Dethroned

The Orlando Sentinel's sister paper to the south, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, just lost its managing editor, Sharon Rosenhause, to paper cuts. Sun-Sentinel blogger Greg Lewis calls Rosenhause "the Queen of Newspaper Diversity" for her commitment to a newsroom that looked like the community it served.

There is another editor around these parts who aspired to that title: Orlando Sentinel Editor Charlotte Hall. It's true that Hall hired Orlando Sentinel Managing Editor, Mark Russell, who is black.

But I've not seen a tangible difference or improvement in coverage of Orlando's burgeoning diverse communities. Therefore, I'm not sure the queenie label will stick on Hall. (Full disclosure: I covered minority affairs for about 4 years at the Sentinel before moving on to other posts. I got to know the different communities pretty well.)

I know some reporters at the Sun-Sentinel and it seemed to me many revered Rosenhause, which leads me to conclude that Rosenhause probably went above and beyond the usual talking points about newsroom diversity. Lewis' blog post indicates a close relationship with Rosenhause, something that I cannot say I witnessed in Orlando between Hall and any reporter. So, "revere" would not be a word to describe the Orlando situation.

If you have a different perspective on Hall's contribution to Orlando's newsroom diversity, please leave your comments.

To read more of Lewis's blog post on Rosenhause, follow this link:

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/oldschoolblues/blog/old_school/