The Sun-Sentinel’s Boner
BY BUDDY NEVINS
I’ve been saying for a long time that the Sun-Sentinel needs more hard news on its front page.
I didn’t mean this!
Today the paper sank to a new low with an erection clinic ad on its front page.
It is a vivid example, or should I say a firm example, of the paper’s financial desperation.
JimRomenesko.com, which is a website for journalists and those interested in the media, quotes Sun-Sentinel Howard Greenberg as saying, “It was an honest, embarrassing mistake.”
Never was this line more meaningful: Click below to enlarge.
(A personal thanks to a Browardbeat.com reader who helped with this post.)
May 7th, 2014 at 5:31 pm
If this is what they are going to do I can’t have children in the house seeing that. I guess when cancellations come in they might notice, or not.
It is really disgraceful. Why don’t they just bury the news and become the penny saver.
May 7th, 2014 at 5:53 pm
Disgusting. How can anybody take what they say seriously?
May 7th, 2014 at 6:46 pm
I just cannot comment fully…until Sam tells me how I am supposed to feel about this. Cannot recall him addressing this before, so it should be interesting.
May 7th, 2014 at 7:16 pm
A new high in lows. This “news” paper is getting more and more ridiculous.
May 7th, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Why all the fuss? Sexuality is a natural part of life. If this clinic is providing quality medical treatment, then their ads should not be treated as “second class citizens”.
May 7th, 2014 at 9:20 pm
This definitely puts the paper in an uncomfortable position. With their already declining subscription numbers, mistakes like this would seem to indicate a lack of performance when it comes to their controlling officers. One might expect this type of indelicacy in Las Vegas, but not in Broward.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:16 pm
Speaking of 6-hour boners … Did you hear the news?
Sylvia Poitier announced she is running for office in 2015.
Apparently Sam Fields, there is a gawd damn can you fucking believe it?
May 7th, 2014 at 10:17 pm
PS.
Blame the advert content server. Not the SS.
LEARN HOW THESE THINGS WORK BEFORE YOU START BLATHERING ALL ABOUT.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:18 pm
Oh wAit. That’s the print edition.
Excuse my last rant.
May 7th, 2014 at 11:02 pm
How can one comment on this? Has journalism no minimum level?
May 8th, 2014 at 7:53 am
Upon deeper reflection, perhaps there exists some sort of connection between the advertisement and the news article just above it related to the pending ass fucking the BCSB is preparing to give the property tax payers in this county….
May 8th, 2014 at 9:53 am
This is not the first time they’ve done boner ads. Didn’t they endorse Romney? Matter of fact, were there any Tribune newspapers that didn’t endorse Romney?
May 8th, 2014 at 10:31 am
I will be 70 next year and people want to hear from me about sex!?
I take it as a compliment.
So here is what I want to know. How come boner ads are questionable in newspapers but are perfectly ok to run on every TV show beginning with the nightly news?
If your answer lasts longer than 4 hours contact your doctor….or your girlfriend.
May 8th, 2014 at 10:34 am
Why the outrage now? Have you ever been to the Sun-Sentinel’s website? It has galleries from the local porn convention, a South Beach pool party, and “Ugly Prom Dresses” which uses a teaser photo of a teen with a dress showing way too much cleavage. It seems like the print edition is simply catching up to the digital one.
May 8th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
OMG, did Chaz just admit he is wrong? And then apologize?
Chaz, tell me it’s not so.
Frame it because I am sure he didn’t mean to do that.
He never admits or apologizes when he is wrong even when proven otherwise. Instead he just keeps slinging it hoping something will stick. Eventually he drops it hoping to return someday.
May 8th, 2014 at 12:40 pm
I remember years ago the Columbia Journalism Review Calling out the Sun Sentinel and at that time Earl Mauker for breaking down the fire wall between advertising and news. Not surprised at this.
May 8th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
You have hoisted Chaz Stevens up as the poster boy of the new media, the new journalism. Yet this would be mild compared to a lot of what he posts; i.e., penis pics drawn on public officials, gay porn links. You have helped to give birth to this.
FROM BUDDY:
There was a time when the Sun-Sentinel had different standards than an activist posting on the Internet, who has no editor and no formal journalism training. All types of people invite the Sun-Sentinel into their homes daily with the expectation it will be relatively “G” rated.
The S-S is a major business which styles itself as serious, thoughtful and the most important information source in Broward County. That image doesn’t jibe with putting ads like this on the front page. That’s why the publisher apologized. As far as I know, Stevens has never apologized for the penis pictures.
May 8th, 2014 at 1:32 pm
This is what you get when you cut the copy desk by 80 percent, and leave it to four people to produce two editions of 1A and jumps, two Locals, part of two sports and business sections. And when you throw in the online work, you have no one left to look closely at the page proofs. I’ll bet the house the desk never had the time to check the ads on pages.
FROM BUDDY:
Good points.
May 8th, 2014 at 4:12 pm
Somehow this mistake seems worse.
“In 1993, someone placed a fake classified ad in the Sun-Sentinel offering for sale ‘Jewish human soap .'”
May 8th, 2014 at 4:43 pm
The answer is simple.
If you are offended by dick pics, or the occasional RickRoll (look it up) to a gay porn site, then just don’t visit my blog.
Your problem is solved.
In fact, given your apparently boorish attitude, I ask that you, in the words of Mitt Romney, self-deport your, um, self from my website.
Problem doubly solved.
Why would I want to apologize for a dick pic? It got rid of Pat Flury, spiked my traffic off the chain, and was good for many belly laughs.
Dicks are funny… Just ask your wife how funny she thinks your dick is.
I don’t think Buddy Nevins held me up to be anything more than I am … a profoundly influential media outlet in Broward County. Penis glasses and all.
You conflate new media with new journalism. Or, maybe you are onto something. Whatever the term, whatever it is, you keep coming to my site.
Analytics don’t lie.
May 8th, 2014 at 5:14 pm
@#15
If it is on his blog and he is wrong he deletes it and then denies it was ever up there.
May 8th, 2014 at 6:01 pm
It looks like the newspaper business is facing stiff competition!
Sorry, Buddy…couldn’t resist.
May 8th, 2014 at 6:57 pm
@21
Again, just don’t visit my blog … and you won’t be bothered on how I operate…
It’s really that simple.
I don’t visit your … oh, that’s right…
May 9th, 2014 at 7:22 am
“The S-S is a major business which styles itself as serious, thoughtful and the most important information source in Broward County.” ?????
You’ve got to be kidding.
The SS chips in to keep keep their bankrupt business group owner afloat at the cost of constantly firing such little talent as they can attract. Bad enough. Then their editorial style directs that talent in uninteresting and professionally insulting directions.
They do not write serious stories, their “Pulizer Prize” is a joke, face it. They’re a cheap tabloid specializing in snide gossip about such things as which lobbyists wear socks. How utterly pathetic.
It is true they are the only Broward newspaper which goes far to explaining why so many of our good neighbors are so profoundly misinformed.
The single best thing that could happen to Broward would be for that newspaper to close down. For there to be a complete and total enema throughout that newspaper and for it to be reborn in the image of something, anything resembling a newspaper. Yes, they would still make money that way.
May 9th, 2014 at 9:47 am
I am a liberal Democrat; but I don’t know of any Tea Partier as destructive, hateful, slanderous and self-serving as Chaz Stevens. He slings mud all over this county. One time out of 100, he’s right – this does not an activist make. It makes jackass!
May 9th, 2014 at 2:21 pm
@25
Which time was I right … I’ve lost count.
Poitier, Capellini, Gonot, Davis, Davis, Giannini, Allen, Haynes …
Shall I continue?
May 12th, 2014 at 12:59 pm
@26
You should look for some Grace.