In the lastest chapter of the Martí Moonlighters saga, MHPC publisher Jesus Diaz Jr. has resigned and the three El Nuevo Herald journalists that were dismissed have been reinstated. Hopefully some details as to what really happened will be forthcoming from Herald insiders in the next few days. But for now one can only surmise that as the Herald began to analyze records from Radio and TV Marti they discovered that the moonlighting among their staff was more widespread than they originally believed.
There's a lot of layers to this story but one of them involves this blog inasmuch I have made FOIA requests from Radio/TV Marti going back further than 2004 which is what Mr. Fiedler told me was the cut-off for the original Sept. 8 story. I have been in touch with Fiedler and Diaz Jr. via email throughout the process and though I have not yet received any documents from OCB (Office of Cuba Broadcasting) I am sure that their impending arrival may have had something to do with this announcement.
In his letter to readers Jesus Diaz Jr. makes it sound like the reinstatement of the journalists isn't really his idea. "It has been determined..." His resgination was unlikely to be his idea either.
As I have stated before I think the Sept. 8 article was shoddy reporting job and a shoddy editing job. And while Diaz Jr. may have thought he was helping the paper's image he actually hurt it.
If you want to read how this whole episode came to be, please click on the September 2006 archives on the sidebar and begin reading from the beginning.
More later...
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Diaz Jr. Resigns, journalists reinstated
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6 comments:
There is no question that Herald Watch was the prime mover in the successful attempt to reinstate the Nuevo Herald journalists.
Contrast, if you will, the noble and selfless work done by Henry Gomez to right this great wrong with the self-serving and ultimately self-destructive conduct of the Herald's disgraced former publisher. They represent two currents in the Cuban character which are found time and time again in the course of our history and which Jose Marti defined as follows: "The world is divided into two classes of men: those who love and build; and those who hate and destroy."
Gomez, although younger than Diaz, feels his Cuban roots more intimately, and the tragedy of his people is not a sub-text in his intellectual dialogue but its central theme. He is innocent of Diaz's egoism and intolerable self-righteousness, and would never sacrifice living people to improvised ethical standards that are as dead and hollow as Diaz's own sense of fairness or fair play.
Gomez represents, instead, the best and highest ideals of our people: loyalty, disinterest and the congenital inability to tolerate any manifestation of injustice regardless of whether it touches him or not. It is precisely this type of Cuban that will be indispensable to us in future days.
But will the reversal of fortune get as much press as the initial deed? Will the media undo the slander already done against the fired and now rehired reporters.
Manuel,
Thanks for the kind words but they are way too much. I don't have anything personal against Diaz. I just decided that this blog might be a good idea because the Herald is still probably the most powerful media institution down here. Even though circulation is dropping, opinion leaders read it, the other news media read it and take their cues from it. So who watches the watchdog?
I try to keep my personal politics out of this blog though I don't hide it in my other blogs. This blog is about the media and what gets reported and what doesn't reported.
Thanks to all that stop by and read this little blog. I need for the readers to submit ideas because this isn't just about the Marti Moonlighters, about Cuba or about any one issue.
Henry:
Modesty is also a becoming quality within certain bounds. Magnanimity to the vanquished foe is also an admirable quality when it is deserved.
I am also hopeful that the scope of this blog may extend beyond the present topic and challenge unfairness and inaccuracy wherever this two-headed hydra rears its head within the precincts of One Herald Plaza.
Henry:
Good show
Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Larry Daley
Why am I begining to think that someone at the Miami Hearld is on the castro govt. payroll?
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