and putting human health at risk.
• Finally, the fresh water coming out of many springs is showing signs of a growing saltiness, according to a study by the Florida Geological Survey.
All of it — particularly the saltiness — is a dark omen for the future of the state's water supply.
"It's the very same water we drink that's coming out of the springs," said Doug Stamm, author of the book Florida's Springs. "When they start to deteriorate, that's the water we drink deteriorating too."
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| Click to enlarge. |
Today, the album that was forgotten for 22 years, is considered by some to be one of the greatest live R&B albums ever recorded. Rolling Stone magazine included it in a list of the "500 Greatest Albums of all Time."The reason why the album was so long in being released, said [Allen Klein, Sam Cooke's manager,] was that RCA had always wanted Sam to be another Nat King Cole, and the company had him crooning little ballads like "Mona Lisa" and "Hey, There." Right after his first hit single, Cooke had tried to play to white audiences, performing in the Copa, the big New York nightclub. The audience hated it. The critics hated it. Sam Cooke hated it.
From then on, said Klein, even as the hit singles kept piling up, Sam Cooke stuck to the Chitlin Circuit, performing in front of the people who liked him when he was just being himself.
And that's what you hear on the Harlem Square tapes - Sam Cooke being Sam Cooke. But back in the '60s, RCA couldn't stand it. Several months after Cooke's Miami appearance, he was once again booked into the Copa, doing a controlled, top-40, white kind of show. The Copa tapes became a live album; the Miami tapes went to the vault.
Here he was, IS, soulful, GRITTY, sweatin up a storm, steppin' out of his "Eisenhower" threads, crooning, RASPING his way through songs, HIS songs. Talkin', testifying, workin' the crowd, laughing; joking around like he was the greatest ENTERTAINER that ever was.
[...]
But Sam is the whole package. And while you feel like you are there, it's not enough, you WISH that you were there. His voice here is silk and satin mixed with grown-up grit. Those wonderful, sweet G-rated hits now have a new ingredient, and it's a knowing R-rated attitude, no profanity, just a healthy sexual swagger permeating songs not only of the heart and mind, but of the body and soul as well. One of the greatest live albums ever recorded and a true portrait of the artist as a grown-up man.
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| The Miami Herald ♥s the Marlins' Stadium. (Click image to enlarge.) |
"Sports are an important part of a major city's quality of life. You don't need to be a baseball fan to see the good in a new stadium ensuring the Marlins' long-term future here." -Miami Herald sportswriter Greg Cote, March 24, 2009.
"Make no mistake: The stadium in Little Havana will be an asset that serves to unite this community with a team that will be here for a long time. That is not in dispute by this editorial board." -Miami Herald editorial, July 12, 2009.
And here are the Marlins, after 11 years of trying, through three ownership groups and several evolutions of county and city commissions, finally on the cusp of breaking ground on a ballpark all its own.
Only to have the whole grand package jeopardized by one guy's nuisance suit.
This continues Braman's dubious track record of suing over how local government spends money.
[. . .]
A Marlins fan should support a new , 37,000-seat retractable dome stadium (even if not thrilled about the OB site in Little Havana), but even nonfans should appreciate the benefit of how a thriving big-league sports team can knit a community.
[. . .]
So let's get out of the courtroom and into the future, shall we?
Let's swat this silly trial that sits on our ambition like a mosquito.
Let's get to building a better Miami.
DON'T REFUSE THIS DEAL
Miami Herald, Monday, March 28, 2005
OUR OPINION : Marlins' Stadium is a win for government, community, fans
In the realm of baseball- stadium deals, the plan to build a new home for the Marlins near downtown Miami is a good one for the city, county, state and fans, too. State Rep. Carlos López-Cantera, R-Miami, is pushing a bill seeking a $60 million sales-tax rebate from the state for the stadium . The bill, HB 1287, goes before the House Tourism Committee Tuesday and deserves a favorable report.
A paying tenant
It's easy to see why. Think of it this way: If you planned a house and found a tenant who agreed to lease terms covering half of the mortgage, would you build? Of course you would. But the county's and city's deal with the Marlins is even better. The Marlins agree to cover any cost overruns. Once the stadium is built, they will occupy it for only half the year, leaving the county free to use the stadium for other paying events.
In our example, that's like having the tenant to whom you're leasing agree to cover cost overruns on your house and, to boot, vacate the house for half a year, leaving you free to rent to others.
The $420 million stadium would be built near the Orange Bowl, an area ripe for redevelopment. The county would contribute $138 million from bed taxes, the city $28 million from tourist-development taxes and the Marlins $192 million, mostly in rent payments. A $32 million parking garage would be self-financed with parking fees. The tax rebate would cover a $30 million funding gap.
Critics says the government shouldn't build a stadium for millionaire baseball players and that no economic benefits will result from a new stadium . We beg to differ. Commerce builds community and creates jobs. That's obvious. Less obvious, however, is the way education, arts and sports build community. Do you doubt it?
A common bond
Think about teaching our kids a common cannon to which they refer for the rest of their lives in a democracy. Think about the power of everyone singing together to a Celia Cruz or Frank Sinatra. And think about the common bond created in this community around the Dolphins of old, the Marlins of World Series victories, or the Heat of Shaquille O'Neal.
It doesn't matter whether you're old or young, black, Hispanic or Anglo, whether you speak Creole, English, Portuguese or Spanish, you cannot fail to find a common bond with others when you experience these community events. They don't happen in a vacuum. And so we support creating performing arts centers and world class museums and, yes, a first-class baseball stadium.
MARLINS STADIUM GETS ANOTHER SHOT
Miami Herald, Wednesday, February 20, 2008
OUR OPINION : Baseball and South Florida belong together
The Florida Marlins , after nearly a decade of trying, are now on the verge of getting a stadium home of their own. The new deal would put the Marlins in a retractable-roof stadium at the Orange Bowl site. It would ensure that the team will stay in South Florida, change the name to the Miami Marlins and give the owners enough financial breathing room to invest in quality players. Many details remain to be ironed out but, all in all, this is a good deal for the team and for our community.
When they meet Thursday, both commissions should say yes to the deal. The Marlins and city and county leaders have worked hard over the past two months to hammer out a mutually satisfactory deal. No doubt they realized that this is the last shot to make Major League Baseball a permanent part of our community. This time, legislative approval isn't needed, so the deal can't be dashed at the last minute by state lawmakers.
Using tourist taxes
The deal rearranges the burden borne by the city, county and the Marlins , but when all the counting is done, all have some significant skin in the game. The county and the Marlins will bear most of the construction costs of the $525 million stadium . The county's $347 million share will come from tourist-tax dollars. The Marlins will use private financing and rent payments to the county to produce its $155 million share -- and it is on the hook for cost overruns not caused by the city or county. The city's $23 million contribution includes $10 million for demolition of the Orange Bowl. But the city also donates the land and pays $94 million for a parking garage.
NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO BUILD A STADIUMBut not everything the Herald printed on its editorial pages was pro-stadium. On August 29, 2010 - a year and half after the county approved the stadium deal - the paper gave some space to stadium critic and automobile dealer, Norman Braman.
Miami Herald, Thursday, February 12, 2009
OUR OPINION : City, county commissions should approve new home for Marlins
The conventional wisdom in our community is that it's a bad idea for the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County to help build a new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins . It's a poor use of public funds. The timing is wrong. The financing doesn't work. The fan base is too small. There are better uses for the money. You get the picture.
Air all concerns
There are many good reasons behind each one of these objections -- but we believe that none of them, whether considered alone or collectively, should scuttle the deal. All these concerns and more should be thoroughly vetted at the city and county commission meetings on Friday. When the dust settles, we hope that both commissions say Yes to the project, not because we have drunk the stadium -or-bust Kool-Aid but because a viable baseball team in an environment that can draw fans and produce revenue for the team would be an asset that produces tangible and intangible benefits throughout South Florida.
Sports enliven and bring excitement to a community, as do museums, concerts, theaters and performance centers. Sports help to build and unify communities by bringing diverse groups, cultures and people together for a common goal, instilling pride when the team wins and stronger purpose when they don't.
The Marlins deal requires a huge outlay of public funds, mostly from bed taxes generated by visitors, at a time when the economy is suffering the worst contraction since the Great Depression. Picking the right moment for an investment is always a gamble. But the investment should be considered over the full 35-year term of the loan, not the cyclical up-and-down swings of the economy. Long-term return on Convention Development Tax dollars has averaged 5½ percent, enough to cover the estimated 4 percent average annual cost of money borrowed for the project, says County Manager George Burgess.
Fans want comfort
Building a retractable-roof stadium will help eliminate the biggest factor contributing to poor attendance. More than any other team in the League, fans don't go to Marlins ' games when there is even a chance of rain. A modern, comfortable stadium would generate revenue streams (something the Marlins currently don't have much of), which, in turn, would be used to invest in quality players, said Marlins President David Samson.
A baseball team committed to staying in the city would complement South Florida's many attractions. It would be a positive step in our community's quest to better itself. The Marlins should win a green light on Friday. After all, the deal has been in the works for nearly a decade. Conventional wisdom has its place, but it shouldn't stop a dream whose time has come.
LAUGHED ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
Miami Herald, Sunday, August 29, 2010
by NORMAN BRAMAN
Surprise! The Florida Marlins are among the most profitable teams in baseball.
Incredibly, these profits were amassed when the Marlins were negotiating the 30-year, $2.4 billion stadium deal with the county and city, using public taxes (including a $35 million county loan to the privately-owned Marlins ), while allowing our befuddled mayors, managers and commissioners to believe the team was nearly destitute and would depart South Florida, leaving Miami without the status of a world class city.
They even led us to believe that the team received no revenue from baseball-related parking and concessions at the stadium Joe Robbie built without public funds. Yet the documents appear to show evidence the Marlins received about $6.5 million during those two years from those sources.
Throughout those negotiations, the Marlins flatly refused to disclose their finances to the county and city -- County Mayor Carlos Alvarez testified he never asked for them! -- and the court in my lawsuit refused to order discovery of this information. Who negotiates away $2.4 billion of public money (the amortized cost of the bonds issued by the county and city) without knowing the finances of your negotiating partner? Our local commissioners, managers and mayors who prevented the public from voting on this giveaway and who now may claim, reflexively, they were hoodwinked. (Only Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado was against this deal as a commissioner, along with four Miami-Dade commissioners who voted No.)
Still, incumbents are re-elected and re-elected and re-elected. Witness Tuesday's results, where only about 17 percent of the eligible voters turned out.
Caught red-handed, or should I say, green-palmed, Marlins President David Samson spins the reason why the Marlins spent so little to put a team on the field, from his former mantra of lack of fan support to, according to The Miami Herald, ensuring the survival of the ball club. That's pretty good survival -- $52 million in operating income and about $33 million net income in 2008-2009 (including $92 million in MLB revenue-sharing), to which net income probably should be added back $5.4 million in "Management Fees [to a] Related Party."
"Related"? You guessed it -- that would be the Double Play Company, the managing general partner of the Marlins , a company that belongs to team owner Jeffrey Loria.
What perhaps is most galling is that all of this occurred while the county and city were facing huge deficits, forcing them to cut government budgets and services, and reduce government workers' pay (except for some of the county mayor's staff who received an increase for "new duties"). Meanwhile, the real-estate market has endured about 100,000 foreclosures and property values have plummeted. The nation rolled into a recession, and the unemployment here has topped 13 percent. The Miami-Dade Commission now is considering a monumental property tax increase.
What was Loria doing? Probably laughing. According to news reports, Loria this year paid about $22 million for land and a home in Southampton, N.Y.
I believe that Samson and Loria are not even residents of Miami-Dade County and pay no property taxes here, and, while enjoying 100 percent of the new stadium revenue, will be reimbursed for any property taxes the new stadium pays.
At whom is Samson angry? The scoundrel(s) who released documents containing what MLB tries so hard to keep secret. He called it "a crime."
At whom should Miami-Dade taxpayers and baseball fans be angry? Yes, at the Marlins , but more so at our elected officials who voted for this unnecessary corporate welfare and were hoodwinked. Or were they?
-Norman Braman is owner of the Braman automobile dealerships. His lawsuit to stop public funds from being used to build the stadium without voter approval was unsuccessful.
"A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
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| Barack Obama jokingly mimics U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney's "not impressed" look while greeting members of the
2012 U.S. Olympic gymnastics teams in the Oval Office, Nov. 15, 2012.
Steve Penny, USA Gymnastics President, and Savannah Vinsant laugh at left. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) |
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| Microsoft founder Bill Gates. From the book, Secrets of Great Portrait Photography, by Brian Smith. (Click image to enlarge.) |
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| Brian Smith. |
What: ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography’ by Brian Smith
When: Sunday, November 18 at Noon
Location: Batten, Room 2106, Building 2, Ground Floor Wolfson Campus, Miami Dade College
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| Click image to enlarge. |
Folks,
During the past two years many newspapers around the country have introduced paid subscriptions for access to their websites and apps. Beginning December 18, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald will do so as well, launching digital subscription packages.
Why are we doing this? The world of news and information keeps changing. Technological advances provide us with the convenience of mobile phones, tablets and social media channels. We have transformed our business to become 24/7 information specialists, with the ability to deliver breaking news through a variety of digital platforms in addition to our print newspapers. These changes have resulted in a new business model, whereby the cost of producing our news coverage is spread across the various channels we provide.
Under the new subscription program, users of our websites and apps will have access to a limited number of stories every month. When they reach their limit, they will be asked to subscribe to the new digital package or consider a print subscription that includes the digital package. This new Plus+ digital packages includes unlimited access to our websites, news alerts, digital newspaper/e-Editions and smartphone apps.
While this change represents a new direction for McClatchy and MHMC, it is the path many others in the industry have successfully taken. We are confident that this new model will allow us to provide information the way our readers want it, and help keep us a strong and dynamic media organization, now and in the future.
David Landsberg
•“Hey [Guy], did you try that blue drink, the one that glows like nuclear waste? The watermelon margarita? Any idea why it tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde?”
•“Has anyone ever told you that your high-wattage passion for no-collar American food makes you television’s answer to Calvin Trillin, if Mr. Trillin bleached his hair, drove a Camaro and drank Boozy Creamsicles?”
•“When you cruise around the country for your show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” rasping out slangy odes to the unfancy places where Americans like to get down and greasy, do you really mean it? Or is it all an act? Is that why the kind of cooking you celebrate on television is treated with so little respect at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar?”
•“When you hung that sign by the entrance that says, WELCOME TO FLAVOR TOWN!, were you just messing with our heads?”
•“And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?”
•“Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?”
•“Oh, and we never got our Vegas fries; would you mind telling the kitchen that we don’t need them?”
“Thanks.”
On its 5 p.m. newscast Monday, KMGH-TV showed a Photoshopped cover of Paula Broadwell’s book, which used the title “All Up In My Snatch.” The image went viral and KMGH’s website, TheDenverChannel.com, reported that news, and the fact that it was red-faced over its mistake.
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| Click all images to enlarge. |
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| Men prepare pigs for roasting on a street in Havana.“I wake up thinking
about how I’m going to get food” is a line heard frequently to describe the daily quest to put dinner on the table. Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin Click here for a slide show. |
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| Via TIME.com |
Mitt Romney’s Transition Website: Where ‘President-Elect’ Romney Lives On
Courtesy of Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, curious voters still wondering how it would look to see “President-elect” in front of the Republican candidate’s name now have their chance. In the final weeks of his campaign Romney had been preparing a transition team, dubbed “The Readiness Project,” meant to help him prepare for the long list of accomplishments he had slated for Day One of his administration. At one point, Politico reported that the team was comprised of “more than 100 officials” getting prepped for the post-Barack Obama era.
CBS News: Romney "shellshocked" by loss
BOSTON, Mass. - Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.
Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.
But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.
After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.
"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
"When you've got the national liberal media working compulsively in your behalf, it is very difficult to break through the noise to the reality." -Fox News commentator Lou Dobbs
"The media didn’t hand [the election] to Obama; after all, the Number One cable news channel, Fox, is right-wing. The Number One newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, also has a right-wing editorial slant (and is owned by the same guy who owns Fox News). The Number One talk radio show is Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity is Number Two, and Glenn Beck is Number Three. When you control all the largest media outlets, it’s time to stop grousing about liberal media bias." -Paul Begala, Newsweek/Daily Beast columnist.
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| Voters were in line at 4am to vote at precinct 797 at Miami-Dade Fire Station # 56 at 16250 SW 72 Street. (Miami Herald photo by Tim Chapman.) |
