He's back! (David González in the NYT)

I had lunch with David two days ago (or maybe, like Joyce Wadler in Boldface Names, I should say "we" had lunch with David González), in my nabe at the Time Cafe on Lafayette & 4th.* I hadn't seen him since before his assignment as Caribbean correspondent for the NY Times, and it was great to get his take on such things as living in Miami (not great), what life is like in Cuba (also not great, but for different reasons), the operatic intensity of the political conflict in Venezuela (complicated -- Hugo Chávez is neither as popular as he claims, nor is the opposition at all coherent or rational). Now he is back in New York as a feature writer, and today his paper has announced that fact with a quarter-page bilingual ad (bilingual! When before have you seen a whole paragraph in Spanish in the Times?) in the Metro section. With a photo of him --not so scruffy as he looked last Wednesday -- too bad, scruffy is his normal look, and more fitting for his scrappy, down-with-the-pueblo style. David is no slave of fashion, sartorially or journalistically.

When he told me this ad was coming, his eyes widened, like he still couldn't believe all this attention. Why are they doing this? I asked him. Not to doubt that he deserves it, but "deserving" isn't usually enough reason for getting something. The reasons seemed pretty clear to him: since the revolution in The NYT (the overthrow of Howell Raines in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal), the new chief Bill Keller wants to bring up the paper's pathetic circulation in New York City (compared to the Post and the New), and David (a) wasa very popular columnist when he had the Metro page 1 "About New York" slot and (b) knows the Bronx better than anybody. And now he's planning to explore the other boroughs. So, the Times has lost a terrific Caribbean & Central American correspondent, and regained a knowledgeable and insightful city reporter. Welcome back -- oops, I mean, "Bienvenido, Sr. González."

*Who cares where we ate? But I'm just imitating Boldface Names. Maybe if I mention the place, they'll discover it (through Google) and mention that I mentioned them, and then we all help make each other famous for being mentioned. Ridiculous, but it is a kind of celebrity.

For circulation of New York City papers. The New York Times is the largest circulation paper daily or Sunday in the U.S. , but far from the biggest in New York City. I tried to find its NYC figures separated out from the national total, but after trying various Google combinations, I've decided I've spent enough time on this. If you happen to know, please tell me.

This has nothing to do directly with David González, but on U.S. press fumbling on the Venezuelan coup of April 2002, see Coup of Confusion by Javier Sierra

How far does Bush's arm reach in controlling media? Even into Al-Jazeera?

"Journalists on the English-language news site Al-Jazeera.net are considering a mass walkout in protest at the sacking of British editor Yvonne Ridley," begins this article by "jemima" at journalism.co.uk. The Al-Jazeera reporter interviewed for the article suggests that Ridley was fired because of pressure from the Bush administration.

"Yvonne has fabulous contacts and managed to get photos of US soldiers searching Iraqi children - but we were told not to publish them," the unnamed reporter is quoted as saying.

Interview of Yvonne Ridley (before she got sacked)
Also check out Al-Jazeera -- at the bottom of their home page you will find some semi-animated cartoons that need no translation.

Career advice for hispanos

I've just started writing for the Hispanic/Latino section of Monster.com. Here's the first article: A Little Support Offers Big Career Help. Future pieces will cover how to break into the broadcast news business, confronting employment discrimination, etc. Let me know if you have any ideas for related career articles: Geoffrey Fox.

From my notebooks

I just came across this old poem, written in pencil, 3/13/94, 11:40 a.m.

What We've Lost

All of us here, we are aware of what we've lost.
Jobs, career, a first wife and a second,
one of us even lost part of a leg,
but most of all we've lost
hope
illusions
joy.
Youth
It's all over, we mourn, embittered all
that we have lost.
Every night we see on television
people whose homes have been destroyed,
whose relatives have been murdered,
whose social system has been bombed
to pieces,
and we frown and wince and shake our
heads.
And when it's over, this brief distraction,
we go back to mourning our loss.

Writing success

Wise words from Duncan Murrell, a former editor at Algonquin Books: Measures of Success:What Publishing Your Book Really Means, in Poets & Writers magazine.