Escambia, Santa Rosa Have a Legacy of Lacking Good Journalism

We have had two back to back editorial whoppers from our local newspaper—slamming public servants.

The theme of last week’s crack offering from the two person PNJ editorial board:  Activists good—ALL elected officials bad (especially the locally-elected conservative Republican ones)—and nothing gets done if not for activists.   And elected officials everywhere can do nothing right… 

Okay-I will say that I admire folks that become active and engaged in their communities for good causes.   But what that cynical piece leaves out is that often it is a super-motivated ACTIVIST that ends up running for office in to make changes!  And the other important thing the PNJ article misses is that sometimes the mob gets it wrong—and it takes an elected statesman to make a tough vote---despite the vocal activist mob’s protestations-to get an issue right for the WHOLE community.

When I served on the school board, we voted to close schools and loud groups of protesting citizens packed rooms and screamed in our faces calling us terrible names—but by 3-2 votes we did what was required and necessary in those instances—not what was politically expedient.

The county commission vacated a roadway two years ago for a very beneficial purpose---by 3-2 vote and despite the protestations of many activist citizens.  But it was the right thing to do and took intestinal fortitude from 3 of 5 to make that vote—despite pushback from some citizens.  The PNJ would have criticized that decision no matter which way it would have gone. Because it is easy to throw rocks from the sidelines and play Monday Morning Quarterback when you are in the peanut gallery and not in the game.

And to say NO President has made any difference locally?  Are you kidding me PNJ?

What about Lincoln’s Emancipation proclamation that changed America for good forever—Including Pensacola?

What about JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”

Or Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech that led to the end of the cold war?

How can PNJ be so myopic?

And now comes this week’s piece—where conveniently once again several of the locally elected, conservative Republicans are targeted by PNJ as unworthy of the offices we hold.

“These guys should be run out of office, and people WE LIKE BETTER should replace them!” would have been an honest title for this week’s PNJ editorial.

The op-ed conflates the serious criminal wrongdoings of two high-profile former officials with artificially imagined “outrageous” behavior by several currently elected republicans locally.  Thrown 

into the hopper by PNJ is the tale of the recently elected mayor of Gulf Breeze who abruptly resigned amid allegations of marital infidelity.

It is not right to lump multiple officials together and throw out bits and pieces of anecdotes from each that appear unflattering—with the subtle insinuation that all are guilty of “all of the above.”

We each, as elected representatives, stand or fall every election cycle on our own individual records—we don’t need PNJ broad-brushing all of us as “BAD!”  It’s BS.

And in most of these “cases” PNJ throws out as some kind of “impropriety” on the part of elected officials—there are substantive facts that explain the actions—the context if you will—but PNJ ignores this and with actual malice they instead deliberately frame many locally elected officials in a false light with the intent to inflict damage on the credibility and reputations of these men.

Funny how it is the conservatives only that get this treatment from the PNJ though.

Stigmatizing and stereotyping elected officials is dangerous; who will ever serve if they are constantly berated unfairly? 

I’ve had more than one person thank me for serving in one breath-then say “there’s NO WAY I’d EVER do that!” in another-- while describing unflattering media portrayals on elected officials they’ve seen over and over in the PNJ.

It is disgusting and reprehensible what the local print media has devolved into.

We’re held to high standards as elected officials and we should be—but how come the media isn’t?

I remember one local columnist was vitriolic in his criticism of me in 2007.  Attack piece after attack piece.  A few years later, that same individual was caught plagiarizing—and quietly ushered out the back door of PNJ with little fanfare.   Where were the cartoons for that guy?  The attack editorials—where were they? Oh, wait, he was in the club.

Or what about the other print “journalist” locally that runs his opinion weekly as if it is the NY Times—when it is an open secret that he has a list of prominent citizens and advertisers that will never receive any unflattering coverage—no matter what they do.  They are his patrons and financially support his operations so he will never say a negative word about them.

But is that Journalism though?  Of course not.

We are lucky locally that we have WEAR ABC channel three, NorthEscambia.com, and NW Florida Daily News out of Ft. Walton Beach.  Add to this a few honest web sites that just give the who, what, why and where—and we get what we need in terms of news.

Because we do not get it from the PNJ.