Adam Smith, the political editor of Tampa Bay Times, is an innovator.
Political aficionados in Florida are so used to reading it, but there was a time not so long ago when there wasn’t the Buzz blog, the can’t-miss source for political news.
Those interested in Tampa Bay politics are so used to watching it, but there was a time not so long ago when Political Connections did not air on Bay News 9.
Without Smith, there likely would be no Buzz, no Political Connections. There’d be no “Florida Insiders Poll,” no “Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics.”
Without Smith, there would be less interesting and sophisticated political discourse in Florida.
And yet, over coffee with Smith recently, I asked the reporter I consider a friend (Smith even attended my and Michelle’s wedding) if he still enjoyed his job as much as he did when he was launching the Buzz blog and Political Connections. Because, to this devoted reader of his work, it no longer seemed as such.
It wasn’t the punch Smith threw at me that prompted me to ask that question. Smith and I are both fans of HBO’s The Wire and so when I told him his punch was understood as all part of the game, he caught my meaning.
No, my question had more to do with the fact that much of Smith’s recent reporting, both in the newspaper and social media, was uncomfortably cynical.
His profile of state Senator Jack Latvala left many local observers shaking their heads, literally wondering, ‘What the hell is the matter with Adam?’
Smith’s decision to name Rick Scott his ‘Winner of the Year in Florida politics’ read like a deliberate attempt to go against the grain just to do so. In fact, Smith was all but alone in his argument that 2013 was Scott’s year. I don’t even know if the Florida GOP agreed with Smith’s opinion.
Smith’s analysis that Charlie Crist’s campaign was “shrinking” could not have been more off, coming at the same time that Crist had hired Barack Obama’s campaign manager to consult on his campaign. Smith eventually walked back some of his analysis before it appeared in print. Still, Smith’s coverage of hometown pol Crist has been behind the curve.
Disagree with my assessment of Smith’s work? That’s fine. But ask yourself this: Why is it that Marc Caputo, who essentially has the same job for the Miami Herald, is the agenda-setter on so many Florida political stories — Marco Rubio, Adam Hollingsworth, etc. — while Smith is not.
Yet it is Smith’s coverage of the special election in Congressional District 13 which has some in state and local politics wondering if Smith has jumped the shark.
“I will do everything in my power to f*ck him over for as long as I’m involved in politics,” says one senior Republican working in the race.
“He’s gone soon,” said another well-connected statewide operative who expressed disappointment in Smith’s coverage of the CD 13 race.
It’s doubtful Smith is going anywhere anytime soon, but, as I suggested to him the last time we spoke face-to-face, it may be a good time for him to take a few months off and reinvigorate himself.
Unfortunately, Smith seems intent on taking the opposite approach. This past week, he interrupted my vacation to accuse me of “whoring” out a story to another reporter as an attempt to undercut him. Mind you, at the time Smith was being scooped by 10 News’ Preston Rudie, I was on a cruise with my family, but that doesn’t make it impossible for me to alert Rudie that Smith was working on a similar story. But that’s not what happened. And to suggest as much is an insult to Rudie, who I know had been working the story for weeks.
Smith, however, was incensed that Rudie beat him to the story and accused me of “gloating” that Rudie beat him because it supposedly benefited one of my advertisers, Bascom Communications. Again, I will protest by saying, up until Smith’s accusations, the CD 13 race was the furthest thing from my mind. I was just trying to enjoy a Bloody Mary or two while running around with Ella Joyce and my wife on the Disney Magic.
So what was Smith’s response to all of this? The disgustingly irresponsible headline, “David Jolly killed a man.” That’s right, Smith wrote that headline over a story of a then-teenage Jolly being involved in the death of a pedestrian. Smith’s headline was later cleaned up, but by that point, the damage had been done.
Smith’s conduct with this story — the bias, the cynicism, the disdain — is indicative of most of his coverage of this race and, increasingly, his political reporting at large. Smith has followed up his ‘Jolly killed a man’ stories with a series of blog posts and Tweets attacking conservatives and conservative media for what he believes is making a mountain out of a molehill regarding Alex Sink’s inflammatory comments on immigration reform.
On Sunday, Smith capped the week by naming Jolly the “Loser of the Week in Florida politics,” in part, because Jolly is “relying mostly on out-of-state” money. Never mind the fact that Sink’s campaign has benefited from one million dollars more in “out of state” money than Jolly has.
At this point, it’s likely Sink will prevail over Jolly, but the clear loser in the contest may be the political editor of the newspaper of record in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. From the outset of the race, when this blog scooped Smith on Sink’s intentions to run for the seat, to now, Smith needs to realize that the true “Loser of the Week in Florida politics” is staring back at him in the mirror.
