There are more 800 lb. gorillas in my room than the Myombe Reserve at Busch Gardens. So please allow me to address yet another one of them after earlier this week outlining new policies for this blog regarding political client disclosure and the shelving of a separate Media & Tech section. Today, lets talk about Charlie Crist. Or more specifically, this blogs coverage of his campaign. On Wednesday, the Miami Heralds Marc Caputo reported that Bill Hyers, formerly the campaign manager for New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, will soon be managing Crists gubernatorial campaign. Ive know for weeks that Hyers would be coming in to manage Crists campaign. I would have enjoyed blogging about it. But my source on the story would probably not have liked me blogging about it. My source? My wife, Michelle Todd, a longtime senior adviser to Crist. As much as I love this blog, I love my wife infinitely more. While its not even a question about whether I would write about, or worse, leak, information I learned from my wife, IT ALSO CANT BE A QUESTION. I need my wife to feel comfortable talking aloud on a conference call. I need those my wife is talking to on a conference call to not worry that what they say will end up on SaintPetersBlog. I need those working on the Crist campaign, such as Kevin Cate, Steve Schale, and Franco Ripple, to not have to worry about appeasing me by sharing smaller news items in order to keep me from discussing larger, more strategic issues. I need my friend, Charlie Crist, to know that if he tells me something, it wont automatically end up on this blog. I need ... I just need less gorillas in the room. Therefore, the policy of SaintPetersBlog going forward is that we will continue to analyze and discuss and handicap and criticize the Charlie Crist campaign, but were not breaking news here about the Crist campaign -- even if its news which did not originate from the campaign. Who is the new campaign manager? Ask someone else. How much money has the Crist campaign raised? You tell me. Where will Charlie be next week? Lord knows, but I dont. Charlie Crist could raise $20 million during November and I could have a spreadsheet of every donor and the amount they contributed, but unless its first reported somewhere else, Im not writing about it. Let Kevin tell Matt Dixon about it. This way my wife can do what she wants to do before she met me -- be an incredibly loyal adviser to someone she believes in. This way there should be no complaints from any of the other reporters covering the race that Schorsch got that first. Now, of course there are caveats. I may just be first with a story, such as a new video or some other material distributed from the campaign, simply because I move faster than other reporters. Me being first in those situations has nothing to do with who I lay next to each night. I may be first with something if a potential story has just been laying out there and other reporters decided not to run with it. Again, that has nothing to do with my relationship with my wife, Charlie, or his campaign. However, I will disclose the genesis of the story, just so its clear where the news originated. I may be first with aggregating or re-reporting news coming from a public source. For example, if Quinnipiac releases new polling numbers about the gubernatorial race, I reserve the right to wake up early and write that story. And, of course, I will continue to analyze and handicap the race. The long-and-short of it is I wont be doing play-by-play, just as much, if not more, color commentary. I hope this makes everyone more comfortable, including my wife, whom I love with all of my heart. Any feedback on this policy is welcomed. I may update this post to reflect some additional thinking once the policy is rolled-out. But, for now, theres one less gorilla in the room.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 16:05:03 +0000
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