Thursday, May 10, 2012

Caption confusion at the Miami Herald

Note to Miami Herald editors:

Next time you get one of those letters from a reader complaining about the left-wing media making up stuff; don't immediately dismiss it as a deranged rant from some right-wing, paranoid nut case.

The writer may have a point.

Consider this photo and caption that accompanies today's web story on the resignation of Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez:


Now, look at the same photo as it appears today on page 1A of the paper:


The caption that goes with the first photo is 100% accurate. I know this because I shot a similar photo at about the same time Carl Juste shot his photo.

But, for some reason, someone decided to rewrite the caption for the print edition of the paper to make it appear that Gonzalez was listening to a debate about his fate as city manager.

What's really mind-boggling here is that a single, 8-word caption contains not one, but two instances of total fabrication.

Number one: The photo was taken almost an hour after Gonzalez announced his resignation. The commission had moved on to other business.

Number two: His fate was not being debated. He'd already resigned and the mayor and commissioners accepted his resignation "without discussion." Says so right here in the story. There was no debate.

Yeah, I know...it's a minor thing. Or, is it?

After all, if you can't be trusted to get the little things right, how are we supposed to believe you on the big stories?

It's something all of you may want to ponder next time you get one of those angry reader emails.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to comment on anything you read here.

All comments must first be approved. Spam and spam links will not be tolerated or approved.