Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Veteran TV reporter also has state contracts, paper says

TALLAHASSEE - A veteran Capitol broadcast journalist has earned thousands of dollars from contracts with government agencies, a newspaper reported.

Mike Vasilinda has covered state government for 30 years. His stories reach millions of viewers through Capitol News Service, the television wire service he founded and runs in Tallahassee.

Vasilinda also owns a production company that has earned more than $100,000 over the past four years through contracts with state agencies, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported Saturday.

Mike Vasilinda Productions created promotional videos, filmed public service announcements featuring prominent officials and made copies of videos and compact discs for state agencies.

One of Vasilinda's biggest state contracts was a 1996 deal that paid nearly $900,000 to air the weekly drawing for the Florida Lottery.

The freelance reporter's stories air on most Florida NBC stations, including WFLA-Ch. 8 in Tampa.

The newspaper also noted that Vasilinda has a reputation for being among the most aggressive journalists in Tallahassee. Vasilinda also cited that track record.

"No one has ever suggested that our coverage, in any way, is soft on anybody," he told the paper. "The proof is in the pudding."

Vasilinda said his production company is no secret - it was reported on years ago. The production business is kept separate from his news business, which competes with other Capitol reporters daily.

"We ask tough questions each and every day," he said.

But a journalism ethics professor at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg said Vasilinda's state government work raises red flags.

"Journalists should be guided by a principle of independence, and their primary loyalty should be to the public," Bob Steele said. "When journalists have loyalties to a government office or government agencies, those competing loyalties can undermine journalistic independence."

[Last modified March 29, 2005, 01:30:12]