Making Excuses

Henry has the Oscar Corral interview covered well, so I'll refer you to here and here for his insightful analysis.

There a few things I dislike more than someone who makes excuses for not achieving a goal or failing at something. Corral is doing just that, blaming hard-line Cuban exiles for threatening him after his total disaster of a story on the Marti Moonlighters, and generally complaining about being a victim to the cigar-chomping, yelling and screaming viejitos out there.

I really want to like Oscar Corral. I mean, we come from the same city and have the same roots. It would be great if a local boy made it big in the Herald as a top notch journalist. However, Corral is nowhere near being in that league. Being a long-time Herald reader, I am familiar with Corral's work back in the days when he covered mundane local news stories. It was evident to me even back then that Oscar Corral was, on a good day, nothing more than a mediocre journalist. His stories have always slanted towards the negative, even when nothing negative is to be found.

I clearly remember listening to the last Miami-Dade mayoral debates online in which a panel of local journalists asked the candidates questions. It was a very non-controversial campaign, rare for South Florida, so the majority of the debate was pretty boring. Except when it was Oscar's turn to ask the questions. He tried his hardest to come up with something, anything remotely controversial just for the hell of it. It was obvious he was forcing it big time, so much so that one of the candidates (I don't remember which one) admonished Corral after receiving one of his questions. He was contriving controversy to make a name for himself.

This tendency of his carried over into his coverage of the Cuban community, where he rightly received some fair criticism.

So the bottom line here is that Oscar Corral needs to admit that perhaps he hasn't done that good of a job of covering Cuban issues. A little more sensitivity, a little less contrived controversy and a little more balance would go a long way towards making Corral a better journalist. He's only 32, so there's time for improvement.

Unfortunately, he works for the Miami Herald, so I won't hold my breath.