Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorOctober 15, 2015

Many of Florida’s public officials must be enjoying the slow death of the state’s once powerful newspapers. In the 1990s, a skeptical reporter would be asking exasperating questions every time a politician or bureaucrat made a controversial decision. The painful shrinking of Florida’s papers continues, though. Last week Tribune Publishing offered another round of buyouts. […]

Guest AuthorOctober 14, 2015

Many of Florida’s public officials must be enjoying the slow death of the state’s once powerful newspapers. In the 1990s, a skeptical reporter would be asking exasperating questions every time a politician or bureaucrat made a controversial decision. The painful shrinking of Florida’s papers continues, though. Last week Tribune Publishing offered another round of buyouts. […]

Guest AuthorOctober 7, 2014

If you haven’t yet heard about political writer Matt Bai’s book on the failed presidential hopes of Gary Hart, you will. Bai, once political editor for the New York Times’ Sunday magazine and current political editor for Yahoo, asserts that one week in 1987 forever changed politics in America. Bai is on the interview circuit […]

Guest AuthorAugust 19, 2014

That snarky putdown headlined an opinion piece in The New York Times last week. Written by Pamela Druckerman, a former Miamian transplanted to Paris, where she gained notoriety with a book on the superiority of French mothers, the essay wrote Miami off as a vapid, anti-intellectual backwater. The piece was filled with half-true generalizations based […]

Guest AuthorJuly 15, 2014

I heard the first crack when a friend of mine called 15 years ago. He knew I was considering a move from my job as executive editor of the Miami Herald, a job I’d held for eight years. “I have some good news and some bad news,” he said. “A top editor’s job has opened […]

Guest AuthorJune 10, 2014

The jury is still out on the Bowe Bergdahl case but the verdict is in. Bergdahl is a traitor. The five Talibani prisoners we swapped for him are the most dangerous people on the planet and we’ll pay the price on the battle field. The Obama administration pulled a fast one by keeping Congress in […]

Guest AuthorMay 3, 2014

If an agency is under fire for failing to live up to its statutory responsibility, it can respond in one of two ways. It can take immediate steps to fix the problem and swing the doors wide to public oversight to make sure it won’t happen again. Or it can do what the Florida Department […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 10, 2014

Was Charlie Crist’s greater sin that he “flip-flopped” his position on the Cuban embargo or that his new position will anger voters and cost him the election? My view: Neither. With not even a muffled drum roll, Crist answered an embargo question posed by liberal comic Bill Maher. Should the embargo be lifted? Maher asked. […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 3, 2014

Hypothetically, what would you think if a government agency announced it needed $45 million to replace an 8-year-old building that was suffering from serious structural problems? If you’re anything like me, you’d want to know a bit more. Who had the contract to build the place? How much did it cost? How bad was the […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 22, 2014

We meet at 11:30 a.m. on the third Monday of every month, this informal group of retired Miami Herald alums called the HACKS. We’re former editors, artists, reporters, refugees from a time past. What we have in common is long tenure at The Miami Herald and passion for a business that has changed profoundly over […]

Tag: Doug Clifton

Tom O’Hara: Floridians lose when struggling newspapers reduce staff

Tom O’Hara: Floridians lose when struggling newspapers reduce staff

Doug Clifton: Miami Herald was right to pursue tip about Gary Hart dalliance

Doug Clifton: The headline said, ‘Miami Grows Up. A Little’

Doug Clifton: Cleveland needs more than LeBron to restore its greatness

Doug Clifton: Bergdahl case: Another GOP-inflated controversy to discredit Obama

Doug Clifton: DCF makes it harder to check up on its performance

Doug Clifton: Crist’s flip-flop on Cuban embargo was canny and correct

Doug Clifton: Fighting government secrecy takes patience, money

Doug Clifton: Fear the loss of newspapers; a healthy democracy depends on them