Some thoughts from the Publisher

Good morning, friends. Let’s chat.

I wrote this blog late Thursday. I had a difficult time finding the right words to convey what took place in the previous 48 hours.

I’ll get to that, but first let me just share what's on my heart, OK? This ugliness, this social media circus has left our community in shambles. We once had friendly debate. Now it’s clownish cartoons, ridiculing the appearance of women candidates, and constant gotcha.

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And a threat of violence.

Let’s get into it.

You know my guidelines here, right? It’s a safe place to post opinions without ridicule from other readers. We encourage healthy debate.

That was the idea when JWC kicked off in January 2022. Since then, the social media presence in Citrus County has exploded. Now, it’s anything goes, and much of the political discussion is steeped in anger so deep that people don’t think twice about insulting others online. 

My approach hasn’t changed. I don’t delete much these days (Thursday was an exception, which I’ll get to momentarily), but I keep watch. If readers are pushing the limit, I let them know.

So, Tuesday. Blog on the School Board race. Not exactly a political thriller. With a completely unrelated photo of me at the Cedar Key airport.

I usually schedule my Facebook posts the night before to run the next morning. FB’s been weird lately, so I posted live Tuesday a little after 6 a.m.

When I looked at the post again a short while later, I noticed three comments from Matthew Galit. Don’t know the guy. Pretty sure we’ve never met. These got ugly in a hurry. The first two were simply insulting, unrelated to the blog topic, and I went to delete them. I deleted the first and then took a closer look at his third comment.

The one that said this: “I’d put a bullet thru this guy’s head and that’s how I feel and what I feel like doing every time I see this nasty looking guy.” That’s a verbatim quote, exactly as he wrote it.

OK, let’s stop here. You’re me, what do you do about that? I mean...there's only one photo, and that's of me. I grabbed a screenshot, deleted the comments, and blocked Galit. I then reached out to Calvin Adams, chief of staff for Sheriff Dave Vincent, for some direction. He asked to see the screenshot, so I sent it to him.

Now. At this point, I’m thinking they’re going to have a sit-down with this gentleman and tell him to knock it off. But the detective who called me, that wasn’t his thinking. He said the online threat was a crime and that Galit had done this before on a much larger scale.

(It was at this point that I stopped my day to pray for Matthew. I've kept it going since Tuesday morning, and I expect it won't end anytime soon. Just being open here.)

We had more conversations that day and the next. If Galit were to be arrested, they needed a victim. The comment was on my page and apparently aimed at me. Would I cooperate?

It came down to four basic points I could not ignore:

• This could happen to someone else.
• Galit could take it to the next level if I didn’t intervene now.
• That’s a serious threat against a journalist. My brethren would never forgive me if I ignored it.
• He clearly is in need of some sort of mental-health attention. He’d get it off the streets.

So, I said yes. And on Thursday morning, the detective called to say Matthew Galit was arrested the night before and charged with a second-degree felony of electronic threat to kill or do bodily harm to another. At his first court appearance, the Judge ordered him held without bond.

I posted the info on my JWC Facebook page, and as I expected, it went bonkers: 83,000 views and 250 comments by night's end. A few thoughts:

— I deleted several comments, and I'll explain why. There’s a huge difference between posting a blog on Facebook and a standalone post. 

The blog post usually generates around 3,000 views and 20 or 30 comments, mostly from readers familiar with the blog.

Standalones, especially those with a little bite to them, have much broader reach. Readers share the post with their friends, and that generates plenty of comments.

The downside is we get out-of-town folks who don’t have a clue about Citrus County or what we’re doing, and some of those comments were downright nasty. Or they used foul language. Not a ton. Maybe 20, tops. Out the door they went.

— Most readers were appalled at such a blunt threat. I heard from several people throughout the day. My sister used a word I can't repeat on a family blog.

— Matt Galit’s friends described a warm, funny, helpful fellow who can go sideways if his illness is not kept in check. I appreciated these comments the most.

— A few people called me out for being weak. That’s fine, but I disagree. The more I think of it, the more I’m convinced this was the right call.

— Big thanks to Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch for allowing me to pen a column about the ordeal.

That’s about it. Looking forward to the weekend. I could use a breather.

Have a tremendous Friday, friends.

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