“The Voice Of The People Is Not Always in Tune”: When Those In Charge Need To Be Hit Upside The Head With A Megaphone

I know. The title of this post is not particularly “civil”. Heads will spin in fake indignation. Pea soup will liberally (get it?) stain keyboards. But the behavior & self-serving rhetoric of our local so-called “citizen journalists” & blogging elite has just gotten so fundamentally hypocritical and un-American that (like Bubba) I cannot hold back.

Where “civil discourse” is concerned, I/others are apparently supposed to drive with the emergency brake on . . . while Edward Cone of the Cones and his like-minded pals (spewers of HATE SPEECH like “batshit crazy” and “mouth-breather” and “whack-job” and “racist” and “evil” and “brain-damaged” and “troll”) can assassinate the characters of (or ban) people who don’t dance to their tune. I’m not inclined to sink to their level, but if these are the rules, I’m so not donning the sparkly costume.

I can’t dance anyway.

As Bubba reports, Cone (as our area blogger-king), addressed a Rotary club again. I’ve talked about the selective practice of Rotarian values in our neck of the woods before. No need to re-hash. Everything Cone said is a re-tread (if these groups pay him honorariums for this stuff, they should get their money back). But the quote Bubba pulled out is what got me.

Make no mistake, what our well-named blogger king is really saying here is that the voice of the people is not in tune with Edward Cone of the Cones . . . and/or John Robinson & the editorial board of the N&R . . . and/or David & Bonnie Renfro in Asheboro . . . and/or Mike Easley & the clueless/criminal politicos in Raleigh. For these are the keepers of the mainstream megaphones that matter. And ALL of them promised a bill of goods (i.e. citizen journalism, free speech, public trust & accountability, truth, justice and the American way) that they have not delivered.

Once again, the headlines coming out of Raleigh prove that “We The People” (who pay the bills that kill) don’t really factor into this equation. The public coffers have been pillaged again. Innocents caught in the crossfire have literally died this time . . . alone and forgotten by a state that was supposed to care. The people who blew the whistle are shot. And the disengaged-from-reality/little-more-than-figureheads who were supposed to be in charge (life-long Democratic politicians that I did not vote for but Ed Cone/John Robinson/Sue Polinsky/etc. no doubt did) are dodging responsibility.

Of course they don't want to play the blame game. 82 people are dead. It's first and foremost about liability now.

According to the gospel of Ed Cone and John Robinson and Sue Polinksy (and others who shall remain nameless), We-The-Put-Upon-People not supposed to be angry about any of this stuff. We’re not supposed to see or point out the similarities in our own situations and stories (in my case, involving the same state regulatory agency and many of the same players). If we do, we’re “terminally self-absorbed” or “malignant narcissists”. We’re supposed to put down our megaphones and roll over, and “get over it” and “move on” . . . and let the same-old-same-olds dominate & bully-pulpit the meager forums we have left (and to which I came for help) in order to push whatever political/philosophical/economical agenda they want.

John Robinson does not need to ban me from his sad little Editor’s Blog. I will NEVER be back. What I say to and about him – or his useless race-baiting rag-of-a-newspaper will henceforth be said here. But JR needs to consider this: If I’m a “troll’ . . . a blogging “monster” . . . then I am what he made me . . . by ignoring a story of public corruption . . . relevant to so much of what is going on right now . . . that has been sitting under his smug, stuck-up, married-into-a-rich-family nose for over a decade now.

Not so long ago, the mighty N&R trotted down to Asheboro and promised us something different – an alternative to the biased, nose-up-the-biggest-mill-town-butt stuff we’re getting now from the Courier Tribune (for example, how many Asheboro ordinary folk got an invitation to Randolph Hospital's latest "dine-around" - to schmooze with "the whales" at the big houses?). But the N&R overplayed its hand. Years later, some small measure of journalistic redemption could be had for the N&R in the telling of my story . . . brought to them (again) when they merged with local bloggers touting the concept of “citizen journalism”. I have begged JR to look at the evidence contained in the black & white of sworn discovery responses. He has refused. I’ve offered to pay (ridiculously inflated sums) for ads to publicize my website and my blog. I’ve been repeatedly turned down. And in the blogs, this champion of free speech has treated me like dirt. So John Robinson, managing Editor of the Greensboro News & Record, can talk all day long about his newspaper’s journalistic integrity. But it’s just hot air.

The “outside” newspapers I’ve contacted about my story (who are reluctant to dive in and run with it) are quite right. This IS a story that my local newspapers should be telling/covering. But my local newspapers are in the pockets of the people/organizations I fight. They’re not telling. And so, I’m here.

Let’s look at the latest scandal coming out of Raleigh: A longtime press-aide at NCDHHS, Debbie Crane, was fired by Governor Sleazeley this week . . . after being put in the impossible position of making a very bad situation look good. She'd been in that position before ("disproportionate share") and ordered to lie. This time, millions of dollars were once again wasted. 82 people had died under questionable circumstances. Bottom line: the News & Observer wanted public documents and she had to cough them up. She says she was told (in undocumented closed-door meetings) by her superiors to delete e-mails as soon as they were read . . . in other words, destroy public documents . . . in violation of the law.

I’ve corresponded with Ms. Crane. I guess I know what happened to my e-mails.

The very day the press aide is fired she calls up the N&O. Within hours she is on their front page . . . in print and video form . . . a whistleblower done wrong by DHHS.

Now this is all after-the fact stuff. This (probably very nice) lady did not save a life (the patients are already dead). She did not save the state any money (it’s long gone). I don't think she ever thought she would get fired until the day she got fired because she was playing on "the team".

She did not have to hire a lawyer or file a lawsuit . . . and within an afternoon, she’s on the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer.

It’s a short story. And I’ll just bet this lady is going to have a relatively quick, happy ending as public outrage is fed by the N&O and works to her advantage.

In stark contrast, over ten years ago, a Pediatrician in Asheboro – in state and federal public service – is given the “order” to shut up (about problems at the hospital) or else. In the wee hours of the morning just a few days later, she has just a few minutes to make a choice between defying those orders (intervening in a neonatal case another doctor has botched) or keeping her job and a life she loves. She opts to answer the call of some scared-to-death nurses. She saves the baby’s life and reports what happened to hospital peer review (the way she is supposed to) and then trusts the system (that would be NC & US DHHS) to protect her.

The John Robinsons, and Edward Cones and Sue Polinskys of this world would have expected this doctor to do what she did had it been their child or grandchild in harm’s way. And in their world of entitlement, if anything of a retaliatory nature had happened to their doctor, they would have howled from the rooftops.

Within two weeks, the doctor is fired “without cause”. The hospital uses heavy-handed methods that are in blatant violation of the doctor’s employment contract . . . as well as her service agreements with NC & USDHHS. The hospital clearly does not give a damn about the harm it causes to the doctor’s reputation or her future options – in or out of Asheboro. Many of the abruptly side-line doctor’s patients are given the impression that she abandoned them – and, as a lowly employed physician in a “right-to-work” state, she cannot communicate with them (or correct these impressions) without being fired “for cause”.

The doctor calls DHHS officials – in Raleigh – in Atlanta – in Bethesda – and begs for help.

When two or three well-placed phone calls by lawyers in positions of oversight (like the NC or US Attorney General – who serve as DHHS's lawyer) would have put things right and prevented the ten-year cluster screw she has since endured, the state of North Carolina and the US Department of Health and Human Services chooses to nothing. “Thank you for your service. Have a nice life. We wish you well.”

Now you know why this doctor HATES the Ed Cone, “I wish you well” act.

It takes nine months and the intervention of a US Congressman (Howard Coble) to get the doctor’s malpractice tail insurance paid (a clearly-stated term of her service agreement – as is noninterference with her continued practice in the area). But the government does nothing to fully enforce ALL of the terms of its site agreement with the practice & hospital . . . terms which might have immediately restored the doctor to practice and a happy, “productive” life (Hi Sue).

Meanwhile, parents and colleagues complain loudly and in droves. But the wagons are circled and no one in a position of hospital oversight listens or moves to correct the wrong. The local newspaper, totally in the hospital's pocket, prints a tame letter or two, but otherwise refuses to investigate or cover the story. When the doctor files a lawsuit a year later . . . the newspaper publisher again refuses to do a story because it is merely an “employment matter”, not relevant or worthy of anyone’s attention.

A year after that, the doctor finds she is front-page news: The hospital has filed a vicious SLAPP suit for “libel” (over a complaint the doctor sent in confidence to NC & US DHHS). The lawsuit is clearly an act of pure malice – designed to destroy what’s left of the doctor’s local reputation. The doctor hears through the small-town grapevine that the powers-that-be are positively gleeful over the filing, for they are going to “destroy” her. Moreover, in a pathetic attempt to prove the doctor “disruptive”, hospital officials plunder confidential peer review and medical board documents (that the doctor authored) and release them to discovery – in clear violation of state statute and federal law.

A hellish year after that, the lawsuits are settled in the doctor’s favor with a financial settlement that amounts to less than a year’s salary (the hospital, faced down with facts – as well as the letters of the doctor’s close colleagues supporting the veracity of her claims has to turn tail and run). The doctor is told, during settlement negotiations, that the hospital is “nearly bankrupt” and cannot afford anything larger.

The local rag once again covers the tails of hospital officials and plays down the story as a second-page “short-take”. Many of the doctor’s former parents & patients have no idea she’s been vindicated. Afterwards, hospital executives continue to treat her like dirt.

The doctor subsequently does some digging through legal files and discovers that hospital officials lied under Oath about the “confidentiality” of financial information contained in IRS 990’s . . . which are very much public record . . . and which are, in fact, published on a national website (Guidestar). Hospital officials knew this when they placed their hands on a Bible and lied.

In addition to casting more light on the value of her practice, the information these tax returns contain includes the salaries of the hospital’s physicians and senior executives . . . information which proves beyond any shadow or any doubt that the hospital’s claims of “near-bankruptcy” during settlement negotiations were false. The information contained in the returns confirms that the doctor was defrauded of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars at settlement.

That money might have brought her back home and restored the practice (originally built with tax dollars) that hospital executives destroyed.

This PERJURY, CONTEMPT and FRAUD was reported to the Randolph County District Attorney in 2003 and the doctor asked for an independent investigation by the SBI/NC Attorney General’s office. To this day, the DA (Garland Yates) has refused to even speak to the doctor and has not referred the case out of his office.

His office has, in fact, treated her with contempt.

The NC & US Attorneys General, despite being lawyers for DHHS, and having a duty to intervene on the doctor’s behalf (as the state & Feds were third parties to the public service agreements she fulfilled) have refused to get involved or do anything to hold the hospital accountable. Moreover, as the doctor determinedly worked various angles and was bounced from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, NC Legislature, NC State Bar and NC Medical Board have all turned a deaf ear. Correspondence to these agencies (sent both by e-mail and certified mail) reamins unanswered. The wagons are tightly circled. No one wants to admit that the system is beyond broken.

They just pretend this doctor does not exist.

The doctor keeps wracking her brain. WHO does Bob Morrison know in Raleigh to keep this thing so throughly buried?

During this ordeal, the doctor has protested in front of the hospital (twice). The doctor appeared before the Asheboro City Council to tell her story (only to see her nemesis and tormentor appointed to head strategic planning for the city’s future a year later). The local newspapers remain silent.

Now, the doctor’s home (yes, she still owns one in Asheboro) is part of a neighborhood targeted for annexation by the very “community” that treated her like scum on the bottom of a mill-owner’s shoe. If this crooked deal goes through she gets to pay MORE taxes and see MORE of her hard-earned money thrown after bad by a small-town government that has no idea what “conflict of interest” means . . . or what “small-town values” really are.

(And make no mistake kiddies. The "small-town" values that the long-term, God-fearing, ordinary citizens of Asheboro have always prized means not one whit to current city leaders. This move to annex "the Mountain" is first and foremost about money and alcohol - about shoving Bonnie Renfro's agenda for economic development down everyone's throat. Alcohol will "save" Asheboro. Bob Morrison will see to that.)

Outside newspapers (in Raleigh and Charlotte) tell the doctor to file another lawsuit and someone might take an interest.

She just might do that.

Maybe it “IS” time to hit the state of North Carolina upside the head with a megaphone.

Enough of the third person bit. As Edward Cone well knows (but would never admit . . . since he’d rather make fun and smirk from the lofty & insulated perch of his own N&R column), the lack of coverage of my story by outside outlets is not about a lack of empathy/interest, but instead boils down to journalistic “turf”.

It’s like those Blue Walls (of law enforcement) and White Walls (of medicine) . . . non-competing newspapers are not real enamoured of making one of their own look bad.

As I wrap this one up, allow me to take a just moment to converge some of these thoughts in the general direction of Sue Polinsky’s "perfect" life. I don’t have a perfect life (and if I did I certainly would not spend it blogging). I don’t have a perfect life in large part because our systems of medical and legal oversight are broken and our elected leaders – from local DA’s to state and federal Attorneys General to US Senators do not care enough about ordinary people & public servants to enforce the pathetically inadequate laws we do have. And that’s why I will NEVER, EVER vote for John Edwards. Nor will I embrace the self-serving, elitist, “I know best” FAKE populism of his wife, Elizabeth (it’s so NOT about breast cancer, it’s that we fundamentally differ on our philosophy and approach to nearly every major public and personal issue). The very LAST thing this two-for-one pair were about was "change". Apparently a lot of people decided the same thing and Edwards (now fancying himself in “power-broker mode”, yet lacking the strength of character or courage/conviction to pick a candidate and take his chances) is out.

But before John-Boy officially threw his hat back in the Presidential race (choosing to announce in a decimated New Orleans neighborhood as opposed to any one of the dying mill/farm-towns in his “home state” of rural North Carolina . . . or was that South Carolina?) . . . and as part of the grand campaign plan for world Internet domination . . . Sue Polinsky & Converge South were played & manipulated by these two class-A users. Some of us saw it for what it was when it happened and called it as we saw it . . . and for stating the obvious we found ourselves consigned to Sue’s permanent *hit list. The sad thing is, I think Sue is smart enough (at least in retrospect) to realize that she and her “baby” got used, and it’s the real reason any criticism has burned. I’m sorry she won’t get to sleep in the Lincoln. But maybe she needs to get over it.

And let me say this, of the two of us, I'm fairly certain I'm the one more qualified to make a psychiatric diagnosis.

I certainly would NEVER do it online.

A number of times, alone & far from home and often crying in the dark – my eyeballs searing and my head pounding - after enduring yet another judgmental, mean-spirited, stomp-her-when-she's-way-beyond-down blogging gang-bang courtesy of the self-appointed kings & queens of the GSO blogosphere (who gleefully marginalize and ignore and de-link and ban . . . and who are now snarking hypocritically about suicide and "cyber-stalking"), I’ve honestly wanted to bash some of them in the head with my megaphone.

This post is dedicated to my friends. There are many and they know who they are.

3/7 Update: Woke up this morning to find the Courier Tribune (which serves a county that has voted "Red" in every election I can remember) pumping some print-love John Edwards' way. He's loving his time off. John Edwards goes to a basketball game and the Courier is there.

Meanwhile a home-grown doctor under duress defies threats and saves a child's life . . . her life is trashed in a systematic cluster-screw . . . the government she served looks the other way . . . public servants lie . . . and the Courier cannot pick up a pen.

It never ends.