the Political
Aficionado’s Guide to ...
TV
Paul LaGrone goes deep ABC Action News anchor’s career journey goes ‘Full Circle’ BY ANDREW MEACHAM
A
ndrew Warren, until recently Hillsborough County’s state attorney, faced the newsman and, once again, the music. “Are you placing yourself above the law?” Paul LaGrone, an anchor for the Tampa-based ABC Action News, asked Warren, whose statements in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade had drawn the ire of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Warren said not at all, that when he signed a pair of letters circulating among prosecutors nationwide, one pledging not to charge abortion seekers or providers whose actions are newly illegal, the other lending similar support on behalf of gender-changing surgery — he was exercising free speech. DeSantis disagreed and first suspended Warren, then declared him fired — their dust-up becoming national news. Warren, an elected official, says he cannot be removed by fiat and is suing to get his job back. The Sunday morning show, “Full Circle Florida,” debuted earlier this year on WFTS-TV. It has proved a useful vehicle for LaGrone, who anchors Channel 11’s 5:30 p.m. weekday news and regularly contributes reports on political leaders, the economy and other issues. “Full Circle’s” 30-minute format allows its political guests multiple bites at the apple, and they are taking advantage. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and his Democratic opponent, Val Demings, have come on to opine about Ukraine, the rights of women and what it takes to reach consensus in today’s climate. On another recent weekend, retired
18
|
INFLUENCE Fall 2022
University of South Florida elections savant Susan MacManus and Celine Pastore, a retirement adviser, did their best to unpack inflation. “Are we in a recession?” LaGrone asked, a question that prompted others. Is declaring a recession a political act, even if the effects on mortgages, interest rates and jobs are bipartisan? Do all of inflation’s moving parts make it harder to talk about? The more complicated a story gets, it would seem, the more LaGrone likes it. In recent years, ABC Action News has embraced the deep explainer story. “Especially since the pandemic, we thought it was just how we should do our jobs,” he said, a goal he references as “the full 360.” Getting that might take as much as six or seven minutes, which can run through much of the first news block — counter to a long-standing maximum closer of three minutes. “We pride ourselves on being the place people can turn to get a story that will go three, four, five layers deep,” he said. “We do that on a regular basis.” A story he reported in May, for example, warned viewers of a property insurance industry that could be one major storm away from insolvency. Threads included a cycle of repair scams, lawsuits and higher premiums, all in less than four minutes. LaGrone grew up in east Hillsborough County, part of a large family that pays attention to politics without getting carried away. “The people I grew up with and my family, they’re just not dramatic people,” he said. “They kind of listen to the per-
son and make their own decisions. And I think there’s still an independence in this state that doesn’t reveal itself in the national media or the headlines, but it is still very much there.” He saw his first Tampa Bay Buccaneers game at age 8 and returned as often as he could. He worked on a Saturday morning broadcast for teens while attending Plant City High, then majored in radio and television production at the University of Florida. He worked in television stations in Florida and the Carolinas and spent a month in 2003 in Kuwait and Iraq, alongside the 82nd Airborne Division. Paul LaGrone met his future wife while working in Fort Myers. Katie LaGrone is an Emmy award-winning regional investigative correspondent for the E.W. Scripps Company, representing ABC Action News in Tampa as well as stations in West Palm Beach and Fort Myers. Paul LaGrone also earned recognition from his peers, including a Regional Edward R. Murrrow award in 2007 for an investigation that found child pornography on computers donated to charity, and two Emmy nominations. They have two boys, ages 14 and 8. He was working as a morning anchor at WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach (also a Scripps station) in 2016 when the opportunity at ABC Action News opened. It’s felt right for so many reasons. LaGrone had grown up watching weatherman Denis Phillips, still the calm during the storm in his trademark sus-