The Case Of The Asheboro Courier Tribune's Disappearing Comments: "Same Ol' Pravda"

Last night, after a fairly busy day as a doctor, I went back to check comments on the Courier's Sunday story about Peachtree Street Produce and its battle with the Asheboro City Council, in the little matter of the city's fair (to private business owners) administration of the local Farmer's Market (something that was supposedly worked out in the settlement of a lawsuit Peachtree's owner's filed in 2008).

Of course, yours truly sympathizes mightily with the Bradshaws, as I wouldn't know anything about settlements negotiated with institutions-charged-with-the-public good on a pack of lies and in bad faith . . . not that Garland Yates or the rest of the legal eagles in the Randolph County District Attorney's office give a crap about the underpinnings of justice in their civil courtrooms.

Or their criminal ones, for that matter (my God, every time I re-live that one, I want to bathe).

This is Asheboro, you see, and "the right people" must have their way through life perfectly smoothed over.   

The rest of us lesser beings can rot.  And sometimes, quite frankly, die.

Anyway, I was dismayed to find that a good many of the comments on the story (over half) had disappeared without explanation . . . many of them mine . . . and most of those in response to several commenters who, rather than reading the story for comprehension, were there to bash the Bradshaws/their business and anyone who defended them. 

And let's just say I've stopped holding back in my comments about what is going on in this town.  The inconvenient truth is ugly.  It hurts.  Too bad/so sad.

Wanna shut me up?  Show me some real accountability and transparency.  Clean up the act.

The whole thing was kinda reminiscent of a "Coning", but not really . . . because Dr. Mary's skin is fairly thick after five years as the "citizen journalist" that the much-more-"progressive" Greensboro News & Record's John Robinson has determinedly delinked/banned/ignored . . . in deference to the best interests of the local healthcare system (that would be Cone) that once employed the "drifting" Mick Irwin.

(Insert William Shatner delivery):  The public . . . must believe our . . . local hospitals provide . . . "care you can trust". 

Never mind when they don't.

I've taken up the Bradshaw's cause, because they brought me a tape of an Asheboro City Council meeting . . . digitally enhanced by world-renowned guru Paul Ginsberg . . . in which City Council members (which at the time included current NC Commerce Secretary, Keith Crisco), were "stupid" enough (Hi again, Mr. Bell) to get caught ragging on Pat like a bunch of junior-high-school bullies . . . and discussing (at the very end) how they "hired" Courier reporter/columnist, Chip Womick to leave the meeting right before Pat stood up to speak.

I mean really, really people.  Why do you think the Courier is publishing a story on this - after ignoring the Bradshaw's plight for so long?  They got BUSTED. 

You simply cannot argue with a tape-recording.

I feel the Bradshaws' pain.  Once upon a time, back in 2004, when I first appeared before the Asheboro City Council (I've done it twice) . . . to plead with the "right-honorables" for help in holding Randolph Hospital accountable for the despicable way it treated this "dime-a-dozen", homegrown Pediatrician (aka, "young professional") . . . the reporter recording the meeting (that would be J.D. Walker) put down her pen and folded her arms and smugly smirked at me/my family.

It's a rather vivid memory.  Just like the Chipper chuckling and shaking his head at me in the parking lot, after my second appearance at a Council meeting - as I chatted up my now-ex boyfriend, Tim Greene.

(OBTW, Schmid, since you asked last night, Tim's just FINE, and we're still great friends - and since he was THERE the day/night you pretty much locked me in a room and shoved a bogus settlement down my throat, make NO MISTAKE that he'd like to see Randolph Hospital FRY too). 

So just count me on the growing list of locals who do not think the Courier's reporters & columnists are "fantastic".

Back to 2004, Walker's story in the paper the day after my Father and I spoke at the Council meeting made no mention of the substance of my presentation.  Despite (now Mayor) David Smith putting on his patented-poor-pittiful-puppy-dog-sympathetic-face and telling me that he was so glad I came and they'd look into it, I had clearly wasted my time.

Of course, I had known that as I watched Keith Crisco glower and scowl.

Call me "stupid" and "crazy" (and you can bet your ass that smiling Steve Schmidly & his buddies at the Courthouse will do just that), but a newspaper in the pocket of local government . . . and a non-profit hospital . . . is pretty ominous stuff.

But hey, let's happily skip with "Beth Smith" and her friends over the Bradshaws' dead bodies (and mine) to the local, publicly-subsidized-like-Randolph-Hospital-has-been-publicly-subsidized Farmer's Market (Pat didn't smile at Beth when she checked out).
 
Yes indeed!  It will "re-vitalize" Asheboro in a way that exposing the corruption and rot and waste that put us on life support never will.

I dropped another comment on the story . . . and then fired off an e-mail to the webmaster and publisher:

Header:  The Courtesy Of A Response Is Requested

(1) My comments continue to trigger your "SPAM" filter - even though I am typing in the correct codes and playing by all the rules. I believe the Mollom people spoke to you about a "whitelist".  Perhaps you should put it into play.

(2) Why were OVER HALF of the comments on the Bradshaw story deleted (very selectively, it seems)?

(3) Since the Courier has turned over a new leaf, when might I expect one of your reporters (I'll pass on Chip Womick) to interview me . . . about my very serious allegations of perjury against senior Randolph Hospital executives, Robert Morrison and Steven Elbin . . . and the FACT that, for SEVEN YEARS, the office of Randolph County DA Garland Yates has determinedly and methodically OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE?

I copied the e-mail to the Bradshaws . . . and a couple of my friends.  Once of them repsonded this morning:

"Same ol' Pravda?  I was hoping for improvement.

Me too. 

Very heavy sigh.  Me too.  Of course, that's what hoping for change gets you these days.

Alas Pat (and to quote a "right person"), I hate to say it, but it does seem Diane Winnemueller really was "blowing smoke up your butt".

Hang in there, girl.

OBTW, I e-mailed myself the thread before the comments came down.  I know how the game is played.  I had good teachers in "Blogsboro".

Mid-morning Update:  Here's a good comment from Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-donated-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital:

The ordinary citizens of Asheboro are like mushrooms . . .

. . . kept in the dark and fed manure.

And we taste great when we're skewered and fried in the lard of flying pigs and served up to the "the right people".