What has the Sarasota Herald-Tribune come to?
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| Twitter account of Herald-Tribune "News Editor/Gun Writer" Lee Williams |
On March 28th, 2018, Sarasota Herald-Tribune news editor Lee Williams interviewed NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer.
This is what happened next:
This is what happened next:
Gun Writer and newspaper editor calls
Parkland response 'macabre and evil,'
asks NRA lobbyist 'How can we help?'
Lee Williams -- the Gun Writer columnist who also happens to be a Sarasota Herald-Tribune news editor -- hosted a half-hour podcast Wednesday with Marion Hammer, the Florida NRA lobbyist.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-gun-writer/ep-30-floridas-nra- lobbyist-marion-hammer-joins- th
Hammer said she thought gun-control advocates had a game plan ready to use victims and families of the next mass shooting in America, which happened to be in Parkland, Fla. Rather than ask follow-up questions for details and corroboration, the Gun Writer shared her outrage over the gun-control response.
“I don’t even know how you’d sit in a room and come up with this," Williams said. "That is so macabre and evil.”
Hammer described how lawmakers in Tallahassee were lobbied for gun-control votes in the days after the Parkland murders. The families of victims were brought in to ask how they'd vote.
“None of that’s been reported,” said Williams — who directs news coverage for the Herald-Tribune, but declined to have Sarasota reporters share his interview with a highly sought-after Florida news source.
The Gun Writer did agree that media pressure was a huge factor in the Tallahassee gun-control vote. And he wanted to know when the Florida NRA would be updating grades on state lawmakers.
“That was my next question," Williams told Hammer. "What can we do to help?”
Is it time for practitioners of actual journalism to take a hard look at what this newspaper, formerly owned by the New York Times, has become?
