Reports Of Death Of North Country Gazette Exaggerated
Posted on Wednesday, 8 of July , 2009 at 3:09 pm
COMMENTARY
By June Maxam
After hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal, American author and humorist Mark Twain wrote that “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.
The same can be said for the false reports currently being circulated about the death of The North Country Gazette, most recently by a disgruntled member of the Thurman Town Board, Councilman James Ligon.
These false reports are obviously being perpetuated by some individuals, mostly public officials, who wish The North Country Gazette would go away as well as some others in the news business such as the Times Union’s business writer Chris Churchill.
And then there’s anti-abortionist Steven Ertelt of LifeNews and the defunct website known as badcopnews.com. They teamed up to have The North Country Gazette removed from the Internet, even filing repeated false reports to WhoIs and engaging in other ways to try and silence the voice of The North Country Gazette and detrimentally affect its revenues.
We echo Mark Twain’s statement that the reports of the demise of The North Country Gazette are greatly exaggerated.
In recent weeks, due to the repeated abuses by some visitors and continued pilfering of NCG’s original work by others without permission, attribution or compensation, it has become necessary to limit access to the website. First time visitors are welcome. Thereafter it is accessible only by subscription.
Some who may have abused the privilege and who don’t have a subscription likely do not have access to the website. Anyone who feels that they should be able to access to website and cannot is asked to contact news@northcountrygazette.org
Unfortunately, in the past couple of weeks, there have also been repeated outages of the website due to service interruptions caused by our current webhost which are beyond our control and frustrate us probably more than anyone else, especially since there’s the phony 99.9% uptime guarantee.
For nearly four years, The North Country Gazette has published virtually daily, taking only limited time off. Last week, NCG announced it was going on vacation for the July 4th holiday and that vacation has continued into this week. Even though on vacation, on several occasions we have posted important local news such as several highway fatalities and other issues.
On Wednesday morning, we received a phone call advising us that Ligon and his blog had published a false report of the demise of The North Country Gazette. Ligon, who is apparently a supporter of Thurman supervisor Lawrence “Red” Pitkin, was obviously miffed about a recent exclusive published at the NCG about convicted former Thurman supervisor John Haskell circulating Republican nominating petitions for his own candidacy. As a convicted felon, even if he were elected, he couldn’t serve. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/06/26/haskell_running/
At the time the article was written, Pitkin had reportedly made his announcement in political circles, according to an extremely reliable source, that he was not going to seek election to the post. He had been appointed after Haskell’s conviction and violation of Haskell’s oath of office disqualified him from holding public office.
Now Pitkin claims he’s seeking election and town board member Ligon is promoting him all the way.
The intimidation and threats in Thurman politics have become so bad that Councilwoman Ruth Keller, the one person on the town board who had enough honesty and integrity to blow the whistle on Haskell, has been forced out of office. She has resigned. Informed sources tell NCG that she and others have been threatened, are being followed and are in fear that their property will be damaged. However, they are so much in fear of retaliation if they speak out that they have not made a police report.
Other sources tell NCG that some voters have allegedly been threatened with the loss of services and benefits if they don’t sign certain nominating petitions. One individual even relates that he was told that it could be determined for whom he voted.
Mark Twain also said that “the only way for a newspaper person to look at a politician is down” and that certainly holds true in Thurman.
When The North Country Gazette tried to post a comment on Ligon’s blog to refute his statement that NCG had gone out of business, it was rejected. A few minutes later, Ligon contacted NCG’s publisher and said he had removed the offensive post which was a strong endorsement of Pitkin.
Our comment follows:
“Contrary to Mr. Ligon’s false report, The North Country Gazette is NOT out of business. Guess he’ll do anything to get a vote for Red Pitkin. And if Mr. Ligon can’t access the website, perhaps he abused his privilege.
“Apparently it’s time for NCG to use its well known investigatory powers and efforts to take a real strong look at Thurman and its politics. Anyone who has information about the alleged corruption that’s been ongoing in Thurman for a very long time, including having Gary Hobbs as an interim town justice, contact us at news@northcountrygazette.org NCG is taking a long overdue and much needed vacation until next week—but we always have time to took a look at corrupt politicians and Thurman seems to have a fair share of them”.
The North Country Gazette is also examining reports that the former town attorney, Thomas Clements of The Clements Firm in Glens Falls, may have improperly billed the taxpayers for allegedly representing Haskell in the criminal charges. Such would be improper. NCG is also investigating reports of alleged irregularities in the real property tax bills of Thurman with some non-resident property owners even being charged for non-existent buildings on their property.
Anyone with verifiable information concerning operations in Thurman government and politics is asked to contact news@northcountrygazette.org. 7-8-09
First time visitors are welcome at The North Country Gazette. Thereafter, a subscription is required to gain access.
Category: Adirondacks, Business, Consumers, Government, Internet, Media, New York State, Opinion, Politics, Real Estate, Taxes, Warren County
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