'We are unglued' - Miami Herald continues to treat some South Florida neighborhoods as though they don't exist

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Last August, after seven teenagers walked through an open door and gave themselves a self-guided tour at the multi-million dollar Coral Gables home of former Miami Heat star Ray Allen, the Miami Herald published no fewer than seven stories on the incident.

The highlight of the paper's Pulitzer-worthy package of stories was an insightful column by the Herald's Crotchety-Old-Lady-in-Residence, Fabiola Santiago.

And just last month, the Herald ran a 2,000 word piece on the rise in the number of burglaries in Coral Gables.

“You don’t feel safe in your home. We decided to live in Coral Gables because it’s safe. But the minute you start feeling insecure in your home, that’s where it all changes,” PR executive and lobbyist Freddy Balsera told the Herald.

The Herald does an excellent job of covering Coral Gables, because that's where its moneyed readers live. And it's probably just a coincidence, but the Herald's publisher, Alexandra Villoch, also lives in Coral Gables in a very nice 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2,000 sq. ft. home that's a million miles away from some of Miami's grittier neighborhoods.

And maybe that explains why when it comes to covering some of those gritty, impoverished South Florida neighborhoods, the Herald continues to come up short.

What follows are a series of text messages sent earlier this week by a Herald editor to former colleagues.

"We are now copying even the most basic stories from CBS4."

"A mother is killed and we lost the ability to do our own story. We are unglued."

"We scour CBS4 for stories we miss and lift them."

"If victim had lived in Coral Gables it would have been on front page."

"Mother of 3 gunned down -- dead -- no apparent ties to anything nefarious, works 9/5 and she's just another inner city killing."

"An 8am home invasion and a mother of 3 is executed and [we] cannot muster a team of reporters."

Miami Herald, Nov. 26, 2014, page 3B.