COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Vero Beach 32963 reporter Lisa Zahner wrote this week that the race for Vero Beach City Council has become “a shallow beauty contest.” If anything has been shallow of late, it has been the island tabloid’s coverage of the election.
In her less-than-substantive and often sarcastic “news analysis,” Zahner asserted that Councilman Richard Winger is nothing more than a “yes man.” In truth, Winger has worked tirelessly and has made hard choices, balancing the need to preserve services with the importance of living within a budget.
Anyone who really knows what is going on in City Hall, and who is willing and able to be honest about what they know, could not possibly make the outlandish claim that Winger is a “yes man.”
Former Vero Beach mayor Warren Winchester recently said Winger is one of the best councilmen to ever serve the city, “bar none.”
Zahner, who lives in Brevard County, offered further “analysis” by dismissing Amelia Graves’ knowledge of important issues facing the city. Clearly Zahner is disappointed in Graves’ strong showing in the candidate forums held over the past month.
Graves is informed, clear about what she believes and is capable of speaking in complete sentences. That Carroll faces a serious challenge must not be what the island weekly was hoping for or expecting.
Ironically, due to her numerous gaffes and public relations disasters, the editors of the island weekly earlier wrote Tracy Carroll off. “We don’t see Carroll winning re-election,” they wrote.
Her own newspaper’s reservations about Carroll did not keep Zahner from offering the City’s Council’s most combative and contentious member a back-handed endorsement. “If voters want someone they may not find so likable, and who may have disappointed them a few times in her three years in office, Carroll could be the choice,” Zahner wrote.
“Voters who want a solid vote for the sale of Vero Electric, regardless of any problems they may have with the yet-to-be litigated vacation rental case, seem likely to choose Carroll and rest assured the deal will not be derailed by the loss of a clear three-vote majority in favor of saving the community nearly $25 million in electric rates.” Zahner added.
In her “analysis” published this week, Zahner was parroting FPL spokeswoman Amy Brunjes’ talking points, and was employing the same shallow, simplistic logic of those who argue for Carroll’s re-election, despite her many offenses to the community.
Zahner’s claim that Carroll must be re-elected to keep the sale of Vero Electric from unraveling, is simply more FPL propaganda. See Earlier Story
Indian River Guardian 
I don’t have to LIKE those who are governing so much as I have to TRUST them. That is where I am today. The 32963 article was about as slanted as any I’ve read recently. There was no doubt in my mind it should have had a “Paid for by somebody who really wants Tracy Carroll to Win Campaign”.
like the old saying goes…” if you don’t have anything nice to say, sit next to lisa zahner.”
So many people who actually saw the zahner article were completely appalled, it is horrific that anyone calling themselves a reporter, much less a woman reporter, could have written such dreg.
agreed
Anytime I saw Lisa Zahner she was sitting with Glenn Heran.
Zahner and Wilson exchanged an embrace at the Taxpayers’ Association candidate forum. In 32963, Wilson, Heran and FOL have for five years had an outlet for their propaganda. Wilson so hated that Inside Vero reports the fuller story that he has attempted to put us our of business by orchestrating an advertising boycott.
Zahner has sealed her fate with her last bit of trash. A little bitty peon in a City that extends beyond the narrow barrier island. I was really surprised at the lack of professionalism when I finally got around to reading the 63 online. What the HECK WAS THAT?? I
Didn’t work though, did it? You keep up what you’re doing Mr. Schumann. More and more people are discovering that the only information that isn’t censored comes from this venue.
Just proves Lisa will stoop to any level to help Tracy Carroll win an election. I am not surprised Zahner is close to Glenn Heran, after all “birds of a feather flock together” She can’t write about election issues since they work against Carroll, so she concocts low class trash.
You know the blogs would be so much more interesting and objective if people had to use their real names and be accountable for what they write. Anonymity is the same as cowardly.
Gary, When we began InsideVero.com, we asked commenters to use their firs and last name. But then Charlie Wilson used that information to track people down on Facebook, where he more or less harassed them. As a result of Wilson’s tactics, we began allowing commenters to use an alias.
I know someone who as a result of a letter to the editor received a lot of nasty phone calls. An elected official can put up with it, an ordinary person is not used to that.
yes and isn’t there a LAW against cyberbullying?
Milton’s pitbull has insulted many people with this article. 32963, has good advertisements and poorly though out election articles, but that is what happens when they try to whitewash the flaws of one candidate (Tracy Carroll) inorder to get her re-elected. Milton and Lisa have crossed the line of good judgement once again.