COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Poor Charlie Wilson. He did not seem happy this morning. Listening to him pontificating over the airwaves, I thought, “Would someone please hand that man a tissue!”
“It sure has been a strange election,” Wilson said, failing to mention that in the political world there is little stranger than his version of reality.
For starters, Wilson seemed to be lamenting Warren Winchester’s decision to withdraw from the race. Ironically, not long ago, Wilson was questioning Winchester’s decision to run. Increasingly concerned about his health, Winchester withdrew, which was the honorable thing to do. Honorable acts do not seem to compute for Wilson.
What really troubles Wilson, I suspect, is that Winchester’s decision to step aside improved Amelia Grave’s chances of election. That development is one Wilson simply cannot accept gracefully.
Wilson then repeated the island tabloid’s charge that Graves was less than honest about her graduate work. Grave’s has sued the island weekly, contending the newspaper’s reporting on her was malicious and inaccurate. Wilson made no effort to offer WTTB’s listeners Graves’ side of this story.
Without having the slightest idea of what he was talking about, Wilson accused Lynne Larkin, Linda Hillman and others of violating election laws. Admittedly, Wilson does have first-hand experience with at least one election law, the one he broke, with the result being that he was removed from office. His accusations against Larkin and Hillman, however, were unfounded.
Truth was, indeed, taking a beating on WTTB this morning. I have said it before, and I will say it again. WTTB station manager, Jim Davis, and Bob Soos should be ashamed of themselves for letting Wilson consistently mislead their listeners.
Wilson went on to criticize reporting Inside Vero has done on the numerous controversies that have swirled around Tracy Carroll during her second term, including the fact that Florida Power & Light has poured some $28,000 into Carroll’s campaign, and has extracted from her a signed pledge. The professor of political baloney sure seems to hate it when the other side of the story is revealed.
Because Wilson is not interested in balanced reporting, he characterizes Inside Vero as “self-publishing,” a term he must have pick up from Carroll. During a City Council meeting, Carroll described Inside Vero as a “self-published advertising circular.” It was not the first time Carroll’s choice words was oxymoronic.
Wilson, wallowing in a gutter political slime, went on to described my reporting as “the maniacal rantings of a trust fund baby with giant daddy issues.”
Yes, Wilson really is first class, and WTTB’s management is equally classy for giving Wilson a mic to spew his venom over the airways week after week. The word I have is that Davis is glad for Wilson to serve a court jester each week. Quite simply, Davis wants the controversy. Clown acts must make for more interesting and thus more profitable programming that simply presenting the truth.
What Davis and Soos may have forgotten is that when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. More than anything, WTTB management’s willingness to put on a Charlie Wilson sideshow each week must be an indication of how desperate they must be for listeners.
Indian River Guardian 
Mr. Soos and Mr. Davis seem to give the mustachioed, white-haired guy credence by having him on the former’s radio show weekly. But, then, maybe my favorite newspaper guy (that’s you), does the same by mentioning the great fabricator in his “self-published advertising circular”, so described per T. Carroll. But I’m smiling as I write this.
No offense to Mr. Soos, because he seems to be a good guy, but I did listen to that show a few times while I was driving to my office in Ft. Pierce. It was just an outlet for whatever the guest wanted to say without any input or challenge from Mr. Soos other than schmoozing. I found it a waste of time and opted to listen to my iPod instead. From what I am hearing from the community, it doesn’t seem that the news value of the wasted airtime has improved over the years.
If you stop listening Mark, Bob will lose half of his audience. The other half is Charlie, who I am sure is recording the show (at least any portion containing his voice).
Mark I agree with many of your comments. That is why when CW was on Rhett’s program weekly I called Rhett and ask to be on with CW to rebut his claims at the time. I coined the phase “RUMOR HAS IT” because of the weekly “NEWS” letter CW was putting out at the time. He used to phase “RUMER HAS IT” a lot in his weekly.
That being said I find from my point of view that much of what you comment on is also pretty subjective and less objective to refer to it as NEWS. This is happening a lot with so called news putting out their own bias and not telling the side they disagree with.
Just my shallow observation.
Gary, I would agree with you, except that most if not all of the Inside Vero content you are referring to is clearly labeled as COMMENTARY – not at the end of the story, but at the beginning.
one is entitled to one’s opinion when one gives it in the form of commentary.
I would agree. Then would ask, if the article about code enforcement and campaign signs referring and showing only Carroll’s sign was objective. I have never seen a campaign that didn’t have some of every candidate’s signs up illegally. Some are always worse than the others but all have illegal signs. Many of the signs are put up by volunteers. Sorry but campaign sign laws only serve those to disregard the law not unlike all the other campaign laws. I tried to change the counties but got no where. I will be in Vero this week end and hope to run in to you at Panera’s.
Gary, Admittedly I did not drive every street in the community. But where I did drive, I saw only Carroll signs, which, as I explained, sprouted up some time between late Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As of election day, a Carroll sign was still in the right of way in front of Holy Cross Church, just as an example.
I know you to be an honerable man that I respect and none of us can always be totally objective. I hate to admit it but that includes me. I really miss Indian Rive County.
And we miss you and Donna!
One of the challenge for me is that I write both news stories and commentary. Despite what Charlie Wilson might choose to believe, I am not operating in the red, and I do not intend to run a deficit, which is why I don’t hire reports I cannot afford. Vero is a small operations, and will likely remain embryonic for some time, though I am excited to announce that we will be publishing weekly beginning December 4. We will continue to offer a monthly news magazine, which is mailed to 22,000 households in and around Vero Beach. In the intervening 40 weeks, we will publish Inside Vero Extra, a true community weekly newspaper. As Scripps draws back and focuses south, they leave larger and larges gaps in their coverage of local news. The barrier island tabloid is just that, a newspaper for the island. We are seeking to be a source of community news for everyone in Vero Beach.