re The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in action. Uh, make that inaction! Meanwhile, The Washington Post shows the true value to readers of having at least a few good reporters left who really know how to write with precision: Secret $653,000 effort helped Vincent C. Gray get elected mayor of Washington, D.C., U.S. prosecutor says

Above, today's Washington Post front page column one story about the Mayor of Washington, D.C.'s 2010 campaign having used over $650,000 in illegal and undisclosed funds from a city contractor: Guilty plea in District scheme.  

What's THAT story about asks the snoozing and sleepwalking South Florida news media... 

who sleep on stories about unethical government and corruption much closer to home.

For the first time all year, the Miami Herald has finally posted something about this ongoing story about public corruption on a large scale in an important American city.

As it happens, the nation's capital.

It was a nicely-done wire story by the AP's Ben Nuckols. 

Posted online.

Last night at 9:54 pm.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/10/2890300/aide-to-dc-mayors-2010-bid-admits.html#storylink=misearch

So, where were all the previous articles or essays in print this year about this story that led up to this courtroom drama yesterday? Yes, the predicate!

Missing-in-action...

And so it goes at One Herald Plaza...

The Sun-Sentinel has done...well, they posted the same AP story above 44 minutes before the Herald, but had nothing in print all year about it, either, and certainly nothing to brag about.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-dc-mayor-investigation-20120710,0,72471.story

Folks, that's how real news is "reported " where we live in South Florida in the year 2012.

The Washington Post 

Vast ‘shadow campaign’ said to have aided Gray in 2010

By Mike DeBonis and Nikita Stewart

Published: July 10, 2012

A secret $653,000 effort funded by one of the District government’s most prominent contractors corrupted the 2010 mayoral race and helped Vincent C. Gray get elected, the city’s top federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said the well-funded, well-equipped “shadow campaign” went to work for Gray but was not reported to campaign-finance authorities or disclosed to the voting public.

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/gray-donor-admits-to-scheme-to-funnel-illegal-campaign-contributions/2012/07/10/gJQA0b5DbW_story.html

Spot-on! Scott Powers on 10 FL statewide candidates given $5.8 million in taxpayer funds "who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway"

Sometimes, all your faithful blogger needs to do to bring something important or worthwhile to your attention is to get out of the way ASAP so you can read it yourself, since there's hardly anything I can add to the original story that could make it any clearer.
As is so often true in those cases, it involves Florida or South Florida politics and government, and what a complete fiasco something was, is or is becoming.

This is such a time as Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel shows how Florida's public campaign-finance laws, intended to create a more level playing-field, doesn't, if ever, work as planned.
So why keep it?

Do you keep a compass that refuses to actually point in the right direction?
I don't.

I was always against public-financing of statewide political candidates in principle, even before I read this eye-opening piece on Tuesday night.
After reading it and thinking about the financial implications of continuing the system into the future, I'm even more convinced that it's a well-intentioned bad idea.

Especially now that we all have some idea how much taxpayer money went down the drain.

Or, should I say, provided employment for political consultants and advertising revenue for TV station owners.
I see why THEY would like it and want to keep the system intact, I'm not nearly as sure why we as taxpayers should continue something so manifestly broken and unworkable.

Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog

Campaign finance leftovers: taxpayers contributed $5.8 million
Posted by scottpowers on January, 18 2011 9:22 AM

How much did taxpayers contribute to all those nasty campaign ads heading into last fall’s election?

Try $5.8 million, and counting. The latest available reports from the Division of Elections show Florida taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million to bolster the campaigns of 10 candidates for statewide office last year, giving public dollars to individuals who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/01/campaign-finance-leftovers-taxpayers-contributed-5-8-million.html

The parent Orlando Sentinel article was:
Candidates collected $5.8 million in public money
By Scott Powers, Orlando Sentinel
10:54 p.m. EST, January 17, 2011
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-state-public-finance-20110116,0,6550241.story

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-state-public-finance-20110116/10