Miami Herald makes perfect case for local journalism

One of the richest, most-connected men in America is sitting in a cell this morning because a newspaper reporter took up the cause of victims who had no voice.

The efforts of Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown underscores the need for local journalism, as seen in her stories on Jeffrey Epstein, 66, a convicted sex offender who has an estate in Palm Beach and who has been charged again in New York.

Last week, Epstein, who counts princes and presidents among his friends, was frog-hopped out of his Manhattan mansion on charges of trafficking underage girls in New York and Florida from 2002 to 2005.

Brown leads a reporting team that broke the original story on Epstein in 2018 with her three-part series, “Perversion of Justice.”

The accusations surrounding Epstein’s depraved abuse of young girls are epic and voluminous. Investigators with the FBI/NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force allege the victims included runaways, throwaways and naive immigrants aspiring to be models, all of whom Epstein and his friends passed around like popcorn.

In 2018, retired Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald: “This was not a ‘he said, she said’ situation. This was 50-something ‘shes’ and one ‘he’ — and the ‘shes’ all basically told the same story.”

Brown’s methodical, relentless reporting has been a master class in investigative journalism. In 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in the Dade County Jail on charges of soliciting prostitution.

There’s no such thing as a child prostitute. They’re rape victims of pedophiles.

Brown’s reporting uncovered that then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta’s office cut a down-pillow plea deal that enabled Epstein to escape a 53-page federal indictment that would have meant life in prison if convicted.

Epstein’s plea deal, which his attorneys practically wrote, also included work release for 12 hours a day, six days a week. Brown also found that prosecutors failed to notify the victims about the deal, as required by law.

Last week, Acosta, now U.S. Secretary of Labor, tweeted he was shocked — shocked — at Epstein’s latest charges, which stem from the original case. After throwing the state prosecutor and even some of his own subordinates under the bus, Acosta conceded last week in a news conference that Epstein deserved harsher punishment.

The only thing that will be shocking is if Acosta manages to hang onto his current job.

How many girls?

Because too many people equate wealth and business success with character, there’s a notion that child rape is the purview of the trench-coated cretin, not an erudite “Master of the Universe” celebrated for his philanthropy. Newspaper reporters know better. Imagine how many girls could have been spared since that plea deal was struck.

It took Brown’s reporting in the Miami Herald to make it finally all stick. Last week, federal investigators specifically cited her work as a direct factor in filing the latest charges.

This is what newspapers can do. Brown and the Miami Herald are a slam dunk for Pulitzer Prizes next spring, but that’s not why such stories are written.

They’re done to secure justice for people who can’t acquire it on their own.

They’re done to set wrongs, right. They’re done because you have a right to know, and because while not every local story is a blockbuster, they’re still vital to the life of a community.

They’re written because no one, no one, is above the law.