{"id":29957,"date":"2023-02-09T17:15:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T22:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=29957"},"modified":"2023-02-09T17:15:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T22:15:34","slug":"desantis-administration-fines-wesh-2-news-over-vaccine-mandate-for-political-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/02\/09\/desantis-administration-fines-wesh-2-news-over-vaccine-mandate-for-political-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis administration fines WESH 2 News over vaccine mandate for political debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The DeSantis administration\u2019s Department of Health fined WESH 2 News for implementing a vaccine mandate that ultimately barred GOP congressional candidate Scotty Moore, and his staff, from entering the studio for a political debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the letter, obtained by POLITICO<\/a>, a fine of $5,000 per person is required under Florida law for businesses requiring proof of vaccination from COVID-19, or post-infection recovery, \u201cto gain access to, entry upon, or service from the entity.\u201d The department cited Section 381.00316(1), Florida Statutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WESH 2 is local news in the Orlando area and operates under Hearst Television, Inc<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, the congressional debate between Moore and Democrat Darren Soto was canceled because of the Republican\u2019s vaccination status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cToday, WESH 2 Orlando canceled the debate between Darren Soto and myself for what they cited as my being unvaccinated. Not only are liberal government politicians pushing mandates upon us, now woke corporate America is doing the same,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI believe in medical freedom, and I believe my voice, political or otherwise, should not be silenced for refusing to adhere to this unproven vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general manager offered a virtual debate, Moore said; but he argued \u201cface-to-face conversations\u201d cannot be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife is not meant to live virtually,\u201d he previously said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, the Republican Party of Florida joined Moore in filing a complaint<\/a> against the station for violating state law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWESH-2 has adopted the COVID corporate policy of its parent company, Hearst Television, which violates section 381.00316, Florida Statutes. We ask that you immediately investigate WESH-2\u2019s COVID policy, and if it is found to be in violation of Florida law, take appropriate action,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint said the Moore campaign received an email that read, \u201cour parent company, Hearst Television, requires all employees and guests to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Additionally, all guests must sign a Health Waiver for entry into the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decision by WESH-2 to cancel the Congressional District 9 debate because of a candidate\u2019s vaccination status is discriminatory, unlawful, and will not be ignored by the Republican Party of Florida,\u201d RPOF Chairman Joe Gruters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really believe that medical freedom matters. The governor signed into law and said there shouldn\u2019t be any vaccine passports,\u201d Moore previously said. \u201cThis is something that should not happen. We\u2019re not going back to 2020. We\u2019re moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The DeSantis administration\u2019s Department of Health fined WESH 2 News for implementing a vaccine mandate that ultimately barred GOP congressional candidate Scotty Moore, and his staff, from entering the studio… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[4501],"class_list":["post-29957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-desantis-administration-fines-wesh-2-news-over-vaccine-mandate-for-political-debate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}