AG Report 4.11.2024

Palm Beach Post Publishes Embarrassing False Claim Regarding FL Dashboard

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law last May requiring the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration to create an online dashboard informing residents, among other things, of the financial burden undocumented immigrants put on Florida hospitals via uncompensated visits.

The dashboard showed the cost of uncompensated hospital visits by undocumented immigrants to be about $566 million. However, Palm Beach Post writer Frank Cerabino wrote an article claiming quite the gotcha by suggesting the dashboard cost taxpayers more than uncompensated hospital visits from undocumented immigrants. 

An objective person with any level of common sense would balk at the idea that Florida spent $577 million on a dashboard, but it appears that description does not apply to Cerabino or his editors. The narrative of DeSantis wasting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars was just too tempting, which led to a humiliating error that undermined the entire premise of the post.

In reality, the dashboard itself only cost around $5000 and the data collection was an additional $567,882, or about 1/1000th of what the article claimed. It’s astonishing how often such mistakes happen because of bias and the desire of writers to attack politicians they dislike.

NPR Editor Details Activist Takeover

NPR senior editor Uri Berliner has a must-read essay describing how the taxpayer-funded news organization has shifted from having a liberal bend to an organization full of activists looking to tell their audience what to think. Berliner details how this new approach has not only led to NPR getting several big stories wrong but also has prevented any reflection or course correction following such major mistakes.

Media Portray Just Shooting as Excessive Force