Courtesy: tcpalm.com
By Tyler Treadway of tcpalm.com
U.S. Sugar Corp. in April launched a second media blitz — not to sell sugar, but to sell its positions on controversial Treasure Coast water issues.
The company’s latest campaign includes a series of full-page newspaper ads, as well as spots on television and websites.
The ads have run in Treasure Coast Newspapers, whose coverage area includes the St. Lucie River Estuary where excess Lake Okeechobee water is discharged. Similar ads have run in the Fort Myers News-Press, whose coverage area includes the Caloosahatchee River Estuary, which also receives Lake O discharges.
The ads are a response to “blatant distortion of the facts being spread by certain environmental critics,” company spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said in a prepared statement.
Fact Check
The ads purport to give “the facts” about the company’s relationship to Lake O, proposals to end lake discharges by moving excess water south, and the sources of water entering the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
Most of their statements are factual, but some are inaccurate, misleading or don’t tell the whole or relevant story.
Read the Indian River Lagoon team’s analysis of six statements we’re not buying in the article linked below: