Edward Schumacher-Matos, a former editor and reporter with The New York Times and Wall Street Journal with extensive experience in Florida and Latin America, writes occasional pieces taking up issues in the news, answering questions from readers and critiquing how The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald handle topics of significance.
If you have a suggestion or concern about coverage in The Miami Herald or El Nuevo Herald, please send an e-mail to ombudsman@MiamiHerald.com.
When is a matter a ''scandal?'' What if it involves two adults doing nothing unlawful or offensive? Jim and Mary kissed on a beach, for example. Or Jim and Jim.
It is the most significant current dilemma over which editors fret and readers complain: Is The Miami Herald's coverage of the current economic crisis undermining consumer confidence, and thereby making the recession worse? Or is the reporting so positive that it misleads readers as they make decisions on what to do with their savings, their jobs and their lives?
The lawyers representing the Miccosukee Tribe used strong language in criticizing The Miami's Herald's coverage of a car crash involving tribal members in which a Kendall woman died.
The Miami Herald finally has added not one, but two, conservative columnists, and in the second month of the change I judge it a resounding success.
Two stories on MiamiHerald.com last week on the revival of the murder case of Chandra Levy were on the same subject, but in referring to the prime suspect they couldn't be more different.
What should The Miami Herald do when it discovers that it was wrong in a front-page story accusing the mayor of Broward County of impropriety?
Paroxysms of rumors on the Cuban dictator's demise periodically sweep through the Cuban community in South Florida and reach The Miami Herald, putting the newspaper in an uncomfortable position. How do you report rumors that may or may not be true?
Grimm, Oppenheimer, Marquez, Reinhard -- these are The Miami Herald's famous ''news columnists.'' They write their opinions in such a distinctive voice that we know them like neighbors. But that's the problem, too. What are they doing in the news pages, many readers ask? Why are they also reporting? And why doesn't The Herald just fess up and admit that it mixes news and opinion?
We surely all had the same question upon reading the story last week that real-estate developer Jorge Perez and sugar magnate Alfonso Fanjul have had talks to buy The Miami Herald. Given the sad economics of newspapers today, what would be their motive to own this one?
Fire and ire. That's what many opinion columnists in The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald inspire. When I wrote to slap the hand of El Nuevo's Adolfo Rivero Caro for being irresponsible with facts, many of you responded with passion about the freedom of op-ed columnists in both papers.
Marián Prío, a reader from Key Biscayne, was upset. She had just read a column in El Nuevo Herald, the newspaper of record for the substantial segment of South Florida that is Spanish dominant.
Join the crowd if you're confused by widely varying polls indicating who is leading in the race for president. Sen. John McCain appeared to be closing on Sen. Barack Obama in recent days, according to the Rasmussen and ''traditional'' Gallup daily-tracking polls in The Miami Herald. The margin Thursday was three percentage points; it had been seven percentage points earlier in the week.
John McCain and Sarah Palin seem to be running against the ''media'' as much as they are against Barack Obama. The coverage has been pro-Obama, they charge in heated rallies.
In a major move for the two When readers recently recommended overwhelmingly that a slimmed down Miami Herald should reposition itself with more local news, many of them pointed to the Neighbors sections.
More local news, more investigations, a conservative local columnist, more on Latin America -- these are some of the trends that have emerged as readers continue responding to my question of what The Miami Herald should emphasize.
You might not normally link Sean Taylor and Benjamin Franklin, but the two are linked in ignominy with part of The Miami Herald's website. Of the three, only the murdered football player comes off well.
Most of us wish the Iraq War would just go away. In one way, you might think it slowly has: the pages of The Miami Herald.
The Miami Herald has made a financial contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. As readers or supporters of other candidates, have you and I just been defrauded?
Is The Miami Herald guilt-ridden with white man's burden, soft on crime or just muddle headed? These are among the questions raised by some readers about what they see as The Herald's squeamishness in writing about . . well, that's the issue. Are they illegal aliens? Undocumented workers? Or as some say in South Texas, just plain wetbacks.
How can even the most hardened editor not go warm and fuzzy over the Gomez brothers?
The two boys were detained to be deported to their native Colombia when student friends intervened to save them, launching an online campaign, raising money and going to Congress. They won the family's release, at least for the moment. The Gomez boys, 18 and 19, were popular students, and the younger Juan was a star. He had near-perfect grades and has just entered the honor's program at Miami Dade College.
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