Re: Prior restraint! Don't report on governor's wife (and future candidate)

On Jun 9, 2025 at 1:18:16 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

In Florida, the governor's wife is subject to a criminal investigation
related to the diversion of public monies into a political campaign
against a referendum. Now a newspaper is investigating whether her
foundation is providing monies to repair hurricane-damaged homes and
also on problems with foster families working with the foundation. So
the state sent a cease and desist letter to the newspaper; the story has
not yet been published.
 
The rest of the Republican party wants little to do with the growing
scandals.
 
>
https://apnews.com/article/orlando-sentinel-florida-desantis-welfare-9636452a8bf8eb230489513db64d86f7

Well, this isn't exactly true. The AP story claims the Sentinel was told to
stop reporting on the governor's wife and her foundation. What the letter
actually did was to tell the Sentinel to stop intimidating foster families
into making disparaging remarks about the foundation:

     "The letter claimed that the newspaper’s Tallahassee reporter had
     used threats to coerce foster families into making negative statements
     about the Hope Florida Foundation when he contacted them about the
     welfare nonprofit behind the signature initiative of Casey DeSantis,
     Florida’s first lady.

Whether the Sentinel's reporters did what the Dept. of Children and Families
accused them of doing is yet to be established, but regardless, the government
did NOT order them to stop reporting the story. It ordered them to stop trying
to illegally coerce people into making false statements. There is no 1st
Amendment violation here.