Peter Schorsch
Poor Adam Smith.
Florida Politics is kicking his sad ass. And so is POLITICO. This is what happens when you get lazy and arrogant and base the twilight of your journalism career on tip-based journalism and oppo dumps.
Unfortunately for the Tampa Bay Times, Smith’s indolence sometimes shows his ignorance. Consider today’s piece titled ‘Gwen Graham’s Future” and this line: “Little did she know that as even as Democrats in Washington were cheering her [Rep. Graham] on in 2014, they were also quietly pushing a plan to make her district virtually unwinnable for any Democrat in order to ensure that fellow Democrat Corrine Brown of Jacksonville still had a congressional seat should her old district be tossed out.”
First off, Graham knew (this “little did she know” bit is absurd). Secondly, Florida Democrats were doing this, not Washington Democrats. Thirdly, they were pushing nothing “quietly.”
Here’s the history: Graham sits in a seat that will likely get redrawn because Brown’s seat was too gerrymandered. It was Florida Democrats and liberals (not those in Washington) who challenged Brown’s seat and others in court. But the Democrats still wanted and needed Brown or another fellow African-American Democrat to have a North Florida congressional district that was considered a minority-access seat. So the Democrats (in Florida, not in Washington) publicly (not “quietly”) submitted court filings that provided an alternative to Brown’s district. That alternative went all the way west from Jacksonville, touching Graham’s district. The plaintiffs (Florida Democrats, not Washington Democrats) had to do this. And they had to do this publicly (not “quietly”) by filing court records in a case followed by any political reporter worth his salt (which is to say, not Adam Smith).
Graham had to know this was happening. Why? Because she’s not an idiot. And also because her top adviser, Steve Schale, had talked openly with reporters about it for months. And also because Schale is a close ally of Dan Gelber, another FLORIDA Democrat involved in the litigation. Gelber certainly knew. Schale knew. Graham knew. Anyone who paid attention to the controversy and case knew that.
And perhaps that’s why Adam didn’t know that. He doesn’t pay attention. He doesn’t do his own homework anymore. He waits for oppo to be fed him so he can write trashy clickbait crap because he has become a lazy self-mockery of the journalist he once was.
Let’s call this piece, therefore, Adam Smith’s Future. It isn’t bright.
