Q&A – Florida Media Misinformation Over Public Charge & Felon Voting Rights

Today’s entry: My husband is a Brit. We applied for a green card, did the time to get that and the costs and then the citizenship. When he applied to become a temp resident, I had to get my brother to sponsor him because I didn’t earn enough money. We are both university educated and I worked corporately in Miami at the time. He also had to sign multiple agreements that he would not use, apply or receive ANY benefits from the state or federal programs. That was 2005, I still have the papers stating he swore no assistance. It was the terms.

Bottom Line: My recent coverage of the misinformation being reported regarding the new Public Charge rules for immigrants on work VISA's and the restoration of felon voting rights cases have led to numerous notes like this one. It’s helpful for me to help illustrate the truth and as I’ve heard from some, it’s therapeutic for you to hear the truth articulated in news media. We are inundated with false and misleading information. These two issues have commonalities. Anti-Trump/Republican bias and pro-criminal sentiment. It’s quite remarkable but alas. Let’s be clear about these two issues. 

The updated income requirements for work VISA’s issued Monday and authorized by the United States Supreme Court, simply reflect the minimum amount of money one needs to earn in order to be self-sufficient, which has always been the requirement as you depicted. The update was necessary because unfortunately, millions are less honest than you. 1.2 million VISA holders in Florida alone are on at least one form of assistance. These people aren’t victims. They’re the perpetrators. They’ve broken the law and they’ve taken advantage of all law-abiding Americans by collecting benefits paid for by taxpayers, that they’re not entitled to, and swore not to collect. South Florida news media who choose to paint the Public Charge update as a negative quite literally placed perpetrators of crimes over the victims of those crimes. That’s how backward reporting can be and why I’ve been so outspoken about it. 

The coverage of felon voting rights that often suggests Florida’s Republicans are attempting to suppress voting rights or some such narrative is a different version of a similar thing. As I’ve often spoken to, the Coalition pledged financial restitution as a condition of the proposed amendment before Florida’s Supreme Court. Florida’s Supreme Court likely would not have even allowed the amendment for the ballot had they not advanced the argument. This was evidenced by the recent Florida Supreme Court ruling upholding the state law mandating the financial restitution. Not only does coverage of the topic always seem to omit these key facts, it often depicts Republicans as repressors and felons who’ve not completed the terms of their sentence as victims. Once again, 180. 

Eighty percent of felons haven’t paid their mandated debt to actual victims of their crimes. It is truly stunning that news media would place felons over their victims in the name of politics but that’s exactly what happens here. This is how completely out of whack news media often is, and it’s always why I do what I do. 

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Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com

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