WERE MIAMI NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS INVESTIGATED?

By: Mark Fitzgerald Fired City Manager Alleges Mayor Order Probes



Miami Mayor Joe Carollo ordered police investigations of the publishers
of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, one of the
English-language paper's reporters, and a columnist for the city's
daily business newspaper, according to fired Miami City Manager Donald
Warshaw.



In a letter to Florida law-enforcement officials that was made public
in court May 9, Warshaw alleges Carollo compiled an 'enemies list' of
20 people he wanted investigated. Among them: Herald Publisher
Alberto Ibargen; El Nuevo Herald Editor and Publisher Carlos
Casta?eda; Herald City Hall reporter Tyler Bridges; Miami
Daily Business Review columnist Tony Doris; two Spanish-language
talk radio hosts; and the president of a third Spanish-language radio
station. The entire El Nuevo Herald newspaper was also listed
separately.



The revelation of the alleged enemies list is among the most bizarre
political and journalistic fallout yet in Miami from the Eli?n Gonz?lez
affair. Mayor Carollo fired Warshaw April 27 because, the city manager
alleged, Warshaw refused orders to dismiss Police Chief William O'Brien
- allegedly because the chief did not tip off the mayor to the
impending federal marshals' raid that took Eli?n from the home of the
shipwreck survivor's Miami relatives on Easter weekend. O'Brien
resigned his post, but Warshaw fought his dismissal in court. The
alleged enemies list was made public - on a joint motion from lawyers
for the Herald and Mayor Carollo - as a judge lifted his
temporary restraining order against the firing.



Carollo vigorously denied keeping an enemies list or ordering police
probes. 'Warshaw is one sick man,' Carollo said, according to a
Herald story by reporters Manny Garcia and Karen Branch-Brioso.
'I fired him and he's trying to get even. It would take 500 police
officers to investigate everyone Warshaw claims I wanted investigated.
This is the sickest thing I have ever seen in my life.'



Journalists on the list reacted with more bemusement than anger.



'As I said in the paper, I have been on so many lists in my life -
Francisco Franco's, Francois Duvalier's, Fidel Castro's, and Rafael
Leonidas Trujillo's,' said El Nuevo Herald Editor and Publisher
Casta?eda, naming past and present dictators of Spain, Haiti, Cuba, and
the Dominican Republic, respectively. 'I am not important enough to be
on any list. Besides that, if I am - I don't care.'



Herald City Hall reporter Tyler Bridges said of his initial
reaction, 'I guess I thought it was funny.' Bridges and reporter Garcia
had previously revealed allegations from Warshaw that he had been
ordered to put a tail on Herald Publisher Ibargen. 'I'm simply
astonished,' Ibargen said at the time. 'I hope it's not true.'



Even if the list is bogus, the appearance of so many journalist names
served as a reminder of the increasing testiness between the mayor and
the local press. In recent weeks, for instance, Carollo had taken to
calling El Nuevo Herald reporter Rui Ferreira - a Portugal
native who served in the American Interests Section in Havana and free-

lanced for the newspaper before being expelled from the island - a
'Cuban spy.' At press conferences, Carollo has also singled out
Herald reporter Bridges and Alejandra Matus, the author of 'The
Black Book of Chilean Justice,' who recently joined El Nuevo
Herald.



Casta?eda said the attacks became so annoying, he finally confronted
Carollo and told him, 'He should submit his accusations to the FBI or
stop making the accusations. Otherwise, he would hear from our legal
department and the Inter American Press Association.'



Miami Daily Business Review columnist Tony Doris noted the irony
of the Herald journalists being on the supposed list when
Carollo had benefited from the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1998
investigation into voter fraud that led to a new mayoral election which
Carollo won. 'The Herald made him into a hero when there were a
lot of people around town who knew the guy was a loony-bin,' Doris
said. Doris said his own appearance on the list led him to recall a
small incident when he was researching a column at City Hall some
months ago.



'As I'm leaving, the mayor was coming down the hall and he said, 'Tony,
can I give you a lift?'' Doris said. 'And I'm thinking to myself - how
did he know I wasn't driving today?'