There are two letters in the Concord Monitor this morning attacking Allan Herschlag for writing his letter about Doris Ballard and alleged conflicts of interest, a letter posted here earlier this week.
It should be noted that the two letterwriters have a connection [or previous connection] to ConcordTV/CCTV and at least one of them has been a point person in keeping this scandal from seeing the light of day.
Lorrie Carey, one of the letterwriters, used to have a talk show on a local radio station where I was the news director. She was also a Town Crier columnist offering Boscawen notes for a long time at the Monitor.
I always thought she was a pretty decent person until I started sniffing around at the CCTV scandal story. Then she seemed to turn on me and become extremely cold. She never said, "Don't look at the story" or "I have something to tell you about this story," she just seemed to change overnight. It struck me as odd at the time, but whatever. Life is too short to worry about ruffled feathers.
When I first began investigating this story, I was looking to see if it was a serious one. It seemed to be because many of the people involved in it had collected a lot of information about the problems there. But, at the same time, you never know with these things.
However, another thing happened along the way which solidified my intent to really get at the heart of the matter.
During one of my conversations with former City Manager Duncan Ballantyne, collecting audio for other stories, I asked him about the CCTV situation and a petition circulating to have the city council establish better oversight of the media access center. It seemed like a reasonable idea. I had noticed that the channels didn't seem to be all they could be. The tape quality was inferior. The same 20 shows seemed to repeat over and over again. Also, other cities and towns had pretty good oversight of PEG stations. For whatever reason, our city council was not really offering any true oversight [and, frankly, still doesn't]. So, why not discuss the idea, right?
Ballantyne immediately asked to go off-the-record. I said, Sure, and shut off my mp3 recorder.
Sidebar: I only share these off-the-record comments now because Ballantyne is no longer employed by the city and no longer lives in the state.
He then asked me, point blank, "Why are you looking at this story?"
Oh my goodness, I thought, he isn't going to tell me to not look at it, is he? That's the worst thing a source can do to a reporter.
I said, "Well, I find it interesting that the chairman of the city Republicans along with other conservatives had joined an officer with the city Democrats to work together on this issue. That never happens. That makes it a story."
Ballantyne stated that there was nothing to the story and didn't say anything else about it.
Wrong answer Duncan.
Since I had already talked to the sources, had a copy of their documents, and a list of other documents and information they were seeking, I said to Duncan, "Well, I'll be the judge of that. I'd like to see the following documents ..."
And the story went from there. Or, in this case, it went nowhere, since the documents were never released and we still don't know about a bunch of stuff involved with this scandal.
This, despite Anthony "Skip" Tenczar saying, "We have nothing to hide!" during a CCTV board meeting [After that board meeting, I requested specific documents and those documents were never released. We have nothing to hide my ass!]
This, despite Carey saying during the Rules Committee's single hearing that this had been "looked at and looked at," over and over again, even though it has never been looked at properly. During the hearing, Carey leveled libelous and malicious attacks against anyone questioning them.
And yet, when I stood up before the Rules Committee to state that the problem with the entire situation was the fact that no one would release any of pertinent records or documents which had been sought for years, my testimony was instantly shut down by then-City Councilor Kathy Rogers, who was inappropriately chairing the committee hearing.
Again, one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us.
So, when you see these kinds of letters in the newspaper, attacking a truth seeker like Herschlag, always remember that there is another side to the story ... and another side to the letterwriter too.
It should be noted that the two letterwriters have a connection [or previous connection] to ConcordTV/CCTV and at least one of them has been a point person in keeping this scandal from seeing the light of day.
Lorrie Carey, one of the letterwriters, used to have a talk show on a local radio station where I was the news director. She was also a Town Crier columnist offering Boscawen notes for a long time at the Monitor.
I always thought she was a pretty decent person until I started sniffing around at the CCTV scandal story. Then she seemed to turn on me and become extremely cold. She never said, "Don't look at the story" or "I have something to tell you about this story," she just seemed to change overnight. It struck me as odd at the time, but whatever. Life is too short to worry about ruffled feathers.
When I first began investigating this story, I was looking to see if it was a serious one. It seemed to be because many of the people involved in it had collected a lot of information about the problems there. But, at the same time, you never know with these things.
However, another thing happened along the way which solidified my intent to really get at the heart of the matter.
During one of my conversations with former City Manager Duncan Ballantyne, collecting audio for other stories, I asked him about the CCTV situation and a petition circulating to have the city council establish better oversight of the media access center. It seemed like a reasonable idea. I had noticed that the channels didn't seem to be all they could be. The tape quality was inferior. The same 20 shows seemed to repeat over and over again. Also, other cities and towns had pretty good oversight of PEG stations. For whatever reason, our city council was not really offering any true oversight [and, frankly, still doesn't]. So, why not discuss the idea, right?
Ballantyne immediately asked to go off-the-record. I said, Sure, and shut off my mp3 recorder.
Sidebar: I only share these off-the-record comments now because Ballantyne is no longer employed by the city and no longer lives in the state.
He then asked me, point blank, "Why are you looking at this story?"
Oh my goodness, I thought, he isn't going to tell me to not look at it, is he? That's the worst thing a source can do to a reporter.
I said, "Well, I find it interesting that the chairman of the city Republicans along with other conservatives had joined an officer with the city Democrats to work together on this issue. That never happens. That makes it a story."
Ballantyne stated that there was nothing to the story and didn't say anything else about it.
Wrong answer Duncan.
Since I had already talked to the sources, had a copy of their documents, and a list of other documents and information they were seeking, I said to Duncan, "Well, I'll be the judge of that. I'd like to see the following documents ..."
And the story went from there. Or, in this case, it went nowhere, since the documents were never released and we still don't know about a bunch of stuff involved with this scandal.
This, despite Anthony "Skip" Tenczar saying, "We have nothing to hide!" during a CCTV board meeting [After that board meeting, I requested specific documents and those documents were never released. We have nothing to hide my ass!]
This, despite Carey saying during the Rules Committee's single hearing that this had been "looked at and looked at," over and over again, even though it has never been looked at properly. During the hearing, Carey leveled libelous and malicious attacks against anyone questioning them.
And yet, when I stood up before the Rules Committee to state that the problem with the entire situation was the fact that no one would release any of pertinent records or documents which had been sought for years, my testimony was instantly shut down by then-City Councilor Kathy Rogers, who was inappropriately chairing the committee hearing.
Again, one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us.
So, when you see these kinds of letters in the newspaper, attacking a truth seeker like Herschlag, always remember that there is another side to the story ... and another side to the letterwriter too.
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