Last week, when Hurricane Milton was pounding on Florida, a story broke that didn’t get much attention … at least not in Florida. The headline in the Orlando Sentinel read: “Florida’s threat of criminal charges against TV stations blasted as unconstitutional.” Yes, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration was threatening to arrest TV executives. Why? Because they aired campaign ads he didn’t like.

Last week, when Hurricane Milton was pounding on Florida, a story broke that didn’t get much attention … at least not in Florida.

The headline in the Orlando Sentinel read: “Florida’s threat of criminal charges against TV stations blasted as unconstitutional.”

Yes, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration was threatening to arrest TV executives.

Why? Because they aired campaign ads he didn’t like.

Apparently it is now literally a crime to utter opinions Dear Leader DeSantis doesn’t want to hear.


This story — something you’d expect to read in Russia or North Korea — was greeted with alarm at the national level.

But in Florida, it was largely ignored. Partly because of the storm. But also because this governor’s extremist, authoritarian actions have become numbingly routine.

DeSantis has repeatedly weaponized government against its own citizens in recent years, unbridled by lickspittle legislators who lack the spine or integrity to rein in behavior they know is both un-American and unconstitutional.

The examples are disturbingly plentiful. Aside from threatening criminal charges against TV stations, consider:

  • DeSantis signed a law that also threatened to imprison citizens of this state (that’s you) who donate money to citizen amendment drives like the one that got abortion on the ballot. He was only thwarted by a federal judge — a hard-core, conservative jurist appointed by Donald Trump who called the law “wholly foreign to the First Amendment.”
  • He recently sicced the state elections police on citizens who signed the petitions to get the abortion issue on the ballot.
  • He’s using taxpayer money and resources to campaign against the amendments he personally dislikes — more than $16 million worth, according to the Seeking Rents investigative site.
  • He teamed up with Florida TV stations to sponsor anti-amendment ads through their lobbying association, meaning the TV outlets that should be covering the amendment drives are helping sponsor ads meant to make people vote against them.
  • Last week, DeSantis’ health care division denied a license to a Pensacola abortion clinic, even though a judge had already ruled that the clinic was legally entitled to operate.
  • He has tried to censor speech within the walls of private companies, specifically trying to ban employers from saying anything the governor considers too “woke.” A literal speech police.

None of that is normal. Nor should it be indulged by any citizen who lives outside of Cuba, Russia or North Korea.

Let’s be clear: Intellectually honest people are absolutely entitled to different takes on the abortion and marijuana amendments. But there’s no intellectually honest defense of government spending public money on propaganda or threatening to arrest people who say things politicians dislike.

That is not conservatism. It’s authoritarianism.

It’s government out of control — a governor punch-drunk on power, surrounded by gutless legislators and only stopped by a handful of judges who, unlike these GOP politicians, actually respect the U.S. Constitution.

There are some genuine conservatives out there who recognize this lock-up-dissenters mindset for the authoritarian trash it is. But many Floridians mindlessly cheer it on.

Why? Well, propaganda and authoritarianism is effective with people who are susceptible to fear-mongering and want government to be their savior. If a politician creates enough boogeymen — whether drag queens, members of a teachers union or politicians who are supposedly “coming for your guns” — some people will forgive normally unforgivable behavior in the hope that the politician will protect them.

And DeSantis runs a propaganda machine unlike any this state has ever seen.

Sometimes it’s taxpayer-financed agitprop. Other times it’s state employees offering obsequious and effusive Dear-Leader-like praise.

Like the state’s emergency management director telling a national TV audience, during a press conference about a life-threatening storm: “It is unprecedented how forward-leaning this governor has been throughout his six years of doing this …Thank you, governor, for giving me the opportunity to be successful.”

Or members of the state’s laughably named department of “environmental protection” issuing fawning statementsabout the governor after he was caught trying to bulldoze state parks that say: “Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis’ commitment to conservation, Florida has set the standard for environmental stewardship through record investments.”

Pay no attention to the bulldozers. Dear Leader DeSantis is your environmental savior.

The most recent authoritarian action — threatening to arrest TV executives — surfaced last week when an attorney for DeSantis’ Department of Health sent a letter (with DeSantis’ name at the top) that ordered the stations to stop airing ads that supporters of the abortion amendment had paid to air.

The letter claimed the ads, which featured a woman saying her right to get a doctor-recommended abortion needed to save her life had been curtailed in Florida, were false.

First of all, the ad wasn’t false. Physicians’ groups have said Florida’s extremist anti-abortion laws create hurdles for women needing life-saving procedures.

Second, even if this campaign ad did contain a bogus claim, when have you ever seen this governor — or any governor — threaten to arrest someone for airing a malarkey-filled campaign ad?

If airing bogus campaign ads is a crime, plenty of Florida politicians should be behind bars.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission issued a statement saying the criminal threats were clearly unconstitutional, prompting national attention and outrage.

But in Florida, the coverage was relatively muted, particularly among Florida TV stations which have had little to say about both the threats against the stations and the Florida Association of Broadcasters co-sponsoring the ads that trash talk the amendments. It’s hard to know whether that’s because there’s a lack of interest in telling those stories or an active effort to squelch them. Neither reason is any good.

Anybody who cares about freedom, democracy and the Constitution should be outraged by governmental overreach and threats when it comes to political discourse.

Everyone deserves to have an opinion in political debates.

And no one deserves to be threatened with arrest for speaking up … at least not in this country.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

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