As a subscriber of the Tallahassee Democrat for over 20 years, I gladly put up with the occasional rantings of a DeVoe Moore and those with whom I don’t always agree. Free country: free press and there is always Bill Cotterell with an historical perspective to balance the discourse. But recently I have seen a sharp right turn to the paper, especially concerning candidates for governor. Most alarming, the articles are not always in the opinion section. They are passed off as regular news.
Take the headline “Charlie Crist misleads Ron DeSantis’ record on taxes”. If one makes it to the end of the article, “A Florida Department of Revenue spokesperson told PolitiFact it refunded nearly $624 million to the state’s corporate taxpayers this year. The refunds benefited more than 21,000 corporate taxpayers.” A more accurate headline might have read DeSantis gives tax breaks to 21,000 corporate taxpayers while ignoring crushing homeowner insurance increases in order to bite a mouse.
In the same edition was a page one article cutely titled “Lights, camera, inaction?” with a subhead, Charlie Crist plan to attract TV, film industry to Florida has been tried before with little success.
Really? The author of the article did not draw conclusions. The headline writer of the Democrat did. Having just returned from a month in California, I witnessed a scene of a flourishing entertainment industry, an exciting industry I worked in for 25 years (including at Disney) that according to an Economic Workforce Development study, “supports thousands of service and supply industries such as advertising, print media, makeup, costumes, craft talent, and craft services. It hosts events that support theaters, hotels, restaurants, catering, apparel and florists. This economic engine brings over $30 billion to the State of California and supports over 200,000 local jobs. In addition, the film industry brings in more than $100 billion in tourism. (https://ewddlacity.com/index.php/entertainment-incentives).
Friday, I open the paper to two more sly promos for DeSantis, disguised as Your Turns. I would have labeled them “Our Right Turn on Red”.
Meantime, I question my longtime subscription to the once fair-minded Tallahassee Democrat. After all, if I want to hear rave reviews of Ron DeSantis, I can just tune into Fox News.
Sue Gross is a novelist who has made Tallahassee home.
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