A Tallahassee Reports analysis of the Tallahassee Democrat twitter feed over the last 24 hours (as of 6 pm on April 28th) shows the inclusion of three posts linked to racially divisive stories.
At first glance, readers may think the incidents described in these stories took place in Tallahassee.
However, despite the fact that the posts appear to be generated by tallahassee.com, a closer look shows that the stories originated in towns located in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
The Tallahassee Democrat twitter posts were linked to stories titled Hacked electronic road sign reads ‘Hail Hitler’ in Arizona, ‘What’s this world coming to?’ Mom arrested while trying to see dying son at hospital and Golf club twice called police after black women told they were playing too slow.
Images of the twitter posts are listed below.
This comes just weeks after the Tallahassee Democrat failed to publish a story about the beating of a white security guard by three black men. The incident happened in Tallahassee.
So why did the Tallahassee Democrat choose to include these divisive stories in their twitter feed?
Were the stories of great national significance?
To test this possibility, TR reviewed the twitter feeds of ten Florida newspapers over the last 24 hours.
The newspaper included the Orlando Sentinel, the Gainesville Sun, the Pensacola News Journal, the Panama City News Herald, the Florida Times Union, the News-Press (Fort Myers), the Tampa Bay Times, Florida Today, the Sarasota Herald Tribune and the Miami Herald.
The review found that during this period not one of the twitter feeds for these nine Florida papers included one of these three stories.
Maybe the stories were unique to Gannett owned papers?
That was not the case either.
The Florida Today, the Pensacola News Journal, the News-Press (Fort Myers), and the Naples Daily News – all Gannett owned papers – did not post any of the three stories referenced above.
In Florida, it appears these posts are unique to the Tallahassee Democrat. But why?
There has been recent discussion about how fake news is used to appeal to the emotions of readers.
Marketplace.org recently wrote a blog about “How social media exacerbates the racial divide.” From the article:
I mean we’re at a moment in time when racial tensions have been heightened for the past year. And I think that anything you add in to stir up the pot, to keep people upset, to further divide people, it’s going to be pretty successful at this moment in time.
Is the Tallahassee Democrat using racially divisive stories about incidents in other cities to increase clicks by their 49,000 twitter followers, and in the process, stirring the pot and further dividing people in Tallahassee?
The publisher of the Tallahassee Democrat, Skip Foster, should explain how and why these stories were fed to the people in Tallahassee.
Click on image to enlarge.
Tallahassee Democrat Promotes Racially Divisive Stories from Other Cities on Social Media added by Staff on
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The Democrat, like all other hard-left Liberal Media, is working at it’s barely-limping best to exaggerate, encourage, and incite local racial hatred. Although I’ve never met him, I’d bet a pint of my own blood that Skip Foster is doing his damndest to post stories that stir up racial hatred (and thus, perceived votes) in Tallahassee. I say this as a veteran of 25 years as a journalist – if you care anything about the profession, you strive to be objective and simply report the events of your time. Deliberately posting stories that are misrepresented, unduly emphasized, and inciteful is a crime against the profession of journalism. Damn, If I cared enough to attend school and get a degree in Journalism at all, I’d hate to work at the Democrat. I’m certain Skip Foster and his staff consider themselves as advocates/crusaders or Righters-Of-Wrongs, but they are simply Hacks for one side.
Maybe they can look in the mirror and like what they see with the “work” they’re putting in their “paper”, but I couldn’t. My old-school Journalism professors would slap me in the face, and I’d deserve it.
Coming soon, posthumously, from their king of racial divisiveness: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/2018/04/28/gerald-ensleys-legacy-live-book-project/556621002/
One wonders if his last bomb-thrower on Herb Seckel will make the cut?
Quite likely a coincidence but the reporter enjoyed robust health until just after the referenced article on Mr. Seckel.
That old school 3 letter term which everyone knows what it means “RIP” may be more than some old superstition which “progerssive” minded folks should ignore.
My view of speaking negatively about the dead changed after that. This is not ment to disparrage the reporter but as a public service to the living.
RIP means RIP.
What about the twitter feeds of the Ft. Myers News-Press?
Gannett owns them too.
Or of the two Jax stations (WJXX & WTLV) and the one in St. Pete (WTSP), all owned by Tegna, the broadcast spinoff of Gannett?
Added News-Press to the analysis. So far articles were only promoted by TD.
How about the Tallahassee Democrat playing a role facilitating the professional ethics violation of Rocky Hanna: Mr. Hanna broke the professional code of ethics with his false allegations/notebook he admitted to Hank Coxe the information was false- “Shall not make malicious or intentionally false statements about a colleague.”
Specifically Rocky Hanna violated Rule 6A-10.081, Florida Administrative Code, Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida;
Section (b) Obligation to the public requires that the individual:
2. Shall not intentionally distort or misrepresent facts concerning an educational matter in direct or indirect public expression – Rocky admitted he had NO knoweledge of any wrongdoing to Hank Coxe
He also violated (c) Obligation to the profession of education requires that the individual:
5. Shall not make malicious or intentionally false statements about a colleague. Rocky Hanna admitted to tbe school board attorney Hank Coxe that he wrote the false and misleading summaries in each section of the notebook.
When will the school board members of Leon County report Mr. Hanna’s numerous ethics violations to the Florida Department of Education?