While previous coverage detailed how FPL and Matrix had covert control over the Tallahassee-based outlet the Capitolist and used it to attack FPL's critics, a recent report by Floodlight and NPR has now linked the popular news site Florida Politics to the unfolding saga.
As detailed in the report, Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch received $100,000 from Apryl Marie Fogel of Matrix-connected outfit Alabama Today, for "editorial and digital tech services,” as Schorsch framed it. (Fogel is described in the report as a romantic partner of former Matrix CEO Jeff Pitts.) Schorsch said he also received $43,000 in advertising dollars from FPL.
Unlike the other five outlets named in the report, the St. Petersburg-based Florida Politics is apparently conceding that it takes advertising money and third-party contributions into consideration when deciding how to prioritize coverage. In an interview with NPR and Floodlight, Schorsch said he practices "combination journalism" — which entails giving priority coverage to advertisers like FPL without handing over control of content, he claims.
Schorsch tells New Times he's "just more open about the fact that there is a business side to this operation."
"It would be naive to think that the people that advertise and that I do financial business with are not going to get preference in terms of the priority of coverage, not necessarily the direction of the coverage, but the priority of coverage," he says.
According to the Floodlight-NPR report, former Florida Politics reporter Ryan Ray said Schorsch did push him to write favorably about the site's advertisers. Ray said that there is “no question” that big industry players paid Schorsch for rosy coverage, or to make unflattering stories go away.
Schorsch maintains those allegations are false.
In August, after the Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, and Floodlight broke news about how FPL and Matrix had taken control of the Capitolist to push FPL's narrative as news — Schorsch became a vocal critic of the outlet. He published an article that referred to the Capitolist as "radioactive."Florida Politics' Peter Schorsch says he'll report more on you if you're an advertiser. He says advertisers also pay for reporters to conduct research.
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) December 19, 2022
FP&L pays him $40K+/yr. By his acct, a Matrix-related publisher paid him at least $100K over several years. #flpolitics
Schorsch wrote that he was particularly perturbed by emails cited in the bombshell coverage, in which the Capitolist publisher and editor-in-chief Brian Burgess appeared to float the idea of Matrix buying out Gannett-owned local newspapers in Florida, firing all the "clown reporters," and turning the publications into spigots for propaganda.
"My advice to you now is to shutter the Capitolist," Schorsch wrote in the August 2 post, adding, "I won’t be lecturing you about the ethics of journalism, because I am one of the last people to judge you in this regard."
Schorsch insists that unlike the Capitolist, there have never been editorial discussions between Florida Politics and FPL consultants through which FPL dictated the tone of his publication's coverage.
"I don't think that I'm in that category," Schorsch says. "Maybe I'm naive, but I know that I can look myself in the mirror about the work that we're doing."
Schorsch, a former political operative who broke the news about the FBI raid on Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago club, was previously accused of pay-to-play with advertisers in 2013, when a handful of people active in Florida politics told the Tampa Bay Times that he had tried to pressure them for "hundreds or thousands of dollars" in exchange for positive articles or the eradication of negative ones.
The local Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigated him for the allegations but later dropped the matter without filing charges, the Times reported.
