Fields: The Miami Herald Needs An Ombudsman
BY SAM FIELDS
Last week the Miami Herald did a devastating detailed analysis of Rick Scott’s jobs program. After going through the tax incentives one by one, it became clear that Florida has actually lost jobs under the governor’s plans.
To the rescue came attorney Alan Becker.
Becker wrote a op-ed piece defending Scott linked here. He began it by announcing his Democratic bona fides…which are considerable. He was a Democratic state representative in the 1970s and was a congressional candidate in 1980, losing the then-Democratic seat to U. S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
What Becker left out, and the Herald was unconcerned about and also left out, was that Becker’s Broward-based law firm, Becker Poliakoff, are major lobbyists whose success depends on the good will of the Scott Administration and the GOP-controlled Legislature.
What Becker and the Herald also didn’t disclose was that he personally contributed to Scott’s re-election PAC .
(In case you don’t know Alan, the next time you see a photo of Scott, he’s the one with his lips on the Guv’s butt.)
Alan Becker: Kisses Up To Republican Governor
And in case Herald’s Beckergate is not enough, check out their December 15th editorial. It’s an embarrassment to a once great newspaper.
The Herald editorial, linked here, proclaimed that it always thought the official Robert Levinson disappearance story was “far-fetched”.
What crap!
Since the 2007 disappearance, Herald articles and editorials bought the Levinson family and the government’s lies hook, line and sinker.
The paper needs to play it straight with readers. Their credibility is on the line.
It’s time for the Miami Herald to do a little internal review.
Location, Location, Location
Republican Congressman Trey Radel is lucky that he got popped for possession of cocaine in D.C. where that minuscule amount of coke is a misdemeanor.
The arrest was on Dupont Circle, which is next to my old neighborhood. Also next to DuPont Circle is The Emerson Prep School.
In Florida all cocaine charges are felonies and purchase or sale within 1000 feet of school is a 1st degree felony punishable by 30 years in prison.
Schmuck Dynasty
Sorry to tell the idiots on Fox News that kicking homophobic, racist Phil Robertson off Duck Dynasty does not violate his or anyone else’s First Amendment Rights.
Robertson has denounced gays and said that black he knew were perfectly happy under Jim Crow segregation in Louisiana, where the Duck Dynasty hangs their overalls.
He’s got his opinions, which are apparently accepted in some circles. A & E has its opinions on what is acceptable speech on their airwaves.
The First Amendment exists to protect our rights against government. The last time I checked it out, A & E Television was NOT a government agency. A & E can set whatever standards they want on their station.
I wonder if the Fox Peanut Gallery would be as outraged at firing Robertson if that idiot had denounced Christianity and White people?
Personally,I would like him on the air. I think he’s just saying what a lot of Christian conservatives believe but lack the courage to publicly say. I might actually watch the show a second time.
December 22nd, 2013 at 11:32 am
Thank you for the information tat you posted on 11-22-13.
I’ve never been a fan of Becker-Poiiakoff. IF he had been elected to the House of Representatives in the ’70s, he may have been the WORST Representative ever had.
Instead, the garbage man dumped his trash & out came Allan West.
December 22nd, 2013 at 2:16 pm
Sam, the Bill of Rights originally applied only to the federal government. Then the 14th Amendment brought with it “incorporation”, which applies the Bill of Rights to the states as well. The logical next step would be to apply the Bill of Rights to corporations, some of whom constitute much larger economic structures than the entirety of many US states. Example: Rhode Island has a $33 billion GDP (45th in the US), but General Electric has a market capitalization of $277 billion. I’d say that corporations are very comparable to small governments, but many of them are so big that they’d really have to be compared to large governments.
December 22nd, 2013 at 2:35 pm
But Sam, no matter which way you wiggle, according to the series to which you refer: “Since Scott took office, the state’s unemployment rate has dropped from 11.1 percent to 6.7 percent, and the state has added 440,000 private-sector jobs, according to federal data.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/static/media/projects/2013/rick-scotts-jobs-record/part-1/#storylink=cpy
December 22nd, 2013 at 4:18 pm
Mr. Fields, politics does make strange bed fellows.
December 22nd, 2013 at 5:43 pm
ANA
You need to read the article again.
The bottom line is that he gave certain companies over $100 mil in breaks and they produced bupkis is jobs.
The fact that unemployment came down was not related to his program.
Osama Bin ladin was killed while Scott was guv. Maybe he should take credit for that too?
December 23rd, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Conservatives are flooding inboxes with support for the Duck Dynasty star.
This is from the Conservative Contacts, an e-mail firm marketing to conservatives, which I received today. The subject line is:
“Boycott A&E-Our Religious Freedom and Our Freedom Of Speech Is NOT Important To The Liberal Culture Of Hollywood And Washington.”
Included in the e-mail is the results of a poll, which indicated that out of 763 responses, 96 percent said A & E shouldn’t fire the Duck Dynasty star.
Surprisingly, this e-mail did not solicit money.
December 23rd, 2013 at 8:41 pm
It gets better re: B&P. The Sun-Sentinel’s “People on the Move” pageon Sunday:
Gov. Scott appointed Mario J. Bailey, a member of B&P’s government relations and lobbying team to….THE SOUTH FLORIDA REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL!
What? Conflicts of interests and ethics? You think?
December 23rd, 2013 at 10:49 pm
maybe unemployment numbers dropped because many left Florida looking for work elsewhere
all the construction jobs, engineers, architects, etc. did not just take another job to stay in FL
check the DBPR licencee counts – active, inactive, expired, etc. over last 5 years – the drops in those numbers tell the story
December 25th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Alan Becker was a horrible, vote-trading representative. It is no surprise he would do anything, say anything or write anything to kiss up to Scott.