- April 18, 2024
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Dear Editor:
City Councilman Ed Danko’s ongoing war on FlaglerLive and its editor is an example of ideological hypocrisy and an affront to our constitutionally protected freedom of expression and our valued free press. And sadly, the potential collateral damage from this war is now our local businesses.
Danko and his Flagler Trump Club are spearheading a vengeful boycott targeting local FlaglerLive advertisers because of ideological differences he and his club have with the news site. Danko, who has complained about perceived negative press coverage, regularly directs his ire at FlaglerLive’s reporting and even at the Palm Coast Observer. Parroting the former president, Danko constantly makes use of the old worn-out “fake news” slogan so often and so disingenuously that it’s become akin to the boy who cried wolf.
FlaglerLive may be somewhat liberal-leaning but publishes sourced and fact-based information, including well-crafted editorial content. Sure, reporting on Danko has been critical at times by our local media, but the councilman’s well-known shenanigans are responsible for that. And now he’s clearly trying to persecute FlaglerLive for revealing those uncomfortable truths — and bitterly doing so by directing his ire towards its advertisers.
Curiously, a part of Danko’s self-proclaimed right-wing ideology and that of his club is the fervent condemnation of social media’s censoring their free speech, citing First Amendment concerns, with the incessant complaining about their newfound term, “cancel culture.” But in attacking FlaglerLive and its advertisers, Danko and his club fail to understand that they can’t sanctimoniously rail against censorship and the so-called cancel culture, claiming their conservative free speech is being infringed upon, while simultaneously trying to brazenly stifle FlaglerLive’s free expression simply because that news site is not falling in line with their ideology. And that’s hypocritical.
It’s obvious that this ill-conceived boycott effort is really just a self-serving move to silence any criticism of Councilman Danko, with the ultimate intent to protect and thusly further his hyper-partisan political agenda, and that of his club — all to the detriment of a free press and local businesses. And that's shameful.
Robert Gordon
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I must comment on your front page article from Oct. 7 titled "Surrounded." I actually had to check the date it was printed, as I was sure it was your April Fool's edition! African savannah in Palm Coast? I thought this had to be a joke.
The Palm Coast Observer has now lost any credibility with me as an unbiased source. I would laugh if I wasn't so disturbed by the story.
How much money did SeaGate homes pay for this article? And as the front page story no less!
I'm sure builders are getting very concerned as more and more people are speaking up regarding our city's rapid growth with no concern for our environment and the well being of Palm Coast citizens.
If Steve Ricke is happy that he now can see the sunsets and feels like he looks out onto an African savannah, well, good for him. But the sentence that actually turned this article from an attempt at honest journalism to a blatant advertisement is, "You couldn't ask for a better developer." Shame on you, Palm Coast Observer, and shame to Brian McMillan as the executive editor and author of this article/advertisement!
Lynn Kenny
Palm Coast
Editor's Note: Thanks for your feedback. You're right: Steve Ricke's quote praising SeaGate probably should have been left out. No, SeaGate didn't pay for the story. The goal was to emphasize the irony of his reaction to being surrounded by development.
