It's like deja vu all over again

I mentioned the other day that one of the reasons for starting Herald Watch was in response to a letter I wrote the Herald editors which they butchered and published. That letter was about the intentional blurring of statistics from the City of Miami which were used to make a point about all of greater Miami. The Herald's point was about how bad things are here in south Florida. Later Herald Watch exposed how Herald Columnist Ana Menendez was guilty of the same sort of statistical manipulation.

Well they are up their old tricks at 1 Herald Plaza. Robert from 26th Parallel has a very cogent analysis of the last bit of selective interpretation of demographic statistics in the local fish wrap.

The point here is that if you look at the Census numbers BEFORE reading the article, you would have noticed a bigger change: the number of 40-59 year old Hispanics moving TO Miami-Dade.

33, 27 and 29 percent increase in those between 40-44 years, 45-49 and 50 to 54 years of age, respectively. That a big jump folks. I'm surprised (well, OK, I'm not) that the Herald barely mentioned those numbers next to the 17 percent of 20-24 and 25-29 year olds that moved out. A brief sentence suggesting that "Hispanics and blacks who bought homes long ago or are nearing retirement age may be choosing to stay put for financial reasons" lacks depth. It's lame...

Let's face it, the Herald has been trying to promote the so-called Miami exodus-in-the-making since last year when they started writing stories about people getting the heck outta Miami. That's fine, they should. But they should also talk to the 40 and 50 year olds who are moving IN to provide the rest of the story. Isn't that what journalists should do?

Yes Robert, that is what they are supposed to do.