Another beautiful day in a beautiful place; another predictable, dull story in the St. Augustine Record

St. Augustine Record Buidling, now largely vacant -- paper is now printed in Jacksonville and the giant Goss presses have been removed!




Richard O. Watson, a noted local trial judge, died yesterday. However, the St. Augustine WRecKord’s front-page article this morning is utterly boring.
Ordinarily when a noted judge dies, the New York Times obituary will discuss some of his/her significant cases, showing how the judge changed history or helped people. Not the WRecKord. Not one mention of any case where Judge Watson might have made a difference, or made new law, or showed courage in making a ruling that might have offended the rich and powerful.
The WRecKord said Judge Watson had a great sense of humor, but none of his stories are quoted. That would be like saying Lincoln had a great sense of humor, but neglecting to retell a single one of his stories. What utter shallowness.
The WRecKord article by Associate Editor Richard Prior quoted one source, now a judge, as indicating that Judge Watson may have had a mean streak, but the details are lacking.
Instead of using his journalistic knowledge and skills to write an interesting article about Judge Watson, Associate Editor Richard Prior produced a puff piece, hagiography without facts.
I never met Judge Richard O. Watson. After reading Richard Prior’s obituary, I have not learned anything more about him. After decades of reading good, well-researched obituaries in the New York Times, one often feels empathy, like one met the subject, learning how they made a difference in life. Times obituaries about famous judges, politicians, civil rights heroes, inventors or entrepreneurs leave one informed.
Dozens of years of journalism experience has not empowered Richard Prior to write a decent obituary on a respected local judge, when he had all day yesterday to do so. Why?
The WRecKord is a third-rate newspaper with underpaid staff and bad morale.
Is Richard Prior a hack or a journalist? I reckon that Richard Prior’s smirky call to me about MORRIS PUBLISHING’s SLAPP suit against me showed Prior for what he was – an authoritarian bore! Luckily, I was riding in a car with a former Baltimore Sun editor at the time, and she got to hear the "interview," such as it was.
Like the local hate website operator’s supercilious HISTORIC CITY NEWS, the WRecKord is in the habit of publishing press releases and not investigating anything. Birds of a feather, they flock together --- mediocrities practicing mendacity. Writing their nowhere “news” for nobody .
In 1982, the New York Times missed a golden opportunity to purchase the St. Augustine Record and the Florida Times-Union for only $200 million. Instead, MORRIS bought it.
We’re stuck with boring, shallow surface reporting to this day.