Leaked emails between Palm Beach Post and Michael McAuliffe reveal liberal bias

BizPac Review has obtained hundreds of pages of email correspondence between Palm Beach Post employees and State Attorney Michael McAuliffe that appear to show an unusually close relationship between McAuliffe and both Palm Beach Post Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz and Editorial Board member Rhonda Swan.

The relationship appears so close that McAuliffe, Schultz and Swan felt comfortable enough with one another to bash Gov. Rick Scott, Jeb Bush and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos and to downplay Attorney General Pam Bondi’s role in closing pill mills, while lamenting the lack of recognition for McAuliffe’s efforts.

In the following email, McAuliffe accuses Gov. Scott of “posturing” on pill mills while Swan expresses her dismay that “we’ve got four years of him”: (Click the thumbnail image for a full view.)

In this next email, McAuliffe says credit is due to him and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw for the idea to split and use forfeiture funds from assets seized from pill mill operators. All well and good, and standard operating procedure for any politician, but Swan’s response referencing Bondi is what’s revealing. (Click the thumbnail image for a full view.)

Here, McAuliffe sends Schultz a Post story about Haridopolos backing the drug database, and Schultz’s only response is, “He’s running for Senate.” (Click the thumbnail image for a full view.)

In this email, Schultz asks McAuliffe what’s taking so long “for a judge to compel Riviera Beach on the Sunshine Law stuff?” When McAuliffe answers with a sort of non-answer, Schultz goes on to ask, “Who’s the judge? Is he/she known for slowness?” When McAuliffe answers, “Kastrenakes,” the conversation and the line of inquiry about a “slow judge” seems to end. John Kastrenakis is the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted, and won prison sentences for, former County Commissioners Tony Masilotti, Warren Newell and Mary McCarty. (Click the thumbnail image for a full view.)

In the last email I will discuss in this post, McAuliffe and Schultz express their mutual admiration for Bill Malone, who once led land acquisitions for the South Florida Water Management District. Having a mutual fondness for someone is fine, but of course, Schultz couldn’t stop there, saying, “Jeb ran him off the water district for telling the truth about a land deal.” (Click the thumbnail image for a full view.)

Many of the emails are just back and forth between members of the press and one of their sources. What’s revealing about this group of emails is the partisan nature of the discussions and the obvious understanding between McAuliffe and the Palm Beach Post that Republicans cannot possibly be decent people or have any legitimate motives for their actions.

For many years, Republicans — and anyone not favored by the Post’s Editorial Board, including many Democrats — have complained about biased stories and unfair editorials in that newspaper. Such complaints were always dismissed by Schultz and his minions as the rants of people who did not understand the objective nature of the journalism practiced by the Post.

Here, in these emails, the fig leaf of objectivity is torn away, and the truth emerges.

It may be instructive for readers to scroll back to the top of this page to my own author’s description and note that I have voluntarily described myself as a “conservative writer.” Readers of BizPac Review know what they’re getting: news and opinion from a conservative perspective. We have many Democratic readers because we’re unafraid to criticize both sides of the aisle when, from our unabashedly conservative perspective, they’re wrong.

Palm Beach Post LogSchultz and Swan are entitled to their opinions. They are, after all, editorial writers. What they are no longer justified in doing, though, is labeling themselves as “objective.”

Unless and until Schultz, Swan and the rest of the liberals at the Post add a disclaimer to their opinions disclosing their ideological bias, they will remain a morally bankrupt institution, distrusted by much of the community they’re supposed to be serving.

For a related breaking news story, visit Jose Lambiet’s Gossip Extra.

View all 260 emails here. This file is very large (17 MB) and will take some time to download.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Jack Furnari

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles