Florida Times-Union writer featured on Morris Communications right-wing website

Florida Times-Union

Morris Communications, the parent company of the Florida Times-Union and the St. Augustine Record, launched a right-wing website recently.

(Note: the headline is not redundant, so save your jokes.)

The company, which created a kerfuffle last year by endorsing Donald Trump as an “agent of change” in the T-U and other corporate properties, has doubled down on its position with the launch of Crossroads for America.

The website does not appear to be affiliated with Karl Rove‘s PAC, American Crossroads.

However, the sentiments contained within Crossroads for America, a look at “government at the crossroads” and “challenges in today’s democracy,” would likely be endorsed by George W. Bush‘s former strategist.

A few of the articles up on the site on Wednesday morning were written by Mike Clark, the editorial page editor of the T-U, including the one promoted Tuesday evening by the local Jacksonville paper.

On the site, Clark takes issue with the national debt, using muscular language like “We know what needs to be done. Now we need leaders to take action.”

What “needs to be done,” asserts Clark: cutting entitlement programs.

“That is where President Donald Trump comes in. He is bold, he isn’t worried about political correctness and he certainly isn’t playing the Washington spin game,” Clark asserts.

In “Obamacare Will Not Cure Nation’s Ills,” Clark takes his scalpel to the Affordable Care Act.

Happily, the House of Representatives has the palliative care for which America clamors, Clark writes.

“There are a variety of good Republican plans in the mix such as the Better Way plan from Rep. Paul Ryan or the recently released plan from the Republican Study Group,” the T-U editorialist asserts.

“Here is what Americans can expect from the Republican president and Congress: More choices. Less government control. Access favored over guarantees. More individual responsibility. More simplicity, less complexity,” Clark contends.

Clark avoids El Presidente’s campaign call to build a wall and let Mexico pay for it (the check is in the mail!) in his essay solving the problems regarding illegal immigration.

However, the editorialist does find time to cite anti-immigration advocate Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and not the Florida State soccer coach, below the virtual fold.

Krikorian, when he Skyped in as a Florida House committee witness in Tallahassee recently, occasioned a walkout by the Democrats on hand.

House Majority Leader Janet Cruz called Krikorian a “white nationalist,” reported our own Mitch Perry, who spotlighted one of Krikorian’s provocative positions (“Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough”) in the piece.

Jacksonville residents made a lot of noise about cancelling newspaper subscriptions in the wake of the Times-Union endorsement of Trump (a position not shared on the news side).

Frank Denton, in his editorial role, punted on accountability for that endorsement, saying it’s a corporate position.

And it looks like corporate has doubled down on that pro-Trump stance, and will continue to as long as the Morris family owns newspapers.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


One comment

  • Arlene Reeves

    February 8, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    Even Heaven has a wall and a gate and there is extreme vetting to get in. Will you Mrs. Ms. Miss. Mr. Gancarski protect our boarders from criminals and terrorist?
    1. Healthcare – control healthcare and you control the people.
    2. Poverty – increase the poverty level as high as possible; poor people are easier to control and will not fight back that is if you are providing everything for them to live.
    3. Debt – increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes and this will produce even more poverty.
    4. Gun Control – remove the ability to defend from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.
    5. Welfare – take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing and Income).
    6. Education – take control of what people read and listen to and learn in school.
    7. Religion – remove the belief in God from government and schools.
    8. Class Warfare – divide people into class, wealthy vs poor, to cause more discontent and it will be easier to take/tax the wealthy with the support the poor/community.
    9. Control the media and you control what people think.

    WHY SHOULD THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEFEND THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION? WHO WILL PROTECT OUR AMENDMENTS? WHO WILL FIX OUR INNER CITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURES? WHO WILL SUPPORT OUR MILITARY, POLICE AND FIREMEN AND WOMEN? WHO WILL BRING REAL JOBS BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO APPRECIATE WORKING FOR A LIVING AND NOT EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR THEM. Yes there are people who need help. We have so many community organizations including churches set up for that very reason.
    Weaning off the tits of the government aka less government is the only recourse to stave off socialism aka Marxism. Help help help, and not, do do do, equal equal equal, but still, separate separate separate. You can’t support the masses by maintain a government that dominates every decision. We’ve been there and done that and obviously have not learned IT DOES NOT WORK. Government for and by the people does work. There will always be harder working people with a DREAM. People willing to work to achieve their goals in life has ALWAYS and ALWAYS will; GOD WILLING, in America, be the republic for which we stand. We are individuals with glorious differences that doesn’t need a cookie cutter to come along and spit out same same same. It’s our party – cry if you want to. I’m sure in 8 years I will be crying again.

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