The Courier Tribune's Ray Criscoe And Journalistic Integrity: Fundamentally Unarmed

There's too much on docket this week, and I'm postponing my full rebuttal to Ray Criscoe's Sunday editorial for a day or two or three.  But we will move forward with something tonight that doesn't require nearly as much effort.  It kind of writes itself.

And it started when a nostalgic friend of mine forwarded a hard-copy of a Ray Criscoe editorial from back in July 2008 (back during Asheboro's contentious alcohol referendum). 

Ray's piece was about journalistic integrity.  (Honestly, sometimes I wonder why lightening doesn't strike some folks dead in their chairs.)

Anyway, Ray was sick . . . and grumpy about all of the complaints he was fielding over the Courier's coverage of the issue (it's well-established who I think he was catering to, but that's all water under a bombed-out bridge now). 

In terms of Ray's own objective self-evaluation of whether or not the Courier covered the news fairly, he opined that it all came down to two questions: 

(1) What do we have to gain?
(2) Do you want to see how our operation works?

I do remember reading Ray's treatise and laughing out loud (that's a bit of an inside joke) . . . indeed I put up a post that talked about it . . . knowing that the editorial went up because the Courier's Editor was feeling real heat in a way he never had before.  Alas, I'm unable to link Ray's ditty here because that puppy is long gone with all of the "new & improved" bells & whistles.

But I've got the text.  It's not just the Internet that's forever.  Ray pissed a lot of ordinary people off during that alcohol referendum.  And they SAVED things.

(As an aside, do you-all remember what "the rights" fed us about alcoholic beverage "control" making Asheboro "safer"?  Wanna tell that to the family of 18 YO Brittany Blakely - who died at my alma mater, Baptist Hospital, on Sunday afternoon after being mowed down on an Asheboro city street Saturday night by the drunk driver of a stolen car?  Wanna take bets on where Morales bought his booze?  OBTW, I'm linking the story at the N&R because I think I've already been banned at the Courier.)

Ray answered his first question like this:

We would gain nothing, but we would lose credibility and eventually readers.  Credibility is a key to a newspaper's existence, and when you question ours, you better come with some hardcore facts to back it up.

Now dear readers-of-Housecalls, that's a door Dr. Mary Johnson could pilot one of those fairly-large-steam-engines-her-Daddy-used-to-fancy through.  Ray keeps asking for "proof" of his skewed coverage . . . or bad behavior on the part of his reporters. 

And today, I think I'll play.

(1)  First there's the inconvenient truth that when I was fired back in 1998, Ray & company rooted through the irate letters parents sent to the newspaper (because they were not getting any good answers from Bob Morrison, Steven Eblin, or RMA/Randolph Hospital Board members), and only printed a few.  The newspaper put up a disclaimer that they had gotten a number of letters, but were only going to put up a representative sample.  They wished me well and all that jazz.

(2)  When I sued Randolph Medical Associates in 1999, the newspaper did not print the story.  All I got out of the Courier Tribune was radio-silence.  It was a lowly "employee matter" not worthy of the public's attention - never mind that this employee was brought home with state & Federal money, and wrongfully terminated for doing her duty as a physician.

No biggie in Ray's book.

(3)  On the other hand of the-magic-trick-designed-to-make-Mary-Johnson-disappear, when I was SLAPP-sued for "libel" in 2000, Ray printed the allegation that I was a liar as front page news.  My horrified parents got to read that. 

It's important to note (for future reference and comparison) that the SLAPP suit was not just about shutting me up . . . it was about instilling FEAR in anyone who might oppose Randolph Hospital's aims and objectives.

(As an aside, my Mother, a first-grade teacher, taught Ray's offspring.  And she did her usual great job.  But when it came time for Ray to step-up/man-up and do the right thing by her daughter, Ray wussed out.  It's a great lesson for the kids who survive walking down our city streets.)

(4)  When I fought the public-leeches running Randolph Hospital off (with a little help from my friends), and executives were forced to run screaming from the Courtroom in the fall of 2001, Ray & his reporters relegated my legal victory to a second-page "short-take". 

Many of my parents' friends had no idea Tom & Irene's daughter had been vindicated with a settlement in her favor.

(5)  And, of course, in the seven years since I started begging Randolph County DA, Garland Yates, to investigate/prosecute the perjury, contempt and fraud of Randolph Hospital executives (here's an oldie-but-goodie that addresses all that) . . . including the five years I've been online . . . Ray and his "team" of noble, truth-seeking journalists have not seen fit to either look at the black & white evidence or ask an objective question of the non-profiteers I accuse.

Moreover, I'm not supposed to be angry or upset that Ray's practiced indifference to right-and-wrong . . . and his uselessness as a journalist . . . has left me open to ridicule/libel . . . and cyber-stalkers (something else Ray did not report) . . . and has kept me from being wholly vindicated/restored and returning home. 

Nope.  We're all supposed to feel sorry for the journalist who has IGNORED a whole lot of "questionable" behavior in the town he claims to cover.  It's been okay to laugh and point and snicker and call Mary Johnson every nasty name in the book for YEARS and YEARS, but we cannot step on poor Ray's toes . . . or Chip's.  Not even once.  We're not supposed to question or criticize anything this newspaper does.  We're supposed to buy Ray's "Fecund Stench" act (i.e. he and his reporters are the poor, pitiful victims of the enraged lady cyber-bully).

Never mind that Ray Criscoe is the one who has had the bully-pulpit all along.

(6).  But wait ladies and gentlemen, there's more.  When I appeared before the Asheboro City Council back in the spring of 2004, and begged for some assistance from Asheboro's elected honorables, the Courier's reporter, J.D. Walker, smugly put down her pen.  Pops stood up to speak too - a proud man on the verge of tears reduced pleading to the stone-cold faces who would, a short while later, spit in our faces by gifting Randolph Hospital with $500,000 taxpayer dollars.  The next day, there was a whole lot of nothing in the newspaper about a local doctor's impassioned plea to the Council for help holding the local "non-profit" hospital accountable for its misdeeds.

(It took an extraordinary amount of courage for me to appear before the Council that night, but this apparently didn't register at all with Criscoe & company.)

(7)  When I protested (yes, protested), not once, but twice, in front of Randolph Hospital (again, in 2004) . . . in other words, when a Board-certified Pediatrician debased herself to the point of strapping a sign to her back and marching back and forth in front of the hospital's old entrance on Fayetteville Street . . . did anyone from the Courier Tribune (which had good notice) show up to even take a picture?

That would be a no.

(8).  As for Ray's standing threat to ban me/others now from commenting on his stories in the "truth-to-power" fashion they richly deserve, until Diane Winnemueller came to town, I was banned at the Courier.  Every single comment I posted disappeared into the abyss, never to be seen by anyone. 

So ban away, Ray.  I'M USED TO IT!!!  And I have a blog.

(9)  As for those ads Ray now wants me to purchase . . . when I first put up the Asheboro Pediatrics/While Wall website (in 2004 - before I answered the N&R's call to blog), I was able to buy an ad (for a ridiculou$ price) in the Courier.

(10)  But since I started blogging in 2005, trying to get the Courier to answer an e-mail or return a phone call has been like trying to score a meeting with the District Attorney (Garland Yates) . . . or swear out a complaint with one of his magistrates.

And here's my problem with that, Ray.  I've already paid the lawyers, (like smiling Steve Schmidly) to short-change me so they can enjoy their liquor and ball games and promote the careers of their own children.  As Steve looked the other way, Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin took EVERYTHING I had worked-like-dog to build (and fought like a banshee to restore) . . . and GOT RIDICULOUS RAISES for their ingenuity. 

Meanwhile, ALL the "right honorables" dived under their desks and played deaf, dumb & blind.

Now, in this era of "healthcare reform" and "accountability" and "transparency" and "change", you want me to BUY AN AD for the privilege of directing your-methodically-kept-in-the-dark-ordinary-readers to a personal blog that tells the story YOU should have told as NEWS years ago?

WHAT GROWN-IN-THE-BACKWOODS OF RANDOLPH COUNTY PRODUCT ARE YOU SMOKING?  WHAT PART OF DR. MARY JOHNSON GAVE AND GAVE AND GAVE SOME MORE AT THE OFFICE OF RANDOLPH MEDICAL ASSOCIATES CAN YOU NOT GET THROUGH YOUR INCREDIBLY DENSE SKULL?

Of course, it just goes to PROVE that in Randolph County, there are all kinds of ways to obstruct justice.  The Courier's theory-of-spoon-fed-journalism has always been if they didn't report it, it didn't happen.

Enter, stage right, Mike and Pat Bradshaw, owners of Peachtree Street Produce . . . who contacted me several weeks ago to update me on their own tale-of-woe (battling with the City Council over the fair administration of the local Farmer's Market).  Pat and Mike have followed my story and this blog for a long while.  They know my pain because they've lived it - and have endured many of the same gutter-snipe tactics.  They wanted to share some very interesting evidence - recorded on tape - of how the City of Asheboro and the Courier really work.

You see, the Courier really works like Pravda.

And here's the thing about that.  What's on that audio-tape only shores-up a rumor (emphasis on the word rumor) I heard back during the annexation wars, that some of the Courier Tribune reporters, laboring away for their measly salaries, burned out by fronting the self-serving press releases and boring AP reports as their own news, and tired of staying all hours of the day or night to cover this meeting or that event, had started accepting payment on the side from people/organizations who wanted them to show up and report on their activities.   

And/so, when I listened to the tape the Bradshaws produced, I was dumbfounded that Council members were arrogant/dumb enough to say the things that they said on-the-public-record . . . but sadly, I was not very surprised it had happened . . . or that the rumor I'd heard was true.

These people think they are above reproach.  It's a thing amongst "the right people" in Asheboro.

Now, it stands to reason that, if this scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours stuff was going on, it was a CASH-only, under-the-table free enterprise.  So "the (absolute) proof" Ray taunted for in his Sunday editorial is not going to be there.  It's also for sure that Asheboro City Manager, Chip Ogburn, didn't flip out a DISCOVER card for Chip Womick. 

And I seriously doubt either Chip is going to confess.

(When you think about it, it's rather like Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin and their Board of Directors and the hospital's lawyers and our DA's office and the newspaper all pretending that sworn discovery responses proving perjury do not exist.) 

But all of that does not add up to the notion that public does not have the right to ask questions - or formulate opinions - about the people/institutions involved based on what they know of the principals and what's on that tape.

So, as far as I am concerned, Ray Criscoe can take all his big bad "libel" talk and stuff it where that half-sun on his home page doesn't shine.  As he well knows, a "libel" claim is an up-hill battle in this land-of-free-speech . . . particularly for public figures subject to scrutiny.  Ray would not prevail in such a lawsuit - and he knows it.  Moreover, the counter-suit that I would immediately file would destroy ALL of the newspaper's credibility . . . and the criminal charges it could generate for those on the periphery (perjury is one of those crimes without a statute of limitations) would decimate the reputation of the advertiser he's labored so hard for twelve years to shield.

Purely and simply, Ray is trying to SCARE people when he should be working to clean up his newspaper's act.  For starter's, I'd like to hear an explanation . . .  from everyone implicated in that tape . . . for what's on that tape.

And all I've heard so far is a whole lot of "I don't recalls" and challenges to "prove it".

It's NOT my job to prove it or disprove it, Ray (I keep myself quite busy taking care of babies and children far from Randolph County - services that people in other parts of this great state actually appreciate).  It's yours.

Indeed, instead of threatening readers and allowing the defamation of the very few citizens who have heard the tape-in-question (I'm working on a way to make that a whole lotta citizens) . . . citizens who have formulated very strong opinions because of the way we've been treated FOR YEARS by his newspaper and his reporters . . . perhaps Ray ought to take up the case of "explain-what-we're-hearing-on-this-tape-recording" with the City Council members who were actually caught-on-tape . . . you know, the same Council members who seem to be so profoundly memory-impaired now.

(I think . . . it's called . . . investigative reporting.)

But shoot at this messenger and she will shoot back (figuratively speaking, of course, as we know how stupid the political-correctness can get these days).

And really, if Ray Criscoe truly wants to encourage his readership to comment, then perhaps he needs to drop the "we're gonna sue you for libel" act (don't just take my word for it - PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF about SLAPP-suit tactics) that FAILED SO SPECTACULARLY for Randolph Hospital, and STOP trying to INTIMIDATE people into silence (it really does bring back the memories of back in the early days, when Mike Bridges quizzed angry parents about what I had told them . . . or Bob Morrison told nurses they'd be deposed or disciplined if they spoke up). 

Because . . .

(1)  It's a despicable FEAR tactic unworthy of a real journalist.
(2)  It aint' gonna work on this already battle-scarred home-girl.

As for "free speech" at the Courier, I'll believe in that when I don't have to log in 47 different times in order to read or comment on the stories . . . when I don't have to fight the SPAM filter with all of the stupid rules . . . when I don't have to drop the caps and the links . . . when I don't have to ask someone else to post a question/comment because I can't log on . . . and when I don't have to worry about being banned because what I'm saying (which happens to be the truth and he knows it) puts Ray's short-shorts in a wad.

I might also believe free speech is alive and well at the Courier when someone returns my phone calls & e-mails in an equal fashion to readers like the mysterious "Beth Smith" (apparently, she's on speed-dial) . . . fair play and an even hand being SOOOOOOO important to the Courier's Editor.

We'll close with another excerpt from Ray's 2008 editorial:

If you visited here, you'd see regular folks like yourself, hard-working people trying to make an honest living.  They raise families, they volunteer in the community, they love their country and their jobs.  Some are liberal, but in our building, most are conservative.  No that either matters, because they try to keep their politics out of their work, and they have editors who make sure they do.

You see, many one our current staff are seasoned veterans who have nothing but the utmost integrity.  I've known them for years and believe in every one of them.  So, again, if you question any of my workers' integrity, you'd better have some evidence with you.

Once upon a time Mary Johnson practiced Pediatrics in Asheboro.  She was an ordinary hard-working idealistic girl who went away and got the education and "made good".  And in coming home, she just wanted to make an honest living - be near her family - and do right by her patients.  She loved her job.  She volunteered her services to the community.  She loved her country.

She paid her dues and then some.

But while serving an NHSC obligation, under the administration of President Bill Clinton (precursor to the utterly-clueless Barack Obama), somehow things went horribly wrong.  She was fired by the "non-profit" she worked for . . . her practice and all she had worked for destroyed (because she had answered a nurse's phone call and done the right thing by a dying baby whose life she saved) . . . courtesy of overpaid suits motivated by greed and malice. 

In her attempts to be vindicated & restored, Mary Johnson played by ALL the rules, but it was impossible to prevail when no one else was paying any attention to them.

In fighting the battle, Dr. Mary Johnson, Pediatrician to other women's children, never got to have children of her own - or raise a family.  Opportunities that were once hers for the asking turned to ash in the raging fire of Randolph Hospital's BRUTAL retaliation.

It was, IN FACT, Ray Criscoe's JOB as a journalist to tell her story . . . to balance the local scales of justice, and to help her hold those abusing their power accountable.

Instead, Ray Criscoe, Editor of the Courier-Tribune, pretended she didn't exist.  He sold his soul to the boys writing the advertising checks at Randolph.  His reporters SNICKERED and PLAYED DEAD. 

Integrity, Ray?  Credibility?  Tell me another good one.

As for evidence, I've "brung it", Ray.  The problem is that you are fundamentally UNARMED.  In terms of blogging and commenting on news stories, you're five years late to the party . . . and you're acting like a toddler who left the hot water running for too long, stuck his toe in the tub and jerked it back because it's scalding.  You cannot take the heat that years of the see/hear/smell no evil act have brought to your newspaper's doorstep. 

FOR EVERY DAY OF GOING ON TWELVE YEARS, I'VE ALREADY SEEN HOW YOUR OPERATION WORKS.  I cannot get that time back. 

What's more, Ray, despite all of my e-mails and phone calls - and blogging for five years - I'VE NOT "VISITED" BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER INVITED ME IN.

Maybe if you told your readership the truth you'd have enough readers to tell the advertisers to take a hike.

In closing, Dr. Mary Johnson is a seasoned veteran of the blogosphere now, and she is going to chase Ray Criscoe (and the Steven's Media Group, if necessary) to Hell and back . . . and eat a sandwich . . . and chase them some more . . . until they start doing right by her and this town . . . a town Forbes magazine put on life support in 2008.

Once more thing, Mr. Criscoe.  The fight for justice is NOT rooted in malice, but righteous indignation & rage (I so get the people flinging tea) that ANYONE could have been treated as sorrily by a mill town proclaiming "small town values" as I have been.  It is very simply about what is right and what is wrong. 

And for twelve years, you've been totally, utterly in the wrong.

You've allowed REAL bullies to flourish.

Afterthought:  Come to think of it, this post looks like a pretty good rebuttal to me.