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Will the real Independent please stand up?
Posted on February 29, 2008 by Michael Ballway
Filed Under Clinton, Mike's posts |
Patrick Brodrick’s got it good.
In less than a year, he’s gone from reporter at our “prison-like and soul-crushing” newspaper, the Times & Courier, to “King of All Clinton Media,” with a local access TV show and a widely read, if often inflammatory, local opinion blog, The Local Independent. (Want the full story? Get it from him.)
Now he’s an object of that sincerest form of flattery, imitation, with the advent of TheLocalIndependent.com. Only don’t bother clicking on that link, as it appears, as of 6 p.m. Friday, to redirect to Google.com.
Fortunately for us soul-crushing press types, Google has a wonderful feature that preserves “cached” versions of old Web pages to be perused at a later date. Thus can we bring you the explanation of why the “The Indy” — the second Independent — was founded:
… [W]e here at the Indy Dot Com will report the truth, not some vile Thompsonesque gonzo rabble that is just there to denigrate our elected officials for the political gain of others. The Indy will report news in black and white and perhaps even our reflections on the vigilante Bloggers latest lies … Independent indeed!
Check out the rest of their “About the Indy” page for more along this vein. The only “article” from TheLocalIndependent.com that we could find on short notice was this piece presumably from November 2007, and presumably responding to this Brodrick blog post from that month. The article tells the story of a 3-2 vote in a way that makes selectmen Fiorentino, Notaro and Pasquale look favorable, and selectmen Dickhaut and Haley look ineffectual at best.
The question now is — who’s behind all this?
It’s worth recalling that once, in the past, Brodrick shut down his site, only to reopen a week or so later, after allegedly being threatened with a libel suit. He said at the time he had an “in my bones” suspicion of five people that might be behind the threat.
Ken MacGray, over at ClintonMass.com, thinks Selectman Selectman Joe Notaro Jr. — a frequent target of Brodrick’s ire — is behind the new site. According to Whois.net, The Local Independent Dot Com was registered Nov. 12, 2007, and is currently run by a “Jesco Inc.” of Devenwood Lane, in the Woodlands (Notaro lives on Chace Street).
It bears noting that Whois’ database was updated today at 5:45 p.m. — our information may be different from what Ken had when he posted at 4:53. It also bears noting whose name shows up in the URL for the rifle range story. This doesn’t prove anything, but it’s suspicious.
In the meantime, far be it from the prison warden to criticize the rhetoric of an ex-inmate, but methinks he doth protest too much at “The Indy dot com’s” comparison between him and countercultural newsman Hunter S. Thompson — after all, he did it first. And it doesn’t take too much imagination to visualize Brodrick giddy over the attention and the fact that he’s doing what he used to do every week at this address — stir the pot in the Clinton political stew he loves so much.
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4 Responses to “Will the real Independent please stand up?”
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So much cloak and dagger for a small town — definitely good reason not to drink the water!
So, what’s the big deal??
I imagine that it’s a world of fun being the local punching bag for the ravings of an unhinged blogger. I mean, if you read the “stuff” on the “localindependent.com”, you get the picture that the “author” holds some kind of grudge, personal or political, against three of the Clinton Selectmen with Italian surnames. And with Joe Notaro in particular.
I know that I fell within the blogger’s crosshairs and gravitational pull back in December after I had proposed an alternative energy study commission…I was “reminded” of my apparent transgressions (at least in the eyes of the blogger) in regards to some posts in the past on a local discussion forum in a random screed about me on the blog site. This deep investigative “journalist”-cum-opinionizer took me to task and feels like he did Clinton a favor by getting me defeated in a past political race. Tsk, tsk. Oh well…
If Joe was responsible for the ersatz “independent” site, then more power to him. Who can blame him for trying to get the truth out there? To constantly receive criticism and have libelous sludge thrown at you for no apparent reason must be all at once frustrating and maddening. I know that the “opinions” on that site are juvenile and slanderous — and I laughed off the attack on me after an expletive or two under my breath. I tend to liken it to the ape house shower that I referred to in my latest Times/Courier column. You just can’t account for jealousy…or whatever the emotion is that motivates such actions!
This whole brouhaha is a tempest in a tea pot my friends…let’s all take a deep breath and hopefully the “blogger” can see fit to put the heaping handfuls of feces down and let cooler heads prevail!
And Noah, I agree completely…I drink the bottled stuff…I’m hedging my bets so as not to become a Clinton political pod person!
(Sorry for the damnable alliteration!!)
If people in this town focused on the real issues and problems that affect all of us, instead of trying to slander and libel those that are making a real difference, the town could do amazing things. Folks wonder why no one gives a ‘dam’, well if you do try to make things better, by following the laws in this town you are crucified for being different and not doing things the ‘old way’. It is time for folks to wake up and look at the facts and not listen to the BS.
Tony and Noah, we’ve never drank the water in town without proper filtration to remove all the contaminates. Take a scientist’s opinion and install an RO system. There IS something in the water, just look around.
I think it’s pathetic that who I thought had one of the most professional non basis opions when it came to reporting has turned into a one sided Davey verses Goliath brute with regards to his new career as a blogger. I am ashamed to say in this day and age with technology as easy as it appears I am unable to get thru the basics of computer 101 , but with patience and deligence and the help of my college student daughters I will prevail, but my god all this energy over nothing ! All I can say is Pat Broderick says alot of fancy nothings in his opinions , and he definitely is way off track with his facts , and so what if one person was smarter than he was with regards to this blogg crap ! Who owns what, who writes what ! Enough ! If you are going to follow politics be fair, report things fairly, and don’t cast shadows on every little thing you hear, remember Pat you pride yourself on freedom of speech- maybe you should practice what you preach ! I know at the end of every day I have NO TROUBLE LOOKING IN THE MIRROR at bed time, can you say that ??? Because you’ve become anything but fair !