Posted on 07/29/2005 11:42:02 AM PDT by summer
The fact that the Miami Herald will not give up the tape to the authorities disturbs me. They claim it is a "private and privileged piece of property." That may well be but it smacks more of coverup than cooperation.
Defede has indicated that he will cooperate with investigators .. and now that the Herald has fired him .. he's a free (and disgruntled) agent. That may come back to bite the Herald in the end.
At least, the bag Teele had with him when he shot himself contained documents as well as an audiotape. A Federal grand jury now has those items.
Jim DeFede fired from Herald
The Miami Herald Thursday, Jul. 28, 2005
by Jay Weaver
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 another person without that individual's consent in Florida.
DeFede told them that during his interview with Teele, he turned on a tape machine to record his conversation as the politician confided in him about his public corruption charges, financial problems and other sensitive issues, according to Díaz.
At one point, Teele told the columnist that he was not speaking on the record -- but DeFede continued to record him anyway without his knowledge, Díaz said.
Díaz said that The Herald had no choice but to dismiss DeFede because his conduct was potentially a felony crime and unethical.
More here borrowed en toto from www.babalublog.com.
UPDATE: From NBC6.net: "Fired Herald Columnist Speaks Out After Teele's Death." Here's a quote from Mr. Sensitivity:
In a tense situation I made a mistake. The Miami Herald executives only learned about it because I came to them and admitted it. I told them I was willing to accept a suspension and apologize both to the newsroom and our readers ... The Herald decided on the death penalty instead.
Nice choice of words, Jim. Way to go!
I thought about that too. But the other side of that coin may be that he won't bite the Herald because if he doesn't get his job back, he wants another job with another paper and biting the Herald would look back on his resume. (Plus lots of other newspapers are owned by their mother company Knight Ridder anyway)
How in the world can you have a "Firing Offense" from a legal perspective? Other than firing someone agaist EEO or ADA laws, is this a Union thing?
This might be a hint: the local Miami station, shortly after the suicide, allowed one of Teele's relatives on camera to scream that "black people are roadkill!"
I haven't followed the Teele story, since the words "corrupt" and "local politician" have long ago ceased to have any degree of separation in my mind, but after that few minutes of coverage, I knew the Herald would rush to make a sacrifice to the liberal god of race-baiting.
Luckily for the Herald, the reporter quickly obliged with the admission of a legally questionable tape recording.
Defede knows that his newspaper career is over. He's received the "death penalty" for going against the the multi-billion dollar real estate development-based cabal.
Blacks (Overtown district) will not be only ones run over in their pursuit of the dollars. They are after city-owned land on Virginia Key, Little Haiti, Allapattah, and Coconut Grove (Dinner Key, the marine stadium, abandoned parks and the real estate interests of Knight Ridder). North Beach and Surfside also have their hands full trying to keep status quo with their lands.
This really is a sad state of affairs.
I'm going to watch Miami channel 17 on Sunday evening at 9:00, a program I heard announced on WWFE 670 a.m. I think the show is in Spanish but when I practice my Spanish, I get some actual news to listen to, not Miami Enquirer--er Herald propaganda. Colonel Matias Farias is going to have a program entitled "Who was Arthur Teele". It looks to be very interesting.
Teele kept asserting his innocence so they wanted to demoralize him and the press forgot that he is innocent until proven guilty. Teele got distraught that no one would publish his side of the story. He complained sometime last year that the media would work for weeks assassinating his character and then call him about an hour before it ran to press to ask him if he wanted to refute the story.
From Local10.com
DeFede said he spoke to Teele twice Wednesday and that the long-time Miami politician was upset.
"He mainly called because he wanted to talk to me about the allegations about his homosexual affair, supposedly, that a prison inmate was making against him. You know, he was upset by what that was doing, the impact that was having on his son and he just more wanted to talk about that. He was very emotional and very distraught. He was just trying to reach out at that point," DeFede said.
DeFede said he recorded his second conversation he had with Teele Wednesday without getting Teele's permission. After Teele killed himself, DeFede said he told his bosses what he had done.
"It was very upsetting. I thought that their reaction was a bit too severe. The only reason that the Herald knew about the existence of the tape was that I came forward and told them. I realized I had made a mistake and I thought it was not something I should hide," DeFede said.
Someone on the miami herald forum says that Channel 10 played a tape where Defede said he was too busy to meet with Teele as distraught as Teele was, but he had time to illegally record his conversation
And another commenter
This can't be the first time ol Jim has flipped on the tape without telling the other person. This just isn't a "mistake" someone makes for the first time.
Who else did DeFede illegally record? Why?
I really hope the state attorney goes after him for this. It's a small crime. But if he did it 20 times, it's a very big deal. What if he did it 50 times? 100? More?
In my book the only thing worse than a corrupt politician is a hypocritical reporter. Kudos to the Herald for kicking him out.
Hit the bricks, Jim.
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