The Miami Herald was once considered the gold standard of journalism in the Sunshine State. At 120 years old, it was the pride of South Florida, winning two dozen Pulitzer Prizes, covering the Miami Dolphins and Hurricanes teams, and regarded as the serious news organ of the state. This was the paper that grew so early publisher John S. Knight could grow into the Knight-Ridder news syndicate. The paper broke the Gary Hart Scandal, and it was respected with reporters gaining national fame: Gene Miller in the ’60s-70s, Edna Buchanan and her gritty police beat reporting, columnist Carl Hiassen who became a best-selling novelist, and of course serving as the home of nationally-syndicated humorist Dave Barry.
Those days of glory and respectability are long gone. What is left is a rag that now sits in fifth position statewide in circulation and is reduced to running mostly baseless hit…
