BREAKING -- Massive Snow Storm Paralyzes Nation; Alan Kluger Reacts!

Herald reporters Doug Hanks and Hannah Sampson and I must think alike.

When I saw footage and read reports of the ferocious life-threatening winter storm barreling across the nation, closing icy snow-covered roads, downing power lines, crippling air travel and endangering hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, my first thought was:  how does all this impact Alan Kluger?

Fortunately, Doug and Hannah felt the same way:

Alan Kluger, founder of the Miami law firm Kluger Kaplan, spent Tuesday shuffling his calendar this week. He expected to be in Manhattan for client meetings. Instead, they're coming to him.

``A bunch of my New York clients, they came down to their houses in Boca,'' Kluger said Tuesday. ``They said: `I'm getting out.' I have a meeting in Boca tomorrow and one on Thursday.''

Good lord -- Alan had to shuffle his calendar (ed. note: actually, his secretary probably did this) and now has to hold a few meetings in Boca.

Did you hear me -- I said Boca!

Memo to crybabies in Egypt:  You're not the only ones with problems, ok?

(Oh I kid Alan, it's not his fault the Herald went to him for a quote on the storm, but seriously -- why go to Alan for a quote on the storm?)

Parsing the Herald's Dismissive Coverage of Stewart/Colbert's Rally

Given that Stewart's satiric message has always been directed to the mainstream media and their failure to (1) hold the crazies accountable; and (2) raise the level of discourse without lapsing into clichéd "he said-she said" hackery or alarmist stupidity, it's no wonder the MSM has pushed back so hard on his rally yesterday.

A fine example of the dismissive nature of the mainstream coverage appears in today's Herald, courtesy of McClatchy News Service.

Here's the first thing that caught my eye -- dismissing or minimizing the number of people in attendance:

[A] pair of comedians drew tens of thousands to the National Mall on Saturday with a blend of jokes and music meant to counter some of the anger and fear they see in the country.

Got it -- "comedians," they just make jokes and throw spitballs.

Would it be that hard, given the context of this event, to at least describe them as the NYT does -- as "political satirists"?

"Tens of thousands" is technically correct yet highly misleading.   That makes me think maybe 40 to 50 thousand showed up.  For that matter it would be technically correct to say "tens of hundreds."

Yet, although estimates vary, there is no question a fairer description would be "hundreds of thousands."

Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?

Here's the part that really annoyed me:

The smell of marijuana wafted through the air at one area of the mall.

How utterly gratuitous!

Gratuitous, unless you were trying to reinforce the Fox News/O'Reilly meme that Stewart's audience is merely a bunch of  "stoned slackers."

So, to summarize, perhaps thirty thousand stoners showed up to listen to music and watch comedians make jokes.

Miami Herald: Less Is More.

So the Miami Herald decided to scrap the business section and collapse it as an occasional part of the already-dwindling local section, thereby continuing the reductions in coverage, staffing and resources that have plagued the Herald specifically and the newspaper business as a whole for at least a decade.

That's fine if economic necessity requires it.

But why try to put lipstick on a pig (remember that insanely asinine fake media controversy from 2008)?

Just look at the facacta way the Herald describes what is a pretty simple concept -- we're eliminating the business section entirely and collapsing a piece of it into the local section twice a week, without adding any pages to the newly combined local/business section:

Here's how to find business news:  Flip the B section over.  The Business section front you're accustomed to appears on the back, and stories jump back into the B section.  Stock tables appear intact on the inside back page.

What late night bunch of potheads dreamed this one up?

(OK Garvin, fess up!)

This is the other method they suggest:

Here's the other way to find business news:  grab a pair of gravity boots.  Hanging upside down, turn to the "back" of the B section.  DO NOT FLIP THE B SECTION OVER.  This is now the "front" of the Business section.  As blood drains to your head, you will slowly lose consciousness and think this is a perfectly acceptable way to get all the latest stock updates!

BTW, congrats to new Exec Editor Aminda Marques Gonzalez.  I truly hope you can right the ship and take the Herald in a positive, successful direction.

We're rooting for you.

Glenn Garvin Doesn't Read His Own Newspaper!

It's very hard to keep with with our local curmudgeonly TV critic cum 60s "silent majority" libertarian philosopher at large.


First he was handling the entire Herald newsroom.

Then he was apparently editing the New York Times.

Now it appears he stopped reading his own paper:

For all their frothing fulmination, neither the lawyers nor politicians nor journalists have been able to come up with any credible stories of people losing their homes despite faithfully paying their mortgages. They couldn't even find stories about people losing their homes despite being just a couple of payments behind.

That's because there aren't any.

Except the one that occupies the entire front page of today's newspaper!

Other than the fact that Glenn is completely wrong, he's totally right.