BeachBuckeye Oct-24-02, 05:32 PM (ET)
Gannett News Bureau Chief called today about the Freepers She is the Bureau Chief for Gannett in Florida, covering several major papers here. Yesterday I alerted her about the "Freeping" of some Florida newspapers polls and she called back for an interview this morning after having checked out the Freepers. She is going to do a story about the polls being skewed. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
http://www.floridacapitalnews.com/campaign/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID60/12959.html
| GANNETT NEWS SERVICE: BIOGRAPHY |
Paige St. John,
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
 Paige St. John |
Paige St. John became Gannett's Tallahassee bureau chief in July 2001, with two decades of reporting experience for the Associated Press, The Detroit News and the Tallahassee Democrat. She has specialized in environmental reporting, business coverage and investigative journalism and has won national awards for stories on the health care industry and Native American rights.
An Illinois native and graduate of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, she has worked in Iowa, West Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and Florida, and lives with her husband and daughter on a farm in Jefferson County.
E-mail: pstjohn@flpress.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/775318/posts?page=7#7
My response:
Page St. John and Alisa LaPolt are well known among Republicans in our corner of the state. Ms. St.John's response to the DU letter further proves our point.
You can check out their Gannett political website here: FloridaCapitalNews.com.
Republicans have been sending them stories, Jeb endorsements, articles from major papers, even Jeb's own press releases for months and they ignore the facts while printing McBride "opinion" and DNC press releases as "news."
Ms. St. John works for our 'majority Republican' Lee County's "hometown" paper, Gannett-owned Ft. Myers News-Press.
When Ms. St. John is done being outraged at our self-defensive response to her election coverage (drawing attention to the poll), maybe she'll tell the Florida voters: why we haven't heard more about the FEA-McBride illegal campaign ads, about McBride's "dubious" silence re. the Rev. Curry, the truth about the class-size scheme, why Jeb's the only one telling the truth and why she and Ms. LaPolt aren't holding the NEA, FEA, Kendrick Meek, and Bill McBride accountable for pushing the class-size con, McBride's real far-left history, his wife's support of Emily's List candidates (including Cynthia McKinney), the many endorsements for Jeb from most every major statewide organization, why no big kudos for Jeb's "A" rating in CATO's recent study of the nation's governors (one of only two in the nation), what happened to the 18 missing voting machines in Broward and the poll that proved that once voters knew the cost of the class-size amendment, support dropped by 20% (and that didn't include info on the actual class sizes, 18-22 students, info missing on the ballot), why didn't you know about this poll (ran in the Miami Herald in Sept.) when you put out your own Gannett poll on class-size (conveniently leaving out the facts) and rebuked Jeb Bush for not getting out the message on this NEA-McBride amendment (that's your job, Gannett), explain to Florida voters that this class-size amendment is hurting minority students in California, doing little to help children where it's already being tried, but it does increase union membership and union dues and the power of these DNC political activists, and please tell the voters how Jeb's One Florida education plan is showing real early successes in the minority community....
Florida Republicans have been e-mailing these Gannett reporters for months with more pro-McBride spin in response. No one at Gannett was outraged on our behalf, though we had real reasons to be outraged by their one-sided coverage.
We Freep in self-defense, because the truth is not represented by this Gannett website.
DU writes one letter and Ms. St. John immediately responds.
Just how much say does Donna Shalala have on Gannett's Board of Directors? Florida Republicans should be doing more than Freeping a poll in response to the biased press coverage in Florida, but we're a law-abiding group, and no laws exist to guarantee that we have a voice in the mainstream newsmedia.
John Adams said, "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people...The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country."
In America, in the year 2002, we are fighting to have a voice in the public square. Just who should be "outraged"?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/775318/posts?page=29#29
I neglected to mention DU and the powerful leftist activist groups' history of mass activism - using polls, pre-written letters - effecting everything from the Senate (led by PFAW) to our TV shows (ask Dr. Laura). Feel free to e-mail Ms. St. John or Ms. LaPolt.