Rob Lorei’s Ouster Might Have Been Part of A Gaetz-Related, Political Cover-Up and The Public Deserves Answers
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In 1776 our Founding Fathers warned us about the abuse of kings, they just didn’t realize that it was possible autocrats might rule through editorial boards.
Nearly 250 years later, as women finally have a remote shot at being mayor, governor or president, there’s still a wall standing in our way. Florida’s “founding mothers” have been trying to warn us about a certain Wall of Silence. But Florida’s kings have literally billions to gain from this wall staying right where it is. So it will.
I’m one of these silenced women and as soon as I attempted to speak my truth it appears the Tampa Bay Times may have decided to destroy one of the region’s only trusted megaphones.
So I’m no longer going to stay quiet and I sincerely fear for my safety.
A Local Story with National Significance
Florida decides national politics and what happens there affects all of us. Pinellas County, where this happened, is the swing-county of the swing-state and is home to the Tampa Bay Times, the Poynter Institute and extensive Koch influence on both of these media institutions. This story is the ten-year legacy of Citizens United. It’s time for a sea change in the way media covers state politics. Due to the current lack of national transparency, states like Florida are able to perpetuate and conceal grave misdeeds that threaten national democracy.
In 2018, I ran for office against Kathleen Peters who, with her close associate Jack Latvala, makes up a political duo that Florida House Speaker, Richard Corcoran expelled from state service when evidence of an extensive sex-scandal appeared. Corcoran claimed several sexual predators in public service had been directly protected by a “Wall of Silence.”
This controversy came to a head in the same year as the #MeToo movement and the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. Women in entertainment and law finally felt like their voices might be heard. In the Sunshine State, some women thought the Wall of Silence might finally crack a bit.
But apparently Florida’s largest newspaper liked that wall just the way it was. For reasons I will subsequently explain, Adam C. Smith, of the Tampa Bay Times appears to have used his editorial power to protect Jack Latvala’s legacy. He ultimately supported this political duo with such impunity, that on the day of Smith’s own resignation, he posted Latvala’s campaign materials on his Twitter feed.
A less objective writer might say Smith threw out journalistic rule book to protect a vengeful and repeat sexual predator. It’s for reasons like this that so many female leaders are still being sexually exploited and broken in Tallahassee today.
A more enraged female politico might say, this is the tap-root of Florida’s #MeToo scandals and Smith might have really gotten himself into the weeds.
Matt Gaetz’s Collateral Damage
Matt Gaetz’s current sex-scandal may very well be retribution for a political power-move he pulled in 2018. Jack Latvala was about to run for governor of Florida until Matt Gaetz broke the Latvala sex-scandal. As a result, the Latvala tribe was banished from state service, so they sought a soft landing. Peters ran for a County Commission seat back in her home town and Latvala’s son, Chris, ran for a State seat. Both won.
Assuming elections were free and fair in Florida, I took on Kathleen Peters in the Commission race. I heard she was formidable, I heard she had a close relationship with local news editors but I didn’t yet fully understand the dangerous lengths to which a powerful newspaper would go to ease the fallout of a wide-spread sex-scandal to elect a friend.
Simply for announcing my run for office, Florida’s largest newspaper ran a false, misleading and dangerous smear campaign against me that continues to threaten my safety and affect my career today.
The first time my side of the story remotely saw the light of day was three months after election day, on Rob Lorei’s live WMNF broadcast, when Adam C. Smith announced his historic retirement. It was Smith who ordered the journalistic hit job against my campaign and I wanted WMNF listeners to know what he did and why he was no longer one of Florida’s most powerful political editors. The transcript of what I said that day is below.
Shortly after the show on January 31, 2019, I posted the audio clip of me sharing my experience with Adam C. Smith on that live WMNF broadcast to my Facebook page.
But heaven-forbid a woman embarrass a powerful southern man. Someone needed to pay.
About two weeks later, on February 19, 2019 Rob Lorei was fired. The public has yet to be given a clear reason. The fact that the Tampa Bay region has been asking this question for two years and hasn’t gotten a cohesive answer might demonstrate how much influence the Tampa Bay Times has on Florida’s news and politics.
It may also demonstrate how much it has to hide.
My Statement on Adam C. Smith’s Retirement from the Tampa Bay Times During Rob Lorei’s Live, WMNF Broadcast
“This is a very momentous time in regional media history that Adam Smith is stepping down. And I just want to say that media is a such a sacred American institution it is the one foundation of our democracy. And just reflecting on the legacy that Adam Smith has left I want to say I hope now there’s an opportunity for the Times in this region to really have a conversation about media ethics.
Because I ran for office in the last election cycle and I had a first-hand experience with the way in which Adam Smith and his writing team has weaponized media. It is profoundly politically biased. It is profoundly unethical. There have been legal claims brought against the Times that were won, with with what happened with Jeff Greene’s run in 2010. And I really think it’s time for us to have a conversation about media ethics.
Because media has never been scrutinized more than right now. It has been attacked by our President. And it is so important that we are protecting people who share truth with the voting electorate.
But with that power comes great responsibility. And it should be people who decide elections and not powerful newspapers.”
Without radio stations like WMNF and without hosts like Rob Lorei who helped allow all perspectives to be heard, female candidates like me have no other way to protect themselves from Florida’s Wall of Silence. There would be virtually no local counter-narrative to the hegemony of the Tampa Bay Times.
If This is the Real Reason Rob Lorei Lost His Job at WMNF, He Shouldn’t Have
If it is of any consolation, Rob Lorei had absolutely no idea I would be calling in that day. I had no idea I would be calling in that day. I just so happened to have gotten into my car after a workout and turned on WMNF and there was Rob Lorei interviewing Adam Smith live after Smith announced his retirement.
Smith also just so happened to be the editor who had recently destroyed my name, my political run and any chances I had at a career in Florida. So I called in. If it was perceived as some kind of set-up or hit, perhaps that is just the mere projection of an unscrupulous editor.
Perhaps it was karma. But it wasn’t a planned hit.
If Rob Lorei’s career has been similarly destroyed by the same person who destroyed mine in retaliation for my simply exercising my First Amendment right as an American Citizen and calling into a radio show, he absolutely did not deserve it.
By other state standards it may seem hyperbolic for a man to have his career destroyed simply for giving a powerful editor a critical send-off. But Florida is a “stand your ground” state steeped in a history of southern dueling. At the first sign of acrimony or insult, standers-by run for cover. They know powerful men react by exacting swift revenge, with impunity. It is not beyond the pale to assume this is what happened to Lorei.
Florida’s Wall of Silence
The Tampa Bay Times appears to have a tight strangle-hold on regional politicians. Unfortunately I know a few things about strangle-holds. The Times appears to have engaged in a three-year, illegal cover-up that now goes all the way up to the Florida State Attorney General’s office in order to make sure my truth is not heard. My personal data has been hacked and stolen to cover up this region’s political misdeeds.
So I have since shared my concerns with Federal investigators.
In April 2021 I began quietly pressing the Florida Attorney General’s office about its illegalities by threatening to go to the press. This is why I believe Lorei might have been targeted again and fired that same month.
The Times knows that WMNF is likely the only local media institution that would tell the public what really happened during my race and what is still happening. Just as they have covered up their own unethical interference in political races, just as they have silenced me, they appear to have gone after Rob Lorei too. It seems they would prefer to silence WMNF as well because they have published articles about how it’s time for WMNF to consider being more moderate. Heaven forbid there be a diversity of political opinions in the swing-region of the swing-state.
Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Florida was on the brink of the 2020 election. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that 2021 is the year of a mayoral race that will change St. Petersburg’s social history. Perhaps this has something to do with the “Wall of Silence” House Speaker Richard Corcoran was referring to right before my 2018 run for office against the very political faction he called out.
Breaking Down The Wall: How Women’s Voices Are Our Sledge Hammers
What some call “walls” others might describe as institutional and systemic patriarchy. By this I mean in this case every major institution, whether it’s Florida’s largest newspaper, Florida’s State Legislature, Florida’s Attorney General, even a few key leaders in my own party have done their small part to put a thumb on the scales of justice and keep this wall right where it is.
This is why women need to tell their stories. If we rely on the systems that are supposed to uphold justice and democracy — they will.
Just not for us.
As is all too common in these cases, multiple women were paid just enough to buy their silence, Latvala was swiftly cleared of all charges and his son and close associate now both hold elected office.
By defaming me, the Tampa Bay Times reinforced a Wall of Silence that directly protected, enabled and elected some of Florida’s most well-connected and apparently untouchable, public servants. But this newspaper’s involvement appears to have gone too far. Under the guise of “accountability reporting,” it enabled what looks like an extortion racket that preys on women like me.
The only protection I have had through this ordeal was my voice. Through my political blog I quietly outed what the newspaper did to defame me and dismantle my campaign. After my run for office in 2018, a few national experts in media ethics were made aware of my blog and a few cracks in Florida’s Wall of Silence started to show.
When I found out Adam Smith was no longer political editor, I was terrified of repercussions and I took my website and blog down but evidence of my posts are still on my political Facebook page.
Shortly after these experts gained knowledge of what happened, it seems a cover-up ensued and two of Florida’s most popular political journalists, Adam C. Smith and Rob Lorei, “lost” their jobs: one ostensibly for committing this wrongdoing; the other for inadvertently outing it. I use the term “lost” loosely because when you lean right and are on the side of the editorial board of the Times machine, you are allowed to “announce your retirement” but when you lean left and go against it you are fired repeatedly, without cause, for two years, until you and your dedicated listers finally give up fighting.
Welcome to Florida politics.
State Corruption and Why I’m Starting a Defense Fund
Walls don’t come down without a fight. And I’m going to need all the help I can get. My career has taken a serious hit over this. I could try to keep quiet and pretend this never happened and just move on but I know other good people will be abused.
Much of what happened to me was illegal but where does one go to seek justice when your perpetrators are above the law? Why would state news outlets tell my story when its largest news conglomerate has declared me its enemy? I should be seeking federal witness protection right now but in order to get it I am supposed to have my concern escalated by the state where the wrongdoing took place. But how can I do that when that State Attorney General’s office has already illegally destroyed official records meant to protect me?
I truly believe my voice is my only defense. By telling my story I sincerely fear for my safety but I can’t go on quietly anymore.
The political department of the Tampa Bay Times seems to be acting like Florida’s judge, jury and executioner of Florida elections and from what I have seen it is more influential than political campaigns themselves. All voters need to do is look at the political candidates it smears most and then look at the opponent who benefits from these campaigns and gets elected to know where this newspaper truly stands on Florida politics. For example, Marco Rubio now holds the Senate seat Jeff Greene sought in 2010 before the Times smeared him.
Ground Zero of Koch Influence and the Legacy of Citizens United
My story shows how this newspaper stands on the side of some of the most powerful and predatory men in the state. The Times machine is backed by the Koch family, which has a net worth of $64 Billion and is known for its efforts opposing climate change, criminal justice reform and its support for Libertarian and Republican politics as well as launching the Tea Party movement.
I ran for office on a platform of combating climate change and I pushed to restore the voting rights of prior felons. For decades, I have been dedicated to making our environment, small businesses, and our communities better. And one editor of one newspaper threw decades of my hard-earned reputation away to elect a disgraced crony. It takes a tremendous amount of power to undo a woman’s whole career with a few short, irresponsible, news pieces. Do we really want media institutions to have so much unchecked power that they begin to operate as political machines? Can we really say they are upholding the principles and integrity of journalism when this happens?
Just as this machine destroyed Rob Lorei’s career, a veteran founder of community-controlled media; just as they destroyed Jeff Greene’s bid for the U.S. Senate, a man with a net worth of $3.3 billion, I know they will not hesitate to further harm me.
But my silence is harming me more.
So here I am.
By speaking out, I know I am likely subjecting myself to further defamation, harm, lawsuits or worse. So I’m starting a defense fund. I want to work to make sure female leaders are not harmed, defamed or sexually exploited the way I was.
Political Speech So Powerful It Destroys Speech Itself
Freedom of speech is such an integral part of American Democracy that it was made the very First Amendment to our Constitution. It appears there have been some grave violations of fundamental liberties in this case.
In the United States the free speech and press protections of the First Amendment are sacred but according to the 2010 Citizens United ruling, powerful people can buy whatever kind of “political speech” they choose. Much of this money ends up in the hands of media through paid political ads. In the 2019–2020 election cycle, total political advertisement spending reached $8.5 billion across TV, radio and digital media.
When the dark money of Citizens United begins to buy so much speech that they influence editorial boards and limit the right of public figures to freely speak they are interfering with a Fundamental American right. If the only people left with a voice are the ones who can afford it, where does that leave those who can’t? If controversies like this one are the ten-year legacy of Citizens United, where will we be in twenty?
There is currently a question about whether the Biden administration will use its executive authority to pack the Supreme Court. If it means our nation will have an opportunity to overturn Citizens United to save American Democracy, I hope he does. My 2018 campaign is a case in point.
I have been overcome by so much crippling fear because of what this newspaper did, simply because I dipped a toe into Florida’s political pool. Is this really the journalism the Pulitzer Committee wants to reward? Is this really how we want to run a democracy? When will we admit that perhaps we’ve gone too far?
A Call For Journalistic Ethics
Where is the line between “accountability reporting” and political influence in journalism? Is it ethical for political swing districts to have just one powerful newspaper? How can readers in these areas ensure that one owner and one small editorial board of one paper is free of political bias? If it can’t what recourse do readers, journalists, voters and candidates have?
Pinellas County is considered the swing-county of the swing-state and Florida is ground zero for some of the most concerning political activity in the nation. We need the assistance of ethical investigative journalists who have fewer conflicts-of-interest in Florida, to help the truth to see the light of day (i.e. journalists who do not have connections to the Times Publishing Company including the Tampa Bay Times, Miami Herald, PolitiFact, The Poynter Institute, as well as the Times’ conservative financial backers such as the Koch family).
It would advance democracy in Florida immeasurably if a news outlet with a degree of distance, objectivity or a more publicly-oriented mission such as The Guardian, ProPublica or The Intercept investigates what the Tampa Bay Times has been doing to public figures and local journalists.
Adam Smith’s retirement from the Times was hardly a punitive measure. If it was, he appears to have only been emboldened. After his so-called retirement, he inserted himself squarely within a pivotal mayoral race by advising/managing the 2021 campaign of Ken Welch, who will likely be St. Petersburg’s next mayor. Welch was the very person Smith pressured out of his Commission seat during my 2018 race. At least partly as a result, Welch left a high-paying Commission seat with no-term-limits. It just so happens that the Latvala clan intends to fill two Commission seats. Peters already has and Chris Latvala plans to run for a Commission seat in 2024.
As a private consultant, Adam Smith is now directly benefitting from the political maneuvering his own editorial oversight has strong-armed in journalism.
There is hardly a media counter-narrative to the Times to even begin to debate the ethics of political power moves like this. So I would invite readers to consider the ethical guidelines set out by the Ethics Committee of the Society of Ethical Journalists:
The SPJ Ethics Committee gets a significant number of questions about whether journalists should engage in political activity. The simplest answer is “No.” Don’t do it. Don’t get involved. Don’t contribute money, don’t work in a campaign, don’t lobby, and especially, don’t run for office yourself.
It appears the rules — indeed the laws — no longer apply to Florida’s largest news conglomerate. Is it any surprise then, that Florida took such a hard, rightward turn in the 2020 election?
I’m far from the first candidate to be smeared by this paper. Until there is either a national investigation or a sizable media counter-narrative, I likely will not be the last. I believe this is a major reason why Lorei and WMNF have been targeted.
UPDATE: Adam C. Smith is Still Violating Journalistic Ethics with Impunity
The article you are reading was originally published on June 2, 2021. I am updating this article as of June 13, 2021 to clarify some serious concerns about top journalism in the political swing-county of our nation’s swing-state. Though the Society of Ethical Journalists has clearly stated it is a violation for journalists to engage in politics Adam C. Smith is continuing to do this even after possibly losing his job as political editor of the Tampa Bay Times due to possible legal violations.
Smith is currently managing the 2021 political race of Ken Welch for St. Petersburg mayor while also maintaining his career as a political journalist. Smith is currently interviewing political candidates on behalf of St. Pete Catalyst via his own show called Political Party with Adam Smith. Just as he violated journalistic ethics and defamation laws to undermine my 2018 political campaign and protect an accused political sexual predator, Smith is continuing to work in politics while also maintaining his career as a political journalist. Smith and Rob Lorei are known as the most well-known political journalists in the Tampa Bay Region.
Smear, Backlash and Cover-up
Shortly after my live broadcast on WMNF, Lorei was fired without cause. The public was outraged that the station’s founder had been abruptly terminated and they fought to have him reinstated. He was briefly given his job back but was soon targeted again and again.
Mark Puente, the Tampa Bay Times reporter who executed Smith’s smear campaign, briefly went to work at the Los Angeles Times until the embers cooled in the Sunshine State. This “accountability reporter” abdicated basic journalistic ethics, repeatedly, in order to smear me. His malicious, politically-motivated, tabloid-tactics weaponized and compounded my trauma after I was assaulted at the start of my race. It compromised my safety and continues to subject me to unnecessary harm and trauma.
This is likely why Smith resigned. This may also be why he muzzled Rob Lorei.
To further cover its tracks, Puente has since begun working at the Tampa Bay Times again and has since been nominated for a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his work. Of course he has. The Times’ CEO, Paul Tash, used to chair the Pulitzer committee. The precedent this sets for journalists, public figures and elections coverage, at a time when we need responsible journalism most, is highly concerning.
To my knowledge, not a single national newspaper or journalism school has investigated this matter.
Journalistic Overreach
In the past the Tampa Bay Times and its affiliates have attempted to portray me as someone who is dangerous, underemployed, uncompetitive and unintelligent. To the contrary, I am a two-time graduate of Columbia University, the Ivy League institution where the Pulitzer Committee is housed. As the first person in my family to ever get a bachelor’s degree, I carried close to a 4.0 gpa at Columbia while I studied with some of the best minds in politics, urban planning and political economy in the nation. I worked my way through college as a paid researcher, writer and copy editor for a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist.
What I have experienced with the Tampa Bay Times flies in the face of everything I was taught American journalism is supposed to stand for and everything trailblazing, Pulitzer Prize-winning political journalists like Ida B. Wells fought for. But what kind of message does it send when Wells is posthumously awarded for her justice-focused journalism the same year another journalist is similarly nominated after seemingly abusing his authority to influence the outcome of a political campaign?
I owe it to Wells not to stay silent. Wells understood how rape was politically weaponized by the most powerful men in the South and she raised hell to stop it. But today the Wall of Silence still stands against women who are sexually exploited in Florida’s highest ranks.
I also owe it to the American people. On the campaign trail I met and learned about so many voters who identify with Republican, Libertarian, Independent, Democratic and Socialist politics. I listened to their perspectives and they have more in common with one another than the headlines would have them think. These are citizens who take their vote, their political donations and the little spare time they have to volunteer in their communities — seriously. Elected officials are supposed to represent all of their constituents regardless of politics because we are all Americans. It’s our diversity of perspectives that makes America great and we need to fight for it.
But where I ran for office, candidates could barely learn about me because the powerful controlled the mic. My opponent cancelled all her debates with me, a campaign tactic Smith supports. So the main opportunity the public had to learn about me as a candidate was from what the Tampa Bay Times published and these articles were largely falsehoods, omissions and dangerous misrepresentations. How can we say the legacy of Citizens United was good for democracy if now even candidates for office can barley participate in it?
Voters often feel like elected officials do not truly care about them. Investigations into the influence of powerful machines like the Times can help voters to better understand why they feel like their voices are never truly heard. If candidates feel they barely have a voice, imagine how our citizens feel.
It’s time for a sea change in journalistic ethics. American Democracy depends on it.
