The Herald's Marc Caputo was the first to break the story that Gov. Crist had been sent a threatening letter packed with white powder. The news was picked up by the AP which credited The Herald with the line "The threat was first reported by The Miami Herald on Thursday." When The Sun-Sentinel ran the wire report they edited the line to attribute it to "a South Florida newspaper". Pretty petty.
This rightfully pissed off Caputo, who in a Naked Politics blog entry diagnosed The Sun-Sentinal with a case of severe "Hater-itis". A little bit latter, when breaking another bit of news on the story, Caputo couldn't let it got and boasts "quick, Sun-Sentinel, steal this, too!" Broward New Times' Bob Norman picked up on the story, which brought it to the attention of Bill at Random Pixels, a local blogger not affiliated with a newspaper.
As soon as I saw Caputo's blog post I immediately recalled this classic Jim Mullin piece from the June 12, 1997 issue of Miami New Times.In it Mullin documents how the Herald systematically "borrowed" stories from the Daily Business Review about a Port of Miami scandal. The DBR had been running stories on irregularities at the port for some eight months when the Herald started "borrowing" their stories without attribution.
And now Riptide completes the circle of bitchery.
