A Shake-Up At The Top Of Stephens Media (And A 2007 Letter To Courier Tribune, Editor, Ray Criscoe, That Would Indicate More Shake-ups Are Needed Closer To Home)

I've been hammering the local journalists pretty hard over the last few weeks.

As regular readers know, the Courier Tribune's website (under the stalwart leadership of Asheboro's own last-bastion-of-local-journalistic-integrity-&-credibility, Ray Criscoe) will become a paid site as of 5 PM today.

I think it's appropriate to commemorate the day by taking another look at this September 19th Housecalls' post . . . and the story of Pat & Mike Bradshaw, proprietors of Peachtree Street Produce . . .  and their battle with the City of Asheboro over its preferential treatment/taxpayer-funded support of the local Farmer's market.

Their story mirrors my own twelve-year battle with "non-profit" Randolph Hospital - whose every evil deed to (1) cover up some Cone-owned medical badness and (2) snuff out private Pediatric competition was subsidized by the public's dime . . . all the while with Ray Criscoe & company determinedly looking the other way.

This "newspaper" houses a bunch of Michelangelos in terms of the lie-of-omission.

I had hoped that with a new publisher (Diane Winemueller), who did not have her head buried up "the right people's" recto-sigmoid colons, that "journalism" in Asheboro would finally change.

And for a time, it actually appeared that the Stephens Media Group, the Courier's "parent company" (whose self-professed area of journalistic expertise is providing "hyper-local" news coverage in small towns), had gotten the message.  The Courier's website (a long-neglected disaster of Titanic proportions) was steadily improving, and stories were even, for a time, opened up to comments.

Opening up to comments was especially important, as Asheboro (light-years behind surrounding areas - and competitors - in terms of the online presence & savvy of its citizens), was finally starting to see ordinary people (with and without pseudonyms) talk back to the powers-that-be . . .

. . .  which, when you get right down to it, is the primary function and mission of the press (aka "fourth estate") in this country . . . and that is to be the ordinary citizen's voice . . . to "represent" us in a way no elected official can or does anymore . . . to speak truth to power . . .  and to be our last, best defense against tyranny.

But now, as Ray puts up the glass pay-walls at his newspaper (after an uber-lame attempt to label his critics "cyber-bullies"), the doors have once again slammed shut. 

Of course, when a door shuts on the Internet, many Windows open elsewhere (hey, I think I just made a pun!).

I think that what Ray is doing . . . and especially the fact that he's doing it now - after giving Asheboro a tiny taste of what a real newspaper could be . . . is a colossal mistake for his newspaper and our town . . . a town that Forbes Magazine declared to be on life-support back in 2008.

The powers-that-be at the Stephens Media Group have long known there were big problems with the newspaper in Asheboro, but FOR YEARS chose to do nothing about them.  David Renfro (husband to Bonnie Renfro, over at the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation) was simply a mouthpiece for the mill-town elite and corporate order in Asheboro.  Circulation dwindled as disgusted readers stopped writing checks for the privilegd of being fed most-favored press releases and re-hashed AP reports.

And the town literally all-but-died . . . courtesy of all of the bigshots with their MBA's.

(Mike Miller's "stewardship" of First National Bank/Community One . . . and his subsequent appointment as President of Pfeiffer University is a prime example.  If we had a newspaper that was worth a damn . . . a newspaper that really listened to the people . . . a newspaper that had the cahones to tell Keith Crisco, N.C. Commerce Secretary and public servant, that maybe it would have been MORE appropriate for him to silently sit this one out - instead of bending-over-backwards to afford Miller a very soft landing he most certainly does NOT deserve - while his shareholders and customers back in Asheboro weep.)  

It's interesting to note that, as of Friday, there was a big shake-up at the highest echelons of the Stephens Media Group, again, the Courier Tribune's "parent company". 

Indeed, the Courier is the only paper owned & operated by Stephens Media in North Carolina.  As far as I can tell (since I am banned), they've not reported the shake-up on their own website.

As reported by the Las Vegas Sun, Sherman Frederick was replaced as the CEO of the media conglomerate (and stepped down from his position as publisher of the the group's flagship paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal). 

Meanwhile, Bob Brown, an ad executive, replaced Frederick as CEO of Stephens Media.

In other words, a "journalist" (I used the term loosely given my own experience with the Courier Tribune) was replaced with a businessman. 

I'm thinking that this development does not bode well for we hyper-local readers, UNLESS the businessman realizes that it's good business and better journalism to stop sucking up to the big advertisers (the Courier's business model for almost twenty years) and start investigating and telling everyone's stories again.

All the advertisers in the world don't make a hill-of-beans-of-difference unless people are buying your product.

And, as I reminded the Greensboro News & Record's John Robinson just yesterday, in order to buy your product, they have to TRUST your product.

Which brings me back to Ray Criscoe and the Courier Tribune.

I think it's very appropriate on this monumental day for Ray's newspaper and parent company, to post a copy of a 2007 letter sent directly to him by Pat & Mike Bradshaw's Greensboro attorney . . . questioning the actions of Courier Tribune reporter, Chip Womick, during a February 2006 Asheboro City Council meeting.

Those actions mirror the same problems I've encountered in getting my own story covered . . . like no one from the hometown daily showing up to cover protests I staged in front of the hospital back in 2004 . . . and like JD Walker putting down her pen when I subsequently appeared before the Asheboro City Council (Item #25) and PLEADED for their help in holding a "non-profit" hospital accountable for its amoral/unethical/illegal misdeeds . . . only to see them give the hospital a half-million dollars of the people's money a very short time later in order to help fund a cancer center we didn't really need here.

My Father spoke at that meeting as well.  But the subject of my family's experience on the butt-end of "small town values" will be held back as the subject for an upcoming BLISTERING post on Asheboro's notions of  "Home and Heart".

I gave at the office of Randolph Medical Associates.

Today we will look at the lawyer's letter - which stands on its own and speaks volumes about what the Courier has tried to pass off as journalism for so long. 

(Please be advised that in transcribing the letter on this blog, I have added some commas and caps here and there . . . played with some syntax - mostly for purposed of clarification . . . and corrected the spelling of Ray's last name . . . which was mis-spelled by the lawyer, but the letter is otherwise copied word for word):

March 23, 2007

Office of the Editor
Courier Tribune
500 Sunset Avenue
Asheboro, North Carolina
Attention:  Mr. Criscoe

Re:  City Council Meeting
       February 9, 2006
       Editorial Independence

Dear Mr. Criscoe,

Please be advised that I represent Ms. Patrician Bradshaw, who owns a business at and near the Farmer's Market located in Asheboro, North Carolina.  I am enclosing herein, for your review, a copy of the transcript generated by the City Council on February 9th, 2006 at it's 7:00 o'clock meeting.  You will note that (in) Item Seven (7) of the agenda for that meeting, Mrs. Bradshaw was called upon and had sought permission to address the Council concerning rules and regulations and the operation of the Farmer's Market.  You will note in the transcript of the meeting that she did, in fact, do that, and did so very forcefully.  You will also note that there was quite a bit of off-the-record commentary about her character.  We find this to be very disturbing that a Council, supposedly elected by the people and sworn to represent all, can manifest itself from alliance such that the presentations of well-meaning citizens are subject to ridicule and are not given the serious consideration that they so rightfully deserve. 

Perhaps even more disturbing that, however, are comments that are set forth at the very end of the transcript concerning your reporter, Chip Womick.  The comments there would indicate that Mr. Womick was somehow manipulated so as not to be available when certain segments or commentary or certain presentations were made to the board/Council which apparently the board/Council would prefer not to go beyond the chambers of the Council itself.  I would think that this would raise a very disturbing set of issues for the Courier Tribune in that it would clearly appear that the Tribune - and certainly at least its reporters, who are charged with being independent and covering the public interest by covering the City Council, are now being manipulated such that one would have to question their objectivity and certainly would have to questions whether or not they are being given full access to all information which the public has a right to know.

Further, there are implications that Mr. Womick was somehow hired by a member or members of the Council to cause him to be required to be some place at or about the same time his job with The Courier would have had him covering the city's business.

As a representative of a citizen of Asheboro, I am very much concerned about this.  We wish to have this matter looked into further by you, and we would be anxious to see what explanation the Council and/or Mr. Womick can offer for the strange set of circumstances that occurred on the evening of February, 9th 2006.  Your immediate and ongoing attention to this matter is appreciated, and this is also a matter we think would interest other newspapers around this area which also have representatives/reporters covering Council meetings.  We look forward to hearing from you on this matter at your earliest convenience.  Thank you.

Very Truly Yours,

Kenneth M. Johnson
Attorney and Counselor at Law

Now, when it comes to the Bradshaw's case against the city, I haven't read anything but thinly-veiled hatchet jobs in Mr. Criscoe's Courier Tribune.  What We-The-People haven't gotten is ANY KIND of plausible explanation as to what was going on at that meeting in 2006 . . . and what can be heard on the City's own tape-recordings.

WHY did Chip Womick walk out of that meeting at PRECISELY the time Pat Bradshaw stood up to speak?  Was he really "hired" to walk out by a member of the City Council (a Council which included N.C. Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco) or the City Manager?  And if Womick was bought off (as the chatter on the tape clearly indicates), WHY is he still employed by a newspaper that professes to be a tower of journalistic integrity and credibility?

Indeed, WHY is Ray Criscoe, the man who got this letter yet never answered the questions, still employed?

Putting up a glass pay wall now turns out to be a variation on a long-running theme.  It's bad enough when you have to pay-to-be-heard.  But now Asheboro's citizens have to pay to know only what Ray wants them to know.

I feel the Bradshaw's pain.  For in addition to J.D. Walker's sudden hand spasm during the Council meeting where I presented my case in 2004, way back in 1999 - when I (as a physician formerly in public service) sued Randolph Hospital's wholly-owned "controlled affiliate" . . . my family and I were told that my lawsuit was "unworthy" of newspaper coverage because my issues with the hospital amounted to a lowly "employment matter". 

Yeah.  Right. 

It was "only" an employment matter where A HOMEGROWN PEDIATRICIAN IN STATE & FEDERAL SERVICE WAS FIRED FOR STANDING UP TO THREATS AND DOING HER JOB/THE RIGHT THING BY A PATIENT - AND THEN BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON A SENTINEL EVENT!!!

EVERY STATE & FEDERAL MEDICAL REGULATORY BODY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY UNDER THE SUN HAS PLAYED DEAD!?!

But there's nothing to see there.  Move on along. 

(The lame excuse actually sounds a lot like Blogsboro's deep-blue and oh-so-progressive Cones and We101 Wizards and Polinksys . . . not-to-mention our local Cyber-stalkers-defended-by-City-Council-members telling me that my story, in this era of healthcare "reform" driven by clueless politicians, is "irrelevant" . . . or I am somehow "crazy" for spitting in small-town corruption's eye.)

It's funny how the Courier's story suddenly CHANGED when Randolph Hospital SLAPP-sued me for "libel" the following year.  That lawsuit was reported as front-page news and the "news" was that I was a liar.  David Renfro was ALL about covering Randolph Hospital's tail.

But when the news was that Randolph Hospital had to run screaming from the Courtroom a year after that . . . the news that I had been VINDICATED was once again relegated to a second-page "short-take".

And the news that, as a good-Pediatrician-run-out-of-town-for-doing-the-right-thing-by-a-very-sick-newborn-baby, I was SWINDLED at that 2001 settlement by over-paid, over-rated, non-profit executives who very boldly walked into a Court proceeding and negotiated a deal on a pack of LIES . . . and who have so far not been held accountable by ANYONE (in other words, their rubber-stamp Board of Directors, JCAHO, the Medical Board, the state of North Carolina, or the IRS) . . . has not been reported at all.

After getting professionally & personally eviscerated for doing my job the right way . . . for doing EXACTLY what all of those smug, self-righteous Polinksys and Cones and Smith-Jrs. and Martins and Bells and Schmidlys and Criscoes and Robinsons would have expected if the very sick baby had been their child . . . it would be really swell to see people who have snickered and spit and turned their backs started getting their comeuppance for doing their job the wrong way.

This newspaper does not play fair.  The Courier Tribune might as well be printed in Communist Russia before the walls fell.  Our hometown branch of the Stephens Media Group has NO integrity and ZERO credibility.

And I'm sorry, citizens of Asheboro.  This is NOT justice.  And it's for damned sure not journalism. 

With apologies to my sainted Mother (I am trying, Mama), IT IS BULLSH*T!!!

My question to Diane Winnemuller and the "new & improved" Stephens Media Group - with all of its new leaders - is, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?