I received an email last week from the editor of the Miami Sun Post asking about possibly publishing a photo from Babalú. After contacting the editor I learned that they had opted not to publish the photo but that the blog was still going to be mentioned in an upcoming piece.
Now, I was a bit nervous about this, as I had not been interviewed nor contacted by the reporter and this blog, like most others, not only serves as a means for disseminating information, but takes the Mainstream Media to task for their somewhat slanted approach to journalism at times. We slam the MSM here every single time we find their coverage of certain events to be biased and contextually farcical.
But on Friday, when I picked up a copy of last week's Sun Post, I was surprisingly surprised.
Editorial columnist Rebecca Wakefield took on the local major print media outlet - as well as local TV reporting - and notes:
This is partially because the decision-makers at most print media companies have figured out that it is far cheaper to send their reporters to endless meetings, where reliable copy can be generated, than to have them mucking around in the uncertain depths, where great stories are born only after much time and effort. Wait long enough and anything that’s really untoward will usually bubble out onto the surface.This is the theory that seems to govern (with some notable exceptions) a lot of the special reports churned out in the last few years by our local daily paper – which has tended to “discover” problems at the Public Health Trust, the school district, the airport and the city of Miami only after a given situation is far enough along to warrant prize-winning headlines. (See the fairly recent flip of Herald coverage of the condo boom from boosterism to skepticism. You know the end of a trend is near when the Herald finally gets it.)
Meanwhile, most television reporters get sent to car crashes and other useless spectacles, while real news is squeezed into sound bites between the weather and sports.
Ouch. Sometimes the truth hurts, and the folks at the Miami Herald and local TV stations should be slapping on some Band-aids right about now.
Wakefield then honors this humble blogger with the following:
My hopes for Miami’s atrophied media landscape rest in cyberspace, where, as in our gloriously cantankerous radioscape, debate can get deliciously vicious. It is a premature sentiment at this point, since Miami lags far behind most sizeable cities in terms of a vibrant online community, but a prenatal awareness is stirring. Some folks, like Valentin Prieto, have Web logs devoted mostly to Cuban and local Cuban-American news, politics and commentary. Prieto describes his Babalú blog, www.babalublog.com, as “an island on the net without a bearded dictator.”
She goes on to quote my post about my wife's encounter at the Che Guevara post card selling head shop and states:
"That’s great slice-o-life stuff, no matter where you come down on the political spectrum."
And therein lies the beauty of blogs. We aren't out here in cyberspace just to opine ad infinitum and we arent out here just as media watchdogs. Bloggers write about events or subjects that the MSM doesnt. Whether by design or by a lack of understanding, the mainstream media just refuses to shed light on certain things.
And that's why circulation numbers are dropping for most major news media outlets throughout the country. Because bloggers are out there giving first hand accounts of real life. Unedited.
Posted by Val Prieto at August 22, 2005 09:10 AM |
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/2123
Congratulations Val!
Posted by: CB at August 22, 2005 09:42 AM
GOOD JOB VAL!!
Maybe you can replace Mr DeFede at the Herald!! I think the MSM is finally waking up to their own vomit!!
Posted by: carmen at August 22, 2005 09:50 AM
Congratulations Val! There is no doubt that the bloggers have the MSM running scared!
Posted by: Jose Aguirre at August 22, 2005 09:56 AM
Beautifully said, Val! Love the postcard story too! Delighted they used it.
We do take the media to task, don't we? They provide us with such rich material.
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at August 22, 2005 10:14 AM
Val - Carmen is onto something - you would be fantastic to replace DeFeed.
Congratulations!!!
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at August 22, 2005 10:15 AM
One more vote for Val to replace DeFede!
Posted by: cachito at August 22, 2005 10:19 AM
I don't think that Val has to replace DeFede. Val is great on his own and Babalu is the needed counterweight to keep the MSM in check. Go Val. Punch harder. The job of the bloggers is to take the media to the ropes and punch the truth through their fosilized leftist minds. And Val is a great heavyweight at that!
Posted by: CB at August 22, 2005 10:28 AM
Congratulations Val!
When I grow up I want my blog to be as good as this one! They can run, but today they have no place to hide.
Posted by: madtom at August 22, 2005 12:06 PM
This is great Val, congrats. I wonder how long it will be before some lazy msm worker gets caught plagiarizing bloggers like you.
Posted by: Kathleen at August 22, 2005 12:25 PM
Media has an ambulance chasing problem in most markets. It's not just a Miami problem. Fox News is exhibit A on a national market (all others are quilty too, but I pick on Fox because they have the highest ratings). If anyone here was interested in the runaway bride story, or the girl that went missing in Aruba, and followed those stories closely, than you really can't blame the media for going for the ratings. In almost all local markets car crashes are waaaaayyy over reported. Why? Because people stop to watch! And these incidents have little impact on society as a whole.
Posted by: Meyer at August 22, 2005 02:09 PM
This, friends, is the voice of the new revolution, a true democratic revolution, of the people for the people, and by the people, with no bearded dictators. Val and his brothers in arms, with we as their faithful soldiers, will change the world, by exposing one leftist fraud, liar, and dictator after another. I hereby nominate Val as El Commandante of the the Tropico Brigade of the People's Electronic Front. Viva Libertas! Viva Veritas! Viva Valentinus Maximus!!!
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at August 22, 2005 06:08 PM
Great!! Impro Max!! My vote is to have Val blogging and at the Herald giving them HELL!!!
DeFede EAT YOUR FAT HEART OUT!!
VAL...HERE YOU COME!!!
Posted by: carmen at August 22, 2005 09:48 PM