Grading Alex Sink, David Jolly and Lucas Overby debate: The Tampa Tribune loses in a big way

Florida voters should be thanking Bay News 9 and the other supporters of Monday’s debate between the candidates vying for the House seat vacated by the late Bill Young.

Thanks because the three candidates were all included in the discussion, where most third party candidates are ignored completely.

No matter, according to the Tampa Tribune, this covered the debate on their front page only to provide pathetic and biased details.

The page one coverage shows all three candidates: Alex Sink, David Jolly and Lucas Overby, in that order. Attempting to describe the issues, or lack of issues, discussed, Sink is mentioned twice to Jolly’s once with Overby completely absent from page one details.

In fact, the author doesn’t introduce Alex Sink, but just states “Sink recently moved…” as the topic of residence was discussed.

Turning over to page 6, the reader will find Sink is mentioned by name  9 times, Jolly 8 and Overby 3. Sink and Jolly are quoted equally with Overby never being cited.

In fact, the author describes the scene when Sink “surprisingly asked Libertarian Lucas Overby to talk about his party’s beliefs,” which is the first mention of the candidate. He response is not printed.

The Tribune spent nearly 60-70% of their article covering political bickering and only detailing issues vetted through the “lightning round.”

Two of the three photos on page 6 could have been the space needed to give voters actual information on issues and the stances of the candidates.

Instead the author reduces this coverage to “Sink said she supports all three, as did Overby,” referring to legalized medical marijuana, abortion rights provided through Roe v. Wade and same-sex marriage.

Thanks Bay News 9 for the debate and thanks Tampa Tribune for nothing but the same old political coverage we can expect from the mainstream press.

None of the three candidates could scan the Tribune and feel good that the coverage benefited their campaign in any way.

At least the paper is still good for the cat box.