Lazy or Biased Reporting

For years, many people, including myself, have thought the area’s media outlets either lazy or biased when reporting on local candidates or political figures. I believe those qualities also apply to the editorial staffs that criticize or endorse politicians.

Years ago, I attended a candidate’s school in St. Petersburg. One of the speakers was Wayne Garcia, a Tampa Bay political consultant and commentator. His topic to all the aspiring candidates was media relations and how to generate media interest in a candidacy. His major point to those candidates was: reporters or their editors don’t care a lick about you or your views. They care only about selling their stories and selling newspapers or TV news.

For the sake of example, let’s look at the Tampa Tribune, and the apparent relationship between its reporters, editorial writers, and paid commentators. All seem in concert to attack certain people: see Rhonda Storms, Brian Blair, or MaryEllen Elia. Each could solve world hunger, resolve the Florida budget crisis, or create a plan to revolutionize education, and the Trib’s headline the next day would read: Experts find flaws in Elia’s (or Storms’ or Blair’s) plan, when the headline should read, “Elia solves education crisis.”

With that said, I now wonder if documented Sunshine Law violations between, let’s say, County Commissioners Ken Hagan and Jim Norman would generate media interest. I say yes with a capital YES. So I must wonder now, why….when I requested records last spring for the district expensed cell phone for board member Susan Valdes and found 14 hours of unpaid personal calls…with over four hours of those calls to and from fellow board member April Griffin, no one in the local press thought that worth much interest. I wonder if I had somehow found the same information about Buddy Johnson would the local press be as uninterested? Hmmm. On the other hand, does anyone think editors, columnists, and reporters also shield there favorite politicians from criticism?

As Earnest Hooper might write, “That’s all I’m asking.”

No doubt, I will revisit this topic again in the future.

posted by admin @ 9:28 AM