LAUREN RITCHIE:
Mount Dora’s Mazik doesn’t deserve scorn.
What follows is why you need us.
Admittedly, this cautionary tale is self-serving, but it also may signal the happy turning of a corner on the social nastiness and disregard for the truth that has overwhelmed the internet and politics today.
The local story starts in Central Florida’s most charming little town, Mount Dora, where businessman Ken Mazik is among the three largest downtown property owners — and not the most popular one.
Mazik, 77, for years has been a punching bag for residents angry that he has left some commercial property empty, and there’s even been talk of charging a “vacancy tax” — as if an owner doesn’t get to do what he wants with his property in the land of the free. What nonsense. Mazik can buy every store in downtown and board them up if he so desires. Get over it.
The short version of the story is that resident Amber Antonio repeatedly attacked the reclusive property owner on Facebook, calling him a “crook,” “con artist” and “sicko.” She accused Mazik of corruption and alleged that he “stacked” the council with supporters to get construction of a five-story hotel approved.
Never mind that Mazik never has proposed a five-story hotel. That piece of nonsense seems to have originated from the keyboard of yet another amateur commentator whose blog declaring itself “news” in 2015 posted a picture of a gleaming reflective glass hotel on downtown property Mazik owns and declared it the “future” of the land.
Mazik sued Antonio for defamation. Here’s what the obviously stunned resident whined to a Sentinel reporter last week: “I just voiced my own opinion based on things I’ve heard, and it got me in trouble.”
Seriously? Do you really think you can spread disparaging rumors without checking their veracity and accuse a person of committing crimes you can’t prove and face no consequences? So many people who venture into the realm of public comment without the sort of training journalists have are shocked when it comes back to bite them.
They cling to the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. Of course, you can say what you want, but as reporters well know, you’d better be able to prove you’re right. Welcome to the grown-up world of adults where everyone is responsible for what they say or write. It might be best for everyone if the self-described “40-year-old housewife” got off the internet and returned to dusting knick-knacks in her living room.
Across the country, similar suits are popping up in this era of new ways to get “news,” and those being trashed are winning. For example, an Asheville, N.C., woman is paying $500,000 for implying in a Facebook comment that a