In FPL’s playbook, dirty political tricks and propaganda seem to be business as usual | Editorial

Florida’s utility giant seems to get what it wants at all costs — whether it be by backing dirty political tricks to sway elections, using its power to bully dissenters or buying favorable news coverage.

Florida Power & Light has tried to smear reporters and media outlets that publish stories it doesn’t like. One of its consultants went so far as compiling a 72-page dossier of personal information on a newspaper columnist who wrote critically about the potential sale of a Jacksonville-area utility to FPL’s parent company. The report was emailed to a top FPL executive, but the company claims it had nothing to do with the creepy report, which included photos taken secretly of the journalist walking his dog, the Florida Times-Union reported in June.

Now it looks FPL is trying to build its own propaganda machine disguised as legitimate news.

As the Herald’s Sarah Blaskey reported this week, the utility company used a group of intermediaries to secretly bankroll and control content of a news website. The Capitolist, run by a former Gov. Rick Scott spokesman, went after FPL’s critics, suggesting some of them were part of “dark money” conspiracies. Articles were screened by communications experts consulting for FPL and included a hit piece a top company executive ordered against 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.

The Herald story was based on a massive leak of documents. FPL said it doesn’t have “ownership interest” or control over the Capitolist and suggested some of the documents were doctored, but refused to say which ones, the Herald reported.

In the era of online misinformation, “alternative facts” and distrust in the media, FPL’s actions go beyond a company defending its bottom line. This scheme makes a mockery of freedom of the press and democracy. And it could’ve gone even farther.

Emails show that, in 2020, Capitolist editor and founder Brian Burgess suggested to an FPL consultant secretly financing the purchase of the largest newspaper chain in Florida run by the USA TODAY Network. The plan concocted by Burgess — who received a $12,000 monthly paycheck through FPL-backed shell companies — was to “inject content into all those publications, and nobody has to know who’s actually pulling the strings,” the Herald reported.

Burgess’ pitch sounds like pie in the sky, but, had it come to fruition, communities from Palm Beach County to Jacksonville and from Naples to the Panhandle would have lost their local news source. In their place would have been pay-to-play propaganda outlets for the powerful.

FPL’s involvement with the Capitolist is yet another tentacle FPL has used to exert political influence at the expense of democracy in Florida.

The company was linked to a dark-money scheme to siphon votes away from Democratic state Senate candidates by promoting so-called “ghost candidates” in three key 2020 races, including one in Miami-Dade County. This political dirty trick helped Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate and was orchestrated by political consultants working for FPL. Parent company NextEra Energy conducted an internal investigation and found “no evidence . . . of illegality or wrongdoing” by FPL, the Herald reported in January.

The utility has a vested interest in having allies in the Legislature. NextEra has made it clear it wants to dominate the renewable-energy market. The rapid expansion of private rooftop solar panels in the state in recent years is a threat to that goal. FPL lobbyists helped write a bill that would have slowed down that expansion. After Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas wrote a story about the company’s behind-the-scenes work on the legislation, she became the target of a smear campaign on FPL’s website. The company also targeted the Herald for not publishing the entirety of an opinion piece written in response to Klas’ reporting. It ran after the Herald edited out unfounded attacks against Klas.

There’s nothing new about economic interests using money and connections to influence policy and public opinion. But if there’s a point where run-of-the-mill politicking goes too far and endangers our democratic institutions, FPL has gotten too darn close to it.

This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 6:00 AM.