I was not able to attend Obama's town hall in St. Petersburg yesterday. I live in Tampa and didn't have time to drive over to the St. Pete office for tickets. But I read some excellent coverage of the town hall here in diaries like the one from smash artist, which portrayed the town hall as a great event and a complete success for Obama. But as I prepared to read the coverage of the event from our two local dailies, the Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times, I braced myself for some BS coverage, fully expecting to read about an event that bore no resemblance to the one described by smash artist. But after reading the articles I was pleasantly surprised. The reporters seemed to - gasp - report on the event as it really happened, which meant that Obama came off favorably. Surprise of surprises.
In particular I was expecting the articles to sensationalize the outbursts in the town hall by the African American activists, but that wasn't the case. The Tribune article only mentioned it in passing. The St. Pete Times did more reporting on the incident, but it described the disturbance in pretty much the same way that smash artist did. In fact, Obama received some praise in the article for how he handled the situation:
Laura Schrecka, 24, of St. Petersburg was impressed with Obama's response: "It shows he responds to criticism well."
The Tampa Tribune, which historically is the more conservative of the two papers, reported on the town hall in a very matter-of-fact way, but actually interspersed the coverage with subtly positive messages about Obama. And the article portrayed Obama as being successful in winning over new Florida voters at the event:
The Obama event was aimed partly at undecided voters, and it worked in the case of Patricia Kirby, 42, of Clearwater.
"I was probably undecided before. I'm probably decided now," she said afterward, citing his comments about health care and education, the top issues for her as she doesn't have insurance. "I saw him being honest. I saw him being sincere," she said.
Debbie Wilson, 52, of Pinellas Park, supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primary and said she has been trying to make up her mind about Obama. A former trauma therapist, she said Obama's comments on taking care of war veterans cinched it for her.
The St. Pete Times article also allowed Obama an opportunity to respond to McCain's crap about playing the race card, in an exclusive interview he gave with the Times and a local TV station. And his response to this is perfect, I think:
"There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this," Obama said in the interview to air Sunday on Bay News 9's Political Connections. "What this has become I think is a typical pattern from the McCain campaign. ... They seem to be focused on a negative campaign and what I think our campaign wants to do is focus on the issues that matter to American families."
What bowled me over the most was this bit from the Tribune story:
There were at least two prominent Republicans in the crowd as well.
•Randy White, the pastor of the controversial Without Walls megachurch in Tampa said he's supporting Obama and thinks his ex-wife and former partner in the church, Paula White, does also.
•Retired St. Petersburg businessman and philanthropist Fazal Fazlin, a Republican fundraiser and political donor who sometimes backs Democrats.
I don't know if you've heard of the Whites, but they have run a huge evangelical Christian megachurch in the Tampa Bay area for many years, and are very well-known not just here but across the country in the evangelical community. For the Whites to be behind Obama is, well, let's just say it ain't good for McSame.
In my diary yesterday I covered an editorial in the St. Pete Times that blasted McCain for his recent gutter tactics. Now we have both local papers in the all-important I-4 corridor of Florida providing fair coverage of Obama's visit here. I'm not ready to say this is a trend, but maybe, just maybe, Obama will at least get a fair shake from the media in Florida, which is all I ask.