The Times-Union, Orlando Sentinel and Miami Herald have uncovered Florida Power & Light’s efforts to undermine media in the state to further its political agenda. The utility’s alleged dirty tricks ranged from funding “ghost” candidates to defeat Democratic lawmakers, to having private investigators trail reporters and now to funding a news site, The Capitolist, that presented itself as the alternative “the fake news”.
I interviewed Mary Ellen Klas, Miami Herald’s award-winning capital bureau, on WCOA this morning. She has been regularly targeted by “The Capitolist” for her reporting on redistricting and FPL. Sadly, she wasn’t surprised that FPL was funneling funds for “hit pieces” but said part of the problem is daily newspapers have cut back their coverage of state politics.
“Nothing is surprising anymore,” said Klas. “Tallahassee is a place where there is not a lot of a public attention. With the decline of the print news media, many newspapers that used to have reporters in Tallahassee have cut those positions. There are fewer reporters up here that do just general interest news that can really look out for the average consumer in Florida.”
She continued, “And so, what we have is an opportunity and a window for, I think, people with different motives to manipulate and attempt to influence what people think. And that’s obviously what’s happened, and it’s really chilling.”
The documents show FPL and its consultants had big plans, possibly even buying the Pensacola News Journal and other Gannett newspapers in the state.
“Their ambitions were to appear as if they were a legitimate news organization and never tell anybody who they were operating on the behalf of,” said Klas.
Check out the article.
