Audio By Carbonatix
Earl Rynerson knows a rumor circulating around Fort Lauderdale City Hall. It has to do with Mayor Jack Seiler supposedly pressuring the Sun-Sentinel into making a personnel change. It’s almost certainly not true, but Rynerson wonders if people ought to know about it anyway.
“Just to ask the question, in my mind, is good journalism,” Rynerson says.
No, not really. At least not by traditional journalism ethics. But then, Rynerson is far from the mainstream media. He publishes a blog at abetterftlauderdale.com, a site that’s indicative of “the new media.” He’s a citizen journalist who can set his own ethical boundaries and report the news with his spin.
Rynerson often assumes the role of contrarian, mostly criticizing Seiler, who beat him
handily in in the 2009 mayoral race. Since then, Rynerson says he
publishes his blog to “show a view the elected officials are not
showing.”
His articles are often missives — Rynerson’s opinions
about a new city spending project or political proposal. Take his item
from September 22 titled “Is Seiler Bankrupting Fort Lauderdale? (Part 3 of 3)“.
Instead of answering the question, Rynerson proposes a multipart plan
to buy open land from developers whose projects have stalled. It’s a $16
million proposal that seems to contradict Rynerson’s typical fiscal
conservative bent and the original question he asked in the headline.
But his posts have also garnered discussions beyond his site. Rynerson was the first to report on the decidedly ugly fences installed along the canals on Las Olas Boulevard. After outcry from residents, the Sun-Sentinel followed the story.
That
blog item came from a reader’s tip, Rynerson says, and that shows
people are paying attention to the blog, coming to him instead of TV
stations or newspapers. He says his site has received just shy of 1,000
reader comments in the past year and averages 70 pageviews on a slow day
and up to 700 for a busy post. That’s not bad considering he says he
spends about five to ten hours a day week writing the blogs.
Rynerson says he will never sell ads on the site and doesn’t plan for it to make money. “No, no, no,” Rynerson says, when asked if he’ll ever turn a profit on the venture. “It has nothing to do with making money.”
So, what’s his motivation? The site
initially seemed like an outlet for political retribution after Seiler’s
victory in the mayoral race, especially considering Rynerson spent
$87,000 of his own money on the campaign. Rynerson had a lot of reason
to be angry after the election. Questionable details about his past,
including multiple lawsuits for refusing to pay bills, were the least of
his worries. A story by Fox News on January 26, 2009, topped off a campaign of bad press. It began with:
“Earl Rynerson is an openly gay businessman with a history of curious
legal problems and an apparent penchant for bondage pornography. And he
thinks he’s just the man to be your mayor.”
But his
blog has survived beyond any interest in political retribution, and
Rynerson says the goal isn’t his own political future — although that’s
not out of the question either.
When asked if he’d run again,
Rynerson was hesitant. “I hope… I would rather not run again. But if
things continue they way they are, somebody needs to present the
alternative.”
Either way, it appears he’ll continue to write articles with an alternative bent, like this recent item: “Another stupid idea from our dysfunctional City Government: More homeless Feeding Centers!“
You won’t see that in the mainstream media.
