beeps on demand. It‘s the perfect plan. What they are doing does not
represent us it started with a
fight over talking about lgbtq
issues in the classroom parents
will have the right to sue
school districts for talking
about the fact that Lgbtq
families exist and turned into a
fight between the governor and
one of the state‘s largest
employers for Disney to come out
and put eight men and say that
the bill should have never
passed and that they are going
to actively work to repeal it.
I think one was fundamentally
dishonest but two I think that
crossed the line the latest on
the battle between Disney and
the governor coming up Florida‘s
fourth estate with host Ginger
Gadsden and Matt, Austin Show
where we bring, Florida into
Focus?
So glad to have you with us on
this edition of Florida‘s fourth
estate very special for us as
after years of doing this
podcast.
We are on News 6, so glad you‘re
with us.
My name is Matt, Austin.
And I‘m Ginger gads.
And this is our inaugural TV
event, or maybe our TV debut.
We‘re on TV all the time, but
not doing Florida State.
This is Exciting, it‘s our first
time and it could possibly be
our last time depending probably
will be our last.
Out how this goes.
We‘re gonna try and keep things
on the rails, but we‘re super
excited.
We‘re gonna bring you a slice of
what Florida is like and I feel
like we have a good idea of what
it‘s gonna be like a little cray
cray at times but you know, it‘s
hard this week is no different
than any other week in Florida.
We found some crazy stories for
you.
We‘re gonna talk about our
headlines first and then we‘re
gonna talk to Orland Sentinel
columnist Scott Maxwell about
all the craziness the drama
between in Disney and DeSantis.
It is very fun convers.
to stick around for that but
Ginger we have to dive into the
big headlines this week.
Yeah, one of the stories that
caught our attention Matt when
we heard it we were on set
watching it and we‘re like Is
this for real?
You know, Florida is hot and it
can be hot year round.
There was a couple they went to
Home Depot.
They had a baby in the car.
They didn‘t give birth to the
baby in the car, but they had a
kid with them in the car
clarifying.
And they went into the Home
Depot without the kid.
They left the child in the car
in the car.
And which is a big no.
No, I don‘t care where you live.
You just never or do that but
especially in Florida and it‘s
summer.
Well, it‘s June and it‘s hot
right?
So the police are called.
they have excuse after excuse
the first excuse is that well,
we wouldn‘t have stayed in the
store.
So and if the clerk had been
faster or even better at his or
her job, I could really this is
an issue of customer service
officer a kid what you not it‘s
like what are you saying?
And then the part that really is
egregious Matt is they start to
blame the kid, so let‘s listen
to a little of our reporter
story.
the one says in her statement.
she didn‘t know that the heat
could have killed her son while
she tells investigators that
child sweats all the time even
in the cold.
What could they have done?
They‘re just saying this is a
sweaty kid.
Look, we don‘t want to make
light of hot car stories.
We have these terrible stories
all the time.
Our kids get left in the car.
It is just unconscionable to me
Ging.
And I know you as well that
these folks would leave their
kid in the car and then they
would like you said first blame
the clerk and then they‘re like
that‘s just a sweaty kid.
He‘s fine.
He sweats all the time.
Okay, it is just so awful.
I won‘t even leave.
dogs in a car alone in Florida
much less a child.
I just don‘t know what these
people were thinking.
It is one of the things that we
all know if you‘ve been here for
five minutes you do not do that,
but just blame customer service
one and then your own baby, but
they‘re like listen, you know
who you need to arrest that
clerk in there who took forever
to get my receipt and then do
you have some tiny cuffs to put
on the baby who sweats This is
cuff up this sweaty It‘s the
baby‘s fall.
It‘s terrible.
Anyway, the baby‘s okay, so and
I hope they learned a lesson
because the mom did say she did
not know.
That it could get that hot.
Yeah, he is bad for babies.
It turns out.
Okay the other crazy story we
don‘t often get to talk about
alligators and frisbee golf at
the same time tragedy happened
at this Frisbee Golf Course
Ginger where this guy Lee
sometimes maybe at night.
He‘ll go out into the lakes and
grab the frisbees that people
just decide they weren‘t gonna
get at this park in Largo,
Florida.
Let‘s take you to it and it is
where they found him like a dog
walker found him.
Parts of his Yes, exactly the
the pieces of him that the gator
Left Behind they think so a
crazy story and the most nuts
part about this particular story
in Largo Ginger.
Is that this has happened before
this exact same place a frisbee
golfer they value these frisbees
a lot.
Try to get the Frisbees and then
they get eaten by.
I mean there are giant Gators in
this area and I just feel
there‘s a reason that the other
guys didn‘t go get it because
while they value the Frisbee
they value their lives a little
bit more and at night to like at
dusk that time of day like gated
it‘s Gator mating season, and
then it‘s also now nesting
season so they are on high alert
and by they I mean these Gators
the other story that really
caught our attention this week
came.
from Ocala in a Golden Corral.
Okay, and I want to tell you
you‘re gonna see this video and
it‘s gonna be very jarring for
you because there‘s to be an
infant that looks lifeless.
I want to tell you right off the
batch.
The baby is okay in this story,
but I want to show you the
intensity at which.
These Ocala police officers run
into this Golden Corral when
they find out there‘s a choking
six day old, baby.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is hard to see I‘m
gonna be honest with you if
you‘re just listening to this
podcast.
There‘s basically this lifeless
little child.
This was a premature baby.
So realistically this baby
wasn‘t even supposed to be out
in the world out of the mother‘s
womb and Is out of the Golden
Corral apparently.
On its mother‘s milk started to
turn purple wasn‘t breathing.
Okay.
Everybody is panicked.
Everybody is freaking out until
you see this moment.
right here, and that‘s the part
that you start to breathe
yourself a sigh of relief when
you hear the baby start crying
and they say okay the baby‘s
okay it unreal unreal.
Okay stick with us coming up
after the break we speak with
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott
Maxwell about all the Disney
rates as low as 3.49% experience amazing called 1-800 new Lexus. Hey, welcome back to Florida‘s
fourth estate.
So glad to have you with us here
on News 6 and we have a very
special guest today to talk
about the craziness.
That is Florida politics.
I mean with our current governor
you could say that Florida has
become the center of the
political Universe.
We‘re making headlines at least
every other week Ginger and one
guy, we know very well covers
this to a tee, doesn‘t he?
Oh my goodness.
I would say I would beg to say
differ with you and say.
we make headlines every week and
the person who covers it like.
Nobody‘s business is the Orlando
Sentinel columnist Scott
Maxwell.
He is a a fountain of wealth and
knowledge.
You‘re about everything you need
to know going on in Central,
Florida and particularly this
story.
We‘re talking about Reedy Creek
Scott.
Hey, thank you so much for
joining us.
and it‘s our understanding that
you‘re going to give us a
definitive answer on is this is
legal or not?
Look at his eyes.
It started to reduce me.
You said something started with
an f and you said Fountain
afterwards and that‘s better
than what I‘m called.
So already I‘m feeling like I
killed it.
I‘m ready to do a mic drop.
Oh fantastic.
That‘s why we bring him on for
comedic relief.
And so that‘s true those guys
laughing about what‘s happening
with this really Creek Surrey
because we don‘t.
of all I was doing just research
on it because we talk about it
in the news and we think we
understand the nuances of it,
but then when you get into the
weeds there is so much to unpack
here.
Where do you even begin?
Well part of the problem here is
Ginger is that you have probably
done more research into what
Reedy Creek involves then the
legislators and the policy
makers who abolished it and and
I‘ve sort of equate what has
happened between Disney and
Florida politicians.
It‘s like a really ugly Middle
School breakup like they they
were hot and heavy in this case
for like five decades sort of
each scratching each other‘s
back.
And then all the sudden, you
know, Disney said we‘re not so
fond of this.
Don‘t say gay bill, which they
only did after a lot of pressure
and then Disney and this is
really important in my mind and
gets overlooked Disney also said
we‘re going to stop giving you
money, which Disney has given to
politicians on both sides of the
aisle.
decades and as soon as that
happened the politicians just
went up like yeah, they went
apoplectic Disney had this setup
that for 50 years.
Like you said that I think a lot
of people outside of this
situation would say, you know,
that‘s not really fair one
business gets to have their own
government their own water
district.
They don‘t have to go by, you
know, get approval for building
codes.
Like there are a lot of
advantages to having your own
government.
So I think before before all
this many people would say You
know, that doesn‘t exactly seem
fair.
It was kind of the way it worked
politically like you said, it
was almost a Vengeance play like
we have this kind of dangling
over Disney‘s head and we can
use it which that felt icky.
So if I can break it apart Scott
and just say Okay, Do you think
that the Reedy Creek District
was fair?
Is this something Disney should
have what would you say to that?
Yeah, probably not and in fact,
I‘ve said that before our
newspaper said that before we‘ve
written about all the powers the
strange the only to Disney
powers that that they had I mean
they control the airspace over
Disney which most companies
don‘t do they‘ve there‘s been
talk about the nuclear power of
possibilities that they have a
chip in somewhat exaggerated.
But yeah, they have a lot of
these rules, excuse me powers
and other companies don‘t have
and there‘s some folks who say
oh, but Disney‘s gonna
disintegrate and problems will
happen if they don‘t have these
Powers.
I think that‘s a bunch of I mean
if Disney doesn‘t have its own
government, you know what Disney
will do it will function just
like every other company in the
world.
That doesn‘t operate its own
government.
What makes this odd is that this
is this setup is something that
these exact same politicians
have supported and defended for
decades.
What happened here is Disney
kind of messed up its own deal
by speaking up and cutting off
the donations and the
politicians in the state were
really pretty clear.
They said if you‘re gonna cut us
off and criticize you then.
Going to go after the special
treatment that we‘ve supported
until now.
Yeah, but they kind of had to do
something because they were
being heavily criticized for
remaining silent on something.
That was a really big deal here
in in Florida.
And you know, you say that they
finally looked under the hood,
but after 50 years of not
looking under the hood, aren‘t
they just as much to blame for
not knowing it‘s like hey, we‘re
getting this sweetheart deal,
but we don‘t know how it‘s
happening.
And now that someone has done
something that they don‘t like.
Well, let‘s A little close
closer and take a closer.
Look at this.
It just seems very Petty.
it is I and and I think it‘s
very disingenuous and
disingenuous is the nicest word.
I came here for governor
DeSantis and Republican
legislators to say they needed
to look under the they know
exactly what was going on here.
This is a deal there have been
books literally books written
about the special deal that
Disney has and they‘ve all been
fine with it.
It was only because of this
because of spite that said, I‘m
not terribly sympathetic to
Disney.
You‘re right that they had to
do.
Thing I I think the Sentinel and
we were kind of responsible for
prompting Disney to have to say
something Disney had this long
history of sort of profiting
upon its pride and equality and
lgbt+ friendly reputation.
It slaps rainbows on Mickey
Mouse and everything else to
sort of open to show the world
that it‘s very in favor of
equality yet.
One of the things that I wrote
about and we wrote about is that
Disney had funded every single
sponsor every single one of the
don‘t say a bill didn‘t it
happen in something like 72
hours from the time The governor
said, okay.
Well we don‘t have to A nice
with you guys anymore and then
three days later boom.
It‘s done.
Politics is not a place for
nuance our editorial board
actually wrote a pretty good
editorial board.
That‘s editorial at one point in
time that said hey, we think
we‘re in favor of dissolving
Reedy Creek as well, but maybe
you should.
I don‘t know know what the hell
you‘re doing, you know as you
said it happened over 72 hours
after they passed this a
governor.
DeSantis said something like
we‘re gonna fit, you know work
out the details.
I think most people would
generally like their public
officials to know what they‘re
doing before they do it.
It was very obviously a spite
move.
They didn‘t seem to know what
they were doing nor did they
seem to care and I don‘t know
that.
Scared either but yes absolutely
details are not worked out and
to get a little further down.
There‘s a lot of questions about
who‘s going to end up paying and
it may be the three of us and
everybody else who lives in
Orange County because um, while
Disney Gets special treatments,
they also pay a lot of the bills
and last we checked there was
something like a billion dollars
worth of bond indebtedness that
Disney has basically assumed
right now via Reedy Creek and if
the state takes it over or
Orange County takes it over that
means taxpayers ult they take it
over and we still don‘t have.
answers on who‘s going to be
responsible for all that.
Yeah, and the governor has
repeatedly said that‘s not going
to happen.
He just hasn‘t given us how he‘s
possibly gonna be about it‘s not
gonna happen.
I‘ve noticed from this.
I‘ve seen a lot of people so the
critics of the governor Say this
was just a really dumb move that
he didn‘t put a lot of thought
into.
I I interviewed this guy and
watching him for the past few
years.
It doesn‘t seem to me like he
does a whole lot of things just
kind of That just just reacting
and not thinking about it.
I think there‘s kind of a team
of people there that make him
make decisions that that get him
national attention.
This certainly was one of those
and know Disney has paid him
hundreds of thousands of dollars
in the past politically, but
could he did he get more juice
off of this off of making
Disney?
Woke Disney the enemy then he
ever would have from a hundred
or two hundred thousand dollars.
Like Disney has donated in the
past.
Yeah, I think so and I think
you‘re right about him thinking
through.
I don‘t think Rhonda saying as
passes gas without thinking
about how it‘s good.
I don‘t think he thought through
how For mechanics of this was
going to work, but he did Think
through what the reaction was
going to be and what we have
seen time and again with Rhonda
sanus in the base that sort of
seems to be propelling him to
the talk of the top of the
presidential talk for 2024 is
they don‘t care about the
details that if you scream about
what Disney if you pass it don‘t
say gay bill that critics that
even conservative critics say
this this is legally
problematic.
This is off not written in a
way.
That‘s Hold up in court.
They don‘t care.
Well, we we call our show
Florida‘s fourth estate.
The fourth estate is the media
journalist.
So we like to highlight some of
the best journalists that we see
out there Scott Maxwell.
You‘re certainly one of them.
We appreciate what you do.
bust in the chops of those
politicians.
We appreciate every other way
great don‘t change.
the journalist job is to an
afflict the comfortable and I
like doing the second part a
little more.
We all have our Niche and you
have found your Scott Maxwell
with the Orlando Sentinel.
Thank you so much for your time
man.
Appreciate.
man. Appreciate. Thanks guys.
All right, stay with us coming
up after the break a look at
a free shareable starter and let the rewarding begin. Okay, so thanks for joining us.
We hope you enjoyed this
inaugural TV version of
Florida‘s fourth estate.
Yeah, and if you like this check
out next week because we‘re
taking the clothes off and
talking to a nudist.
Actually, we‘re gonna keep our
clothes on and so is he but