Florida and all of the unusual news–from George Zimmerman, to gun issues, Jeb Bush, and the state’s long history of being a bastion of weirdness–are explored with journalist Craig Pittman. The Tampa Bay Times reporter clues us into the major influence of the sugar industry in Washington, the special breed of police officers in the sunshine state, and the subtle political distinctions that separate the latino population. Why has Florida given us such a steady diet of strange news, and what is to come? We get to the bottom of it in this uncensored full length episode of Media Mayhem, hosted by Allison Hope Weiner.

GUEST BIO:

Tampa Bay Times reporter Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. He graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.”

Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature. Since 1998 he has reported on environmental issues for the Times. He is a four-time winner of the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida and a series of stories on Florida’s vanishing wetlands that he wrote with Matthew Waite won the top investigative reporting award in both 2006 and 2007 from the Society of Environmental Journalists. He is the author of three books: “The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid” (2012); “Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species,” (2010); and, co-written with Waite,”Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss,” (2009), all published by the University Press of Florida. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children.

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EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

00:01 – Welcome to Media Mayhem, Introducing Craig Pittman.

00:50 – Florida greed in real estate.

02:35 – What’s wrong with Florida’s juries?

04:42 – Using guns to solve problems; the Floridian way.

07:00 – How does the race for Governor break down?

08:24 – Older voters of Florida, what do they want?

10:30 – Sugar industry and its influence in politics.

14:50 – How does national media coverage of Florida hold up?

17:30 – Florida’s law enforcement; a special breed?

23:35 – How is Jeb Bush viewed in Florida? Does he have a chance?

25:40 – Entrepreneurs vs wildlife.

29:45 – Florida as a haven for criminals.

32:45 – Politics in immigration and demographics of Florida.

35:45 – Development and environmentalism regarding the tourism industry.

39:30 – Thanks and goodbye.