Publisher Jesús Díaz Jr. announced his resignation Tuesday. But he actually quit two weeks ago -- about the time of a blow-up over a column by Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen.
Díaz believed Hiaasen's sarcastic essay on the three El Nuevo Herald writers paid by Radio and TV Martí shouldn't run. Hiaasen threatened to quit. Díaz wasn't yielding.
A furious Hiaasen phoned friends close to The Miami Herald's new owner, the McClatchy Co. Within hours, Howard Weaver, McClatchy's top news executive, called The Miami Herald to voice his support for strong columnists in the company's papers.
Still kind of confuddled by the controversy.
First, the HERALD editorially supports the policy of U.S. payments to Cuban journalists IN CUBA to write anti-Castro propaganda. That's in the Bush "Transition" commission reports.
Second, the HERALD cans Cuban journalists in MIAMI for accepting U.S. payments for their anti-Castro writings in Miami.
Third, the HERALD welcomes back the canned Miami Cuban journalists, but tells them they cannot accept pay for their anti-Castro journalism with Radio and TV Marti. Well, without prior written authorization...
So now we're going to read reports in the HERALD about Cuban journalists IN CUBA, some of whom receive pay from the U.S. government for their anti-Castro work on the island.
And the HERALD is still going to support payments from Washington to Cubans in Cuba for their anti-Castro propaganda work, or, as it's sometimes referred to, "independent journalism."
That's why these people are sometimes referred to as "presstitutes".
Walter Lippmann
Posted by: Walter Lippmann | October 05, 2006 at 11:43 AM
I happen to agree that a journalist should not accept Govt money.
Mr.Lippman, do you hold to the same standard Cuba's journalists
working for the Cuban Govt.
or CNN's Alicia Newman
who never has reported
on Human right violations on the Island
because then CNN will be booted out.
Afterall Monopoly is a form
of Government Compensation
and CNN has a Monopoly in Cuba
Next time you visit Barbara Walters
ask her
about the very expensive beautiful
huge chandelier
stolen from a private home in Havanna
given to her by Castro hanging in her home
soon after her interview of the Dictator
Then drop us a line!
Posted by: roberto escarpenter | October 05, 2006 at 10:08 PM
RE: "Two Herald Titans Grappled Over Column"
It's taken me several days to gain my composure sufficiently to react to this thread.
Titans? Díaz and Hiassen are "titans?"
In what lilliputian world do you live, Oscar?
Among Cubans (a group you really should spend more time among), the title "titan" is reserved for one man and one man only — Antonio Maceo.
I will give you enough credit to suppose that you have heard Antonio Maceo.
For a Cuban to refer to another man as a "titan" is to insult the memory of our greatest military hero and to ridicule the unfortunate individual who must bear the crushing weight of that "compliment."
Posted by: Manuel A. Tellechea | October 06, 2006 at 09:19 PM
As to Carl Hiaasen and the rest of Cuban-American Bashers, they are foreigners in Miami. If he stays in Miami along the "Jewish Crowd" and the "Cuban Renegades" (Menendez, Armengol, etc), the paper will plunk into the bottom of the ocean.
I'm just stating some material facts observed among Cubans and many Latins.
If the Cuban-American columnists are not allowed to voice their opinions at Radio Marti, the Herald will disappear from Miami.
McClathy must remember that Cubans are not Mexicans, Cubans are quarrelsome and proud Chihuahuas that determined to do away with the "Miami Granma".
As to the American tourists working there, good by, you can take your dirty linen with you.
Posted by: Barcelona | October 09, 2006 at 06:21 PM
Yes, those two "Titans" are somewhat "casposos" as we say here in Spain, a term that could be translated as "dandruffy?".
Jesus Diaz is some sort of Cuban Judah for most exiles, and Hiaasen is perceived as one of those non-Cubans that lagged behind nursing their hate and incomprenhesion towards Cuban-Americans.
Hiaasen seems to be supported by the McClathy group, but he'll be fired along many others as soon as they start "bottomlining".
Posted by: Barcelona | October 10, 2006 at 12:41 PM