Random Pixels’ latest column is a MUST-READ scathing discourse about the state of the Miami Herald today. In There are no ‘dirt-bag’ murders, he published a short excerpt from a book written by Pulitzer Prize winning former Herald crime reporter and author Edna Buchanan. One line he quoted from The Corpse Had a Familiar Face especially stood out to me:
“The Miami Herald is South Florida’s newspaper of record, and I felt compelled to report every murder, every death on its pages – names, dates, facts – to preserve them in our newspaper, in our files, in our consciousness, on record forever, in black and white.”
As Random Pixels pointed out in his column, this mindset is a thing of the past at the Miami Herald. He noted in particular three murders last year in Miami’s Northside District that went completely unreported by the Herald. RP also “obtained a copy of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s General Investigations Contact Shooting Log,” and wrote:
“The log shows that in 2013, 139 shootings occurred. Thirty-nine of those were homicides. And of the 139 shootings, detectives have managed to close just 28 cases. Of the homicides, they’ve closed only 9. One hundred nine shooting cases in the Northside District remain open or pending.
After looking at the numbers, I began to look at the names of the shooting victims. Then I started to run the names of the victims through the Herald archives.
What I found astounded me.
As far as I can tell, the Miami Herald – South Florida’s paper of record for over 100 years, and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of crime – no longer covers murder. At least not in the Northside District. None of the names of the victims on the Northside District shooting log showed up in the Herald’s story archives.” (Emphasis is mine.)
A sad commentary, to say the least.
While we’ve only had one homicide in North Miami Beach this year so far, there have been several “attempted homicides,” along with the usual and customary armed robberies, home invasions, gang-style shoot ’em ups, with some friendly fire and criminal mischief on the side, and a kidnapping/rape thrown in for good measure. Aside from murder, most of these crimes go unreported in our city. I hear about almost all of them from the peeps on LeoAffairs and then I try to follow up with the Police Department. “Try” being the operative word.
I saw these recent posts on LeoAffairs:
Another shooting
Another 3-30 last night. That’s shooting for you citizens who like to keep track of these things. How many does that make for this week? Lebanon is looking safer every day. Maybe when I’m 80 and finally collecting my pension that the council want wants to steal from me I’ll move there.
Re: Another shooting
I see Staf hasn’t even blogged about last night’s yet. I guess when there’s so many even she gets bored of them after a while.
Re: Another shooting
Let’s not forget about the armed home invasion on Friday night.
Re: Another shooting
So within a three day period. We had three shootings and one armed home invasion. Can you say GHETTO!!!!!!
So I followed up with an email to Tom Carney and Kathy Katerman, the Public Information Officers at the North Miami Beach Police Department on March 3, 2014:
From: Stephanie Kienzle
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2014 6:44 AM
To: Katerman, Kathy; Carney, Tom
Subject: Crimes
Can either of you give me details about the shooting and armed robbery that took place over the weekend?
Steph
Tom Carney wrote back:
From: Carney, Tom <Tom.Carney@nmbpd.org>
Date: Fri, Mar 3, 2014 at 3:25 PM
Subject: RE: Crimes
To: Stephanie Kienzle
Stephanie: Please be more specific. Are you asking about a shooting and a robbery as one or two separate incidents. I need more details please.
I responded:
From: Stephanie Kienzle
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2014 4:30 PM
To: Carney, Tom
Subject: Re: Crimes
A shooting on Saturday night. An armed home invasion on Friday night. That’s all I know.
And I got back this yesterday:
From: Carney, Tom <Tom.Carney@nmbpd.org>
Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 8:53 AM
Subject: RE: Crimes
To: Stephanie Kienzle
Sorry for the delay. I was waiting for more details from the detectives. There was a home invasion robbery in the 1100 block of 157 Street. Not sure if that is what you are referring to. As far as a shooting there was a MDPD homicide at NE 8 Avenue and 153 Terrace. We had some drive by shootings into unoccupied cars at 15300 blk of NE 10 Avenue, 1100 blk of NE 152 Terrace. Since these are ongoing criminal investigations, I have no details to release.
Alrighty then. Nothing to see here, folks. Move right along.
If the Miami Herald doesn’t seem to think that it’s worth reporting 139 shootings, with 39 of them resulting in homicide, as Random Pixels heartbreakingly reported, is it any wonder our penny ante crimes don’t get any ink? I spoke with a veteran journalist at the Miami Herald recently about our city’s shooting crime sprees and wondered why almost all of it goes unreported. The answer I got was hardly surprising – that unless there’s an actual murder, it’s not really newsworthy.
As Random Pixels pondered in his blog:
“By failing to report on violent crime in certain Miami neighborhoods, Herald editors seem to be sending an unequivocal message to their readers in those neighborhoods: “Your life has no worth. You are dirt-bags. We don’t care about your story or about how much suffering you endure. It’s not our problem. We don’t live there. Besides, we’re busy working on another page one story on Haiti.”
It’s a real shame that there are no Edna Buchanans at the Miami Herald any longer.
At RP’s suggestion, I sent an email to the Herald’s managing editor, Rick Hirsch, and executive editor, Mindy Marques:
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2014 15:08:02 -0500
Subject: THIS is why…
From: Stephanie Kienzle
To: rhirsch@miamiherald.com; amarques@miamiherald.com
The Miami Herald is no longer relevant:
http://randompixels.blogspot.
You should be ashamed of yourselves for not reporting the news any more. Reporters like Edna Buchanan no longer exist at the Miami Herald. Really, the only thing your newspaper is good for are Sunday crossword and coupons, which is the only day I bother to even purchase it. The ink-covered newsprint lines the litter boxes for my cats.
If I want real news I read the local blogs!
Stephanie Kienzle
VotersOpinion.com
‘Nuff said.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
UPDATE: Random Pixels slammed the Herald again in ANOTHER blog today, Everything you need to know about the state of the Miami Herald in 36 words. SMACK!
Your last letter is exactly my position. I stopped receiving the Herald a lon time ago when it became irrevelent . L just receive it on weekends as my wife wants to see the sales and coupons.
While I too lament the downward spiral of the MH as a relevant newspaper, of greater concern is the apparent downsizing of our local Police Departments especially the Miami- Dade PD. it’s bad no reporting…. It’s horrific no investigations of worth
New area code for NMB
3-30