Political payola: alive and well in the Sunshine State.

I remember the payola scandal of the late 1950s.

I'm pretty sure that, even though I was a plenty smart kid who avidly read and watched news pretty much from the second or third grade on, I didn't quite understand it. Just that it had something to do with radio stations getting paid to plug songs, and that Dick Clark - who I avidly watched on American Bandstand - had something to do with it. Or not. (American Bandstand continues to hold a hallowed place in my heart. As a pre-adolescent I loved watching those cool teenagers dancing up a storm. And, as a grownup, I still get a kick out of knowing that my friend Peter's sister Joanne - a Philly teenager during the Bandstand era - was one of those cool teenagers dancing up a daily storm.)

When I think about payola, my thinking usually goes along the lines of sure it's corrupt, but it's not all that harmful. Of course, if your record was coming out on a small indie label with no money to pay disk jockeys off for some pay for play, you were, indeed, harmed. So there may be some old geezer out there who could have been another Elvis Presley, but never got the chance. (Note: I have no idea whatsoever if anyone paid radio stations to play early Elvis.) It's perhaps my own moral laxity that brings me to a place where, when it comes to spinning rock 'n roll 45's in the fifties, I pretty much see it as a victimless crime that's not all that much of a crime.

But a Florida political news site that gives preferential coverage to candidates who advertise with them?

Hmmmmm. My moral-o-meter starts to rise.

The website in question is called Florida Politics. 

The website is Florida's answer to Politico: It illuminates developments on politics and policy for insiders and news buffs, and it influences what other outlets report about the state. And it reflects the drive of its founder, Peter Schorsch. (Source: NPR)

Florida Politics. I can only imagine...

I was curious enough to go take a look, but there was way too much of an all Ron DeSantis, all the time vibe for me. (Note: I have no idea whatsoever if anyone pays Florida Politics to cover Ron DeSantis. I suspect that it would be hard for a news site about Florida Politics to exist that wasn't pretty much all Ron DeSantis, all the time. And, in fact, Schorsch is no DeSantis fanboy:

Schorsch was one of the first to argue that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would fail to take flight in the Republican presidential primaries.

When it comes to Florida politics, Peter Schorsch has become a pretty big influencer, and political consultants on both sides of the aisle often advise their candidates to buy advertising or suffer the consequences. (I.e., limited coverage.)

So, is Florida Politics reporting the news, or making the news? Hmmmmm. (So far, I see we're a two-hmmmmm post.) Hmmmmm.

Needless to say, Schorsch strenuously disagrees with the categorization of what he does as pay-to-play. 

Even so, Schorsch acknowledges that outfits that advertise with his properties get more attention. And he concedes that he focuses more coverage on lobbyists, campaigns, causes and corporations when friends are involved. "I still have very strong strategic business relationships with people. That opens doors, provides revenues."

"That still generates a level of discomfort with ... legacy media people," he tells NPR and Floodlight.

Well, it generates a level of discomfort with me, too.

In Schorsch's view, the old newspaper model is dying on the vine, and his model - what he calls "combination journalism" - is just hunky-dory.

"As things evolved, I started to accept some of the rules of journalism, of the business of journalism," Schorsch says. "And some of them I didn't."

For example, correspondence obtained by NPR and Floodlight shows Florida Politics invites candidates to pay for content about campaign activities like endorsements or fundraising. A review found that Florida Politics does not label the content as advertisements.

"I don't think I've ever held myself up as a journalist. I've said that I'm a publisher, that I publish the work of other journalists," Schorsch says. "There are still gray areas that I get into."

He considers these "gray areas" as just embracing reality in which "new rules" have evolved. 

It's not just that "new rules" have evolved. It's that traditional newsrooms closely covering politics has devolved. There just ain't as much of it as there used to be. And, admittedly, many outlets in the MSM have always provided preferential treatment to the candidates they agree with ideologically. C.f., Fox News. 

Still, even if there are plenty of outlets doing it, it does seem pretty icky that a supposedly neutral website would focus more (positive) attention on candidates who paid them. Or run advertorials without labeling them as such. It's not as if Citizens United, Fox, Newsmax, and Twitter aren't doing enough harm; we need additional bad actors like we need more Trump clones.

Almost every major news organization disavows publishing paid content that is not publicly disclosed. Candidates for federal office risk violating the law if they do not disclose paid advertisements on cable news and online outlets. There are no such laws in Florida for state races, lawyers say.

So Schorsch is free to play under his own rules. 

To me, "the media" really does need to have a wall between editorial - support whoever you want - and news (just the facts, ma'am).

Outrageously, one Republican legislator claims that he "paid Schorsch for coverage says the publisher offered to change stories after they were published, as long as he continued advertising." Which Schorsch claims not to recall this. 

In any case, Schorsch's model is working pretty well for him, and he's looking to expand throughout the Southeast, to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and the Carolinas.

Swell.

Schorsch has something of a checkered past: kiting checks, stealing from clients (while he was in the throes of gambling addiction, which can happen). He's also been in trouble with the Florida Elections Commission (which probably takes some doing).

But it's his checkered present and future that I'm more concerned with.

There's so much misinformation out there, what the world needs now are those outlets that report the truth and debunk the lies.

This isn't like paying a DJ to play your record. The moral, ethical, and political stakes are pretty high.

Cry, cry, cry the beloved country.