On Being "Cranky" And Waiting For Bledsoe

This started out, several days ago as a post on the sad/sorry saga of “right honorable” Representative Mark Foley (R) of Florida. Directly from CNN: “Foley, 52, a Florida Republican, resigned last Friday after he was confronted with sexually explicit electronic messages he had sent teenage male pages. He has since entered an alcohol rehabilitation facility at an undisclosed location and, through his lawyer, has denied having had any sexual contact with minors.”

From a press standpoint, this story has it all. Foley, a Roman Catholic, has since disclosed (through his attorney) that he was abused as a child by a clergyman, and is “a gay man”. There’s a lot of debate over whether or not Foley actually qualifies as a pedophile, but his predilection for youthful pages IS ironic in that he helped draft child protection laws. Predictably, rabid Democrats are leading the charge to eviscerate Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert (and anyone else who might be within heaving distance of the spattered slime) . . . as the top Republican brass may have known something about what was going on long before any of the rest of us did . . . and didn’t do anything about it. Par for the course.

There’s an interesting story that I pulled off Drudge that speaks to how the Foley ball got rolling . . . packaged by an apparently bogus blog that may have been set up by someone with a lot of media savy (the MSM is learning). The whole fiasco may have started as an on-line prank. Getting “punked” was not funny for Foley.

The Foley story has dominated the news and the blogs even as little Amish girls had the backs of their heads blown off by a man acting out his own sick, warped grudge. Four of the girls were buried yesterday. Another is being laid to rest today. Five more victims, three of them critically injured, remain hospitalized.

The oldest girl is said to have asked her killers to “shoot me first” . . . in an attempt to buy her younger schoolmates more time.

As horrific as it is, the story will be off the news charts in a few days.

This brings me to my post . . . a tie-in to one of JR's musings and commentary on the actual “good” being done for the “community” by the local blogosphere. Prompted by a thread on Ben Holder’s blog (which morphed into a blog-battle with Ed over the journalistic black-balling of my own case), I started by looking at what the local folks were concentrating on. At the time of this writing, a Foley-fest on Ed Cone’s “Word-Up” has logged nearly 300 comments from warring amateur political pundits. Most of them don’t seem to get that (1) all the bickering matters not, and (2) Foley is following the “Americans will forgive almost anything” playbook to the letter. Resign/accept “responsibility”. Go into rehab. Blame it all on the demon rum and the abuse you suffered (courtesy of a clergyman) as a child. Announce you’re gay (it’s a badge of honor these days). Write a book. Go on Oprah.

A newer thread on Ed’s blog . . . about Ms. Magazine “We Had Abortions” feature is also heating up (as of this writing, most of the comments are from men and are predictable in their ideology).

As Ben pointed out, Jerry Bledsoe is writing about “the other side” of the David Wray story at the Rhino (here’s installment number 8 – rated “R” - don’t let the kiddies read it), which is turning out to be a whole lot different from what we got from the News & Record. Excepting Guarino and the indomitable T, it’s been pretty much been ignored by the locals.

Over at the N&R, which has embraced blogging and “citizen journalism” as a tool for reaching out to ordinary citizens and telling their stories, John Robinson keeps throwing out questions that ask (in one fashion or another) “how are we doing?” or announcing changes that don't really amount to a lot of change for some of us. The trouble with that is, when someone answers in an honest, albeit negative way . . . they’re a “crank” or a “troll” or a “whack-job”.

The moral of the story for me is this: “citizen journalism” as it is practiced in Greensboro mostly caters to the lowest common denominator. With some notable exceptions, it does not raise the standard at all. It does not ask new and different questions. It does not take a closer look at stories that would otherwise be ignored. It leans WAY to the left of center (whining constantly about the Bush administration, yet downplaying or virtually ignoring the ethics scandals rolling out of Raleigh). And except when the horn is being tooted (i.e. Converge South), it’s not “local” unless “local” serves an agenda.

I almost popped in on Ed’s abortion thread this morning but decided not to subject myself to the pummeling that would come from both sides (as, being a physician in a multicultural, multifaith society, I am woman who is both “pro-life” and “pro-choice”). Having a reasoned, practical “middle-of-the-road” position that acknowledges the science and respects the faith/automomy of the woman making the decision (often alone) simply will not do.

My on-going tale of woe in Asheboro actually nudges a sidebar saga about sex and abortion . . . whose outcome is public record and grabbed all the headlines a few years back. An OB colleague openly carried on an extramarital affair with a subordinate nurse (to the great discomfort of everyone around him). We had been residents at the same training hospital (now years ago), and I considered him quite technically gifted. In fact, his presence in Asheboro was one of the reasons I came home.

As the affair raged, this doctor – who appeared to think he was above reproach – made his then-partner (a woman/good friend) miserable. The other nurses and female physicians were hugely uncomfortable with the situation & working environment. As far as I know, I was the only doctor to directly confront him about his behavior (before it all blew up in his face) . . . by writing him a letter and asking him, “What the HELL are you doing?” Alas, that just made him angry and defensive and more “in-all-of-our-faces” about the affair. Attempts to discuss the matter with administrators were ineffectual. The affair raged on. It was crystal clear the men on the medical staff were not going to do anything to hose this thing down. It was also crystal clear that what the lady doctors (and nurses) thought did not matter.

I was a “trouble-maker”. I did not just look the other way. And it is ultimately what did me in.

When I was fired, the doctor’s “junior” partners drafted a letter and sent it to administration on my behalf (questioning the action, and asking Morrison and Eblin to reconsider). This doctor (as then-Chair of the Department) refused to sign it. It was the worst kind of betrayal given what I had done for him and his patients in the past.

The nurse subsequently got pregnant and the doctor aborted his own child in their apartment (rather than taking advantage of a clinic). The rumors flew and eventually the whole mess was “outed” (by the nurse herself). When it did, I marvelled at the concept of a life given, and then that life taken away . . . by the same arrogant hand. The Medical Board investigated (and I spoke to them when it did). The doctor's license was clipped for a few months, his practice asked him to leave, and he was forced to move. Amazingly, he eventually married the nurse.

I’ve stepped all around this story for years . . . out of respect for some of the innocents caught in the crossfire (his first wife and child) . . . and mindful that the major player in this tale (the doctor himself) is the ONLY person in Asheboro who has ever apologized for what Randolph Hospital did to me . . . and his role in it. Resettled in a new state and in a new practice, he even offered me a job. It was a place I did not want to go and a professional relationship I could not revisit.

All these years later, should I be writing about this? Hasn’t everybody moved on? The answer to the first question is I dunno. But it sure feels good to “purge” another bad experience on this blog. And the answer to the second question is, NO . . . because I was swindled out of the opportunity to pick up the pieces of my own life and move on.

The role of the press in a “free” society is to police government. That is why it exists. Not just national government, but state and local government. “Free Speech” matters not if even one person is lost and screaming in an echo chamber.

Asheboro’s local daily newspaper (The Courier Tribune) is so wrapped up in serving the economic best interest of the community (which includes Randolph Hospital not paying out a much larger settlement to a doctor wronged) that it does not even bother to disguise the pandering anymore. Some people are just more important than others and that’s it. It’s the reason the town has not grown or developed in the way many had hoped and envisioned ten or fifteen years ago.

Asheboro 20/20 exists now because the same people who are making the decisions now screwed up in their “strategic planning” then. The newspaper won’t tell you that because the publisher is a “country-club” pal to most of the strategic planners – including the two healthcare geniuses who did me wrong.

The alternative daily (The Greensboro News & Record) came down here a few years back and acted like a bunch of a**holes . . . unleashing a young/brash reporter with a fairly obvious agenda (to prove everyone living in Randolph County was a bunch of back-woods, racist bumpkins) and destroying a good man’s life (all the while ignoring my story). The act would have stood unchallenged were it not for Jerry Bledsoe – who wrote a book that should be required reading in journalism schools everywhere. The N&R was handed its hat. It essentially tucked tail and ran and has not sent a reporter back down to cover Asheboro since. We’re the bastard stepchildren of its coverage area.

Fast forward a few years into the future. I am trying to pursue a criminal case against overpaid “non-profit” hospital administrators for lying under Oath about their financial records and shorting me at settlement. The civil lawyers I’ve spoken to all dodge a commitment because the case is criminal and no action has been taken by law enforcement. The Feds (i.e. the IRS) are a black hole. Besides, the perjury & contempt charges are in the state’s jurisdiction – and local DA, Garland Yates, has bolted the door shut (pandering to those who make the campaign donations). The police will not investigate unless the DA says "go".

Over and over I’m told, perjury (which prosecutors and law professors will tell you “speaks to the “cornerstone of our democracy”) is never prosecuted. That’s not a reason. It’s not even an excuse. It’s merely a comment on the sorry state of our justice system. And if justice really is “for all”, it’s something that needs to change.

Meanwhile, the N&R has discovered the blogosphere as a tool for what it calls “citizen journalism”. And its reporters/columnists (which include “Blogfather” Ed Cone) all host blogs. But (as Brian444 has noted on JR’s blog in the post that got this one started), the demographics are narrow, only a few people log on/comment, and the “local” stories that are told are not getting general “traction” with the masses . . . because they do not generate Google hits.

Back in early 2005, John Robinson challenged us, “Send us your stories, we’ll tell them”. Hope rose anew and I took him at his word. I sent in the story, and I started commenting on the blogs – anytime a post anywhere remotely found resonance with my story. It was desperate and liberating at the same time. But fairly quickly it became clear that in this “community”, I still do not rate. For I am not black or Hispanic. I do not (knock on wood) have a fatal disease. I have boatloads of education. I am not gay. I am a Christian. Disgusted with both sides of the aisle, I am a Republican-turned-Independent. I am upper middle-class. I don't fit the traditional "victim" picture that the liberal press thinks needs help.

I've been reading a lot of Tammy Bruce lately. She makes gobs of sense.

JR’s newspaper has published stories on “non-profit” salaries, on perjury never being prosecuted, on healthcare issues, on crime & corruption (like the mess caused by poor oversight at Habitat for Humanity). Yet, on the other hand, he STILL tells me that my story . . . one of a young doctor recruited home by the government with federal dollars . . . who had her life and career inalterably derailed for doing the right thing . . . who was sued (unsuccessfully) for telling the truth . . . who was cheated of fair restitution at settlement when so-called “public servants” repeatedly lied and negotiated that settlement in bad faith . . . is not relevant or local or of interest to the masses.

He keeps throwing the settlement in my face. He doesn't get that bad faith negates the deal.

Ed Cone has done the same thing (I gotten e-mails from other readers disgusted with the hypocrisy nestling in the gap between what these guys say and what they do). “Go find Jerry Bledsoe, if he gives a damn”, is Ed’s mantra.

It’s BS. And it’s not at all “fatherly”.

Ergo, I’m “cranky”.

On the “community impact” of blogging thread entitled, “A Question For Jay”, a commenter asked John Robinson, “What positive impact could you envision (from blogging) . . . what actions could you take?”

As it applies to my situation, the answer is easy. You report the story that Dr. Mary Johnson brought to your blog. You inform the general public. You light the fire. You ask why the law is not being enforced (instead of just accepting that it isn’t). You represent the "little guy". You insist that the powerful public servants who broke the law be held accountable and/or take responsibility for their actions, and that justice be served. You DO SOMETHING that restores the original intent of the federal program your readers paid for . . . and brings this "home-girl" home.

Until you do, you are just blowing self-serving smoke. And I'll keep calling you on it.

Because if you’re a real "local journalist", you just don’t pass it all off to Jerry Bledsoe.