Why MSNBC's departure with Tiffany Cross was premature.
Last edited Sat Nov 12, 2022, 03:55 PM - Edit history (1)
I enjoyed Cross's pov. I believed she had something new to bring to the table. And some of that might be because she had political connections that gave her insights that most of the mainstream would have put in the circular file. One example of that was Andrew Gillum. Gillum tried to run against De Santis in 2018, which was a weird election from what I remember. He lost against De Santis and before there was any desire to analyze what happened, suddenly we're hearing about an FBI investigation on Gillum and Gillum was effectively sidelined. Just to be thorough, it didn't help that he went to a wedding where one of his friends had an overdose, but he could have survived politically, if not for the piling on effect.
I am not going to defend him on whatever funny business happened in Tallahassee, unless the FBI entrapped him. I don't know all the details, but the fact that Trump claimed he fixed the election for De Santis by bringing on the investigations against his opponent is raising an eyebrow. That sounds very Florida.
Funny business is a sellable product in Florida. It's up there with tourist attractions and the hospitality industry. What isn't prevalent is news and information on the kind of things that go on in their insider, political world. For example, government employees have been given gag orders through court proceedings, (i.e. the Rich brothers in the 90s.) and the rest of us have experienced a backwater style of gag order. Specifically, the case where a City Manager announced in a City Hall meeting that was heavily attended by the City's co-conspirators, that maybe they should subject themselves to a voluntary gag order (paraphrasing). Suddenly the entire City was shut down as it was communicated that we were all under a gag order. I searched everywhere for evidence of an official order from the court and came up with nothing, so, News: There was no court ordered gag order. There was a settlement agreement that prevented the co-conspirators from trash-talking the developer who was the plaintiff of the court case, but it didn't apply to the rest of us who were also victimized by the same people. Thus, no court sanctioned gag order. Yet, Florida's backwater managed to shut down the proper flow of information that could have alleviated some wrong-thinking that continues in this community.
That's why people like Tiffany Cross are important. She had connections to the kind of people that get targeted and marginalized. She was a friend of Andrew Gillum. He was a once promising up and coming, who was quickly sideswiped because he didn't recognize the inner trappings in Florida.
Minorities are always going to have trouble starting from the bottom and working their way up in this State. Once you show any signs of promise, people are going to try to get a piece of you. They will try to facilitate things for you, and once you're in this inner circle it is too easy to think that this is normal. It's a perk. You've arrived. But it's a trap.
It's worse than wanting to own you. It's desiring information that they can blackmail you with. And if you follow their bread crumbs, you're going to end up in the oven.
So, as Gillum's lawyers begin an offensive in court to find out exactly what Trump meant when he fixed the election for De Santis, know that MSNBC had an inside reporter that could have had personal interviews with Gillum or his lawyers. This close scrutiny could have made a difference.
And that said, a sweetener, and a warning. The sweetener: De Santis came up through the process and probably has a few skeletons in his closet and Trump will do us all a favor by revealing them.
The warning: We have young, promising candidates coming up the ranks. I hope they are paying attention and learn from what happened to Gillum. Because we all have to do better. And be aware that it's not just Republicans who might lead you down the wrong path. Old Florida Dems are just as interested in protecting the status quo in this State, as Republicans.
Correction: MSNBC did not fire Cross. They just didn't renew her contract. The results to the viewer is the same, either way.
= new reply since forum marked as read
