Magzalez’s eyes on media

I was a little late to the whole RSS thing. I never realized how helpful it could actually be. Whenever I see other people’s RSS I always see hundreds of feeds with thousands of posts. I just figured it would be a clutter.

When I was interviewing for my job at the University of Florida Web Administration office, I was asked how I look at blogs and my favorite sites. I knew what they wanted to hear. I told them that I did not use RSS however. After that I got to thinking there was something I was missing out on. And, of course, I was. So, here is my very short list of RSS subscriptions. I like to keep it compact and manageable:

Online Journalism:

• Online Journalism Blog: Paul Bradshaw’s comments and analysis of the going’s on in online media
• Teaching Online Journalism: Mindy McAdams’ advice and comments about online media with a special emphasis on media production
• Ponto Media: António Granado’s Portuguese-language blog about online media; he provides plenty of interesting, helpful links

Sports:

• Dolphins in Depth: Armando Salguero has been a Dolphins beat writer for The Miami Herald forever. This is his not-very-well-written-but-still-interesting blog.
• Random Evidence of a Cluttered Blog: Greg Cote’s very funny and very entertaining Dolphins blog
• Tennis Served Fresh: this is the closest thing I have to a good Tennis blog; I am still looking for one great Tennis blog. I’ve only just started reading this one; I need to give it more time.

Other:

• Noel’s Scene: my girlfriend’s blog about music and artsy fun stuff in Gainesville, Fla.
• Reeling with René Rodríguez: The Miami Herald’s senior movie critic’s blog
• Super Smash Bros. Dojo: Daily updates on the comings-along of Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Is there anything else you might recommend?

I’m back a little earlier than expected because I read something today in The Miami Herald that sparked my interest, “Pro-Chávez lawmaker slaps journalist.” For those of you who don’t know, Hugo Chávez is the president of Venezuela.

Now for a little exposition: Last year, I was told to write a critique of a Flash package for my Advanced Online Media Production class taught by none other than Mindy McAdams. Let me say, this is in no way a criticism toward McAdams, only an observation I have seen in college from more than one professor. McAdams has been the most helpful and genuine professor I have had in all my studies at the University of Florida. I think this is why she had no reservations giving me her opinions and true thoughts on the subject. But it is also the reason why I have thought so long and hard about what she told me.

I decided to do my critique on a very interesting piece by The Miami Herald called “On the trail of Che.” That is of course a reference to Ernesto “Che” Guevara, long-gone, long-heralded revolutionary. It was told through the eyes of former diplomats and CIA agents who vocally oppose the ideas of Che Guevara. Take a look at the story for yourself to gather your own opinions.

McAdams liked the package and the critique. She thought it was a great piece of Flash production, but she called into question the journalism. This is what she wrote on her del.icio.us account about it:

Long video, well produced; excellent gallery of 34 photos; text story, not overlong. Beautiful package design. This is the main feature of interest here, although the story provides fascinating propaganda for the exiles of Cuba…

Now to tie the piece about Che and the story about the lady that attacked the journalist together. I do indeed see a bias here. The Cuban-exile community, and now the Venezuelan-exile community, makes up a significant number of the Miami (city or county) population. These are the people that the newspaper is writing for. It’s not to say that the newspaper should cater to the people, because sometimes the people need to hear things they don’t want to. But it all goes back to writing with confidence and assertion.

The journalists at The Miami Herald aren’t throwing out propaganda to their readers when they criticize the Venezuelan and Cuban governments. They are writing with assertion and confidence, retelling through an analysis of a new event the experiences they have had in countries that no longer value freedom of speech or freedom of the press.

I noticed that The Miami Herald was the only newspaper that I could easily find that at least posted this AP story from Caracas, Venezuela online. I’m sure that the TV stations in Miami were among the few that aired the video. Were other more “liberal” newspapers turning a blind eye, or do they just not care? Honestly, the news probably wouldn’t have caught the eye of many other newspapers’ markets.

I often wonder what professors are thinking when they talk about “conservative views” in The Miami Herald—which true Cuban-exiles like my uncle, my grandfather, etc. actually consider The Miami Herald “basura esquierdista” or leftist trash. Perception is relative.

So yes, I understand that a pro-Castro, pro-socialism, pro-Chávez individual might discard such news stories as biased garbage, but it all goes back to one major criticism that I have of the Castro government, and now more and more the Chávez government; how can any journalist not be at least slightly biased against a place where there is no freedom of speech? How can you support a government that spits in the eye of the truest of the core values of your profession? Doesn’t the term “liberal” mean valuing the rights of the individual?

Thoughts? Comments? Is anyone from The Miami Herald willing to defend their paper?

I once wrote to the editor in charge of the Che story and asked him what he thought about this very subject. He never got back to me. I guess he didn’t care what people think, but I certainly do. That’s why I’m asking these questions.

Here is a video of the Venezuelan lawmaker’s attack. I had to get a video in Spanish because the only one I could find in English was made by Fox News, and I don’t want you to get the wrong impression.

If you’re a South Florida sports fan, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Dan Le Batard. He’s a polarizing figure. A lot of people love to hate him, but I love to love him.

Le Batard, a now-infrequent columnist for The Miami Herald, the host of The Dan Le Batard Show on 790 The Ticket and a frequent guest on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, is one of the newest big names in sports writing.

I consider him to be the best sports columnist out there today, trailed closely by Greg Cote, another sports columnist at The Miami Herald.

I enjoy Le Batard’s view of sports as just another entertainment fixture. He’s willing to take an unpopular view on different subjects and admits when he’s wrong. But more than anything, he’s funny as hell.

Le Batard is an interesting twist on the mutli-platform journalist. He started as a writer in 1991 with The Miami Herald, though his impact in writing has gone back to his days at the University of Miami where he once published then-Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz’s phone number in The Miami Hurricane and encouraged readers to call all week leading up to the game to distract the coach.

In 2004 Le Batard, along with co-host John “Stugotz” Weiner, started The Dan Le Batard Show. It was an instant success. Le Batard’s quick-witted sense of humor and the quirkiness prevalent in his columns translated well to radio, winning him accolades along the way. The Le Batard show also gives long-time readers insight into his thought process while writing a column. Though he won’t say it, a prevalent sports theme in a week’s worth of shows will most likely make his almost-weekly columns. I must add though, Le Batard is known for not talking about sports just as much as talking about them.

Le Batard has most recently expanded his skills to television broadcast as a frequent guest host on ESPN’s ever-popular Pardon the Interruption.

All of the love I have for Lebby leads me to ask, why not go online? I’ve seen a slide show or two with his name buried in the credits but not much else. Why not blog? I wouldn’t mind pulling up a fake sports blog a couple of times a week. But alas, you can’t do it all.

Columns:

• Pats are better in every way imaginable
• A hopeless romantic could love this team

Radio:

• Retired guest, Fake Pavarotti, singing about Dolphins QB Trent Green
• Dan Le Batard interviews Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe one day after Marlins president David Samson remarked that Ichiro Suziki’s new contract would ruin baseball