Thanks Again, Investigative Reporting

 Jason Garcia of the Orlando Sentinel Just Won't Let Up!


Gov DeSantis
Anti woke-ist


Jason Garcia
Orlando Sentinel
Investigative Reporter


I’m no fan of "Meatball*" DeSantis, and this (below) strikes me as a classic fascist move on his part.  Being in the news biz for much of my life, I believe it is one of the pillars of democracy.  Local papers are in huge trouble in this Internet age, yet they traditionally have been bastions of truth and wardens of clean local and state government forever .  These days, their financial survival in some cases depends on the mandatory publication of legal notices. Meatball is trying to strip this last benefit from local papers. 


  • Ron DeSantis is weaponizing partisan media — and weakening independent sources of news
    Ron DeSantis is weaponizing partisan media — and weakening independent sources of news, Jason Garcia, NiemanLab* (A VERY CREDIBLE SOURCE IN MEDIA NEWS: wd)
    Separate records show, for instance, that the DeSantis administration was directly involved in recent legislation that allowed cities, counties, and towns to stop publishing legal notices in local newspapers. Attorneys for the governor are arguing in courts that DeSantis does not always need to comply with Florida’s public-records laws. And DeSantis hinted last week that he wants to make it easier to sue news organizations for libel and defamation — an idea the governor has been quietly working on for at least a year. 

    The governor’s efforts to prop up supplicant** sources of news — while trying to destabilize and delegitimize independent ones — make for a dangerous combination, said Michael Barfield, the director of public access at the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a watchdog group that supports transparent government and investigative journalism.

    “This is what state-run media looks like,” Barfield said. “Russia, China, and Venezuela use it as a tool to control the message. The strategy has far-reaching and negative implications for freedom of the press and democracy. History is full of painful lessons when the government interferes with and manipulates a free and independent press.”
    History?  We don’t need no stinkin’ history.*** 

    * The nickname Trump says he won't call Gov DeSantis
    **”supplicant” = Suck Up
    *** Especially about the history of slavery

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