Florence Snyder
Friends of the First Amendment have their hands full with the War in the White House Pressroom.
That may explain why Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto (Rico Suave) Carvalho thought his attempted hostile takeover of the highly respected and ferociously independent WLRN newsroom might pass unnoticed.
Thankfully, fans of the free press have taken notice, and are rallying to the support of the high-quality journalism this public radio station produces with a small staff and a tight budget.
The Miami school system has owned WLRN’s broadcast license since before Carvalho was born, and has heretofore had the wisdom not to interfere with its editors and reporters.
If Carvalho gets his way, they’ll be reporting to his head flack and serving up mass quantities of happy talk about Carvalho, if they know what’s good for ’em.
The Miami Herald’s veteran columnist, Fred Grimm, explains that “Reporters who’ve dealt with the notoriously prickly Miami-Dade School District … [learned] Carvalho and company can hardly abide critical stories [such as the recent] series of stories exploring problems with the school district’s alternative school for suspended students.”
Grimm and many other Miami citizens and taxpayers have found a lot to admire in Carvalho’s stewardship of the county’s public schools. That could change irrevocably if Carvalho persists in his Putin-like effort to annex WLRN.
