Florida state Sen. Jason Brodeur on Friday ripped misleading media reports that he is trying to create a watch list of journalists with his proposed “Information Dissemination” bill.
The Lake Mary Republican countered the emerging media narrative by saying his bill treats bloggers as other paid political operatives who must disclose their campaign activities.
Brodeur commented in an exclusive interview with Florida’s Voice, a conservative website.
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NBC News led the attack with a headline that screamed Florida “would require bloggers who write about the governor and legislators to register with the state,” and that Brodeur’s bill would also mandate bloggers “who write about state officials to disclose who is paying them and how much.”
Brodeur told Florida’s Voice that such reporting takes his bill out of context.
“This is really to get at an electioneering thing,” said Brodeur, noting the registry would be only for bloggers paid to “influence or advocate on state elections.”
“What we have out there today is a system by which somebody can pay someone to write a story, publish it online, and then use that in a mail piece as a site source when they’re making claims about an opponent,” he continued.
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“We want voters to be able to know you can still do it [but that they] have a right to know when somebody is being paid to advocate like a lobbyist.”
Brodeur added that the public deserves to know if bloggers who act like quasi-journalists and promote causes or candidates on their websites are actually being paid by the people behind those candidates or causes.
His intention, he said, is transparency.
The senator maintained in the interview that “those who advocate in government” ought to be “available and accessible to the public.”
Brodeur’s bill specifically defines a blogger, and says the term “does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication.”
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