The Tallahassee press corps could barely contain its orgasmic outpouring in reporting Gov. Rick Scott's latest poll numbers Wednesday. The only thing missing was a comparison to Adolph Hitler's lagging popularity in the dying days of the Third Reich, though I may have missed that angle amid the effusion.
For the mainstream media, it was mission accomplished. Reporters and opinion writers -- a thundering herd of not-so-independent thinkers -- have been gunning for Scott since he burst onto Florida's political scene a little more than a year ago.
His victory last fall sent the scribes into apoplexy, and since then, Scott has been the target of unrelenting negative coverage. The governor stands accused of "cutting" education, "slashing" services for the young, the elderly and the disabled, "waging war" on public employees, "suppressing" votes, and, worst of all, ignoring the press.
Whether it's his private jet, his personal wealth or his corporate (horrors!) background, Scott is alternately portrayed as clueless or criminal. Actual facts are optional.
Broad-brush, ad hominem attacks have a way of sinking in when they are part of the daily media narrative. That narrative shapes public opinion, and public-opinion polls.
Decidedly Democratic and left-leaning, reporters and editors seize on selected events to burnish their liberal template. After a Democrat won the mayoral race in Jacksonville this week, the election predictably morphed into a referendum on Scott.
In fact, the governor spent less than a day campaigning on Mike Hogan's behalf, and there were plenty of other players (and issues) deserving far more blame (or credit) for the outcome.
Then there was the ginned-up story about Scott's presidential prospects. The premise began with a thumb-sucking piece concocted by a political writer, who quickly knocked down his own straw man as "absurd." In true Pavlovian fashion, the media hounds descended on the governor's office for comment ... and then mocked the very notion that Scott would consider himself White House timber. (He doesn't, by the way.)
Then came this week's Quinnipiac Poll, which showed Scott's disapproval rating rising to 57 percent. No surprise there, given the foregoing media "treatment."
The dreary news, naturally, made big headlines and fueled Twitter feeds, where an incestuous mix of political strategists and journalists preens for stories and "insights."
So let's put Scott's negative number in context. It's roughly the same as the Republican-led Legislature, and it's not far off President Barack Obama's 52 percent disapproval rating in Florida.
Yet Quinnipiac's April poll on Obama got comparatively little play, and there was virtually no discussion of the finding that 51 percent of Floridians don't think the president deserves a second term. In short, it was treated as an aberration, whereas Scott's poll numbers represent a fatally toxic "trend."
Bottom line: "All the News That's Fit to Print" has become "All the News That Fits the Narrative."
It would be easy for conservative and independent voters -- who represent a majority of Floridians -- to be flummoxed or discouraged by this setup. But the reality is that as the Old Media loses its grip on reality, it's losing market share and influence as well.
Scott didn't receive a single endorsement from the reactionary liberals who constitute newspaper editorial boards in this state. They remain stuck in amber of the '60s while the readership and life move on.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
