The Avila endorsement saga proves for the umpteenth time that the Palm Beach Post is a biased legacy media outlet.
Royal Palm Beach city council candidate Steve Avila, a Dartmouth graduate and civic-minded college consultant who has been a politically active member of the Republican Party, is running for a city council seat in his hometown of Royal Palm Beach. Endorsements from newspapers used to be a crucial win for candidates, but in recent years, the liberal bias from legacy media has become so pronounced that many Republicans won’t even bother with these interviewers. Avila felt differently and took a chance by interviewing with the Palm Beach Post, and the result was good. The Palm Beach Post endorsed him; he printed up mailers proudly stamped with the newspaper logo to send out to voters. Six days later, Avila discovered that the Palm Beach Post withdrew their endorsement and endorsed his opponent, Sylvia Sharps, instead. To add insult to injury, Avila discovered this embarrassing news because he saw it on his opponent’s Facebook page. In a display lacking integrity, the Palm Beach Post never personally told him about the endorsement mishap. The result was undeserved embarrassment, upset, and wasted campaign funds, all because the newspaper made a “clerical error.”
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The original endorsement from the Post described Avila’s background and mentioned that three people were running for the seat. One is the widow of the former mayor of Royal Palm Beach, who Avila previously ran against for mayor, and the third is Sylvia Sharps, who ran unsuccessfully for County Commission in 2022. They mention that Sharps did not accept the editorial board’s invitation to interview with them. Instead of standing by their Avila endorsement, clerical error or not, they interviewed Sharps, rescinded Avila’s endorsement, and endorsed Sharps.
From the Palm Beach Post;
We need a do-over. Initially, the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board recommended that voters choose Steve Avila, a newcomer…Unfortunately, due to a clerical error that delayed the interview, the editorial is taking the unusual but necessary step of rescinding that earlier endorsement in favor of Sylvia L. Sharps.
They mention that Avila’s change is their mistake, not Avila’s fault. Then, they further undermine any credibility they may have had by saying that Sharps is the stronger candidate and touting an endorsement from Congresswoman Lois Frankel.
The biased Palm Beach Post seems to respect a liberal Lois Frankel endorsement. In 2022, the Post didn’t endorse Sharps in her County Commission primary election but did mention that Michelle McGovern, the candidate they did endorse, was supported by Lois Frankel. In that same article, they mention that Sharps was charged with not reporting all of her income to secure a mortgage. The charges were dropped and expunged, yet they felt compelled to say it then. The Post initially published an article with all of the sordid details about Sharps in 2011, complete with the obligatory unflattering guilty-looking photo. Read the ugly details here.
In the meantime, Avila is stuck with thousands of dollars of useless mail pieces and a feeling of embarrassment, even though he did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. Avila said he interviewed with the Palm Beach Post because he had the utmost respect for the editorial board, but this experience has made him question their whole process. He finds it unprofessional at best.
For Republicans seeking office, keep in mind that the moment the Palm Beach Post could take away an endorsement from a Republican candidate more than qualified to run for this seat, they did so in favor of a liberal Democrat, even though the race was nonpartisan, and didn’t even bother to tell him.
Call to action. It’s time for conservatives to take their power back. Republican candidates don’t bother to interview with these biased newspapers.
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