Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has spent $13.5 million on reelection ads for television, most of it in Central Florida.
But that doesn't mean he wants to talk on television -- and one Orlando news anchor is seriously over it. News 13's Ybeth Bruzual spent nearly two minutes of air time calling out Scott for dodging her and her show, "Political Connections."
Bruzual said Florida's other major gubernatorial candidates including Charlie Crist (D) have appeared on "Political Connections," but Scott's campaign had repeatedly declined to commit to an appearance. Then, she said, his staff reached out and requested to appear on News 13's Spanish language sister station InfoMás to discuss his Hispanic outreach program.
InfoMás initially agreed to the interview, but everything fell apart when producers informed Scott's staff that Bruzual would conduct the interview and it would appear across all of the platforms owned by parent company Brighthouse Cable, including News 13 and a station in Tampa Bay.
"The campaign responded to us saying that the only way that they would do the interview is if it was conducted by a reporter of their choice, and that the topic covered would only be Hispanic outreach," Bruzual announced on air. "Our management agreed that it would set a dangerous precedent to accede to such conditions and declined the campaign's request."
It isn't the first time Scott has frustrated reporters by declining to directly answer questions. When WFTV's Lori Brown was rebuffed while asking about the state's broken unemployment website several months ago, she told viewers in Orlando, "For the fourth time, he did not answer our questions."
"You may not have noticed, but Gov. Rick Scott doesn't much like answering questions," observed the Orlando Weekly after the kerfuffle. "What color is the sky? Jobs!"
Scott's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
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