Name Bob Norman | Role Journalist | |
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Books Florida Pulp Nonfiction: True Crime in the Sunshine State | ||
BOOZIN' BOB NORMAN BUSTED AGAIN
Robert Creed Norman (born April 12, 1969) is a South Florida journalist who joined WPLG-Channel 10 in 2011 as an on-air investigative reporter. Previously he worked for several years as a weekly newspaper and online columnist who first broke the corruption story of $1 billion Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein's October 27, 2009 flight to Morocco under suspicious circumstances. Rothstein, who returned to face inquiries, is a former Fort Lauderdale attorney investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and arrested on 1 December 2009. In 2008 Bob Norman reported an unusual circumstance following the murder of Melissa Britt Lewis, employee of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler (RRA) law firm, wherein the prosecuting attorney in the Lewis murder case came to work with RRA two months after the murder. Rothstein has not been connected to the murder, however murder victim Ms. Lewis had been close to Debra Villegas, RRA Chief Operating Officer, whose husband Tony Villegas was identified as the murderer by the City of Plantation Police represented by Scott Rothstein.
Contents
- BOOZIN BOB NORMAN BUSTED AGAIN
- Journalism awards
- Bob Normans blog The Daily Pulp
- Exposing Corruption
- Books
- References
Bob Norman, who has also exposed other public corruption such as illegal activities of Broward County, Florida public officials, formerly wrote for New Times Broward-Palm Beach, and browardpalmbeach.com as well as the Miami New Times, all owned by Village Voice Media. Until 2006, Norman maintained his online column The Daily Pulp (former site). Norman then moved his posts to The Daily Pulp: Bob Norman's Blog on browardpalmbeach.com. Norman's blog remained with New Times Broward-Palm Beach until 2011, when his blog then became part of WPLG-Channel 10's website
A resident of Plantation, Florida, Bob Norman is married to South Florida Sun-Sentinel staff writer Brittany Wallman. and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. Bob Norman moved to Broward County in 1998, after working 5 years as a crime reporter in Fort Myers, Florida.
Journalism awards
Bob Norman has won several journalism awards, for example 1st Place in the 2007 "Column-Political" by the Association of Alternative Weeklies, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, in National Reporting, 2001, 1st Place in the Society of Professional Journalists in 2002 for Print Weekly/Monthly (Non-Deadline Reporting), and 1st Place in the National Association of Black Journalists, 2005.
Bob Norman's blog: The Daily Pulp
Describing his blog in 2007 as doing "fair to middling", by 2009 it surged in reader engagement, based on the volume of online postings, over allegations of public corruption in Broward County School Board construction which preceded the arrest, removal from office and conviction on corruption charges of former School Board Members Beverly Gallagher and Stephanie Kraft.
The blog format allows online readers to publicly post inside information and diverse opinions. Readers interested in news stories can review original evidence with links to court filings, emails, and videos. In respect to technology, Bob Norman's blog, the Daily Pulp, is not novel compared with competing media which typically have blogs such as the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Palm Beach Post. However, for those interested in politics and public corruption, in contrast to other local online media the Daily Pulp is only one click from the home page, and posting is not impeded by a registration process. Ease of blog use and focused community attention to current stories on politics and public corruption enabled Bob Norman's Blog to reach high frequency of public participation for the limited number of subjects covered. For example, in response to columns on Scott Rothstein's Ponzi scheme, readers often submitted 100-200 online postings within the first 24 hours.
According to Alexa, the weekly New Times Broward-Palm Beach's browardpalmbeach.com is ranked 7,917 in web traffic rank in the U.S., compared with newspapers that cover a wider variety of subjects, ranked 797 for the daily Miami Herald's miamiherald.com, 922 for the daily South Florida Sun-Sentinel's sun-sentinel.com, and 1,919 for the Palm Beach Post's pbpost.com
Exposing Corruption
Bob Norman's articles have focused on public corruption, often with early and relentless pursuit of officials who are later arrested and removed from office, for example former Broward County Commissioner Josephus "Joe" Eggelletion and former City of Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini.
Bob Norman has lamented staff downsizing and the weakening of traditional daily newspapers such as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Herald, and the Palm Beach Post, competitors to the New Times. He has offered congratulations to reporters in competing media outlets when they are prompt and accurate, and criticism when they are slow or inaccurate in exposing public corruption.
Bob Norman has criticized the connections between lobbyists and public officials, for example State Attorney Michael J. Satz, elected and reelected since 1976, for slow action in dealing with corrupt Broward County officials who are ultimately brought to justice by Federal investigators, including officials who have received campaign contributions from the same lobbyists as Mr. Satz.
Books
Florida Pulp Nonfiction: True crime in the Sunshine State, 2006