November 18, 2006
Marti Madness
Filed under: Uncategorized
It’s hard not to laugh. On the same weekend that the Miami Herald publishes a corporate-induced appeasement to readers and newsroom staffers still angry at the firing (and of company’s reporters who took payments from the TV and Radio Marti propaganda stations, a senior executive at Marti was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking $100,000 in kickbacks.
Somebody wipe up that irony, it’s dripping all over the place.
For some hare-brained reason, I had high hopes for Clark Hoyt’s review of the Miami Herald’s coverage of the reporters who moonlighted for Marti. It’s running in tomorrow’s edition, but Editor & Publisher got an advance copy that can be read here.
The Herald hired Hoyt to help heal the newsroom after three reporters were fired from its Spanish-language sister El Nuevo Herald after it was revealed they took money from Marti, a U.S. government-run anti-Castro station beamed onto the Cuban island. Think of Hoyt as a journo-analyst, a man hired to find the root psychological problems in the newsroom and make them all better.
In his report, Hoyt writes that reporter Oscar Corral’s stories “raised a serious and legitimate issue,” an observation that should elicit a resounding and collective “duh” from the world. Then he starts with the appeasement. When Clark lists the “flaws” of the story, his No. 1 is as follows:
“Its placement at the top of Page One, its hard and accusatory tone and the large and breathless headline suggested something more sinister than the story actually reported. The subjects of the story said they felt treated as though they were criminals.”
Guess what? They are criminals — well, journalistic criminals, anyway. Any reporter who takes money from a propaganda station should expect to be fired and drummed out of the business forever (hey, they’d find suitable work, they’re already obvious experts at P.R.). So how does Clark, who obviously knows the truth of the previous sentence, rationalize the reporters’ actions?
(snip)
But you have to wonder if the Marti executive who allegedly took those kickbacks, Jose M. Miranda, will fall back on the same justifications listed in Clark’s report. You can almost hear him now:
“Your honor, I am of the Latin American culture, where kickbacks are business as usual. It’s a way of life, sir, so why should I be judged by your harsh U.S. standards? Also, I believe in the Marti mission — propaganda is in my soul, sir. I’ve lost all ability to think for myself, so, really, what do you expect …”
(snip/...)
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