I don't care how comfortable they are; you look like a dumb ass!

"The family of a 4-year-old boy who nearly lost a toe after his foot got stuck in a Miami International Airport escalator in March is suing the popular rubber clogs company Crocs, Inc., saying the shoe had no warning feet could be sucked into the machines."

Perhaps the kid should counter-sue his parents for making him wear such ugly-ass shoes in the first place!

I wonder what this will do for his ratings?

"WPLG-ABC 10 anchor Charles Perez filed a petition in Miami-Dade court for an injunction for protection against domestic violence," alleging "that his former partner, Dennis Ricardo Peña, has 'stalked, harassed and threatened' him, and vowed to wreck his TV career."

So says Joan Fleischman.

Almost makes me yearn for the less-complicated reign of Dwight Lauderdale. The only thing they were able to nail him with was the fact he dyed his mustache and "has had several hair implant procedures." (Miami Herald, June 11, 2001)

Good one Joan; things were starting to get a little boring around here!

Paving Paradise

New to the Random Pixels bookshelf:

Paving Paradise: Florida's vanishing Wetlands and the failure of No Net Loss by St. Petersburg Times reporters Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite

from Amazon.com

Florida possesses more wetlands than any other state except Alaska, yet since 1990 more than 84,000 acres have been lost to development despite presidential pledges to protect them. How and why the state's wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of "Paving Paradise". Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots. Exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction. What is happening to Florida's 'protected' wetlands?

Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen says, "This is an exhaustive, timely and devastating account of the destruction of Florida's wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It's an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what's left of this precious place."

Free ain't free!

"Why should I buy the paper when I can read it for free online?" -comment left recently by a reader on the Miami Herald's website

Here's a couple of stories for all those people who think that everything they read on a newspaper's website appears there magically...and for free.

A typical NYT Magazine cover story costs $40K-plus

NYT Mag editor Gerald Marzorati on what's required of a writer doing a long-form magazine piece: "Weeks and weeks of reporting. Hanging out with the subject of your piece, hoping some scene will emerge that because of where it is and what the dialogue is, will reveal that subject. ... And all this time, of course, costs money. A typical cover story in the Times Magazine, when you add up what we pay the author and what the expenses for travel are --- and this leaves out the editing and fact-checking costs, the photography, and so on -- the tally is north of $40,000, and often, if a war zone is involved, considerably more."

Good journalism is "shockingly expensive"

The Boston Globe spent more than $1 million to investigate sexual abuse of children by priests, editor Marty Baron said at the University of Oregon. When Baron was at the Miami Herald in 2000, it cost the paper $850,000 to do an audit of the Florida vote count. Tony Ridder, then Knight Ridder CEO, paid the bill "without complaint," said Baron. "How many newspaper executives would do now what he did then?"

via Romenesko

The way we were

Posting this shot of the Miami skyline from 1939 for any of you who think that all of those tall buildings in downtown Miami have always been there! ;)

Photo from Don Boyd's great archive of old Miami photos.

Herald publisher: "We're here to stay."

Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg has cut a slick TV spot - in both English and Spanish - that will launch this month.

The commercial is a video version of his "Message to Readers and Advertisers" posted on the paper's website March 22.

The spot appears to be part of the Herald's ongoing campaign to assure not only readers, but advertisers, that the Herald is here to stay.

In the video, a slightly catatonic Landsberg assures his rapt audience that the Herald's committment to South Florida won't change.

Watching this ad was like deja vu all over again.

In the early 90's I covered stories involving Eastern Airlines and Pan Am - both were struggling for survival.

I witnessed the filming of eerily similar and elaborately produced ad campaigns for both carriers designed to inform consumers that everything was just fine.

In 1991 both airlines went belly up.