Thread by @davidfolkenflik

A thread on my new investigation in collaboration with crackerjack team at Floodlight News - cannot say enough good things about @mirandacgreen @marioarizabaez

It's on the manipulation of news media on behalf of giant Florida & Alabama power cos: 🧵

npr.org/2022/12/19/114…

"Invisibility is more powerful than celebrity," reads a plaque at Matrix LLC.

Behind the scenes, Matrix maintained a complex web of connections to sites boosting Alabama Power and Florida Power & Light - which took on their political adversaries, critics & journalists.

"Mostly everything was all made up," one former Alabama energy regulator told us. "You get to thinking, 'Why are they attacking me?' I'm just telling the truth and trying to do what's right for the people."

These sites gained popularity as newspapers deeply cut back staffs but they also helped set the table for business leaders, political figures, and talk radio in those markets.

Records show Matrix designed Alabama Political Reporter's website and paid it $8,000 a month starting in 2013. Editor in chief Bill Britt says that's for advertising. But he also acknowledges Matrix paid his reporters to do research for the political consulting firm. #alpolitics

Florida Politics' Peter Schorsch says he'll report more on you if you're an advertiser. He says advertisers also pay for reporters to conduct research.

FP&L pays him $40K+/yr. By his acct, a Matrix-related publisher paid him at least $100K over several years. #flpolitics

Executives at Matrix and Florida Power & Light dictated some coverage at The Capitolist after a Matrix employee purchased an option to buy the publication in 2019 through a shell co.

In one instance, FP&L CEO ordered up a story mocking McClatchy's Miami Herald & suggested a cartoon lampooning @MaryEllenKlas with a beggar's cup.

Capitolist ran the story three days later and blasted a photshopped image of her panhandling to newsletter subscribers.

Capitolist Publisher & Editor in Chief Brian Burgess asked Matrix for permission to run a piece for another paying client in favor of solar power.

A Matrix employee gave him the green light, arguing to the firm's then CEO, "It makes him look like he's not in our pocket"

Founder Joe Perkins blames ex Matrix CEO Jeff Pitts and other "rogue employees" for any wrongdoing.

He says the firm only paid for advertising and other appropriate services and had nothing to do with the Capitolist and now defunct Sunshine State News.

In litigation, Pitts says he had to leave because of Perkins' unethical behavior, including "deploying phony groups and digital platforms to intimidate individuals as a method to influence public perception and litigation." (Perkins denies this.)

All this and a lot more in my collaboration with Floodlight's @marioarizabaez and @mirandacgreen.

And there's more to come.

npr.org/2022/12/19/114…