Dead Duck at the Miami Herald

The Sun-Sentinel screwed with Miami Herald readers this morning. Or so it seemed.

The Magic City’s paper of record this morning printed what I think was the first Sentinel story since the once hotly competitive newspapers announced they would share some material. The experiment commenced with the work of a young Sentinel writer named Malcolvie Jean-Francois. Her piece, “Police: Man Killed Duck out of Hate” was published this morning on the inside pages of the Local section. It detailed how an 18-year-old punk by the name of Gabriel Scott Diaz -- I am not making this up – repeatedly stabbed a duck “with a blade eight inches long” because “he hated” the birds.

And it got better.

Jean-Francois went on to name the Miramar police officer who arrived – Corey Bogus. Officer Bogus couldn’t find the knife, but “followed a trail of blood” and turned up the dead duck. The kid was charged with “causing cruelty, death, pain, and suffering to an animal.”

Full disclosure: I have a horse in this race. See,. I worked for both newspapers – I was city hall reporter for the Herald and Miami bureau chief for the Sun-Sentinel back when the competition was at its most intense. I know that Herald editors have never much respected the newspaper to the north. So I really do wonder. Was this a twisted joke?

By the way, the web edition of the newspaper didn't even use the Sentinel verison. It grabbed the duck tale from the Associated Press.

Chuck Strouse