Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Megan Fox Sun-Sentinel Desperately Publishes Cheesecake Photos to Attract Readers
By P.J. Gladnick | July 12, 2009 | 12:05 PM EDT

Your humble correspondent has frequently pointed out how incredibly dull his hometown newspaper, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, has become. Well, it appears that the online Sun-Sentinel is now desperately trying to counteract its dull and stuffy image by going overboard in publishing cheesecake photos. Specifically cheesecake photos of Hollywood actress Megan Fox. In the current Sun-Sentinel edition, Megan Fox photos are featured not just once, but twice on the front page. Just click on the picture links of Megan Fox on the front page and you are presented with a grand total of 72 photos of the heavily tattooed actress. 

The first Megan Fox photo link is titled,  Beauty Fades? Megan Fox's worst pictures. Click on the cheesecake link and it leads to a Megan Fox photo gallery with this penetrating commentary by Elizabeth Snead:

Sun-Sentinel Editor Assures Titanic Newspaper Passengers That Ship Is Not Sinking
By P.J. Gladnick | April 11, 2009 | 9:29 AM EDT

My first piece of advice to any editor who wishes to reassure his newspaper readers that things are going to improve at his newspaper is to not accompany such an article with the grim visage of a mortician as you can see in this photo of Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel editor, Earl Maucker. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his newspaper. And the words of Maucker, while trying to sound upbeat, are at odds with the reality of a newspaper which has shrunk to a shell of it's former self. Typically the the front section of the Sun-Sentinel weekday newspaper is now only about a dozen pages.

However, Maucker, in response to a reader's question about the Sun-Sentinel's  future, performs a rather unconvincing job of reassuring his readers that we will not soon be witnessing yet another newspaper funeral:

Kathleen Parker: Is Meghan McCain the GOP's answer to Rush Limbaugh?
By P.J. Gladnick | April 3, 2009 | 9:21 AM EDT
Kathleen Parker, a "conservative" columnist who has discovered that slamming real conservatives was an easy way to lift herself from her earlier state of relative anonymity, has now turned herself into an inadvertent comedienne. I mean, how can you beat this comedy line on the title of her latest column appearing in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: "Is Meghan McCain the GOP's answer to Rush Limbaugh?" Yes, Parker is seriously proposing that "Valley Girl McCain" can save the Republicans from that "nasty" Rush Limbaugh:

The GOP's identity crisis just got more interesting with the recent media splash of Meghan McCain, eldest daughter of the senator who did not become president.

Young McCain, who began blogging during her father's presidential campaign, recently made waves at The Daily Beast when she picked a fight with conservative media mavens Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham. This is enough sport to make the little dog laugh, to say nothing of the dish and the spoon.

McCain, just 24, is one smart cookie. In a matter of weeks, she has created a brand, presenting herself as a fresh face of her daddy's party and a voice for young conservatives. Strategically speaking, what better way to launch herself than to challenge the reigning diva herself, Miz Coulter?

Madonna, meet Britney.
Sun-Sentinel Employee Soap Opera Played Out in Public
By P.J. Gladnick | March 22, 2009 | 8:06 PM EDT

This is a soap opera that is currently being played out in similar form at many newspapers around the country as they face imminent collapse. In this case, the melodrama is being played out at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel but it could be happening at any of a number of newspapers. The departure of an employee, one Pat Thompson who was the Deputy Managing Editor, along with a reshuffling of the personnel. This announcement, which was published in Bob Norman's The Pulp of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, was described by him as "a heavily bureaucratic reshuffling of the deck chairs." What is really fascinating about this blog post is the comments section in which many of the current and former Sun-Sentinel employees voice their frustrations, anger, accusations, and defensiveness. The curtains of the Sun-Sentinel Soap Opera Theater now opens with this comment by "journalista":

I love it when "upper management" shakes up a newsroom or office by moving around people and then totally changing the titles to really goofy words they think sound "modern" or are filled with "changeability." Let me guess, I'd say that it took a handful of SS geniuses maybe two weeks to agree on these titles. No wonder the newspaper business model is crumbling before our very eyes.

Tobacco Lawsuits: Newspapers Neglect Reporting That Dangers of Smoking Are Well Known
By P.J. Gladnick | February 24, 2009 | 10:23 PM EST
Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health
 
One of the big pet peeves of your humble correspondent is when tobacco lawsuit plaintiffs declare that the hazards of smoking cigarettes were kept secret by the tobacco companies and, as a result, they continued smoking thinking that it was safe to do so. Yeah, some "secret" when each and every pack of cigarettes has had the Surgeon General's warning printed on them for over 40 years. My own mother was a regular smoker until that day back in the 60s when the Surgeon General declared smoking to be hazardous to your health. And on that day my mother quit smoking...cold turkey. And yet we continue to have smokers suing the tobacco companies because they claim that they just weren't informed that it could cause cancer and other diseases. Even worse, the newspapers such as the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel report on such lawsuits without ever mentioning that smoking hazard warnings are all over the place including right on each cigarette pack and in anti-smoking PSA commercials such as you can see in this video (warning: very intense viewing).
 
Sun-Sentinel Lame Coverage of Pro-Hamas Ft. Lauderdale Demonstration Overshadowed by YouTube Video
By P.J. Gladnick | January 2, 2009 | 7:05 PM EST
Someone really needs to inform Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel editor Earl Maucker that newspapers nowadays are in the business of delivering information, not just print.  We just saw an excellent example of why print needs to be supplemented by video, especially if the latter is necessary to convey the feeling of the event covered. This was illustrated by the incredibly lame coverage the Sun-Sentinel gave to a very intense pro-Hamas demonstration on Tuesday in downtown Fort Lauderdale. As a resident of this area, such demonstrations seem to be rather disconcerting since this seems to be something that usually happens in other parts of the world, not in this normally peaceable burg. Check out this video made by Tom Trento and judge for yourself if this demonstration warranted this rather laid back Sun-Sentinel coverage as written by Scott Wyman:
'Dulling Columnists' Spread Ennui to Live Audience
By P.J. Gladnick | September 29, 2008 | 7:19 PM EDT

Hmm...

Oops! South Florida Newspapers Miss Big Biden Story in Own Backyard
By P.J. Gladnick | September 4, 2008 | 7:11 AM EDT

How embarrassing is it for a newspaper to have a member of a presidential ticket campaigning in its own backyard and to completely miss something he said that has reverberated all over the Web?

South Florida Newspapers Terminate Competition
By P.J. Gladnick | August 31, 2008 | 6:57 PM EDT

If you are wondering why the stories in your local newspapers are starting to look so similar to other newspapers, it might be because they are following the new business model of South Florida newspapers: eliminating competition. All the major South Florida newspapers, Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (now called SunSentinel), and Palm Beach Post have had big staff cutbacks recently. So who is left to cover the news? The skeleton crews still working at the newspapers don't have the capability so they came up with a solution: pool their resources and share their stories.

Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Bids Farewell to 'Diversity Queen'
By P.J. Gladnick | August 1, 2008 | 8:58 PM EDT

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel yesterday bid farewell to their managing editor, Sharon Rosenhause, along with the very position of managing editor itself. One can only hope that the Sun-Sentinel will also abolish the unofficial post of "diversity queen" by which Rosenhause was also known. Many newspapers have a "diversity queen" which almost always means diversity of ethnicity or gender but not diverse opinions.

Guess the Party Label of Imprisoned Ex-Sheriff
By P.J. Gladnick | June 4, 2008 | 9:33 AM EDT

In yet another in the series of "guess the missing party label" we once again present the case of imprisoned former Broward County (Fla.) sheriff Ken Jenne. As we have seen before, the South Florida news media is extremely reluctant to apply a party label to the disgraced Jenne, who was convicted of mail fraud and tax evasion while in office, despite the fact that the Broward sheriff office is most most important political post in the county.

Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Provides More Comedy Gold
By P.J. Gladnick | March 27, 2008 | 10:09 PM EDT

When I last reported on the hilarious musings of the Tribune Company's new chief innovation officer, Lee Abrams, little did I realize that he would provide us with a continuous comedy act of major proportions.