Miami Herald reporter hides connection to socialist publications, Occupy movement — all while targeting Republican mayor
Sarah Blaskey, an "investigative reporter" at the Miami Herald, has a history that her readers may want to know about.
Typically covering political news, Blaskey often covers stories that paint Republicans in a bad light, especially Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R). In fact, Blaskey has written numerous stories about allegations of ethical violations involving Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R), which have been thoroughly investigated and summarily dismissed.
But absent from Blaskey's Miami Herald bio is any mention of her connection to the Occupy movement and history of writing for socialist and far-left publications.
When she was a student at Madison College in 2011, Blaskey was a leader of the Occupy Madison movement and boasted about participating in the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C. protests.
At the time, she called the Occupy movement "very inspiring."
"I think the Occupy movement is incredibly important because it can help link all of these causes together in a really important way. It's the idea of the 99% versus the 1%, and that simple fact permeates through these other basic struggles we're having," she told the Capitol Times, a local newspaper in Wisconsin.
In the subsequent years — which included graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Columbia University — Blaskey became a prolific writer for socialist and far-left publications.
Blaskey, for example, wrote numerous articles for Socialist Worker, a now-defunct publication of the International Socialist Organization. Interestingly, Blaskey wrote her Socialist Worker articles under the pseudonym Sarah Lynne. It's not clear why she chose not to use her legal last name at the publication. Moreover, four of Blaskey's articles at Socialist Worker were co-written with professor Phil Gasper, editor of "The Communist Manifesto."
Blaskey also wrote for the International Socialist Review, Dollar & Sense, Progressive Magazine, TruthOut, and Upsidedown World.
Blaskey's failure to disclose her connections to socialist publications and the far-left Occupy movement raises an important question: Are reporters obligated to disclose previous partisan connections?
The answer to that question does not assume that personal beliefs do not evolve or that a journalist's personal beliefs must infect their work.
However, for the sake of transparency, it's generally a good practice to be honest about your background and biases, especially in an industry that is built on fairness and relies on the public trust.
A spokesperson for Mayor Suarez told Blaze News that Blaskey's "bias against the mayor makes much more sense" in light of "the truth" about her background.
"We were surprised to learn that the Miami Herald employs a political reporter with an extensive history of socialist advocacy," a spokesperson said. "This reporter has treated our office dishonestly, making false disproven allegations, and continually ignoring the facts when we provide contradictory evidence or statements. We've called her an activist in the past because that was the only explanation we have for her inaccurate reporting."
The spokesperson, moreover, explained that it is personal for Suarez, a first-generation Cuban-American.
"The mayor, like most members of our South Florida community, has a tragic family history with socialism and is one of socialism's most staunch opponents," the spokesperson told Blaze News.
"While we have no way of knowing if the Miami Herald was aware of this reporter’s past or, if they did and hired her anyway, we certainly hope that in light of recent reports, they will re-evaluate the motivations and biases clearly displayed in their reporting about the city of Miami and take the appropriate action," the spokesperson added.
Blaze News reached out to Blaskey multiple times, but she did not return our messages.
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