The bill was harshly criticized by the state's print media concerns. It was criticized by national media as well. Scare tactics and ominous talking points. And yet it passed.
Meanwhile, the BCC has already begun publishing most public notices on a lower priced print newspaper not affiliated with the Pensacola News Journal. There are some legal hurdles the county will have to navigate in order to fully integrate notices on our website--but that is a direction I certainly want to go.
It will save the county taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And my perspective is this--in many instances the local paper has been biased, unfair, and frankly unprofessional and dishonest in how they cover the BCC and individual members of the board with whom they ideologically disagree. That's been my personal experience with this paper, their string of editors, and their racist, now former cartoonist. So why would we feed taxpayer revenue to an entity that is so hostile toward us?
Answer (in my opinion) : We shouldn't. And for my vote, I WON'T.
I am going to work that direction for the savings it will produce for the taxpayers--- to boot.
Now, this savings (not paying media conglomerates hefty fees for publication of routine public notices) from Escambia County alone may be insignificant to giant corporate players like Gannett--but if more Florida governments follow HB 7049 and publish public notices on their own respective, organic websites----that amount of a revenue loss for media interests will not escape notice.
Thus, the letter the BCC received yesterday, below.
More pettiness from you! You only love Outzen because he NEVER asks any tough questions. If you were really comfortable with what you were doing the “scrutiny” you received from the PNJ would be a none issue. But since you can’t defend your actions you lash out. This is why people, especially county employees, post anonymously here
ReplyDeleteHi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteYou stated:
"Meanwhile, the BCC has already begun publishing most public notices on a lower priced print newspaper not affiliated with the Pensacola News Journal."
Could you please tell me where this is? Didn't get the memo. Thanks.
Century did basically the same with NorthEscambia and publish in a lesser known TriCity Ledger. He just doubles down though. It's ridiculous. Publishers that think it's good practice to bash public servants should be scorned. I'm glad you call them out and use Sun Press.
ReplyDeleteI also think it best for people to just go to the original web page for info and think for themselves and to not allow someone to filter info for them.
I know there are time constraints and apathy for some of the public qnd the reporting on county affairs via the PNJ was out of hand. The facebook propaganda page for Underhill is another example of bias and groupthink.
I would vote no also and leave Gannett behind.
945 Escambia Sun Press. They say it at the beginning of every meeting when they ask if the notice had been published. You can watch meetings on MyEscambia web site.
ReplyDeleteBypass the buffoons filtering info for you.
9:02--I support anonymous comments so anyone can post without fear of retribution. That is number 1. Number two is, anonymous speech is free speech. Folks like you used to understand that, as did the ACLU. Not so much anymore but that is a different discussion for a later day. Meanwhile, to your post. Yes, you are obviously glib. I've dealt with this fish wrapper of a paper for 16 years, the target of intentional attempts to paint me in a false light with actual malice and it is documented---read the links before you dismiss what I say. At one point, they had a very, very damning headline written about a different commissioner and they purposely put my face next to the headline. They've done it multiple times. To her credit, current editor Lisa Savage admitted to me via text that to do that was wrong and she eventually corrected it on thier online platform. They have done other things as well to target me because, ding ding , they don't like free speech either---particularly when I use it back on them. They DON'T LIKE that. Heck, they have gone so far as to call me and try to coerce me into NOT exercising my free speech rights to manipulate their former, racist cartoonist's garbage cartoons of me. I told them NO. Nope, they get it wrong too often, they pocket veto op-eds that don't fit their worldview, and they HATE locally elected, conservative Christian public servants. HATE them. ESPECIALLY the ones that don't swallow their garbage and lap it up and call them out for their BS. They say "We hold elected officials accountable" that is code speech for "we will attack them, often times with stories and portrayals that are inaccurate and damaging in order to sell more papers" And that's why they are not trusted and their circulation dwindles yearly. And now, they will be losing more revenue which is a good thing. Taxpayers dollars should not "feed the beast" anymore, and New York Times v Sullivan MUST be revisited. I believe it will be. And then THEY will be held accountable.
ReplyDelete@9:02, no one is truly "anonymous" when posting online. Blogs hosts sometimes use web trackers to identify their commenters. I imagine Commissioner Bergosh knows who is commenting "anonymously".
ReplyDeleteAlice, sorry, that's not true. Anybody who has an interest in going to the trouble to disguise their IP addresses can indeed do so. Which is how Arduini and Doug architected the whole "it's unconstitutional what about this person's rights" on the 401A forms that still had people's socials on them. They knew the forms would be untraceable from the beginning--see how that works?
ReplyDeleteKind of like mailing yourself an anonymous empty dildo box, opening it and inserting a fake packaging slip, and then rerouting it to 221 Palafox. Same basic principle.