Editorial: Winter Garden, don't bully local journalist into silence

Visiting downtown Winter Garden is the modern equivalent of time travel, in the best of ways — the architecture of a beautiful little southern town...

August 9, 2023
1:20 PM

Visiting downtown Winter Garden is the modern equivalent of time travel, in the best of ways — the architecture of a beautiful little southern town brought back to bustling life with shops, restaurants, a vintage theater and stunningly gorgeous fountain, with one of Central Florida's most popular bicycle/pedestrian trails at its heart. But inside City Hall, an ugly reflection of a much darker past is rising. Over the past two years, city officials have responded to the efforts of a local news outlet with increasing acts of antagonism that earlier this year crossed the line into blatant unconstitutionality, evoking a time when the power of a small-town political machine could be brought to bear on a single voice  asking uncomfortable questions.

Our Opinion