How the Media Stokes Hyperpartisanship
Plus, Tampa Bay's best news roundup, the week's weather, and the Bay Area Navigator 25.
Today you’ll learn why we suspect that many of our neighbors are among the 56 percent of Americans who recently told the Gallup poll they don’t have much or any confidence in the news media. Those findings motivate some of our goals for the Bay Area Navigator. But first, Tampa Bay’s best local news roundup, plus the week’s weather, a mixed week on Wall Street, and meet Blossom.
CURRENTS
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TOP NEWS
Tampa Bay Water considers restrictions due to drought. News Channel 8
17-year-old dies in drive-by shooting in Tampa. ABC Action News
Deputies intentionally hit by car face long roads to recovery. Fox 13 News
How Florida’s ‘unscrupulous’ auto glass shops fuel an insurance crisis. The Washington Post $
26-year-old charged with first-degree murder after man found dead near Busch Gardens. 10 Tampa Bay
Schiller International University in Tampa acquired by UK company. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Tampa man visited 36 Pinellas banks, used 20 IDs and stole $450K, cops say. Tampa Bay Times $
Citing legal fears, Florida universities push back on DeSantis order to shut down pro-Palestinian campus groups. Creative Loafing
USF on the verge of bowl berth after close win over Temple. The Oracle
WEATHER
Warm With Rain Early in the Week
Much-needed rain arrives on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to this week’s forecast from The Weather Channel:
MONDAY ☁️ Cloudy.
🌡️83° / 68° 💦 71% / 85% 🌅 6:49 a.m. / 5:38p.m.
TUESDAY 🌨️ Cloudy with afternoon showers.
🌡️81° / 70° 💦 74% / 81% 🌅 6:50 a.m. / 5:37 p.m.
WEDNESDAY 🌨️ Considerable cloudiness with occasional afternoon rain showers.
🌡️79° / 68° 💦 69% / 88% 🌅 6:51 a.m. / 5:37 p.m.
THURSDAY ⛈️ Scattered thunderstorms in the morning and evening.
🌡️79° / 66° 💦 81% / 92% 🌅 6:52 a.m. / 5:36 p.m.
FRIDAY ⛅️ Sunshine and clouds mixed.
🌡️82° / 65° 💦 75% / 89% 🌅 6:52 a.m. / 5:36 p.m.
SATURDAY ⛅️ Intervals of clouds and sunshine.
🌡️80° / 59° 💦 72% / 83% 🌅 6:53 a.m. / 5:35 p.m.
SUNDAY 🌤️ Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds.
🌡️79° / 60° 💦 61% / 79% 🌅 6:44 a.m. / 5:35 p.m.
TODAY’S SPONSOR
The Navigator is sponsored by Mary’s Little Lamb Preschool at 7311 N. Armenia Ave. in Tampa. We are a nationally accredited preschool established in 1959.
Free Childcare and a paycheck. We are currently seeking a qualified toddler teacher or teaching assistant. The ideal candidate must be creative, energetic, dependable, nurturing, patient, have a passion about the growth and development of the children, and be a team player. Requirements: pass a level 2 background screening, high school diploma or higher, completed or willing to start and complete the DCF 45 training hours, get CPR/First aid certified.
Interested in sponsoring the Navigator? We should talk.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
How Today’s Media Landscape Shapes Our Goals for the Navigator
By Stephen Buel
During a recent Wednesday morning dog walk to the end of the Lutz cul-de-sac where I live, I saw something I’d never before noticed.
It was a daily newspaper, lying in a driveway other than my own.
After reaching the end of the road and turning around, I inspected 25 neighboring homes, but I didn’t see another Tampa Bay Times except in my driveway. Not at the home of the teachers, despite the Times’ thorough round-up of education news. Not in the retired police officer’s driveway, despite its many articles about crime. Nor in the yard of the former professional baseball player, during the very height of the MLB playoffs. Not even in the retired insurance agent’s green St. Pete Times delivery tube, despite Lawrence Mower’s excellent coverage of the industry from Tallahassee.
I’m not passing judgment here. Reading the newspaper is not a sign of virtue. Many of my good neighbors no doubt subscribe to publications online or in the mail, just as I do with Consumer Reports, Florida Sportsman, Florida Trend, Magzter, New York magazine, The New York Times, Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Magazine, The Washington Post, and email newsletters of various ideologies. (Perhaps I should get a life.)
My informal survey suggests that many of my neighbors are among the 56 percent of Americans who, according to a recent Gallup Poll, don’t have much or any confidence in the news media. After all, I’ve worked as a journalist for more than 40 years, and my confidence has certainly waned.
My very first job was selling subscriptions to The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times at the age of 13, until federal labor officials nailed the company for violating child labor laws. I chose journalism as a career near the peak of trust in the media, not so long after I heard Bob Woodward of Watergate fame speak at USF in 1979.
It was the golden age of “mainstream media,” where a household’s biggest news choices were whether to subscribe to Life or Look, or watch Cronkite on CBS, Chancellor on NBC, or Reasoner and Smith on ABC. Here in the Bay Area, we were still lucky enough to be able to choose between morning or evening papers from two separate publishers.
“Objectivity” was journalism’s creed, the notion that a news outlet should remain neutral or impartial and seek to present all sides of an issue. It was not just a news philosophy; it was good business. If you’re hoping to serve as large an audience as possible, why not try to make your coverage appeal to everyone?
Today, the news media is in bad shape for a variety of reasons, mostly related to the internet. Online advertising cannibalized its revenues. YouTube, Facebook, Tik-Tok, and mobile phones turned videos, family updates, and cat memes into competitors for our time. Blogs and X and newsletters like this one have turned everyday Americans into publishers.
As of last June, according to the job-placement agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of year-to-date media job cuts was the highest it had ever recorded — even higher than during the very height of the pandemic. And all that lost income, attention, and staffing only bred more lost income, attention, and staffing. It’s a vicious circle.
But the media is not just a blameless victim of these larger forces.
As social media turned everyone into an editorial writer, news pages have bizarrely become more opinionated rather than less. As the founder of an early alternative newsweekly way back in 1985, I was a cheerleader for the end of objectivity. Reporters are not machines, I argued; we all bring biases and opinions to our work, and it’s not really honest to pretend otherwise. But even as I injected a viewpoint into my writing, I still clung to the notion that I should present all the facts — even those that conflicted with my viewpoint.
It’s no coincidence that the two periods characterized by lowest faith in the news media — 2016 and today — share in common the emergence and re-emergence of a certain orange-skinned individual. Donald Trump’s appearance on the national political scene has changed the media in a largely detrimental way.
The very real challenges of covering the enthusiastically dishonest Trump led the media to abandon long-held standards. Trump lowered the media to his level. Name-calling became more common. Assertions were too-often accepted as truths. And facts that didn’t fit the narrative were omitted.
As Trump used intentionally provocative language to call attention to his views on matters such as immigration — “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” — the media began vilifying even centrist concerns about those issues. As reporters focused on cataloging Trump’s many transgressions, they ceased paying as much attention to the transgressions of the left. And as Trump inspired copycats like our governor, media coverage became increasingly dominated by an effort to negate their outrageous stunts.
What’s this got to do with the Bay Area, you ask? These transformations have left us with a weakened media environment. As more conservative readers cease to see their viewpoints expressed in newspapers, why shouldn’t they stop reading?
Nearly three quarters of Americans blame the media for increasing polarization in our country, and they are absolutely right. The media’s unwillingness to acknowledge good points regardless of ideology is one of the major drivers of hyperpartisanship. And the retreat of the news media from people’s lives has coincided with the rise of extremism.
These changes are most obvious at the national level. America’s toxic and hyper-partisan politics. The end of our agreement about even basic facts. Our historically low level of faith in so many institutions, from government and schools, to police and the justice system, businesses and banks.
But these changes also have local ripples, in our inability to find basic information about local government, and our lessening engagement on civic affairs.
Writing about Trump and DeSantis is addictive; I do too much of it myself. But the rise of Trumpian performance art has pushed other types of news coverage aside. And it has left us with a media ecosystem where reporters increasingly act as if there is only one way to think.
There is not.
Hence the impetus behind this column, where I will not hide my opinions, but go out of my way to acknowledge valid points from any ideology. Whatever your politics, you’ll find something to disagree with on a regular basis. But whatever your politics, you’ll also find things you agree with.
If I get you thinking, I’ve accomplished my goal.
Even with all the job loss, today we have more access to journalism than ever before. Alas, the exception is local. I now scan more than 30 sources a week for news of Hillsborough County, yet I still don’t feel like I really know what’s going on.
Hence the need for new local news outlets like the Bay Area Navigator. Three months in, we haven’t yet realized many of our goals. But we are slowly making strides, with the goal of providing news, and the odd opinion, that you can’t find elsewhere.
TAKING STOCK
A weekly look at the performance of 25 locally important stocks
YOU NEED A PET
Say hello to Blossom. She’s a sweet, retired mama cat whose babies have all found homes. She is a baby herself — only about 1-2 years old. She is petite (only 5.5 pounds) and super sweet. She is dog, cat, and kid friendly! Could you ask for a more purrfect companion? She is available at Animal Luv’rs Dream Rescue. Find the adoption application at www.AnimalLuvrs.org. She, like the other ALDR adoptable rescues, has clean bill of health (unless otherwise stated), is spayed, vaccinated (age-appropriately), tested (FeLV/FIV), currently on flea and heartworm prevention, and microchipped. To hear more, contact ALDR at ALDR@animalluvrs.org. Animal Luv’rs Dream Rescue, P.O. Box 1384, Lutz.
OTHER NEWS
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BAY AREA
Man arrested in ‘heinous’ murder near Brandon Advance Auto Parts store: sheriff. News Channel 8
Tampa to invest $21M in wastewater upgrades. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
15-year-old boy accused of shooting into front door of home, street, police say. News Channel 8
Tampa Bay banks feel the squeeze on profits as lending cools, funding costs rise. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Sheriff’s deputy speaks after hospital release. Fox 13 News
Crews installing new sidewalks in Hillsborough County's University Area. ABC Action News
New food-saving restaurant app comes to Tampa Bay. ABC Action News
Caught on camera: Unruly passenger behavior at Tampa International Airport. 10 Tampa Bay
New Tampa retirement home residents at odds with developer over clubhouse rules. Neighborhood News
Florida Strawberry Festival releases concert lineup. News Channel 8
Where to see free outdoor films this holiday season around Tampa. That’s So Tampa
Mayfield throws for 2 TDs, Buccaneers stop 4-game skid with 20-6 win over Titans. ABC Action News
Gaither football team starts playoffs with a bang, upsetting St. Petersburg. Tampa Beacon
The Tampa Bay fishin’ report: Trout, sheepshead are biting as water cools. Tampa Beacon
Rays’ Tyler Glasnow could be on the move; a trades-heavy MLB offseason. The Athletic $
FLORIDA
Where did all the lovebugs go? And will they come back? Tampa Bay Times $
Florida defends higher fees for medical marijuana license renewals. WMNF
Florida lawmakers suggest ways to remove some regulations on school. WMNF
System in Atlantic has 60 percent chance of development, Hurricane Center says. News Channel 8
To arm or not to arm? Brevard considers arming teachers, staff. WUSF
No Labels on ballot in Florida, but would their candidate campaign here in 2024?. Florida Phoenix
ACLU says DeSantis is violating students' First Amendment rights. WUSF
FSU fights, outlasts Miami for third straight win over Hurricanes. Tomahawk Nation
POLITICS
Haley, DeSantis try to capitalize on Tim Scott exit from GOP primary race. The Wall Street Journal $
Florida Democrats who voted to censure Rashida Tlaib received nearly $300K from pro-Israel lobbying group. Creative Loafing
Ron DeSantis says $25B school choice plan could be ‘revolutionary’ for American students. Florida Politics
COMMENTARY
Yes, a Florida lawmaker really said kill ‘all of them’ in reference to Palestinians. Tampa Bay Times $
ABOUT US
Editors: Judith M. Gallman and Stephen Buel
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