WFTV, or Channel 9, never stops investigating, do they? From Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh’s decision to purchase hybrid vehicles to the hiring decisions of Orange County Clerk of Courts Tiffany Moore-Russell, channel stays in somebody’s Moscato.
Problem is, their investigations aren’t really investigations. At least it doesn’t seem like it, does it?
Let’s start with Moore-Russell and her decision to hire Roberta Walton.
It’s true, WFTV.
Channel 9 recently ran two stories that questioned the hire of Walton by Moore-Russell and if she did it simply because the two are sorority sisters.
Within the report, they questioned Walton’s background and repeatedly called her a convicted felon. The report mentions that Walton “snitched on her nine co-defendents,” which is why she did not have to serve jail time for cashing fraudulent checks.
Walton, for what it is worth, was a practicing attorney prior to accepting this job with the clerk’s office, served as senior aide to Moore-Russell during her time as county commissioner for District 6, and as recent as last year, ran for political office.
To offset the curt language used by WFTV to describe Walton, her resume is worth mentioning because, you know, that type of information matters. She passed the state bar exam, practiced law, was entrusted to aide a sitting commissioner, and practiced law again up until a few weeks ago.
Walton worked for the county for nearly 10 years with the same record and background without fault from others or WFTV. Why the hunt for truffles now?
If this investigation is because Moore-Russell is showing some sort of soft or disconnected nepotism, it’s a really lousy way to show it, isn’t it? Only a light connection to show that the two are sorority sisters and a tattered investigation into Walton’s background after she’s worked for the county for almost a decade.
Do better, kids.
Next up is Mr. Singh. By count, WFTV has run over 50 stories on Singh and the majority have been, you guessed it, negative.
Singh’s decision to purchase hybrid vehicle’s for his appraisers was viewed as his way of having county sponsored rolling campaign materials because his name is plastered on the side of each car. So is Orange County property appraiser, but whatever.
Anyway—Singh has also been dinged because his office is being audited by the Orange County comptroller. According to WFTV, the audit is due in part to pressure from political officials like Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
Speaking of Jacobs, did we ever get a full audit of those dropbox messages?
Should also mention that WFTV went flaccid when Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph plastered his name on the tax collector buildings across the county.
Again—nothing wrong with noting who’s responsible for the position, but consistency should be around WFTV’s building somewhere, shouldn’t it? Because it’s certainly not found in their reporting.
Is Don Lemon the news director for WFTV? Because…
I could name more stories that are as loose as Channel 9’s ethics, like how the station followed a story of Commissioner Regina Hill supposedly being involved in an incident at a local comedy club. The station still lists the story but took it down. Likely due to lack of, cough, evidence.
In the end, WFTV seems to be shadowing as a bully. The story on Ms. Walton went nowhere, and shouldn’t have because it lacked merit, but they still doubled down and ran a poorly put together line about budget concerns.
Don’t have enough to pull Hill down regarding her leisure, so we’ll take the story off of the website but still list the headline. Sneakkkkyyyy, channel 9. Sneaky
But here’s the other concern. They only seem to offer such veracity when it comes to politicians who host melanin.
Seriously.
No negative stuff about Dyer, who by the way was classmates with former City Clerk Alana Brenner. Again—nothing wrong with the two sharing a school but why no investigation into—nevermind. You get it by now.
They did post a story about Dyer’s decision to hire his former campaign manager for a city position, but that quickly turned into a city issue and not one Dyer had anything to do with.
The mayor is also responsible for saddling the city with more debt, but, yanno, that wasn’t really his fault either.
Channel 9 has an interesting way of choosing who, or what, to investigate. Putting it together now? Great.
So, collectively, I believe that loud groan that WFTV may hear, and that back of the neck eye roll they may see, is coming from a section of the greater Orlando community that has tired of the, well, tired investigations.
In essence, I just really want WFTV to exercise an ability to be arete. A terrible story that begins to fall apart, don’t go with it, chief. No need to follow through on something that was in pieces to begin with.
Commissioner Regina Hill isn’t a terrible person; Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh isn’t boosting taxpayer money to fuel a re-election campaign; and all other minority politicians aren’t as Magoo as the station is making them seem.
Plus, the majority just want fairness. That shouldn’t be too hard to do. At least I hope it shouldn’t.
Get your game together, WFTV. Because your slip is showing and eventually many may look at the station like the National Enquirer of Orlando.
-JH
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