Blogs

In his column in Ocean Drive this month, Brett Sokol profiles developer David Edelstein, who was part of a group that in 2005 bought about 10 acres surrounding the Miami Herald for $190 million.

It really does seem only a matter of time that the Herald relocates. Here's a key passage:

[Edelstein] adds that had Herald parent company Knight Ridder not been "unexpectedly" bought by the rival McClatchy chain, inserting a new set of players into the mix, such a land sale would already have been negotiated. Still, he's confident McClatchy's CEO will eventually crunch the numbers and come to the same conclusion as Knight Ridder's honchos: to take the money and run, or at least move to a less valuable location. "You have printing presses sitting on waterfront land!" he marvels. And with McClatchy's executives scrambling for fresh revenue in the increasingly beleaguered newspaper industry, "staying there just doesn't make any sense.

Edelstein makes sense, no matter what one might think of a potential move. But might want to wait until the market rises a bit ... you know, in 2013 or so.

After the Jump: Shepherd Wins A Biggee

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This here is a most interesting story in the Broward Times by Elgin Jones about a a top South Florida building official with criminal past. And not just any crime -- like violent shit involving bomb threats and hired muscle.

That's James E. Sennello, the chief building official for the City of Deerfield Beach. Here's something almost even weirder: Sennello was hired in 1995 as a part-time electrical inspector and two weeks later he was promoted to chief building inspector. TWO WEEKS LATER. What the hell was that about? Any idea, Mayor Capellini?

I'm not one to automatically dig 20 years back into a man's past -- unless it's a serious crime that should disqualify the thug from ever working for the public. I think that applies in this case (it reminds me a little of that Woody Allen movie where the old woman hilariously learns that her retired, mild-mannered husband was a murderous cannibal who killed and ate his first family). Here's what I think is the key passage from Jones' most excellent report:

The case involved victim John Robinson, who in 1985 was the new owner of the Gambler Lounge, located at 2777 E. Oakland Park Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.

Sennello was the owner of a company called Ace Electric, and claimed he had $45,000 tied up in the club somehow, before it was sold, and he wanted to be paid. Robinson demanded proof of the debt. When he received none, he refused to pay.

Sennello then hired Robert Dykes, who was accompanied by Norman Peyton, to deliver a note threatening to bomb Robinson’s home and business, and cause him physical harm if he did not pay up.

According to Dykes, it was Sennello who devised the ploy in which he and Peyton coaxed Robinson out of the club.

They forced Robinson up against the truck Dykes was driving and began threatening him, saying four bombs had been placed at his

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After reading this about a fatal wrong-way collision on I-95 this morning, I was reminded of one of my son's football coach's instructions to the players: "If you're going at somebody, don't slow down, because he'll run right through you. It's like two cars in a head-on."

The words struck me, in part because the coach happens to be a police officer who might know about such things. Then I had a revelation: THAT'S WHY DRUNKS ALWAYS SEEM TO LIVE THROUGH HEAD-ON COLLISIONS.

They don't slow down. So the force they create crushes through the slower vehicle. The poor family that gets massacred? Well, daddy slams on the brakes, unwittingly guaranteeing doom for his kin. The faster car wins. Of course, the weight and design of the vehicles involved play a role, but the completely irresponsible moral of this story, which no responsible authority figure will ever tell you, is:

If you're about to get in an inevitable head-on, hit the gas and pray.

The Miami Herald has broken several important stories about Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne's downfall recently that Broward's hometown newspaper has missed, briefed, and/or ignored. Namely, the Herald has documented how our good sheriff has robbed the taxpayers one last time by charging dubious lawyers' fees to BSO. Specifically they learned that BSO paid former U.S. attorney Guy Lewis $650 an hour for his work on the Jenne case for a total of $272,000.

Oh that reeks (this morning's Herald editorial breaks it down pretty good, too). Whatever sliver of public dignity Lewis had left has vanished over this bit of influence peddling. But who cares about honor? He made off like one of the criminals he used to prosecute and in South Florida's slimy lawyer pit, that's all that matters. (Let's not forget about the million BSO spent on Jenne crony Tom Panza's whitewash either).

Congrats to the Herald and especially reporters Jay Weaver and Wanda J. DeMarzo for breaking the stories. To the Sentinel, well, take a cold shower and have another go at it.

UPDATE: Here's some scuttlebutt I should have shared: This thing is supposedly going to wrap up VERY SOON, and word is that Jenne is digging in his heels. King Ken refuses to do any jail time and so far won't agree to the plea deal his lawyers have tried to wrangle for him. It's Ken versus the world, which means we could be in for a trial. Yuck.

UPDATE II: This just posted on the the Miami Herald website:

Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne -- at one time the county's most powerful politician -- is facing a deadline Friday to accept a plea deal on federal corruption charges involving tens of thousands of dollars he allegedly received from sheriff's office contractors and employees, according to sources.

If Jenne declines the deal, he could soon face a grand jury indictment on more serious fraud and money-laundering offenses, sources said. The federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale is set to end its probe of Jenne's personal finances next month.

Speculation about Jenne's expected plea deal and resignation swirled around the Broward Sheriff's Office Friday. Jenne was reportedly in his fifth-floor office at the Ron Cochran Public Safety Complex on Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney sent this letter to the Miami Herald apologizing to the city for his recent ethical transgressions. I'm tempted to do another translation, but suffice it to say the Pulp is not impressed with this conniving carpetbagging cornholer and hopes he very soon drives that Lexus SUV back to where he came from.

The Miami Herald also has a story about the new MTV show, The Paper, that I told you about yesterday (the poor Sun-Sentinel apparently was caught unawares). Nirvi Shah, who does a nice reporting job, writes:

The Paper is being produced by the serious side of MTV, its award-winning MTV News and Docs branch. The goal is to show smart, ambitious students hard at work on an intense subject that they are naturally passionate about.

That's all fine and good, but if they really wanted a good story about journalism, why would they set the thing in Weston, an almost all-white, all wealthy, suburban enclave where the biggest issue facing most students is what to wear? In the post below, somebody mentions Deerfield Beach High School as having a good high school newspaper. Yes, and there's real issues -- life and death issues -- going on there.

This reminds me of when I had two job offers after driving down to live with a friend in Florida. One was from the News-Press in Fort Myers, the other from Florida Today in Melbourne. The drive into Melbourne was all department stores and upscale strip malls. The drive into Fort Myers on MLK Boulevard took me through Dunbar, a crime-torn black neighborhood that was once called "Crack Town USA" by HBO (in a real documentary). Guess which newspaper I picked.

Here's what I think MTV is looking for: Suburban high school drama, full of prettily dressed boys and girls, through the eyes of the slighly nerdy, aka the school newspaper geeks. We'll see.

UPDATE: While the Sentinel hasn't reported that the show has been greenlighted, it did report in the Community News section -- which I suppose counts -- that MTV was scouting the location for a possible show a couple months ago.

It's not so much that MSNBC conservative bitch boy Tucker Carlson admits to assaulting a gay guy in a Georgetown bathoom. It's that he had to go get a friend to help him do it. What an incredible douche.

It's rare that a headline really pisses me off. This one did. The Queen of Mean strikes again. I remember writing a piece about her new prison digs when I was doing a fellowship at the Lexington Herald-Leader back in the day (I went out to the women's prison and got catcalled by the inmates so much I came to know why women don't like it. I'm not an object, goddammit!). I'd like to describe where Hellmsley is now, but Dante already got it down pretty well.

But I wouldn't waste a whole post on her. Did you hear about the student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston? The newspaper, called The Circuit, is going to be the subject of an MTV reality show called "The Paper."

Said one producer, "MTV has always been about reflecting the lives and interests of our audience, and 'The Paper' is a perfect example. The compelling and fiercely competitive personalities of these student journalists prove that the news doesn't stop -- even in high school."

I don't want to be anything but supportive of yung journalists, even if they are from Weston, but I hope this isn't just going to be another melodrama about insufferable rich kids who live in huge houses. And the last time a South Florida cadre of young people was followed for documentary purposes, it led to a disappointing pile of crap.

But I'm holding out hope.

The Miami Herald's Amy Sherman writes about the county commission kicking Mayor Mouth off the tourism board. Solid article but here's a part I don't get:

"Commissioner Stacy Ritter said Grossman told her that a group that signed a deal to hold a conference at a resort that would have brought in $275,000 in economic benefit to the county has placed their event on hold. Also, sports teams are reevaluating travel plans due to concern about whether the community is safe."

What sports teams? The Gym Bunnies? Ritter is such a publicity hound she'll say

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Slate's Jack Shafer criticizes New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt for writing about what he calls a non-issue: people complaining to newspapers about old negative stories about them on the Web that damage their reputations.

Shafer complains that the topic doesn't warrant a column (one could counter that Shafer's complaint about Hoyt's story choice might not warrant an article, either). And he basically says that all those old stories should be left alone.

Generally I agree with that, but I don't agree that the subject isn't worth discussing. I have had people almost beg me to take old stories off the Internet. One recently said that a negative story about him/her had been up long enough and no one would notice it being taken down. They also tried to ply me with promises of future story tips.

Of course, the story is still up there and isn't going anywhere. But what if there was information in it that has proven not to be factual? What if the story story subject was accused of something that they were subsequently absolved of? Tough questions for any journalist who give a damn about fairness.

Here's Hoyt's original column.

Sun-Sentinel features columnist Ralph De La Cruz goes the Le Batard rout on the Michael Vick case, bringing up deer hunting and cockfighting. Like Le Batard's column, it's a bush league piece that meanders all over the place with half-baked ideas. Ultimately, he repudiates his own premise at the end of the piece. Here's a passage:

OK. Let's all agree that dogfighting is reprehensible.

Is cockfighting equally heinous? Or does the law of smaller-critters-count-less apply here? That's the unwritten code that says it's OK to squash an ant, but not a frog. It's based on our genetic predisposition to believe that the higher up the food chain, the more valuable an animal's life.

OK. Let's waive the small-critters-count-less rule and say cockfighting is

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Here's the text of Vick's public statement, along with the translation of what he really meant:

For most of my life, I've been a football player, not a public speaker, so, you know, I really don't know, you know, how to say what I really want to say. You know, I understand it's - it's important or not important, you know, as far as what you say but how you say things. So, you know, I take this opportunity just to speak from the heart.

Translation: I'm about to bullshit you.

First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that - that I've done and that I have allowed to happen. I want to personally apologize to commissioner Goodell, Arthur Blank, coach Bobby Petrino, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, you know, for our - for our previous discussions that we had. And I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least.

Translation: Please let me play football again.

I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and, you know, what I did was, what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up.

Translation: Sorry, kids, for my youthful

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Dan Le Batard is at his worst this morning, writing a load of BS about the "racial aspect" of the Michael Vick dogfighting case. Le Batard should stick to giggling on the radio rather than trying to tackle complex issues like race in America. He stumbles around, mentions O.J. Simpson, and ultimately winds up making one of the worst arguments imaginable:

Dogfighting is glorified in segments of the hip-hop community, so there are some cultural differences that complicate matters here. There isn't much of a difference between killing dogs for sport and the art of bullfighting.

You are walking a thin line if you see a lot of distinction between pitting dogs bred to fight and shooting a deer just to put the head up in your office. Go to Hialeah, and you'll see that one man's cruelty to animals is another man appeasing his god. Heck, our own states can't agree. Dogfighting is but a misdemeanor in two of them. Vick couldn't have known dogfighting had consequences this large or he wouldn't have been doing it. And it can be jarring to see one of your own lose his livelihood and freedom and name for something that isn't a lot different than bullfighting.

Oh shut the fuck up. You got a problem with bullfighting, go take

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-- It was almost like Tim Collie (who just won an NABJ award) and the Sun-Sentinel gave an answer to John DeGroot's apocalyptic view of the population changes in this Sunday's newspaper. Not that it was a pollyanna approach; the piece addresses issues involving sprawl, flight, and the lack of "connectedness" caused by the population shifts. But it clearly has a hopeful side, including a bit about the energy that immigrants bring to the place.

-- Hulk Hogan keeps making publicity he clearly craves, but in all the worst ways (I swear I remember he had a car stolen, too, but couldn't find anything on it).

-- This from Pulp reader Ted Fitzgerald of Margate:

"Love your blog, I agree with a lot of what you have said about the Sun-Sentinel. Is it just me, or have I a noticed a tremendous increase in the ads in section 1 of the SS? Last Monday's paper was like a mail order catalog. Is this just another part of the "Transformative Change"? I will still get the paper just for the crossword puzzle, Soduko and Tom Jicha."

Well, this morning I did a little counting and found that about 21.5 of the front section's 32 pages was ads. I don't know what the industry standards are, but that's definitely a high ratio. It does indeed seem to bode well for the newspaper's goal of beefing up ads while whittling down the news, though.

Most of ye in the media know that Sun-Sentinel TV reporter (whatever the hell that is) Raelin Storey recently jumped ship to the City of Hollywood to become its propag-- ... er, "media relations director."

Well, there's grumblings amongst the H-town activist crowd about Director Storey already, seeing as how her job is to serve and protect the absolutely f-ed up Hollywood government. What follows is a letter from a Pulp reader:

I have a question for you, and I think you are the perfect person to ask, since the situation sort of (though not totally) mirrors your own. And, as I hope you know by know, I respect your opinion and the work you do.

In your situation, you clearly, plainly and frequently disclose your relationship with your wife, Brittany Wallman, a reporter for the Sun Sentinel. Here is the situation I want to run by you. As you know, the City of Hollywood hired a new “spokesperson”, at the cost of (roughly) $92K/year. (From what I have seen, and this is just my editorial comment thrown in, main functions include squelching

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Click here to read it. The news station picked the right issue to lead with:

"Instead of implementing policies to combat health and safety threats such as AIDS, the mayor used his position to spread bigotry."

Well, they ain't lying.