Florence Snyder - page 17

Context Florida Publisher Peter Schorsch got it wrong—dead wrong—when he suggested in his September 5 SaintPetersblog post that reporter envy might taint coverage of “the Chris Clark imbroglio.” Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas broke the story that Florida’s power elite has spent the week chewing over, praying over, and kvetching over. Klas’ reported that Clark makes megabucks as a political consultant, servicing clients he also deals with in his $150,000 day job as Senate President Don Gaetz’ chief…

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Fans of Florida’s public records law have a trifecta of stories to chew on this week. The first involves the tragic death of University of Central Florida (UCF) football player Ereck Plancher, who collapsed and died on the practice field in 2008. A jury awarded Plancher’s family $10 million, but the verdict was overturned by the  5th District Court of Appeal because Florida’s “sovereign immunity” laws place a $200,000 cap on damages against the state. The family contended that the defendant UCF Athletics Association, Inc.,…

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As HBO launches the new season of “The Newsroom,” the infotainment  intelligentsia are all over the Internet making fun of Aaron Sorkin’s hyper-romantic Valentine to journalism. Huffington Post TV critic Maureen Ryan and other purveyors of news and opinion scoff at Sorkin’s “heart-on-sleeve earnestness” and “magical belief that better news coverage could fix America.” Not so long ago, that magical belief was a consensus point of view. Florida’s newsrooms were stuffed with shy social misfits, charismatic class clowns, outlaws and…

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When the Grim Reaper finally came for Eugene Corbett Patterson, the 89 year old Pulitzer Prize winner surely did not blink. Fear was not in his character and anyway, he had seen death before. Patterson, who will be interred March 13 at Arlington National Cemetery, had always been a man of great ambition. Preparing to meet his Maker at his Brightwaters Blvd. home last year, he passed the time ruthlessly red-penciling the King James Bible. “Chord: The Old Testament Condensed” is an…

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