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‘The day that authorities {dollars} are used to blacklist media shops will probably be a darkish day for our nation.’
When the Home handed HB 939 on Monday, Chief Monetary Officer Jimmy Patronis touted the transfer, lauding the chamber for passing certainly one of his priorities, to crack down on native governments utilizing NewsGuard to guage information shops.
“The Home delivered a significant victory for shoppers right now,” Patronis stated in a launched assertion. “I don’t assume authorities needs to be paying media-rating corporations to blacklist sure shops.”
However two days later that provision and the underlying invoice are in bother, and will fall sufferer to haggling between the Home and Senate within the ultimate days of the Common Session.
The Senate on Tuesday eliminated the portion of the invoice that banned cities and counties from contracting with NewsGuard or any related information ranking company. Sen. Colleen Burton, a Lakeland Republican sponsoring the invoice, stated the availability was a part of a unique Home invoice and wasn’t a part of the Senate model of the measure (SB 1066).
Patronis has championed the transfer as a method to stop governments from utilizing NewsGuard to close out conservative or different information shops.
“The day that authorities {dollars} are used to blacklist media shops will probably be a darkish day for our nation – and whereas the bureaucrats would love nothing greater than to ship money to their allies whereas punishing their enemies – Florida’s received an excessive amount of respect for taxpayers and the Structure to permit that to occur,” Patronis stated Monday.
The Senate’s transfer despatched the invoice again to the Home. However the Home sponsor, Rep. Griff Griffitts, a Panama Metropolis Seaside Republican, has filed an modification to the Senate change that will nonetheless maintain the NewsGuard provision out of the invoice.
With the Session slated to finish Friday, time is operating out for the chambers to succeed in a consensus on the measure. One other piece of the invoice would enable householders in a state of emergency on account of a hurricane or storm to cancel a roofing contract inside 10 days of signing a contract.
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