An Opening For Reasonable Discourse?

Something interesting is going on in South Florida. It's related to the Herald's two new columnists who don't exactly fit the mold of most of the remainder of their stable. Jackie Bueno Sosa is supposed to be the conservative and Glenn Garvin the libertarian. Based on three columns (two by Garvin), this may very well be the case.

What's happening is that the South Florida blogosphere, which as a whole is left-leaning when it comes to politics and ideology, is starting to respond to the columnists and their pieces. It's no longer just local conservative hacks like me complaining about Leonard Pitts Jr., Carl Hiaasen, Fred Grimm and ex-columnist Ana Menendez anymore. It's my fellow South Florida bloggers starting to complain about Sousa and Garvin (and perhaps even Myriam Marquez). In other words, an arena for lively debate of important issues may be starting to shape up. At long last.

Unfortunately, a lot of the complaining from the left is not so much about the content of Sousa and Garvin columns. Instead it's about things such as Sousa possible plagiarism of a speech given by Kevin Costner's character in Bull Durham. Check here, here, here, and here. BTW, I agree with Rick that this is much ado about nothing.

When South Florida largest newspaper has coddled liberals for so long with their point of view and primarily their point of view, it's easy to understand this reaction to opposite points of view. Feel my pain. Maybe (more below).

Another strange thing is happening: the comments at the Herald site are becoming more, shall we say, reasonable. Both sides are actually making their points in a respectful manner (with a few outraged people stating that they're canceling their subscription because of the right-wing nature of these pieces).

Lest you're getting the idea that the Herald is becoming The Washington Times south, think again. They still have a left-leaning editorial board, Leonard Pitts who has two weekly columns, Fred Grimm, Carl Hiaasen on Sundays, not to mention syndicated columnists Ellen Goodman and Susan Estrich to counter conservatives George Will and Pat Buchanan. Sousa only has one column - on Mondays, and Garvin's column will only run every other Tuesday. Not exactly feature spots. The other metro columnist, Myriam Marquez, really doesn't fit neatly into a particular ideology (good). Overall, more balance which again is a good thing, but far from one side dominating over the other (another good thing).

Que Bueno

Re the previous post below on the Herald's new columnists, today was Jackie Bueno Sousa's first weekly column. In short, I like it. Some highlights:

One day, as I played outdoors with some friends, we came across two middle-aged men as they walked toward (Hialeah Race Track), passionately discussing the merits of several horses.

One of them, a portly, bearded man, was holding a stack of papers with each hand, the fingers of the right hand curled around a pencil. He'd clearly been doing a lot of research on the horses. The other, cleanshaven with brown hair slickly combed to the side, was trying to convince him to leave the paperwork behind.

''This is about luck,'' he was saying. ``Just go with your gut.''

My friends and I hung around outdoors most of the day and, after some time, I saw the two men again walking past us. Mr. Paperwork displayed a satisfied smile, while his companion looked grim.

''Were you lucky?'' I asked.

''Lucky?'' Mr. Paperwork repeated. ``Yes, I'm often lucky when I use my brain.''

That belief in man's power to foresee outcomes eventually would serve as a guide in much of what I would do later in life, as a writer for The Wall Street Journal, as editor of The Daily Business Review and The Miami Herald's Business Monday section, and even as a business owner.

...

I believe that Main Street is as responsible for the current economic crisis as Wall Street. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; that NFL play rules are beginning to coddle quarterbacks; and that all elected officials should be subject to term limits. I believe that man really did land on the moon; that history will redeem George W. Bush; that life begins after conception but before birth; and that nature will destroy us before we destroy it.

I can see our liberal friends' heads beginning to explode, especially with the Bush-redemption comment. After all, they've been fed the usual Bush = Evil garbage for so long so I understand their shock to hear another point of view.

Anyway, it's refreshing to see personal responsibility and accountability emphasized so clearly in a Herald column. Please read the rest of the article here.

Get in Line, NAACP

I tipped Henry Gomez about this article in today's Miami Herald about racist reader comments left to the Herald site on an article about the case involving the boot camp employees from Bay County up in the Panhandle.

The comments were derogatory towards blacks, obviously. I agree that the Herald needs to do a much better job of watching the comment threads and not allow that kind of anonymous, chicken-shit crap from being published. The local NAACP's complaints, led by Bishop Victor Curry, have merit. However, derogatory comments are nothing new at the Herald site, nor do they stop at targeting blacks.

As Henry noted in his latest Herald Watch post and letter to Herald ombudsman Edwin Schumacher-Matos, Cubans get bashed after practically every Herald article involving Cuba, Cuban-Americans or Cuban refugees.

Here's a snippet from a recent comment thread:

Well, here is another boat load of cuban lobster trap poachers that wil (sic) be added to the welfare rolls-- but then the US Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cuban Amer. National Foundation.

Whatever. Brave Jim from Marathon may be some bored 30-year-old resident of Boca Raton for all we know. It's gotten to the point where I just shrug and say exactly what the first word of this paragraph says. Still, the Herald, just like any blog-owner, IMO, must watch over the comments being made and make sure that offensive garbage like that not get posted. At least, the people leaving behind these comments need to be kicked the hell out.

Bishop Curry, we know how you feel.

You just saw the evidence. Do you now believe Gyllenhall's quote that the Herald routinely monitors and removes offensive comments? I sure don't.

The Miami Herald. A once solid newspaper going further and further down the drain every day. And I've just reached my limit with them.

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.