Social media has a new contributor on the Miami Dolphins publicly-funded stadium scam.
Over the last 24 hours, a new twitter user has surfaced, calling him or herself @FreedomNews305.
But it has offered no news, just slams on car mogul and political meddler Norman Braman, who is the biggest threat — but only because he has more money than Ladra — that the Dolphins and their owner Stephen Ross has for his billionaire welfare.
It feels a little odd for me to be defending someone I have criticized since the blog was born for his heavy-handed meddling in the electoral process, beginning with that unreasonable recall and ending, thank God, with his unsuccessful attempt to elect a hand-picked commission. But, even though he is right this time, this is not about him. And I have no qualms about using social media for political campaigns and cannot argue with The Dolphins organization’s right — indeed, saavy — to do what it has to in order to get their message across.
But Ladra doesn’t like it when people throw rocks and hide behind the bushes. Be transparent. Tell us who you are. And then let it rip. I can respect that. But I cannot respect anonymous websites, facebook pages and twitter handles that are used, strategically, to pass the message disguised as “third party validators” when they are really not.
Miami First Coalition campaign spokesman Eric Jotkoff told Ladra Wednesday that it was not part of their organized effort. But this is a new trend in political campaigns and their usage of social media.
Like other anonymous platforms — the recent gablestalk.com comes to mind because it is most fresh, Vanessa Brito‘s multiple facebook pages, the cleverly-named Hialeah-based facebook trolls, a 2011 website by someone working for former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina pretending to be a concerned voter) — @FreedomNews305 is silent on his or her true identity.
And I’ve asked.
She or he, does, however, have quite a tongue — or finger, as it were — on twitter. In 24 hours, the handle posted nine tweets. They’re all about Braman, in an obvious and desperate attempt to discredit him as he publicly denounces this decrepit deal.
“Braman doesn’t car about Miamians! He loves going to court and suing everyone he chooses but denies his employees the same right thru tricks,” said the second post, tweeted Tuesday night.
“Dolphins – Braman enjoys going to the courthouse and suing everyone he chooses but denies his own employees the same right with trickery,” said the third post, and Ladra does not know what the writer is talking about, but it’s misdirection at its best.
“Fraud and forgery at Braman. Jus
t Say No to Braman. More to come…” says another one. Wait, that’s my line.
Wednesday, the anonymous propagandist posted about a Miami New Times story that quotes an ex employee who says he “Car mogul Norman Braman rips off customers” and quotes an alleged lawsuit filed last October that I could not find in county civil court records and, even if I could, means nothing.
And then answered another anti-stadium tweeter who said that at least Braman lived in Miami while we don’t even know who FreedomNews is: “Braman lives half the year in France fools the people whom he cares nothing for. LET THIS KNOCK: ‘Ya-Gon Learn Today'”
Let this knock? Ya-Gon Learn Today? What the hell does that mean? And why does FreedomNews reply to @CutlerRidgeLAZ and not to me?
The first tweet came as a response to Dolphins CEO Mike Dee (@MikeDeeFins), who had tweeted about Braman on March 26: “When he agrees to repay the public money he accepted for his dealership, we will be happy to acknowledge his otherwise hypocritical s tance.”
FreedomNews’ response: “You are on mark. Braman denies any knowledge of an urban tax credit. The fact is he got the money.”
CBS 4 had done a story on Dee’s tweet attacks, and Braman told them he was not surprised they came after him.
“When you don’t agree with the message and you can’t combat the message go after the messenger it’s an old strategy and there’s no justification for what they’re trying to do,” he was quoted as saying on their website.
The public money Dee mentions refers to Braman Motors getting a $150,358.60 grant from Miami’s community redevelpment agency to offset the costs of installing a water main along one of the roadways that cut through his downtown Miami properties, according to the South Florida Business Journal. The story quoted CRA Executive Director Pieter Bockweg saying that the grant was offered to other area property owners to mitigate their losses during construction.
The business was also one of 12 approved for an Urban Job Tax Credit from Enterprise Florida for creating jobs. Braman got $33,500 in tax credits in 2008 and $24,500 in 2011.
So, since I’ve spent the last several days relearning math, let’s do some addition here. We add $150,358.60 to $58,000 for the combined two years’ worth of tax credits. And we get $208,358.60.
Let’s round that off to $210,000. I’m feeling generous toward the Dolphins on this one.
Now, let’s do advanced math: $210,000 is 0.073% of $289 million, the total figure of what the Miami Dolphins stand to gain in public tax, albeit tourist tax, dollars.
So what FreedomNews is doing and what H.T. Smith did at the Downtown Bay Forum Tuesday is like is called classic misdirection, a known campaign strategy that shifts the focus to something other than what they don’t want you to look at or talk about or think about.
But Ladra is glad that Dee is finally calling a tax break public money. Just like the $90 million they are going for in Tallahassee.
New twitter handle to push stadium, attack Braman added by Ladra on
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