Posner, who was fired from the Daily Beast earlier this year for lifting material from the Miami Herald, has retained attorney and author Mark Lane "to prepare litigation against the Miami New Times for accusations about his journalism and interfering with his career as an author," according to a press release issued this morning. The threatened suit comes on the heels of a series of New Times reports that revealed Posner had also plagiarized passages of his latest book, Miami Babylon (including parts from New Times). "We're delighted to have Mr. Lane, an 83-year-old Jonestown survivor, involved," New Times editor Chuck Strouse tells AAN News in an email. "We clearly have nothing against Mr. Posner, though we despise his admitted serial plagiarism. New details on this egregious literary theft -- which is crystal clear -- will be published soon."
The Association of Food Journalists (AFJ) has announced the winners in its 2010 awards competition, and four AAN members are in the mix. Miami New Times has placed in three categories -- Best Newspaper Food Feature (under 200K circ.), Best Newspaper Food Story and Best Newspaper Food Criticism. The Village Voice staff is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Coverage (150-250K circ.) category, while the L.A. Weekly staff is in the running for Best Food Blog. And the Mountain Xpress' Hanna Raskin, who recently decamped to the Dallas Observer, is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Column category. The placement of the winners will be announced at AFJ's annual conference in September.
Miami New Times has reported that Posner, who was fired from the Daily Beast last month after Slate's Jack Shafer revealed Posner had lifted from the Miami Herald, also plagiarized passages of his latest book, Miami Babylon (including from New Times itself). In a blog response, Posner says New Times' reporting is part of a "coordinated effort to destroy" his book.
Miami Caliente players Anonka Dixon and Tina Caccavale have been placed on probation by the Lingerie Football League for wearing too many clothes during a photo shoot for Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach. A league spokesperson tells NBC Miami that the problem stems from the players wearing non-sponsored league gear. "One of the covers has an NFL logo and they had on Rawlings shoulder pads and Nike wristbands," Stephon McMillen says. "They were displaying non-league partners. It's a legal issue for us." Turns out the league didn't like the New Times story that much either; the writer, Michael J. Mooney, has been banned from being credentialed to cover any Lingerie Football League or Miami Caliente events.
While its sister paper Seattle Weekly counts rockers Krist Novoselic (of Nirvana fame) and Duff McKagan (from Guns N' Roses) as columnists, Miami New Times has brought on Luther Campbell, the former leader of raunch-rappers 2 Live Crew, to write a column. "It's the perfect place for me. I am a free-speech guy," Campbell says. "It's just a match made in Heaven. Can you believe that? Me turned loose on the world in New Times. Wow."
"While having a tight budget can sometimes feel like a curse," New Times' Pam Shavalier tells Robert Newman, "I absolutely feel that I would not be the designer I am today if I didn't have to break out my Photoshop skills to make the dollars stretch." The blog entry highlighting Shavalier's "powerful, graphic covers" is the latest by Newman as he highlights excellent cover design being done by alt-weeklies all over the country.
Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach and Village Voice Media have already cut one check to the Partners in Health relief organization, and they are now offering to match any other AAN paper's donation, up to a total of $10,000. We caught up with Miami New Times publisher Kevin Thornburg to find out a little more about the project.
"For more than two decades, Miami New Times hasn't changed much," the paper says in a blog post. "On January 1, the weekly paper will become something altogether different. A glossy cover, staples, and perfect trimming with give this old dog an impressive new trick."
Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach each won eight total awards in the Florida Press Club's 2009 Excellence in Journalism contest. Miami took home first-place honors in the General News, Light Feature Writing, Minority News and Religion Writing categories, while Broward placed first in the Blog Writing, Criticism, Health Writing and Sports Feature Writing categories. However, blog winner Bob Norman points out that the press club put all of the alt-weeklies' nonblog entries in Class D, the lowest category in the contest. "The last time they did this a few years ago, we refused to accept our awards (yeah, we're arrogant like that)," Norman writes. "Now they've gone off and done it again. We've been judged over the years in Category A, where we belong, all the way down to D. It's an issue that needs to be ironed out beforehand."
