EDITORIAL: Hey, Mainstream Media, Time to Wake up!

Posted by Jose Lambiet , May 15, 2012 Print

What First Amendment defenders feared when it became clear that newspapers and local television stations would run with skeleton news crews — that politicians could wrestle back some of the press’ freedoms — is happening in Palm Beach County.

Bradshaw, talking to the troops

Right underneath the noses of the anemic The Palm Beach Post, WPTV-Channel 5, WPEC-Channel 12 and WPBF-Channel 25, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw‘s henchmen are going after the very freedoms that made billionaires out of media owners and millionaires out of local media managers.

And there’s not a damn thing they’re going to do about it.

As Gossip Extra reported exclusively today, the website pbsotalk.com and its operator, Mark Dougan, are now officially under criminal investigation. Dougan has been asked this week to meet with a detective to discuss his site – all as part of a criminal investigation that’s almost a year old and seems that have not real goal outside of shutting down pbsotalk.com.

So far, the probe has occupied several deputies from the cash-strapped agency, plus one assistant state attorney.

And yet, PBSO has nothing to show for the work, except for a suspended ex-Internal Affairs boss suspected of helping Dougan.

This probably wouldn’t be a big deal – unless you know what Dougan’s site is about.

Through public records, Dougan has documented millions of wasted taxpayers dollars at the sprawling, $500 million-agency. pbsotalk.com also allows anonymous posters to publish details of strife within PBSO, and has caricatured the administration.

Now, here is where it gets interesting: Bradshaw is up for a third term, and his political campaign tried to buy Dougan’s website last month. His campaign managers balked at the price tag, which started at $80,000.

Now that he couldn’t buy Dougan’s silence, will Bradshaw try to impose it by force?

Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know any of this if you limit yourself to mainstream news, things like Channel 5′s pathetic monthly Ask The Sheriff segments that air on Fox 29.

In not reporting and editorializing about the Dougan debacle, your favorite TV stations and still-shrinking Post have shown clear dereliction-of-duty.

Sure, Dougan is an acquired taste whose style isn’t always orthodox. A former deputy, he appears to have a mysterious axe to grind with Bradshaw. And there’s an argument on whether he runs a real news organization.

So, what?

Pbsotalk.com is also an acquired taste, with its doctored photos that make Bradshaw and high-ranking members of the administration look silly.

So, what?

Crazy people, unhappy campers, and even folks with no credibility outside of their own minds have the legal right to express themselves, dig out public records and publish opinion and satire without being harassed from two-bit public servants.

And that’s something The Palm Beach Post, WPTV-Channel 5, WPEC-Channel 12 and WPBF-Channel 25 seem to have forgotten as they ignore, and will probably continue to ignore, Bradshaw’s battle with pbsotalk.com.

To understand why they do, look no further than this Gossip Extra scoop about the body-to-body relationship between high-ranking Palm Beach Post honchos and ex-State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Mainstream has just as close a relationship with Bradshaw. Just ask Channel 5 news director Jeff Brogan, whose lunches Bradshaw paid for with his in-service credit card, Dougan’s reporting has shown.

And one reason for the coziness includes cold hard cash.

When a newsroom runs with half the reporters it used to – thanks to decisions made by bean counters thousands of miles away – that newsroom suddenly becomes dependent on brainless breaking news.

Notice an increase in reports of cats-in-trees, low-level shootings, unimportant car crashes, 5-gram drug arrests and other news no one really cares about?

There’s an increase because it’s dirt-cheap to have such news covered by just-graduated reporters who depend on news handouts put out by, yes, the likes of Ric Bradshaw!

So, while the Post just needs you to know that Billy Bob just shot his old friend Jimmy in the calf over a can of soda somewhere in a trailer park, Bradshaw will continue to nibble away at small websites that don’t fall in line.

At first!

Emboldened, he’ll then go after the bigger news organizations — the same that won’t stand up for Mark Dougan now.

Editorials Palm Beach Gossip Extra, investigation, Jose Lambiet, Mark Dougan, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, PBSO, pbsotalk, pbsotalk.com, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw

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Amen, 1 year ago Reply

Please notice the ‘cheapening’ of community commitment to news is already rampant in your local radio. Most of YOUR radio stations (you are the public, YOU own the licenses)….are empty all weekend. Corporate owners have fired 3/4s of your neighbors and run the stations like an unmanned iPod. WJNO was once staffed around the clock 7 days a week to provide PBC breaking news and severe weather alerts……now it has one person. One. During the weekdays only. The rest is the latest syndicated political drivel mandated by owners in Texas and Atlanta.

Severe weather. Major fires. Chemical spills. Dangerous situations… when they happen, I hope you like having no one to tell you. Corporate radio puts out detailed press releases about how they have procedures to fulfill this critical community service, but it’s all lies. Because hedge funds own your radio stations. And you AND your community are their LAST priority.
Jim B, 1 year ago Reply

“Sure, Dougan is an acquired taste who’s not always credible.”

Seems to me his documentation on the things he posts about is much more complete since he posts these things on the document section of his web site. I don’t see any news organization doing this. He may inject his own biased opinion into things but saying he isn’t credible isn’t accurate.
Snore, 1 year ago Reply

I know for a fact that the very people who should be exposing Bradshaw’s corruption are personal friends with him. I guess they forget why they became journalists.
What would we do without you, Jose?
- Jinny Garcia, 1 year ago Reply
  
  Amen to that. How can you be impartial and report impartially on the Sheriff eating dinner with the tax payer’s money if you, a journalist, are eating dinner paid for by Bradshaw, using the tax payers’ money?
  
  The local media has really shown their true colors in their coverage of government corruption. The media are supposed to be our watchdogs and the PB Post, Channel 5, 12, 25 and 25 and the real culprits to blame for the corruption in this county. They are failing us and letting these people get away with it at every turn.
  
  Just recently, the POst reported on a new group to combat corruption in West Palm. They never bothered to be objective and report that the players involved were some of the biggest dirtbag thieves in the country. Not county… country. Then they touted it like they were doing something noble. Anyone who left a comment on the article saw right through their shoddy reporting on the matter. This has been what journalism in our county has become. A cheer leading team for the biggest crooks in government. Shame on you all.
The truth is, 1 year ago Reply

The fact the media isn’t a problem, it is a result. Like Dougan, they have had thugs like Bradshaw attempting to coerce and silence them. The result is what is taking place now.

What do you think the Post’s Shultz or Engelhart or Roldan who write piddly 2-bit stories about grandma stealing cat food would do if they got letters saying they were part of a criminal investigation because PBSO didn’t like what they were reporting about? Or what about the cowards over at Channel 5 and channel 12? What would they do if they got a letter telling them they were the topics of criminal investigations? They would crap their pants. It is why you rarely hear anything about corruption in Palm Beach County until an arrest is made.

I mean my god, right now at Channel 5 the front page news is some druggie in Sebastian hiding syringes in her bra. They think we actually give a darn? No, our South Florida news media are pathetic, spineless, cowardly people from the bottom of the barrel of investigative journalists who succumb to pressure and subscribe to bribes, payoffs and favors.
justcurious, 1 year ago Reply

How many of you still pay for a subscription to your local newspaper? That’s what pays journalism salaries, people. If you’re not subscribing, quit whining. News coverage costs money. Smart, hard-hitting coverage costs even more. “Why should I subscribe when it’s free on line?” Because if you don’t, there won’t be anyone at your city council meetings any more.
- Scripts, 1 year ago Reply
  
  I got rid of my Post subscription when Jose came back to town. Why pay for slanted news?
A 1911 SHOOTER, 1 year ago Reply

Unbiased and impartial…how do they work again ?? I gave up on the local news years ago. MSM is dead, Jose you have to persevere to carry one, albeit w/ great risk I assume. I am sure Bradshaw knows what kind of car you drive and your plate. It would not surprise me to see you on the PBP front pg w/ you in a mug shot and some planted crack and child porn in your car that they put there to get you out of the way.

Once the 1st Amend is taken away, then they take our 2A guns and its all down hill from there.
wakeup, 1 year ago Reply

Unlike the days of real news , the media now is more on the entertainment side, or ratings rather than factual un bias reporting . Huge corporate giants now own most of the major networks , thus control the spin on what is reported , and how it is reported. That same theme filters down to local levels as well , the who knows who , the powers in office , and money plays a huge factor in what you hear or read , as well as what you don’t hear . Elected officials Like Ric Bradshaw , who has the political backing , and local media in his grasp will only allow the bright puritan light to be shined on him . Notice, any negative , or questionable actions about him or his administration are seldom heard . The media is quick however to get his face on TV , or the papers for just about any trivial good deeds he is supposedly doing for the community. When we, Palm Beach County residents , and taxpayers let this power run unchallenged , we are fools, and the truth can be well hidden . The undisputed truth is , Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is just another elected politician , not a crime fighting hero , or top cop as he is called. History has thought us time after time , power, money , and ego corrupts , there have never been any exceptions to the rule . News papers are a waste of your money , and Ric Bradshaw is even a bigger waste of your tax money.
Toni, 12 months ago Reply

People and the press would do well to remember the following passage written by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) who was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
- Jose Lambiet, 12 months ago Reply
  
  Wow, Toni. This is one never to forget. Thank you.