A classic tale of corporate media suppressing journalists who don't toe the line? It began with a
suicide in the lobby of the Miami Herald building. Former city commissioner, Art Teele, shot himself after speaking with reporter Jim Defede. Defede, who had built a reputation for exposing the misdeeds of Miami's powerbrokers, including the
parent company of the Herald, was the last person to speak with Teele before his death. Defede tape recorded the conversation. Defede, on his own initiative, told his bosses at the Herald that he had inadvertantly and illegally taped the commissioner's last words. In Florida, taping someone without their permission is against the law - a misdemeanor. Defede was fired within minutes. The real question - why was the decision to fire him made in such a rush? Many of Defede's colleagues have stated publicly that the suicide and taping was a pretext to get rid of a good journalist - a real muckraker.
Defede, on more than one occassion, had criticized the Herald's parent company, Knight Ridder. He accused the company of slashing news budgets and staff in order to increase profits. It was no secret he had upset the bosses, not to mention powerful figures in Miami like the Lennar family, who had allegedly built substandard housing developments that blew away during Hurricane Andrew. Two days before his firing, Defede's column publicly exposed a condo management company that illegally fired a pro-union employee and then falsely claimed the employee had raped his wife. Three years of stories like those made Defede both loved and hated in Miami. There are
many journalists who believe that the taping misdemeanor was a merely a pretext to fire a journalist who had offended too many, including his paper's parent company.
This is a link to a petition for the Herald to reinstate Defede - signed by many former and current Miami Herals staffers:
journalistsfordefede.blogspot.com
A Washington Post story detailing Teele's suicide and subsequent firing of Defede. The same from the New York Times. Contact the Herald (www.miami.com), especially if you live in Miami. Add a comment to: journalistsfordefede.blogspot.com