Oscar J. Corral

Who is Oscar J. Corral?

Oscar Jose Corral' is a Cuban-American journalist. In 2012, Corral directed and produced a documentary film, Tom Wolfe Gets Back to Blood, which enjoyed a national run on PBS and was screened in more than 30 independent theaters around the country. It is the only film ever made about Wolfe, an iconic author and satirist whose stature in American letters has loomed large for the last half century. The film is about how Wolfe researched his Miami-set novel, Back to Blood, in South Florida.

Corral is a former Miami Herald journalist who triggered a firestorm among Cuban exiles in Miami with his reporting about government funding for Radio and TV Marti and other U.S. government programs to promote democracy in Cuba. His controversial stories have been the subject of several studies and analyses, most recently by Columbia University, which used them as a basis for an ethical case study.

Corral also played major roles in the coverage of other big stories in Miami, including the fall of Miami Commissioner Arthur Teele, the case of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, and multiple state and national political campaigns. His short-lived blog, Miami's Cuban Connection, enjoyed a burst of popularity in 2006 before fading into internet limbo, where it lives on in the Miami Herald's archives. It has not been updated for several years. Corral's journalism career ended after he was arrested at 12:15 AM on August 4, 2007, for soliciting prostitution from a Hispanic teenage girl in the Flagami district of Miami. According to the arrest report, he identified himself to police as a "content provider," instead of a reporter. According to the prostitute's arrest report, Corral when arrested was haggling with her over the $50 price for oral sex. When asked about the case, Miami Herald editor Anders Gyllenhaal had only a few words: "It's an unfortunate situation. Oscar says this stems from a misunderstanding and the paper backs him up on this." Corral pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and prosecution was deferred after he joined a rehabilitation program. Soon thereafter, he left the Miami Herald and ended his budding journalistic career in disgrace.