Every year, Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell writes a disclosure. The tradition started when a colleague told him that “if newspaper columnists are going to tell you what they think all year long, they should first tell you where they stand and what they believe.”
I agree, and if you’re a regular reader of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, then you know that our remaining editorial staff—myself and Colin Wolf—and contributors are big on transparency and accuracy, but less obsessed with objectivity when there’s bullshit to call out. So I’m going to give it a go, lean hard on Maxwell’s structure, and hope readers give us another chance to disclose again in 2022.
I’m a married father of a 13-month old and official food-fetcher for my 11-year-old rescue dog. Before I started Noom-ing in December (the diet, not nose grooming), I could be found at least once a month stress-eating McDonald’s alone in my car. I love Filipino food and drinking beer no matter where it’s from, especially when it’s safe for my friends to join in.
My days generally start in between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. If my wife isn’t going to work, then I spend the morning, starting at 8 a.m., with my kid or half-ignoring him until a family member arrives just before lunch to watch him. I typically ride my bicycle the single mile back home sometime between 6:30 p.m or 8 p.m. depending on the day of the week. I don’t work late into the night and early morning more than once a week, but I do bring the job home almost every day.
My wife and I have two sources of income: My bi-weekly check from CL ($1,603 and change after taxes), which is owned by Euclid Media Group, and hers, which comes from her job as a nurse at a nearby hospital. We have separate bank accounts. Outside of two fulfilling human interest pieces I did for Verizon a few summers ago, I haven’t been paid to do anything else besides write for this 33-year-old alt-weekly. Before going full-time here, I spent 2011-2016 freelancing for CL, the Tampa Bay Times, Gasparilla Music Festival and other outlets in between server and bartender shifts at local restaurants. I just found out that when my kid starts daycare this summer, the bill will be more than the mortgage for the Tampa Heights house wifey and I have been slowly buying back from the bank since 2007.
I re-registered as a Democrat so I could vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary. I abhor both parties, but I’m not a fan of both-erizing everything and doing mental gymnastics to make folks like the nutjobs who stormed the Capitol seem less crazy or more “just like you and I.” I believe in this “common ground” that everyone loves talking about; it just doesn't exist in some instances.
Like Maxwell—and a lot of our readers—I believe anybody who works a full-time job should be able to make ends meet, even if the most wealthy among us have to pay a disproportionate tax rate. I believe in free speech and rational discourse, but I don’t think “Big Tech” has an obligation to let white supremacists and liars spew misinformation and hate on their platforms. Go start a message board or something, you psycho.
The folks CL writes about—musicians, cooks, artisans, printmakers, journalists, parents, teachers, healthcare workers, social workers, activists, the list goes on—inspire me to come to work. Thinking about the people and stories that slip between the cracks keeps me up at night and makes me want to work harder. I don’t know that I’ll ever have a full grasp on the nuance that makes our world worth living in.
I enjoy getting letters, voicemails and emails from readers, even when they disagree with me. And while I believe journalism should be free to read, I don’t fault the countless news organizations trying to figure out how to pay folks who’re unwavering in their desire to shine light in the dark corners of our society and stand up for the folks without a voice.
I appreciate working in a room with someone who loves this job as much as I do and for a parent company that’s never once told editorial what it can and can’t write. I admire our publisher more each week as he keeps this thing going throughout a pandemic that’s sucked revenue dry. I’m most grateful to the readers—past, present and future—that made, and keep making, CL possible. Thank you. Let’s get to work.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2021.