Only bad people and bad citizens attack the vulnerable for money

A Lakeland "publisher," struggling in a doomed digital "business model," smears a developmentally disabled person and her parents because a mayor's race might make him a nickel. That's Saga-ism.

Another local-to-Lakeland to story that offers a window into national issues of citizenship and journalism.

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Robert Anderson is the “president/CEO/publisher” of a website called the “Lakeland Gazette.” I’m not gonna link to it. It’s not worth finding. It’s like a nasty Facebook feed in its sensibility jammed into a retro web page.

The Lakeland Gazette is nominally local; but it’s really not, according to Anderson, who lives in Lakeland. He told me a few days ago that he runs a few other “gazettes” elsewhere that make enough money to subsidize the Lakeland version, which doesn’t make any money.

On the other hand, I don’t think much of Anderson’s character; so I’d treat anything he tells me or you with giant skepticism. Who knows about his actual business reality?

Anderson recently reached out to me asking if he could publish some of the articles I write on his site. I said, sure, because I generally want my stuff, for which I do not charge, spread as far as possible. I am now publicly revoking that permission — with one exception. I encourage Anderson to print this article. We’ll see if he does it.

What a bad person does

I am revoking this permission because Anderson seems like a really bad person. And I do not want my name associated with him or his site in any way.

What makes me think Robert Anderson is a bad person? He recently published an editorial with this headline and lede:

Bill Mutz, “I’m still all in for all of Lakeland” just not my family

Pam and Bill Mutz should be ashamed of themselves.

They have been using their daughter Emma which is intellectually disabled with Downs Syndrome.

Anderson goes on to write something vaguely accusatory about how the Mutz campaign has placed its campaign signs, but produces no actual reporting or documentation. It’s just an excuse to write the lede he wanted to write — that the Mutzes, parents of 12 (I believe) children are somehow bad parents and should be “ashamed of themselves.”

Only a bad person would write that. Particularly notice the “which” usage to describe Emma as a human being. I don’t think Anderson has a particularly good grasp of grammar, so this is probably just an error of ignorance.

But if it’s not, imagine reducing the humanity of a person with Downs Syndrome to a “which,” a thing. Not a person. A thing. That’s disgusting.

Anderson: “I will not have a quote for you [until] I talk to Mayor Mutz”

Someone brought this to my attention late yesterday, along with the apparent mass pilfering of Mutz signs. (I noticed several disappear from yards this weekend in my neighborhood. Many seem to be back now.)

So I sent Anderson an email to ask about his attack. Here’s how the sequence went:

Billy: “Can you explain to me why you decided to attack a Down’s syndrome child in a political campaign? I want to get a quote from you when I write about it.” 

Anderson: “I will not have a quote for you untold I talk to Mayor Mutz in the next few days.”

Billy: “Weak.”

Billy: “Also, you’re saying you wrote that without bothering to talk to Mayor Mutz?

Billy: “Let me be clear. You do not have permission to put any of my stuff on your garbage site. I revoke that permission. When I report an accusation, I do it with time and place and precision.”

I would encourage anyone who objects to this type of citizenship (it bears no resemblance to journalism), to email Robert Anderson at lakelandgazette@gmail.com and ask him some of the same questions I did. Ask him why he’s chosen to be a bad citizen. Tell him to run this article on his site. He wanted my other stuff. Tell him he can have this engagement.

Do not go comment on his “editorial” on the site. He’s just using a cynical inhumane attack on a developmentally-disabled person to squeeze a nickel out of a business model for which there is no business model.

That’s why he wanted me to write a pro-Mutz, anti-Saga piece for his site. The Lakeland Gazette has been a minor forum for Saga-ism’s fever dreams. He wants me to fight them on his site in the hope he can conjure a bit of digital ad revenue in an era when there basically isn’t any. He thought I’d drive some engagement.

I’d be happy to do that for a decent person and fellow citizen. Robert Anderson, like Saga, has shown our community that he’s neither.

Let’s see if he runs this — the last piece of mine for which he’ll ever have permission to do so.