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MIAMI -- Suspended Miami Commissioner Art Teele shot himself in the Miami Herald building late this afternoon. Former Commissioner Arthur Teele Teele survived the shooting, and was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. Teele has one gun shot wound to the head and he had lost a great deal of blood, according to witnesses. According to witnesses, just after 6 p.m., Teele held a gun to his head, and spoke calmly with a security guard. Then when police arrived, he pulled the trigger.

I hope this column is outdated by the time you read it. Ordinarily, it is the bane of a columnist's existence, the fear that his words will become obsolete between the time of his writing and your reading. But in this case, that would be the happiest possible outcome, because it would mean Jim DeFede had his job back. That he lost it in the first place is a travesty.

<p>I searched the local newspapers this morning looking for any mention of the complaint filed by U.S. Naval Commander Jeffrey Gordon against the Miami Herald’s military reporter, Carol Rosenberg, “for abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature made against me and others while at Guantanamo and Andrews Air Force Base.”</p>

There seems to be an interesting rule of thumb lately in the newspaper business. Whenever a publisher delivers a pep talk about how well they are doing or about their future plans for improvement, it always signals bad news in the near future. And the more fervent the pep talk, the steeper the circulation plunge. This certainly has proved true with the Miami Herald. Here is a video from late March of the Herald publisher, David Landberg, boldly promising better things in the future for that ailing newspaper: We've all been dealing with a pretty steady diet of difficult financial...

The Miami Herald finally has added not one, but two, conservative columnists, and in the second month of the change I judge it a resounding success. This doesn't mean that I agree with Jackie Bueno Sousa and Glenn Garvin, but that they have brought interesting, lively points of view that represent the sensibilities of large parts of South Florida's readership -- and challenge the rest. ''A true conservative is not afraid of the reaction to the truth,'' wrote reader Jaime Basagoitia in welcoming them. But no opinion would be appropriate without an opposing one. Reader Scott J. Siegel wrote, in...

Want to know what is going on in Cuba? Well, the Miami Herald is feeding its readers propaganda printouts from the Communist government's Cuban News Agency (ACN) and passing it off as legitimate news. What also makes this practice especially insidious is that the pages on which these stories appear makes it seem as if they are Associated Press stories (AP). Note the prominent capitalized "AP" in the URL of the Herald's most recent ACN story: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/AP/story/969447.html. And despite that "AP" this is not an AP story. It is strictly a copy and paste story from ACN or, more accurately,...

Remember Baghdad Bob? He was the Iraqi press spokesmen who caused much amusement in the West because of his unrealistically upbeat pronouncements when Iraq was invaded by the United States and its allies in 2003. Among Baghdad Bob's funnier announcements was his declaration that no Americans were in Baghdad at the same moment when American troops were patrolling the streets of that city just a few hundred yards from where he was holding that press conference. Well, the newspaper industry has its own Baghdad Bob in the form of McClatchy CEO, Gary Pruitt, who in early 2007 gave his own...

The McClatchy Co., burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company's plans. McClatchy, the nation's third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors' interest in buying newspapers. The company refused to discuss the matter. Elaine Lintecum, the treasurer, said, "We do not comment on market rumors."

The Dallas Morning News endorsed McCain on Oct. 18

Perhaps it is time for the remaining Miami Herald employees to break out the Santeria rooster once again. Just three months after announcing job cutbacks in June, the Miami Herald has just announced that it is axing another 119 employees (emphasis mine): Three months after announcing plans to trim 250 jobs, the Miami Herald Media Co. said Tuesday it is cutting another 119 positions, or about 10 percent of the remaining workforce.Eighty full- and part-time employees will leave the company, while other, vacant jobs will be eliminated, Miami Herald President and Publisher David Landsberg said.

Miami Herald Publisher David Landsberg announced in an email to employees this afternoon that the newspaper is cutting 119 jobs in what amounts to the third round of buyouts, according to two newsroom sources. The cuts are being made across the McClatchy Company, which in total is slashing 1150 positions across the chain. Landsberg's explanation to employees, issued today at about 4:30 p.m., was dictated to the Pulp by one reporter. "Today we are announcing plans to reduce our worforce by 119 full-time equivalents, or about 10 percent of all employees," Landsberg wrote. "About 80 full-time and part-time employees will...

If you are wondering why the stories in your local newspapers are starting to look so similar to other newspapers, it might be because they are following the new business model of South Florida newspapers: eliminating competition. All the major South Florida newspapers, Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (now called SunSentinel), and Palm Beach Post have had big staff cutbacks recently. So who is left to cover the news? The skeleton crews still working at the newspapers don't have the capability so they came up with a solution: pool their resources and share their stories. A story in Friday's Sun-Sentinel,...

Can anybody out there figure out whom "undecided" Miami Herald columnist Myriam Marquez will ultimately vote for in the November election? Gee. It is really tough to figure it out but perhaps we can investigate a few elusive clues starting with the title of her column, "McCain must move past old Bush mantra." Hmm... Not enough information there. Perhaps we can discover Marquez's preference by analyzing her column which discusses the appearences of both candidates at the VFW convention in Orlando. First the money quote from Ms Marquez: Still on the fence, like so many other undecided Americans, I'm hoping to see McCain...

The Miami Herald has reacted to charges that one of its opinion page contributors was a Cuban espionage agent with an article that is both low in substance and high in anger. The background to this story, about how the media is using "expert" analysis from professors identified by the U.S. government as Cuban spies, was reported last Tuesday in NewsBusters by Lynn Davidson. This is Davidson's description of that Herald opinion page contributor: Marifeli Perez-Stable is a Florida International University sociology professor, a Council on Foreign Relations member and a media darling who sees Cuba in a “different light.” She contributes to the Miami...

Take a look at this VIDEO of a Santeria replica rooster at the Miami Herald. The Miami Herald employees turned to a replica rooster sanctioned by a Santeria priest in the hope that they would be spared large job cutbacks. You can read details about this over at NEWSBUSTERS. Bottom line is that the replica rooster did not work as you can see from this Miami Herald ARTICLE titled, "Miami Herald to reduce its staff by 250," that was posted earlier today by John Dorschner. See, here's the deal. If you are going to invoke Santeria, you're just going...

Miami Herald employees, worried about retaining their jobs due to severe cutbacks in the newspaper industry, have now looked to a Santeria 'rooster' (photo) for help. The rooster is actually a life sized replica with a note attached that says: Brought in by a Santeria priest (the real deal from Hialeah) to help save our jobs. Leave an offering. The rooster and the offerings were placed on a fifth floor counter last Thursday facing an elevator bank in the Herald building in Miami. Among the offerings placed on the counter by the end of that work day were coins, cigars,...

It often seems to be the attitude of the MSM to marginalize Republicans as some sort of square alien creatures who are not really hip like the rest of us...meaning Democrats. Such was the assumption of Miami Herald columnist, Beth Reinhard, when she began My search for cool among Republicans. Her search was inspired by a Sunglass Hut billboard in South Forida that suggests that even Republicans could look hip with the right shades: The good-looking hipster with the slicked back, slightly mussed hair looks out from his dark shades.''He's a Republican,'' reads the billboard spotted around South Florida in recent weeks. ``But...

The night started like many for John Lovell, a 71-year-old ex-Marine and helicopter pilot who served two presidents. Late dinner alone at a Plantation Subway shop -- veggie sub, soda, oatmeal cookie. Wednesday night, though, Lovell's meal was interrupted by an armed robbery. Two gunmen stormed into the sandwich shop at about 11 p.m., robbed the cashier and tried to shove Lovell -- the lone customer -- into the bathroom. Two bullets later, one gunman was dead, another was wounded and Lovell was being hailed as a hero. ''There's no such thing as an ex-Marine, and he typifies this,'' said...

Great going, Miami Herald. There's a really "unbiased" article title for you, Want storm info? Fire gasbag Limbaugh, WIOD told. This is why I am using the "unbiased" Newsweek cover photo above of a sinister looking Rush Limbaugh with smoke curling up (photoshopped?) over his face asking, "Is Rush Limbaugh Good For America?" And in case the there were any completely CLUELESS readers out there, Newsweek conveniently tells you what they think the answer should be with this addition to the title: "Talk radio is only the beginning. Electronic populism threatens to short-circuit representative democracy." Well, I have a...

CHICAGO The Mexico edition of The Miami Herald, Mexico City's only English-language daily, is folding on June 1, the paper announced. "Unfortunately due to economic considerations the paper will close until further notice," the paper said in a note to readers. There was no further information on the shuttering. The paper was launched four years ago in a partnership with the big Mexico City daily El Universal. It was not clear who made the decision to pull the plug on the Herald. A McClatchy Co. spokesperson said he had no information on that. Officials involved with the newspaper at the...

MIAMI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A man possibly carrying a machine gun entered the headquarters of the Miami Herald newspaper on Friday, forcing some workers to evacuate the bayfront building in downtown Miami, police and newspaper officials said. The man, who was wearing camouflage, was identified by Herald employees as Jose Varela, a cartoonist who had worked for the Herald's Spanish-language sister publication, El Nuevo Herald. "We believe he's armed with what the security guard is describing as a machine gun," Miami Police spokesman Delrish Moss told CNN. No one was was being held hostage and no shots had been...

MIAMI — An man claiming to be armed entered The Miami Herald building on Friday, causing the evacuation of employees from the newspaper's offices on the sixth floor. Herald employees identified the man as El Nuevo Herald cartoonist Jose Varela, according to newspaper. Some news reports say the man is armed with a shotgun. Police were on the scene and set up a perimeter around the downtown Miami building that houses The Miami Herald and its Spanish-language publication El Nuevo Herald. It was not immediately known if there were injuries or hostages in the building. It was not immediately known...

LAT tops in circ drop Among big-city newspapers, only the Miami Herald (8.8%) lost a bigger percentage of its daily readers than the Los Angeles Times (8%) in today's new numbers. The Times, of course, led in raw numbers of readers lost with a daily circulation now of 775,766. Remember that it's only since Tribune took over that the daily count fell below a million, and the last pre-Tribune CEO, Mark Willes, even talked boldly (some might say insanely) about going for two million. Instead, daily circulation is now far below the national big boys: Wall Street Journal, USA Today...

The Miami Herald's Meltdown Over Cuba by Paul Crespo Posted Oct 12, 2006 While the Miami Herald's recent front-page attempt to smear 10 decent Miami journalists (including me) who worked on U.S.-government TV Marti broadcasts to Cuba, blew up in its face, the paper's scandal has unmasked more serious concerns. Clearly visible now are the Herald’s arrogance, latent anti-Cuban American bias, and lack of professionalism. When the original Herald story broke September 8, many asked, "With Fidel Castro dying, and his brother Raul struggling to succeed him, why is the Herald doing this now?" That question was even more pressing...

----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Tira - McClatchy Corporate To: CHACHI Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 12:36 PM Subject: RE: There are pro-Castro folk inside The Herald As the new owners of The Miami Herald, we want to join in the apologies that have been extended for mistakes and missteps there, and to ask you to give us the time and opportunity to show what our ownership will mean. The McClatchy Company is proud of almost 150 years of newspaper history and its long record of respectful community journalism. We want to assure you that we intend to bring...

The Miami Herald's publisher resigned Tuesday, saying "ambiguously communicated" personnel policies resulted in the firings of three journalists at its Spanish-language paper who were paid to appear on U.S.-government broadcasts aimed at promoting democracy in Cuba. Jesus Diaz Jr., the papers' publisher since July 2005, had dismissed two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance contributor who had been paid by Radio Marti and TV Marti. Diaz said the company offered to rehire the three and that six others who took payments would not be disciplined. Diaz also resigned as president of the Miami Herald Media Co. "I realize and...

At least two news organizations were tipped off to e-mail messages sent by Representative Mark Foley long before the story of his sexually explicit remarks to teenage pages broke last week and forced him to resign. --Snip-- Brian Ross of ABC News said he learned about the e-mail messages in August but was too busy with Hurricane Katrina and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue them immediately. None of the organizations seemed to anticipate how big the story would become. ---Snip--- Then, in June, the reports resurfaced on Capitol Hill, where a neighborhood resident struck up a...

OUR OPINION: AN OCCASION TO REAFFIRM COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY The Miami Herald enters a new era today. The McClatchy Co. will assume ownership and corporate stewardship of this newspaper and its century-old tradition of quality journalism and dedication to the prosperity and well-being of the communities it serves. The sale of this newspaper is an occasion to reaffirm our commitment to those principles and to welcome a corporate parent with its own history of success and devotion to those same ideas. Second largest chain James McClatchy, the progenitor of McClatchy Co., was an Irish immigrant who would well have...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

NEW YORK The firing of a Miami Herald columnist for secretly taping a phone conversation with a county commissioner minutes before the public official's suicide in the newspaper's lobby has raised questions about whether his actions constitute a fireable offense. Although Florida law prohibits the taping of anyone's phone conversation without their consent, legal experts differ over how that might apply to a reporter. Herald staffers, meanwhile, have expressed concern that the columnist, Jim DeFede, might have been fired too quickly by editors who were responding under duress from the suicide. Strictly interpreted, the law seems to indicate that DeFede...

Metro columnist Jim DeFede said he taped a phone conversation with Art Teele hours before the politician shot himself. Executives said they fired DeFede because taping is illegal without consent. The Herald fired columnist Jim DeFede Wednesday because he tape-recorded a phone conversation with Arthur E. Teele Jr. without his knowledge. Teele had killed himself in The Herald's lobby earlier in the day without ever knowing that the columnist recorded their conversation. Both Publisher Jesús Díaz Jr. and Executive Editor Tom Fiedler said they fired the popular Metro writer because it is illegal for anyone to tape a conversation with...

Here's an interesting dichotomy: There's a story about me and Babalu Blog on the front page of today's Miami Herald. I was interviewed a few weeks ago, a photographer came by the house and shot the pictures. I wasnt sure why anyone would want to run a story on me or my blogging. I mean, I just sit here in front of the computer and write about things and issues that are important to me. I write about family and politics and pig cooking. But, obviously and as most of you that come here regularly know, I write mostly about...

While the Venezuelan government takes moves to silence the local media and opposition protests, US newspapers have quietly published editorials describing the Venezuelan government as a dictatorship. The usually reticent and liberal Los Angeles Times reports that the dictatorship has “gradually been stripping Venezuelans of their basic rights and freedoms,” and that “Chavez is systematically clamping down on democratic freedoms.” The facts, according to the Los Angeles Times, are undeniable:

[F]ormer New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik has been selected by President Bush to... [head] Homeland Security.... Certainly it was a moment to remember for Kerik, an up-from-the-streets type of fellow who began life as the son of a New Jersey prostitute, maneuvered his way into becoming a limo driver and bodyguard for the Mayor, and has now wound up ready to take on the role of a lifetime as a kind of cabinet-level Bo Dietel for the whole of America. ...[A] timely recent sale of stock in a company called Taser International, Inc., where he has been serving...

...Terry McAuliffe called the program "an illegal in-kind contribution" to the Bush campaign and said the Democratic National Committee is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Over at the FCC, Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps interrupted his Columbus Day holiday to dub the broadcast "an abuse of the public trust." More ominously, Kerry adviser Chad Clanton told Fox News yesterday that "I think they (Sinclair) are going to regret doing this, and they better hope we don't win." ...It wasn't the intention of the Founders to give elected officials veto power over press reports.... The excuse for such broadcast...

On May 13, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy berated Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemning "disaster after disaster" in U.S. Iraq policy. Well before the Abu Ghraib revelations, Kennedy has sought to transform Iraqi freedom from a philosophical and strategic issue into a partisan debate, without regard either to reality or result. On April 6, Kennedy called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam." On March 5, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, took the president to task for allegedly exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq: "The evidence so far leads to...

President Bush's defense of his military service during the Vietnam War must have brought back memories to a whole generation of Americans. Anyone who was a male in his late teens or early 20s during the late 1960s and early 1970s knows the dilemma that Bush faced. They also know that his version of history does not tell the whole story. Most Americans may not understand that. A majority of Americans were either born after the fighting ended in 1975 or were too young to have any first-hand knowledge of it. They might think that war was just like the...

Double standard? Pat Buchanan, in his Nov. 29 Other Views column, It's time to revolt against judges, on gay marriage, states: • ''It is time for elected representatives to take back powers that were never constitutionally granted to any court.'' • ''The Massachusetts court has just usurped the power of the elected branches, and they should slap the court down.'' • ''Time to go to the root of America's social crisis: the power usurped by judges and imposed against the will of the people and their chosen representatives.'' Why didn't Buchanan apply those same ideas after the 2000 presidential election?

Three months after Cuban President Fidel Castro launched his harshest crackdown on dissidents in decades, there's still no agreement on what drove him to take such steps and then lash out at valuable European allies that criticized him. Fear that dissent had escalated into a real threat? A fit of pique by a grumpy old man? An attempt to tighten controls on society as the island's economy tumbles? Some foreign analysts profess to be baffled by Castro's decision to silence dissent and blast European allies that are Cuba's most loyal sources of trade and tourism.

'Herald' Goes Undercover to Cover Carter Cuba Denies 'Herald' Reporters VisasBy Joe StruppThe CIA just might be able to learn a few things from The Miami Herald. If they want to improve their undercover operations in Cuba, that is.Because of a long-standing Cuban policy that denies reporter visas to Herald staff writers, the newspaper is forced to send reporters to the island undercover as tourists, according to executive editor Tom Fiedler. He told E&P on Wednesday that a Herald reporter is in Cuba and filed stories about this week's trip by former President Jimmy Carter -- which appeared under no...