When the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel obtained a report that showed Florida insurance companies made misleading claims about losing money, the Florida Senate threatened the newspapers with legal action if they revealed the truth. The journalists did not buckle.
Maxwell: Florida hid insurance industry’s lies — and tried to stop us from revealing them
The papers’ former editor, Julie Anderson, and her husband, Lars, made that crusade possible by making a grant to help fund the investigation. (Via our “Community News Funds” at orlandosentinel.com/donate and sunsentinel.com/donate)
Anderson said Tuesday that she and her husband had read the brow-raising stories and heard first-hand from frustrated Floridians who wanted answers. “We knew that only community newspapers could do this,” she said.
Three reporters — Hurtibise, along with Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel and David Fleshler of the Sun-Sentinel — then started pulling records and doing research.
That’s when, as part of a public records request, the Florida Senate turned over the 2022 report that showed companies were paying excessive fees to their own affiliates.
One company reported $11 million in losses while sending $166 million to an affiliate. Another reported $81 million in losses but paid sibling companies $174 million. It went on and on.
Well, the Republican-controlled state senate didn’t want those numbers shared or that story told. So it threatened the newspaper.
Let’s pause here to appreciate the severity of all this — government officials threatening journalists with possible arrest for publishing information meant to help taxpayers and consumers.
Also, keep in mind: That threat came on the heels of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration ordering the Orlando Sentinel to “cease and desist” from reporting on the governor’s Hope Florida scandal. (Again, we did not comply.)
And on the heels of DeSantis’ appointed attorney general, James Uthmeier, suggesting that other Florida journalists could be arrested if they kept reporting on the grand jury report in the scandal.
Do not go numb to these unprecedented, authoritarian attempts to control speech and journalism in the supposedly “Free State of Florida.”
Also, though, do not underestimate the courage or conviction of journalists in this state.
The Republican controlled Senate claimed it made a mistake in releasing the report on the insurance companies’ financial shell games.
But it has little legal or logical ground to stand on.
First of all, this was a report — paid for with tax dollars — that Senate staff freely handed over in response to a legal records request. Also, these aren’t some random internal financial transactions we’re talking about. These were transactions specifically flagged by the state’s own contracted consultant as being made in possible violation of state law. And these people want to protect the rule-breakers?
The editors of both papers stood firm in defending our right to publish. “The First Amendment guarantees our right to publish these findings, and we will not allow the Florida Senate’s threats to prevent us from reporting,” they said in a joint statement. “Homeowners deserve to know this important information that hits their pocketbooks.”
A-freakin’-men.
Listen, there’s no doubt that Florida’s insurance market is a troubled one — or that it makes sense that costs in this hurricane-prone state would be higher than elsewhere.
But when public officials spend public money on reports and supposed solutions, taxpayers deserve total transparency about how and why that money’s being spent.
Imagine if the politicians and bureaucrats in this state went as aggressively after the insurance companies that break the rules and deny valid claims as they do the journalists who expose it all.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/09/22/florida-legislature-threatens-newspapers-over-property-insurance-reporting/?lctg=cec4067f939df0228e8632405f98f2ef&active=yesD&utm_campaign=trib-orlando_sentinel-breaking_news-nl&utm_content=alert&utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_cluster=TRIB&utm_profileID=6a5eab07705c2554fcadfa02
