Richard Engel, NBC’s savvy, chief foreign correspondent, had some pointed comments the other day in the wake of the Nuseum’s controversial decision to not honor two cameramen–working for Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV–who were killed in the line of Middle East “duty.” It’s a microcosm of the increasingly controvertible issue of activists as journalists.  Basically, who’s [...]

This column periodically highlights juxtaposed differences–whether a function of priorities or proactive hustle–in local media coverage and occasionally points out prominent proof-reading oversights in print. The inevitable theme of the latter: While mistakes, of course, have always happened in deadlined media, it’s never been like this. As newspapers struggle to compete, chronic down-staffing and overall [...]

Searching out agenda-promoting optics that can be converted to campaign-ad fodder later is a political given. And Gov. Rick Scott, as we’ve seen, has been in this mode for months. Dropping by Eustis or The Villages when your poll numbers are still awful is obviously of no re-election help. So, venues such as teacher-wooing schools [...]

Vice President Joe Biden gave the keynote address at the 43rd Conference of the Americas this week in Washington. Among other things, Biden said that Washington was aware that Cuba has been making some “small encouraging signs” of change–but hardly enough to impress the Obama Administration. It still wants to see “real change,” the kind [...]

If Charlie Crist winds up being the Democratic challenger to Gov. Rick Scott, he will need something–other than Scott’s unpopularity, Medicare-fraud connection and obvious, pander-fest re-election strategy–to divert attention from all his flip-floppery. He could use an issue that truly transcends such baggage. If this were a memo to Crist, it would read: “Why not [...]

* The Barber of Civil–and class: To nobody’s surprise, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back Ronde Barber has called it a career. And to nobody’s surprise, he did so while he was still an effective, NFL-worthy talent. He went out on his terms–with utter class–after having finished a 16-year, Hall of Fame-worthy career. No police blotter [...]

* “Syria is Iraq’s twin: an artificial state that was also born after World War I inside lines drawn by imperial powers. Like Iraq, Syria’s constituent communities–Sunnis, Alawite/Shiites, Kurds, Druze, Christians–never volunteered to live together under agreed rules. So, like Iraq, Syria has been ruled for much of its modern history by either a colonial [...]

It started out as a circled date on the calendar: May 4. The occasion: the Saturday night performance of War Horse at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. It ended with hailing a late-night cab on Tampa Street. Variations, as it turned out, on a theme. The Tony Award-winning War Horse was as promised. [...]

You go, Lynn Marvin Dingfelder. The former TV reporter is hard at work researching, interviewing, and rallying interest in the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s historic–Nov. 18, 1963–visit to Tampa. When completed, her production work will include a Tampa Bay History Center exhibit and a one-hour (WUSF-TV) documentary planned to premier at Tampa [...]

At its conclusion, there were so many hardy hand clasps, high fives, fist bumps, embraces, man-hugs and cell-phone poses, you would have thought something celebratory had occurred at this year’s Florida legislative session. Frankly, it would have been more fitting if a Venezuelan Parliament fistfight had broken out. But, yes, a required budget was passed [...]