Sun-Sentinel Shocker! Rosemary O’Hara Retires
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The Sun-Sentinel has suffered its second major blow this month.
Two weeks ago it was announced that the newspaper’s owner Tribune Publishing would be bought by Alden Global Capital, a rapacious hedge fund best known for slicing staff at numerous newspapers.
Today it was announced that Rosemary O’Hara was retiring.
O’Hara has been the heart and public face of the Sun-Sentinel as the editorial page editor. Her pages were the paper’s liaison with the political and business world.
She also served as an informal mentor and sounding board for reporters, helping to shape almost every major story produced at the paper during her eight-year tenure.
Just one way she defied the Sun-Sentinel’s declining fortunes: She had 100 leaders fill the paper with their musings for free.
Perhaps most important, she gives readers the only non-partisan examination of local issues and candidates. Her departure is a major loss for the free flow of ideas in Broward Country.
O’Hara recently had heart problems, according to her own Facebook page.
She also faced a looming standoff with the new owners Alden, who will surely demand cuts to the coverage at the Sun-Sentinel.
That could have cost her staff and space in an ever shrinking Sun-Sentinel.
Who needs it?
She can look back at an esteemed career. She doesn’t need to spend her last days cutting, cutting, cutting and firing.
She is grabbing a lifeboat and is sailing off to retirement in Dunedin near Clearwater.
With Alden on the horizon, her departure will not be the only one.
No one is irreplaceable.
But Sun-Sentinel readers will find out that O’Hara was the closest thing the paper had to irreplaceable.
Good luck to Rosemary and her husband Tom!
February 24th, 2021 at 1:15 pm
My most substantial contact with Rosemary came in 2016 when I ran in the Democratic primary for BROWARD supervisor of elections against then incumbent BRENDA SNIPES.
In the editorial board interview, with both BRENDA and I in a conference room with Rosemary, The depth of the questions and the preparation obvious in her follow ups showed the professionalism and devotion the public policy that was always a parent on the Sun Sentinel editorial pages.
I don’t know if the video of that interview is still available on the Sun Sentinel website it would be a valuable opportunity for candidates to see what an editorial board interview can be and should be.
Well I was fortunate to get the newspapers endorsement my campaign was unsuccessful. I did however continue to enjoy and occasional interaction with Rosemary. I wish you the best in her retirement and hope that she will occasionally comment on public policy aspects of life in Broward County.
February 24th, 2021 at 1:18 pm
You must be kidding about ‘non-partisan’ coverage. The Sun-Sentinel became the mouthpiece of the Democrat Party under her tenure.
February 24th, 2021 at 1:49 pm
She was easily one of the sustaining strengths of the paper, and a role model for editorial writers to research and investigate before opining. This is a loss not just to the paper but to the community.
February 24th, 2021 at 5:04 pm
She may have been a good person but good Lord, the opinion section has become another America hating, Trump bashing, conservatives trashing CNN. I signed up for the electronic service 3 months ago and that was all I could take. Let it swirl.
February 24th, 2021 at 6:05 pm
Rosemary has done a remarkable job! She will be missed! She did an amazing job throughout the pandemic! Good luck to her and Tom!
February 24th, 2021 at 9:24 pm
The Sun-Sentinel has already been sliced and diced to the point it is not recognizable as a NEWS paper. The tiny tidbits of news in the rag are wrapped in pages and pages of ads.
Any more degradation of the paper will surely kill it.
The online version is skimpy and also jammed with ad after ad. Several years ago, the SS took the option of reader response to articles away, possibly because most responders disagreed with the political bias of the articles. That act removed one more layer of “local” involvement with a “news” paper distributed locally.
The departure of O’Hara removes some of the bubble gum that was holding the rag together. Sad.
February 25th, 2021 at 1:03 am
The Sun Sentinel has been unreadable garbage for decades. Every time I give it another chance and actually read it I remember why I abandoned it years ago. Maybe Ohara made a difference but I could not tell by reading the paper.
Actually, locals like the Pompano Pelican do a better job at informing the public and getting the news out. These small weekly “throw aways” are more credible and enjoyable to read.
February 25th, 2021 at 8:09 am
I have had the time of my life in Fort Lauderdale and will leave a piece of my heart here when I leave. But I leave the game knowing I left it all on the field. Thank you for this wonderful write-up, Buddy, and for your friendship. I have valued your contributions on BrowardBeat, as I have Dan Christensen’s on FloridaBulldog. Stay well, my friend.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:26 pm
“Democracy dies in Darkness”. Slowly at first and then!
If ever there was a place that needed the best journalists, its Broward. Another sad day.
Thank you Rosemary and good luck.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:51 pm
May her health improve as much as her heart is large. She tried to express her opinions n thoughts in useful ways. Whether you agreed with her or not she was always a Lady. Fort Lauderdale will be less without her.
February 27th, 2021 at 1:50 pm
I knew Rosemary when she was still Goudreau and we were young newspaper reporters in Tampa. I was pleasantly surprised to find her at the Sun Sentinel when I moved back home to Fort Lauderdale. She did a wonderful job. I’m proud of her and wish her nothing but the best in retirement! She will be missed. Sadly the local news business is undergoing an epic decline and we will all suffer because of it.
February 27th, 2021 at 3:57 pm
@Ross Poldark ever think all that Trump-bashing in the OPINIONS section was how residents of a DEMOCRATIC County really felt?
Sorry, it’s not a Rupert Murdick paper or Faux News. But the majority of Broward County and America hate Trump and demonstrated this by voting him out.
March 1st, 2021 at 11:46 am
Sun Sentinel has been steadily sliding into oblivion for years. They once enjoyed a very strong saturation rate but they’ve now reached the hardly relevant to my life stage in Broward County. Only a small fraction of Broward even reads it anymore. Their coverage of local news was deemed unimportant, customer service was horriblew, and their once credible style of reporeting was replaced with a snarky, smart ass, slanted approach to content that robbed them of credibility. Sun Sentinel is today a disappointment. Content, editorial, you name it, I’ve not been impressed with them for the better part of 20 years. Today, Broward operates without a credible news source and no free society can work well that way. When people can’t agree on the facts, how in the world can they reach consensus on views? No amount of denial will fix it, they need to go back to their roots and start fresh. Reporting the news, one well written story at a time, building back credibility. Becoming relevant again.
FROM BUDDY:
I don’t believe the situation is quite as bad as portrayed by this reader. The Sun-Sentinel still does some very good work.
However, with their shockingly small staff they do so little that you can’t really say they cover Broward. The paper has become very downtown Fort Lauderdale focused, although the vast majority of the population lives in other communities.
The staff will admit they don’t ever cover, or even visit, most of the Broward cities.
The paper also has a minimal number of readers in Broward’s fastest growing population groups — Caribbean-Americans or Hispanic.
Newspapers will never dominate the agenda in local communities again. Their websites don’t have the heft or the draw that the paper’s once did. Broward will be covered by TV and a collection of smaller websites. That’s just the fact.
March 1st, 2021 at 1:47 pm
Buddy, if there’s no business plan for newspapers anymore then perhaps the Sun Sentinel should become a cable TV station or a website and do a better job. Right now, and for the past number of years, they suck. There’s definitely no decent business plan for that.
March 2nd, 2021 at 11:40 am
Just to add to my comments on the Sun-Sentinel not covering Broward. Joe Varsallone died last month at 88. He was a political leader for three decades whose impact was felt far beyond Margate, where he was a city commissioner. Not a word in the Sun-Sentinel (There was an article in the Miami Herald.).
That is a tragic example of the lack of coverage.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article249135265.html
March 2nd, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Non partisan? Please. She had the power of the pen and time to use against decent public figures. Not sad to see her move on.
March 7th, 2021 at 10:53 am
Sun Sentinel, a corpse that lives on. The SS Rag became a far-Left partisan hack many years ago. In-paper, online, whatever… A biased Marxist pitch with lipstick on it is still Marxist. What ever happened to reporting without far-Left bias; and the hatred that goes with it? Simply state the facts and surrounding history completely and objectively, and leave your opinions on the Editorial/Opinions page.
FROM BUDDY:
I would love to see examples of any any “biased Marxist pitch” in the Sun-Sentinel.
March 7th, 2021 at 8:00 pm
I have yet to hear or read any CURRENT especially Trumpist Republican demonstrate any KNOWLEDGE OF KARL MARX or Marxism. They CONSTANTLY CONFUSE COMMUNISM and SOCIALISM which has MANY DIFFERENT VARIETIES. Actually Republican conservatives seem rather IGNORANT of political n economic history as well as what words actually mean.
FROM BUDDY:
I agree with you that the word “Marxist” and “Marxism” is misused repeatedly in our current political debate.
I was in the Soviet Union — not Russia, but the USSR — during its Marxist era. There was no free media of any kind. The KGB followed visitors constantly, searched and bugged the hotel rooms. Visitors had to have minders to go almost anywhere. And there seemed there was a statue of Marx and Lenin on every corner.
That doesn’t sound like anything the Sun-Sentinel has ever advocated.
March 8th, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Italian, Israeli, Polish, French, the multiple versions of German Socialism are barely similar. When Texas, Iowa, Trump Republicans in particular yakk about ‘Socialism’ their comments are MEANINGLESS.
When the US Government gave LAND GRANTS TO BUILD THE RAILROADS TO THE WEST FROM CHICAGO N ST LOUIS WAS THAT SOCIALISM?
When bankrupt railroads IN RED STATES were taken over by AMTRAK was that Socialism?