Miami mayor’s spokeswoman goes off on Herald reporter to distract from the real story | Opinion

Reporters ask people questions. They go to meetings. They pore over documents. They investigate. Sometimes, they go door-to-door to reach potential sources.

In other words, reporters report.

So when Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s communications director — a former journalist — posted a Twitter attack on a Miami Herald reporter over the weekend for simply doing his job, it felt bizarrely out of whack. At best, it was disingenuous. At worst, it was an attempt at social media revenge, via spokesperson, by a politician who has been the subject of critical stories by the Herald about his financial dealings with a developer seeking approvals from the city.

Here’s what Soledad Cedro — an “Emmy award-winning journalist” according to her Twitter profile —posted about Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas, who covers the city of Miami, including the mayor: “Check out what the @MiamiHerald He/His/Him reporter is out doing: harassing city employees at their homes during a holiday weekend to feed the newspaper’s sick obsession with @FrancisSuarez.”

And she included a screen shot of a handwritten note from Flechas asking if an unnamed person would talk with him: “Ms. [redacted] I hope you’re doing well. I was hoping we could have a private conversation. Perhaps we could meet?”

The screenshot included his business card. The name of the person to whom the message was directed was blacked out in the screenshot, but Flechas’ phone number was posted for all to see. Ironically, it’s the reporter’s work number, so Cedro helped him amplify his message.

Cedro’s post is the kind of tactic we would expect from someone like Christina Pushaw, the public relations bomb thrower employed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, first as his spokewoman and now in his presidential campaign. It was thin-skinned and over the top, an attempt to paint the media as the enemies to distract from well-founded stories that the mayor, no doubt, doesn’t like.

Suarez, a Republican who has said he is considering jumping into the 2024 race for president, was the subject of a report published by the Herald earlier this month detailing his private, $10,000-a-month work for developer Rishi Kapoor. Kapoor sought help with securing permit approvals for a stalled $70 million real estate project in Coconut Grove.

The story raised questions about the mayor’s role and whether his work posed legal or ethical problems. After the story was published, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust opened an investigation in coordination with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

The ethics investigation is important for the community. So is more reporting by the Herald to shed additional light on a troubling situation. Cedro’s hamfisted attempt to cast a reporter’s work as harassment is a tissue-thin effort to distract from something that could embarrass the mayor. Voters should remember that when Suarez seeks office again.

This story was originally published May 30, 2023 at 4:58 PM.