Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams writes in his latest “Think Piece” that the financial problems facing the company are “way above my pay grade” and, borrowing a popular corporate slogan, he is focused on maximizing “our successful brands that reach out and touch a lot of people.” Specifically, Abrams singles out the…
The New York Times’ Bill Marsh found the statistics. When it comes to corruption, Florida crushes Illinois in terms of raw number of convicted officials. We’re No. 1, with New York a rather distant second. Chicago’s state falls all the way down the list to the seventh spot. Yeah. That’s…
— The Sun-Sentinel, which never misses an excuse to link seemingly random pictures of half-naked women on its home page, hit a new low on that score over the weekend. The newspaper put up the headline: Aniston Naked. Under it was, yes, Jennifer Aniston from the latest GQ cover (it’s now on the…
A government source just informed the Pulp that Deerfield Mayor Al Capellini has been charged right now with crimes of corruption by the State Attorney’s Office. His mug shot, taken hours ago, is pictured at right. UPDATED: The charge is unlawful compensation, a third-degree felony stemming from his involvement in the development at Natura…
Ah, a career highlight — I got the first Ron Book post-loogey-in-the-eye interview. I believe that means I have finally arrived as a journalist in this town. We’ve all heard by now that the lobbyist was accosted by a mad vagrant Tuesday night after pushing the commission to vote in favor of…
Well, my timing was exquisite but I focused on the wrong politician. Steve Gonot, according to the Deerfield Advocate blog, has resigned his office this morning, apparently as part of a plea deal with the State Attorney’s Office. NEW: He has been booked into jail (mugshot at right). Gonot was investigated by the…
So rumors are out there about the State Attorney’s Office investigation of Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini. Word is that an FDLE probe of his political nemesis and challenger for the mayor’s chair, Commissioner Steve Gonot, has also been forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office for a decision. The truth…
It’s a sad day for journalism. Former Miami Herald researcher and “Infomaniac” Liz Donovan has died of lung cancer at age 63. Read the Miami Herald obit on Donovan here, which includes some interesting stuff about her work at the Washington Post as a researcher for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during Watergate. After retiring…
The development is an abomination, a blight on South Florida, a bitter insult to Mother Nature herself. And like all bad projects, it is being greased through City Hall with the basest lubricant there is: cold cash. The monstrosity in question is the aptly named Everglades Corporate Park, about ten…
As I reported Monday, the giant developer Related Group and the Fanjul sugar family, owner of Florida Crystals, have been in talks to try to purchase the Miami Herald. From the Herald today: … Miami real estate developer Jorge Perez confirmed Monday that he and Florida sugar magnate Alfonso Fanjul…
The deadline for filing to run in the March election is January 9 — and Deerfield Mayor Al Capellini, who has filed early and often during his two-plus decades in office — has yet to open his campaign. This is highly unusual and rumors abound that there’s a good reason that Capellini isn’t running (yet) — the ongoing corruption investigation being done…
We’ve all heard about the arrest of Illinois Rod “I’m Not A Crook II” Blagojevich, but did you hear the one about his wife? Patricia Blagojevich is the one who seems to have instigated the (allegedly criminal) attempt by the guv to try to bribe Sam Zell into firing the Chicago Tribune’s editorial…
I’ve always felt that Broward County land heir and powerbroker Miles Austin Forman was nothing but a menace to society. But I might be wrong — he may only be a part-time menace to society. So I’m laying down a challenge: Somebody, anybody, give me an example of something good…
Look, I don’t know exactly what this means, but I’m blatantly parroting a Tribune-related post from LA Observed that ran on the other side of the continent. LA-O found this passage in Tribune’s bankruptcy filings: How are severance payments affected? All ongoing severance payments, deferred compensation and other payments to former employees have been…
On the day the company declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Tribune’s Chief Innovation Officer, Lee Abrams, issues a “think piece” to staff in which he says Tribune newspapers must “own” the recession: THE RECESSION: Discussion on we should position our papers and TV as the vehicles that helps people through the recession…
CNBC just reported that Sun-Sentinel parent Tribune Co. has just filed for bankruptcy. How fast was that? “It’s one of the fastest bankruptcy filings on new issue of debt since Worldcom — since Worldcom,” answers one of the prettier talking heads on the network. The good news is that at…
I hit the Sun-Sentinel last week for whoring up its news with a vapid cover story on slot machines in an obvious attempt to curry favor with the big-advertising pari-mutuels. Today it’s time to turn to the Miami Herald, which has strapped on its knee pads for … CompUSA. This…
What a weekend for South Florida newspapers — a very bad one. The Miami Herald is up for sale and Tribune Co., the parent of the Sun-Sentinel, is preparing for what may be inevitable bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the media company — which counts among its…
Thought this was a good time to listen to McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt defend the Knight Ridder buy and talk about journalism’s promising future — from early 2007. In it, he quotes Abe Lincoln and Lenny Kravitz and proves he’s a clueless tool. I can’t believe he still has his…
Bidders welcome The debt-ridden McClatchy Company is trying to unload the Miami Herald, reports the New York Times. So far, it hasn’t found any buyers, though. This is huge news, but its not being reported on the Herald home page (or the Sun-Sentinel’s — though it had a brief in…
When Joe Kollin began working in the newspaper business more than four decades ago, he began a routine. Every day the self-described pack rat had a story, he would snip it out of the newspaper and glue it onto a letter-sized piece of paper. Then he would staple it with the carbon copy version from…
Did you hear? Did you hear? Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy called Dwyane Wade a “cheater”! Well, not exactly. At all. But somehow what Dunleavy said about Wade to someone a thousand miles away traveled through cyberspace and wound up on Sun-Sentinel baskethack Ira Winderman’s keyboard as “cheater,” with the quote…
