By Carlos Miller
In what will probably go down as the most devastating week in Miami Herald history, Herald Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts introduced his new blog, proving that Sylvester the Cat was right when he said, “If you can’t beat them, might as well join them.”
Obviously, Pitts is doing all he can to save his job.
After all, 175 of his Herald colleagues lost their jobs this week, including 50 journalists.
It is no wonder that the man who last year denounced bloggers as producing “bits of unpolished, undigested thought” has decided to join the blogosphere.
His first blog post is a Twitteresque series of fragmented entries written in the present tense but posted in a past chronological sense describing the chaos surrounding the birth of his first granddaughter.
Considering that he wasn’t live streaming, he should have made the effort to converge the boring details of his day – those unpolished, undigested thoughts – into a single blog entry written in the heartfelt manner that has earned him the distinction of being syndicated in more than 30 nationally renowned newspapers.
Because now he is being just as insignificant as the Tweeters he criticized last week.
It’s not like Pitts is unable to write a winner on tight deadlines. On Sept. 11, 2001, Pitts banged out one of the most memorable columns of that godforsaken period, which became one of the most widely read columns after it was published the following day.
But he seems slow to grasp the concept of blogging. Or at least compelling blogging. While many of his colleagues were getting the ax, he was busy promoting his first novel.
Wouldn’t we rather read his opinions on the ongoing layoffs and the ever-declining state of the newspaper industry?
The book promoting would be perfect for Twitter, had he signed up and accumulated a list of followers. But he is above that.
On the other hand, CNN reporter and Miami native Rick Sanchez launched a Twitter account and now has more than 64,000 followers who follow his news updates and provide him with news tips. It should be noted that CNN has not faced massive layoffs.
Perhaps Pitts can take a lesson in mainstream media blogging from Photography is Not a a Crime reader and New Jersey Record photo editor Bob Karp, who is not technically a writer but has proven to be quite a wordsmith since launching his blog last December.
Or at least from Broward New Times reporter Bob Norman, who has been blogging for years and was the first to report the names of the Herald reporters who were laid off, revealing that talent did not save certain people from getting the ax.
Which is exactly why Pitts must become a better blogger.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
8 responses so far ↓
1 genewitch // Mar 12, 2009 at 7:15 AM
Why’d he take the jam out of your donut?
(you can delete this)
It’s not as though sucessful bloggers need tips to be better bloggers. There’s phases of popularity. No one mentions shitty digg/slashdot “pseudoblogs” which is basically a 2 sentence shitsandwich of information with a link that looks like it was written by a syphillitic octogenarian.
He’s not really a threat to you. There’s a million other columnists that are doing a good job, and a million that aren’t. Al-Jazeera does a damn good job of reporting the news but i don’t hear anyone trumpeting their website… Guardian UK does too. there are a ton of awesome news reporting and aggregating sites (including yours, even if you use a very limiting description of “news”!)
… so what’d this guy do? Attacking bloggers isn’t anything new – and it doesn’t seem like he attacked you directly or indirectly (except that you’re a blogger.)
so what’s the deal?
btw i could care less about the guy you’re writing about, i just wonder why you care.
2 Carlos Miller // Mar 12, 2009 at 10:02 AM
genewitch,
I have nothing personal against Pitts. I have a great amount of respect for him as a writer.
But to me, he has become a symbol of why newspapers are failing.
3 John // Mar 12, 2009 at 12:43 PM
“… so what’d this guy do?”
He is an arrogant hypocrite. That’s why.
Those douchy newspaper opinion columnists act like they are God’s gift to written thought. The rest of us should just shut our mouths and be thankful they share their opinion with us at all.
What bothers me isn’t that he gave in to the inevitable, it’s that he will make no mention of it and pretend that nothing has changed.
4 Ms Calabaza // Mar 12, 2009 at 3:18 PM
You called it, Carlos. Great headline, by the way . . .
5 Ferfe LaBat // Mar 12, 2009 at 3:51 PM
I gave up reading Pitts a few months ago. He keeps beating a dead horse and does no real research of his facts and there’s no knew thoughts there. He’s gotten lazy as hell. Even opinion pieces have new information or at the VERY least new presented in context somehow. He’s been blogging for quite sometime already and not very well. Now at least he’s honest about it.
Hiassen has also lost his edge. Defede was the last “must read” column. That’s not to say the news part isn’t still relevent, but the soul is long gone from the opinion writers.
6 genewitch // Mar 12, 2009 at 5:03 PM
fair enough, carlos
7 MillerTime // Mar 12, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Despite my disagreements with Pitts I am saddened to see such a serious writer forced to blog to justify his salary. Carlos is right this is a sign of the de-evolution of American journalism.
8 Henry Gomez // Mar 12, 2009 at 10:07 PM
If I’m not mistaken, that asshole pitts doesn’t even live in south florida anymore.
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