The Press Club of Southwest Florida is outraged at recent actions by the DeSantis administration to quash public debate about abortion rights. Below are letters to the editor written by two officers of the press club Board of Governors, Bob Orr and Tom Marquardt. Their viewpoints are strongly endorsed by the press club.
We Need to Reject All Government Overreach and Censorship
To the Editor Naples Daily News: Regardless of one’s political loyalties or personal feelings about Florida’s Amendment 4 Abortion Rights question, we should all be alarmed by the DeSantis administration’s blatantly unconstitutional attempt to quash public debate.
Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and the Health Department’s top lawyer sent letters to Florida TV stations threatening criminal prosecution if the broadcasters continued airing political ads from a pro-abortion rights group.
At least one station, WINK-TV in Fort Myers, apparently succumbed to the extortion and pulled the political commercials before a federal judge stepped in and threw the penalty flag.
In blocking the state from enforcing its threats, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blasted the DeSantis team for trying to censor free speech, writing, “To keep it simple for the state of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
The group behind the ads, Floridians Protecting Freedom, says WINK has resumed airing the spots. And John Wilson, the Health Department lawyer who signed the threatening letters, has resigned claiming he was pressured to send letters that were drafted by attorneys in the Governor’s General Counsel office.
The courts will sort that out, starting with an October 29th hearing on Judge Walker’s temporary restraining order against the state.
But a greater danger will hover over us unless we, as a divided electorate, reject all government overreach and censorship.
Bob Orr, VP Administration
Press Club of Southwest Florida
State’s Abusive Coercion
To the Editor Naples Daily News: If I worked for the Florida Department of Health, I would be embarrassed by the latest actions of the state’s dictator in chief.
At the apparent bidding of Gov. DeSantis, FDH’s rabid legal beagle is threatening to sue local television stations for airing an ad to vote yes for Amendment 4, a ballot measure to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban. It ordered the stations to stop broadcasting an ad that shows a woman who became pregnant following a brain cancer diagnosis and faced death and her baby’s death if she did not have an abortion. The FDH claimed the message to be false and dangerous, but obviously it is abusing the weight of the office to silence anyone who confronts the governor’s agenda.
If the state is going to adjudicate political ads for their veracity, then it will need a new department. Political ads, including the DeSantis-supported ads to block the legalization of marijuana, are fueled by hyperbole and twists of the truth. Even the ads to derail abortion rights stretch the fact. It’s the nature of political advertising most voters are able to wade through.
The freedom of broadcasters to offer a platform for all persuasions – even those they disagree with – is rooted in the First Amendment and in laws established by the Federal Communications Commission. Thankfully, the FCC has supported the right of these local organizations to air the ad.
It would be easy to excuse these latest maneuverings to stifle the opposition as political shenanigans if it were not for the fact that Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo – the out-of-sync FDH chief – is paid by taxpayers. We deserve better from public servants of the not-so-free state. Voters are quite capable of making up their own minds about Amendment 4 without the state’s abusive coercion.
Tom Marquardt, Secretary
Press Club of Southwest Florida