With Tuesday’s Orlando mayoral election looming on the horizon, Money-section readers learned last week that the Sentinel had suspended its business with candidate Pete Barr Sr.’s advertising agency.
That placement seemed odd.
Editors hope people read all parts of the newspaper, but surveys don’t bear that out. So, although the Fry Hammond Barr ad agency undeniably is a business, people who have been following the mayoral race might not have seen the suspension item inside Wednesday’s Money section.
Editor Tim Franklin explained that’s where the Sentinel publishes all news about itself, except announcements of awards — and, of course, columns such as this. “I think it’s important that we be consistent about that,” he said.
Also odd, though, was the timing of the announcement.
Barr, whose agency had bought electronic and outdoor advertising for the Sentinel for two decades, first said in mid-March of last year that he might run for mayor.
Although Barr’s statement created the potential for a future appearance of conflict for the newspaper, suspending the business relationship at that point would have been premature. Many people who say they will run for office never officially throw their hats into the ring.
That moment, for Barr, came Dec. 27, when he qualified to run for mayor. The month before, he had turned over the reins of his ad agency to his son, Pete Barr Jr.
But it was a month later — on the day the Sentinel endorsed Barr’s opponent Buddy Dyer — when the newspaper decided to address suspending the business relationship.
Sentinel Corporate Communications & Planning Director Ashley Allen said the issue had been discussed internally before but that the newspaper told Pete Barr Jr. on Jan. 30 — five days before the election — that if his father made the runoff, the business relationship would be suspended.
Allen added, “At that point, he [Barr Sr.] was not involved in the day-to-day dealings of the agency nor of our account.”
He was, however, and still is, the chairman and sole owner of Fry Hammond Barr.
The Sentinel’s news and editorial operations are kept strictly separate from its business interests, but, as Allen noted, “We want to preserve our impartiality.”
The newspaper doesn’t ordinarily announce the suspension of business relationships, but it did in this case, last week, in response to an outside news organization’s inquiry.
Editor Franklin said the Sentinel hadn’t written about the suspension earlier because the newsroom has little knowledge of business-side dealings, and the newspaper has no editorial relationship with the ad agency.
“Moreover,” he said, “the Sentinel’s business-side relationship with Fry Hammond Barr was not — and is not — an issue in the campaign.”
Anyone who has followed the Sentinel’s coverage wouldn’t likely assume that its long business relationship with Barr has benefited him politically. The newspaper has carried prominent accounts of both a city commissioner and several former employees accusing him of uttering slurs and, on its editorial pages, repeatedly has endorsed Dyer.
The newspaper did the right thing but acted a little late. If the Sentinel had chosen to endorse Barr, the timing of the business suspension would have proven particularly problematic.
A newspaper should suspend a business relationship with a politician when that person qualifies to run for office, not if and when he or she makes the runoff.
And including such business relationships in political coverage can strike a blow for full disclosure.
