A.G. Gancarski
St. Augustine’s Daniel Carter is accusing well-connected local political blogger Michael Gold, whose Historic City News website attracts advertising from many prominent local politicians, of sending him a racist email.
As Carter wrote on Facebook: “Calling out a news outlet for being a racist piece of ____ and in turn, the editor in chief responds with overt racist remarks confirming that he is, in fact, a racist piece of ____.”
Carter posted that he was sent an email asking for his support for City Commission candidate Jill Pacetti. Carter wanted off the email list, and used the “racist piece of ____” phrase in his request.
Then he claimed to have received the following response (a claim backed up with an email forwarded to FP with headers that matched the domain).
“Such a mouth on you. When someone as public as you makes vulgar remarks like that, you give all colored people a black eye. Even the grown ups,” Gold purportedly wrote.
Gold then asserted, per the email, that Carter may have been too “lazy and shiftless” to read instructions on how to get off the email list.
Gold has not been able to be reached to confirm or deny the authorship of the email and his alleged rhetorical choices. Calls to the phone number associated with the website are routed to his cellphone voicemail.
However, FP was able to reach arguably Gold’s most prominent advertiser on Thursday, St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver.
Shaver had what appeared to be a recent editorial on the site about Confederate monuments. She told us via phone that it was not an op-ed, but a “public records request … a standard reply.”
Shaver had not seen the email in question, was not interested in hearing the details, and said she was “not responsible” for its content, saying she was but one advertiser, and a “number of people” buy space on the site.
She also said she advertises with other outlets.
Unlike with other advertisers outlets, there is a unique arrangement: Shaver’s website is housed on Gold’s domain. as is that of Commissioner Pacetti.
However, despite the longstanding contractual arrangement, per the Florida Ethics Commission in 2015, the mayor and the publisher are not business associates, with Shaver only paying for “routine web services.”
As the St, Augustine Record reported at the time, “posting news articles on the mayor’s website would not constitute a business enterprise, according to the opinion.”
In his Facebook post accompanying the email post, Carter raised the question of Nancy Shaver and Commissioner Jill Pacetti, asking “is this who you want managing and/or promoting your campaigns to become and/or remain city officials?”
“Do you support overt racism from a local news organization against an African-American resident whom you will be representing? This is a question for any business or organization that pays for advertising with his news organization. I’m a black resident of St. Augustine, born and raised for 21 years,” Carter posted.
“I’ve dealt with racism and I understand enough to know that Michael Gold is set in his ways and it’s too late to change his mind about how he views minorities and people of color, but as a registered voter, resident, and a person who spends money within the city of St. Augustine, I NEED to know publicly that anyone wanting to represent me or ask for my vote, or money does not condone this type of behavior. Especially if you are paying him for advertising your campaign or business. Waiting on a PUBLIC DENOUNCEMENT ASAP. Racism is not to be tolerated,” Carter emphasized.
Carter, when told of the mayor’s reaction, was not surprised.
Both Shaver and Pacetti face competitive elections in the August primary.
We still await comment from Historic City News and Commissioner Pacetti.
4 comments
Marion
July 26, 2018 at 2:40 pm
Is this seriously news worthy? It is striking that one racial group is put up to one social standard, while the other is given a lower bar. Does that itself not establish a sense of racial heirachy? White/Caucasians are just going to gradually quit interacting with “African-Americans” if they have to constantly be concerned with loosing their livelyhood over not speaking/interacting with the latter in the exact way that the latter demands.
Mb
July 26, 2018 at 10:08 pm
To the author: can you tell me when the screen grab was taken, showing web hosting for Nancy Shaver by historic city news? Is that as of July 2018?
Theresa Gallaway
July 27, 2018 at 7:19 am
Wow! Ever since Trump came into office the racists have been climbing out of the woodwork. It was a nicer world when people didn’t publicly announce that they were haters. I know they’ve always been there, but didn’t have to witness it. Elected officials should be more inclusive and understanding. They are “PUBLIC” representatives. Yes we all look different on the outside, but inside we all bleed red. Time for the bigots to grow up!
Ed Slavin
July 28, 2018 at 1:48 pm
1. I agree with St. Augustine’s reform Mayor Shaver, who cancelled her advertising. We need healing here, not heels.
2. Not a “news site,” a blog, with advertising, which the St. Augustine Record will now presumably inherit.
3. Pray for peace in our community, which has seen so much suffering. As RFK said in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968, the night that Dr. King was killed,
“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in…. ,, we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
…. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
..We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we’ve had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder. ”
“But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoKzCff8Zbs
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Statement-on-the-Assassination-of-Martin-Luther-King.aspx
4. Kudos to Michael Gold for telling the truth last year about St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar and the Michelle O’Connell case to Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times. The Times reported Sheriff Shoar “really fancies himself as a kingmaker,” said Michael Gold, the sheriff’s first campaign manager, who broke with him years ago and publishes an online news report. After he criticized the handling of the O’Connell case, Mr. Gold said, the sheriff refused to renew his press credentials. He was never given a reason.”
“‘He demands absolute authority and does not like to be questioned by anyone,’ Mr. Gold said.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/us/michelle-oconnell-jeremy-banks.html
5. Mr. Gold’s truth-telling took courage in a county with a notoriously corrupt and retaliatory Sheriff. That’s the same courage that should inspire Mr. Gold to apologize. Now.
6. Pray for Michael Gold.
7. Pray for our country, our people and our community.
8. As St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver said, “We are all in this together and can treat each other with dignity, respect and consideration even if we disagree. This is our hometown, and we are neighbors-let’s act that way.”
9. What do you reckon?
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