Another Sun-Sentinel Loss: Editorial Writer Out

 

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

 

Doug Lyons, a Sun-Sentinel editorial writer known to legions of Broward politicians, is out at the newspaper.

 

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Lyons announced his departure on Facebook, taking some in the newsroom by surprise:

 

 

 

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“–30–” is an old-timey newspaper tag to signal the end of a story.

Speculation in the city room is that Lyons was either laid off because of the newspaper’s dire finances or he had a falling out with Rosemary O’Hara, the editorial page editor and Lyons’ boss.

Lyons wrote on Facebook: “Body snatcher got me, but life goes on.”

His departure is another blow to the paper.

He was an increasingly rare commodity among the staff  — a veteran news writer.  He had worked at Ebony magazine and U. S. World & News Report before coming here.

No one at the Sun-Sentinel had better connections in the African American and Caribbean American community, the fastest growing population in Broward.

What few readers the Sun-Sentinel has left will miss Lyons’ historical knowledge of Broward. He knew the players and the process that runs the county.  And he had been here long enough not to mix up Davie with Dania Beach, something I saw in the newspaper.

Unlike too many other editorial writers I have known, Lyons didn’t remain cloistered in his office.  When I was there, he worked the community like a hungry cub reporter.

I would bump into him at political events and government meetings all the time. He traveled to Tallahassee to learn first hand what was going on and not going on.

His loss will be missed.

The good news: If he wants to continue working, I’m sure he will resurface someplace where they appreciate his talent.

I can assure him that there is life after the Sun-Sentinel.

 

 



29 Responses to “Another Sun-Sentinel Loss: Editorial Writer Out”

  1. Jack Moss says:

    A gentleman in every sense of the word. His history of Broward’s players … especially in the social services … cannot be replaced.

    Thanks Doug, for a great run.

  2. She Strikes Again says:

    Doug and Chan Lowe could start a club. Victims of The Beast with Two Faces — Rosemary O’Hara.

  3. Tina Fey says:

    Sun Sentinel will not be around long. Idiots are running the company…what’s left of it.

  4. Jack McCluskey says:

    The industry I spent 35 years in is going down the drain….the departure of Doug Lyons, preceded by Chan Lowe and Earl Maucker is so sad, no matter who is to blame, be it the public, the internet or just plain ignorance. Integrity is leaving the newspaper, unfortunately all of them. I started with Bill Baggs at the Miami News and Ralph McGill in Atlanta and it has gone downhill since then. No one values what a newspaper can do, and the country suffers because of that loss of the great American institution enshrined in what we used to call a free press.

  5. DipsyDoodle says:

    The Sentinel cant have many black editorial employees left .

  6. Ro says:

    A terrible loss for all of us.

  7. excompassionate conservative says:

    Last week I spoke to someone about my subscription and asked for a discount. They asked why and I said that this paper is no longer a real newspaper and does not deserve real money.

    Dropping Buddy Nevins as a departed real reporter did get get me discount.

    I think after the paper is driven to little value, it could be scooped cheap up by the Koch Brothers who want to buy papers.

    FROM BUDDY:

    They didn’t drop me. I retired. And I was only one of the many fine reporters and editors who have left.

  8. Steve Margulis says:

    So now the Sun Sentinel is useful only for the coupons and lining the litter box. No one left worth reading.

  9. Russell Small says:

    Doug Lyons was one of the few in that newsroom who had both common sense and knew what was going on. Doug and Chan Lowe really should get together with Buddy’s website, or browardbulldog.org, and build an online paper. And DipsyDoodle, not only is the Sentinel left with only a couple black employees, the paper doesn’t have many employees left, period.

  10. Alvin Entin says:

    It virtually serves no purpose anymore. I read it only for its local news ( which the Herald doesn’t cover ). The paper of Jack Zink and Bill Hirschman no longer exists. It doesn’t cover the arts particularly well, its National and International coverage is sourced from other Newspapers and its Sports is a pale shadow of the Heralds. Maybe people have stopped reading newspapers when newspapers stopped printing news. This paper was once populated by giants, today the few staff writers left are misused and overworked. If it weren’t for Paula McMahon, Rafael Olmeida, Rod Hagwood and Dave Hyde the paper would be good for wrapping fish. Even their movie critic isn’t from South Florida. Someone please buy this paper and make it what James Cox created.

    FROM BUDDY:

    Jack Zink, the former theater critic, died a number of years ago. Bill Hirschman, who covered education at the Sun-Sentinel for almost two decades (Sitting at all the those School Board meetings probably made it seem like two centuries!), now runs a successful South Florida theater website (http://www.floridatheateronstage.com).

    James Cox, the newspaper publisher who owned the defunct Miami News and Palm Beach Post among others, never owned the Fort Lauderdale News or its successor Sun-Sentinel. It was founded by Gov. Robert Gore (He was once governor of Puerto Rico and kept the name until his death.). The family sold out to The Tribune Company, owners of the Chicago Tribune, more than 50 years ago. The state office building, just west of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks on West Broward Boulevard, is named after Robert Gore.

  11. David Gilbert Brown says:

    A true distinguished newspaperman with insight and determination to find the real story. I hope you will stay engaged.

  12. zigy says:

    why beat a dead dog rest in peace only us old timers will miss the printed press, I wonder what will now keep us free…. its up to buddy and the bull dog, nothing else is left, sorry for the dose of nihilism.

  13. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @12 – There are others too:

    1) http://tamaractalk.com/
    2) http://coralspringstalk.com/
    3) http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
    4) http://homelesshatelaws.blogspot.com/
    5) http://www.jaablaw.com/

    and many more. But in general, yes – printed newspapers, pamphlets, etc. are obsolescent, and blogs now serve what was once their purpose.

  14. Lori Parrish says:

    Doug Lyons is a well informed gentleman. He will be missed.

  15. Moose says:

    Doug was the only one at the Sun-Sentinel who cared about people who look like him. The Sun-Sentinel has a history of racism and it continues. These folks call themselves liberals. Underneath you find they look down their noses at anybody who looks like Doug. They don’t care about anything that goes on in the African American community unless they can show an African American face and label him a criminal. Doug was the only one we trusted.

  16. I Don't Think So says:

    @13 – Tamarac Talk? Coral Springs Talk? Are you really comparing these two blogs run by a nasty negative neighborhood gadfly to Broward Beat and The Broward Bulldog? That’s like comparing a Yugo to a Mercedes.

    FROM BUDDY:

    I think both Tamarac and Coral Springs Talk are good online publications.

  17. Sam The Sham says:

    Printed news is dead, it just does not know it yet. People who want to be entertained by news (but not really informed) watch TV and cable. The only source that gives us real news is the internet. There is a lot of blather and bull shiite online and it is up to us to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    That is, of course, until Net Neutrality takes full effect and the USA abandons the running of the internet in favor of a conglomeration of Socialist Europeans, Turd World despots and enemies like China and Russia.

  18. Kevin Hill says:

    A few years ago when I used to appear somewhat regularly on WPBT political panel shows (because I lived right near the studios… I am a fundamentally lazy person), it was always good to have the journalist on the show be Doug Lyons.

    This is because you could always count on him knowing what the hell he was talking about.

    Kevin.

  19. Senator Steve Geller says:

    I have worked with Doug over many years. He was always fair, and actually understood what he was writing about. This is starting to sound like a eulogy, which it isn’t. I hope and trust that a person of Doug’s skill and integrity will be back in the media soon, hopefully here in South Florida. He is needed, and his departure is a loss for the Sun Sentinel.

  20. Chris Smith says:

    Doug understood all communities in Broward. He knew what questions to ask to avoid the superficial.

  21. City Activist Robert Walsh says:

    In reference to #7 Buddy -clear the air. Word had I that you were terminated by the Sun-sentinel because you made some kind of remark about gay people etc. Hear you say addressing # 7 that you retired. Settle this Buddy once and for all…

    FROM BUDDY:

    I wasn’t terminated. I took a generous buyout offered to older veteran staff members. Anybody who knows me know I have a long history of supporting LGTB rights.

  22. excompassionate conservative says:

    Buddy, at times I wish you had an edit option here. In #7 I “dropped your name” as an example of how downhill the paper is going. Among the numerous examples I mentioned, a non existant business section which just reprints business press releases, horrible local coverage where I learn more about Orlando than Broward County and lack of daily investigative news instead of every 1/4 year.

    The Sun Sentinel is a shallow paper with shallow values . Romney and “the job creator” endorsement of president editorial editorial pretty much told me which demographic the paper was heading to

    http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-10-26/news/sfl-mitt-romney-presidential-endorsment-sun-sentinel-20121025_1_federal-stimulus-jobless-numbers-tax-code

  23. Truth Still Matters says:

    Sun Sentinel Cocktail: Two jiggers of mediocrity and one jigger of stubborn denial, add a splash of snarky indifference to disguise lack of talent, pour over dirty ice cubes. Add a turd for garnish. Stir well and serve to the thirsty. How refreshing.

  24. the truth says:

    Lyons was always in Judy Stern’s pocket. Many nights of cocktails at her office. No shock that Steve Geller, Judy’s boy, is commenting here.

  25. Count LF Chodkiewicz Chudzikiewicz says:

    Old City, Rimini, Italy

    l. Mr. Lyons was both a professional newspaperman and an informed observer of the African-American Community was makes up about 30% of the “SUN SENTINEL” ‘s circulation area.
    2. UNLIKE THE COMMENT THAT PRINT IS DEAD which appears to apply to “parts” of Florida BUT NOT OTHERS (Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale have less newspapers, but Key West still has several) here in Europe NO PAPER HAS GONE OUT OF BUSINESS or GREATLY LAID OFF REPORTERS. Every day in a major city in Europe like Rome I just left, ENGLISH language readers can read THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL, FINANCIAL TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, DAILY TELEGRAPH, and (ONLY TO KEEP SAM FIELDS FROM BLOGGINS, THE GUARDIAN)! It is part of the lack of knowledge of the world that people in this or that part of America are “religiously attached” to the idea “print is dead” because ONE FORM IN SOME PLACES “print is dead”. MAYBE BECAUSE IN SOME PLACES IT IS BORING, BIASED, UNINFORMED? I hope some intelllgent editor brings Mr. Lyons on board as he is a worthwhile asset to a newspaper. AND WHY IS “THE TRUTH” DRAGGING JUDY STERN AND STEVE GELLER into this discussion of PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM! To the best of my knowledge Mr. Lyons NEVER was in ANYONE’s POCKET! A slur by, as usual, “someone using a fake name” makes WITHOUT DETAILS or EVEN THIS OWN NAME!

  26. Susan Goldstein says:

    When one door closes another opens.

    Doug is an intelligent, courteous and talented journalist. Very few reporters are as perceptive and well respected in our community and in Tallahassee. Their loss! He will be sorely missed by those of us who relied on his experience and historical knowledge to help uncover the truth, and have the guts to print it.

  27. ss veteran says:

    I never understood why the Sun-Sentinel, in one of the most liberal counties in the U.S., insisted on having a right-wing editorial page. Talk about connecting with your readers! Doug is an excellent journalist and will surely find another good job if he chooses to continue working. The bigger question is how the S-S will survive with an increasingly out-of-touch staff. A handful of good investigative reporters is not enough to keep the SS relevant.

  28. Kevin says:

    i agree with many of the comments above. Doug is a real gentleman and a reporter who was always thorough and always fair.

  29. carolina says:

    Doug, I am so sorry to see you go; you & Chan Lowe were the anchors of Sun Sentinel. I have not seen a cartoon that made any sense all since Chan was dumped.
    Best wishes to you, Doug, on your new journey. You are missed!