We are posting the Wilmington Journal's editorial in its entirety because we are so excited about the paper's dedication to the truth and so ashamed of how the Star News ignored it.
OUR VOICE, ''ON JULIA, WE TOLD YOU SO!'', WEEK OF NOVEMBER 20-26, 2008
by EDITORIAL STAFF
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 11/25/2008
Well, well, well! It took a while, but finally the ''great'' minds at the StarNews have seen the light when it comes to Sen. Julia Boseman.
Earlier this week, the major newspaper of record here went after Boseman for the scandal surrounding her alleged swindling of a poor family in a mobile home deal she made with them three years ago.
That family now stands to lose its home because it's being foreclosed on, and the ''Honorable'' State Senator Julia Boseman - who is also a real estate attorney when she's not using the n-word, lying to adoption agencies or threatening former legal partners with personal ruination - hasn't displayed the basic character or moral decency to come forward and explain her actions.
The Star News, which did next to nothing in reporting the many controversies surrounding this train wreck of a public official before the paper endorsed Boseman for a third term (something The Journal absolutely refused to do), acted like a lover betrayed (something Boseman has had extensive experience doing to many others), when it took her backside to the woodshed.
We invite you to join us now in feasting on what has to be some of the most verbose hypocrisy this side of the Alaskan governor's office.
''…[S]he needs to explain why she deserves to keep her seat,'' an embarrassed Star News opined. ''Many of her constituents think she should resign, and that sentiment will grow unless she can provide a strong argument to the contrary.''
Gee, didn't The Journal say that last June and July?
''Voters knew going into the Nov. 4 election that the Democratic state senator has faced serious personal and financial difficulties, including foreclosures on property she owned independently as well as with her former domestic partner before their bitter breakup. She should have known better than to insist that these were personal matters not worthy of public discussion. She's a public official, and how she conducts her personal business speaks to her character and qualifications for office.''
Oh, cut it out, if you truly believed that ''how [Sen. Boseman] conducts her personal business speaks to her character and qualifications for office,'' you would have dutifully reported the sworn damaging testimony about this loser from her explosive three-day December 2007 child custody hearing…IN December 2007, because you had a reporter RIGHT THERE IN THE COURTROOM all three days, but decided sworn testimony about Boseman's excessive drinking, illegal drug usage as a public official, lewd behavior in public and of course, obscene racist language in front of her family and young child that even her own attorney admitted during the proceedings, were simply allegations against an elected official you felt didn't merit public disclosure during an election year.
Outstanding journalism we could all ''learn'' from.
Then, after trying to justify why the paper has been covering up for Boseman all of this time (''Boseman has generally represented New Hanover County well.'' Not if you're Black, StarNews, NOT if you're Black), our city's ''friend to all fresh fish'' then recounted how the lease-to-own agreement Boseman made with a family may end up seeing them $35,000 poorer and living in the woods because their bottom-of-the-barrel landlord (Boseman) is being foreclosed on.
She took their money, but didn't keep up with the payments required on the property, thus forcing the foreclosure.
Now how darn dirty is that?!!!
The Star News says despite assurances from Boseman's ''mouthpiece'' (aka Tom Keating, her former campaign manager and apparent rhetorical butler) that the bank will work out something with the family (which will be interesting given that one of the parents has been out of work for three months), Boseman needs to act like an honorable leader.
''If she leaves this family in the lurch,'' it concludes, ''she's not worthy of her constituents' trust.''
So let's get this straight - only now, when a poor, innocent family who trusted attorney Julia Boseman for their very shelter, is looking down the loaded barrel of a cold weather eviction notice thanks to her irresponsible behavior and twisted dishonest character, does our daily decide that Madame Boseman may be as trustworthy as Tokyo Rose.
The Star News, and everybody who supported Julia Boseman for reelection, only have themselves to blame for this travesty.
The Wilmington Journal has been sounding the alarm about how dishonest and untrustworthy Julia Boseman is for years. The Journal was the only media outlet in the state - Black or White - that read and researched every page of the court transcript from Boseman's December 2007 child custody hearing, and published what it learned.
While others were making excuses for her admitted pot smoking as a New Hanover County commissioner, failure to pay property taxes on several addresses or very dirty dancing with a female friend in full view of decent families at a motor speedway, The Journal detailed explosive sworn testimony from those who've known Julia Boseman best for the past 20 years.
The dark, deceitful, hateful and racist profile they collectively drew, coupled with the documented complete disregard Sen. Boseman has displayed toward the African-American community and its issues during her two useless terms, was something readers of The Wilmington Journal were well educated about.
Then, of course, the state allegations of forged signatures on Boseman's campaign finance reports, something she tried to explain away by saying she had ''authorization'' to write someone else's name on several legal documents without their knowledge.
Would you trust an attorney you knew pulled such stunts?
And during the election campaign, the continued way she tried to snow Black voters into believing that she cared about their interests with boldfaced lies that the Journal easily unraveled.
So when it came time to endorse for the 2008 elections, what did this newspaper advise its readers?
''Boseman, through her actions, behavior and complete disregard for her Black constituents these past four years, is someone we strongly feel never has deserved the trust and support of the African-American community.''
So please forgive us, those of you who supported Julia Boseman, if we just simply end this with a justified, ''We told you so!''
But one more thing, and you can take this to the bank.
The saga of Julia Boseman is nowhere near over, not by a longshot.
We still haven't heard from the state Board of Elections regarding its probe into the signature forgeries, which are felonies.
Boseman has to make good on a lot of promises she made to Black folks if she were reelected.
And, there's still plenty of time for a halfway decent attorney to contact that family Boseman stiffed out of their home.
After all, there's no better way to end a sad, sad story of a bad, bad person, than with a big, big lawsuit!
Don't you agree?
TOLD YOU SO!
3 comments:
Kudos to the Journal!!!!!!!
Thank Jesus someone is speaking the truth!
So what is the latest on Boseman? Is she being investigated for campaign troubles, ethics violations, etc.? What about Soles, we hear federal investigation but that's all.
How about the follow up?
OUR VOICE, THIN-SKINNED FAILURE, WEEK OF NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 3, 2008
by EDITORIAL STAFF
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 12/9/2008
To our readers, please consider this an open letter to the New York Times Company, which is the owner of the Wilmington StarNews.
You know, the ''major'' newspaper here that is a ''friend to all fresh fish.''
Dear NYT:
Hope things are going well for you guys up there in the Big Apple.
Let's get right to the point of this missive, shall we?
You own the Wilmington StarNews here in Wilmington, NC, and by all accounts, a paragon of exceptional hard-hitting journalism it IS NOT!
In fact, the only thing funnier than our daily fill of the ''StarBlues'' is a 2 a.m. rerun of the Andy Griffith Show�in black and white.
Everybody knows when he switched to color, Andy wasn't funny anymore.
Anyway, last week on the hallowed editorial page of this fine black newspaper, we generously blasted the StarNews for its miserable coverage of our state Sen. Julia Boseman, a just re-elected (thanks to your newspaper) sorry specimen of an elected official who loves to use the n-word around her minor child and play Russian Roulette with foreclosed properties she owns, especially when other families are living in them.
We find it interesting that a major national newspaper like yours that did its best to nail Sen. John McCain and his lousy presidential campaign to the wall (nice try), owns another newspaper (StarNews) that actually had a reporter present, IN a courtroom almost a year ago while sworn testimony about the true lack of character of our state senator is on display under oath, and yet not one blasted word of it was reported for six months until one of our local TV stations comes across a court transcript and reveals our Sen. Boseman admittedly enjoyed a little weed while serving our citizens as a local county commissioner.
Since we're all in the same business, we're going to assume that the NYT doesn't teach that kind of extraordinary kind of cover-up so-called ''journalism'' to the other newspapers you own.
Do you?
Anyway, the clown who made the decision to cover that story up for six months to help Sen. Boseman is long gone, and was replaced three months ago by your new StarNews Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin.
We have researched Ms. Tomlin's career, and find it interesting. Obviously you guys assigned her to this market to make the StarNews more than a warm blanket for cold fish.
So imagine our surprise when our Wilmington Journal office received an angry, unprofessional email from Executive Editor Tomlin this week, blasting us for a tough, no-holds-barred and most importantly, ACCURATE editorial that we published in our hard copy edition on Nov. 20 (remember that date, it will come up later on) about an earlier editorial the StarNews published that week blasting Sen. Boseman for remaining quiet while a family who paid her $35,000 in a purchase agreement was suddenly being foreclosed on.
Now, because Ms. Tomlin wrote that her nasty, insulting and Jay Leno-worthy missive is ''not for publication,'' we, being the professionals that we are, will certainly honor that. After all, Ms. Tomlin, loudmouth and all, is a colleague.
So we won't ''publish'' her letter.
But under fair use, we sure-as-shootin' are gonna quote parts of what she said, which we don't appreciate.
First Tomlin alleges that our Nov. 20th editorial had ''some serious factual errors,'' but she doesn't, like a well-trained seasoned journalist worthy of leading a NYT-owned newspaper, point out exactly what was inaccurate. Then she refers us to a Nov. 21 StarNews article that, according to Tomlin, contains ''the most current information regarding Boseman's dealings'' with the previously about-to-be-foreclosed on family.
Two problems - first, how are we supposed to incorporate ''current'' information from a Nov. 21st article into an editorial written Nov. 19 about a StarNews editorial published on Nov. 18th?
Even the NYT isn't THAT good!
For the record, while the family was able to work something out with the bank and get a mortgage (a fact that wasn't publicly evident when our editorial was written), our editorial was about the irresponsible predicament Boseman and her pattern of selfish actions put them in, in the first place, which was the basis of YOUR original editorial, StarNews!
Tomlin hit the roof NOT when our Nov. 20 hard copy hit the stands Nov. 20th, but when the editorial published on Nov. 20th went online several days later for those beyond Wilmington to read.
Folks online were reading our point of view as of Nov. 20 since we come out once a week. And even if the bank relented and worked with the family before it became public, the point of our Nov. 20 editorial still held - Boseman screwed that family, and the Star News, in our opinion, screwed the community by endorsing an irresponsible and scheming politician it took pride in covering up for.
Simple. Why the drama?
Then Ms. Tomlin, admitting that she's ''new to town,'' tells us that she's ''saddened by the petty tone of our editorial.''
Gee, in town for only three months, and your exec ed takes it personally when the black newspaper in these parts definitely delineates how her paper - BEFORE she got there - did the kind of sloppy cover-up reporting on Boseman only Sarah Palin could love, and then had the nerve and gall to endorse our two-term malcontent for re-election.
We assure you, if Katie Couric were running the StarNews instead of Tomlin, THAT wouldn't have happened (Greta, maybe, but definitely NOT Katie)!
Tomlin, in her annoying missive to this fine and outstanding black newspaper, then beats her chest like Mrs. Kong, defiantly declaring that, ''I do lead this newsroom'' and ''we've aggressively pursued this story.''
Bull! We've seen more about the REAL Julia Boseman in Popular Mechanics than we have in the StarNews over the past six months, and we have the documented record to prove it.
Amazingly, the StarNews, to this day, has barely touched many of the serious allegations under oath contained in the court transcript from her December 2007 child custody hearing that have nothing to do with the child, which we judiciously protected in our reporting.
When the Star News' ''journalists'' are too blasted lazy to pick up a court transcript to research it about an elected official running for re-election, or even publish the notes from the rocket scientist of a reporter you had sitting RIGHT THERE in the darn courtroom for all three days of explosive testimony, your newspaper DESERVES to be called out by someone who knows the real deal, and is NOT in the business of covering up for public officials your paper decides is the best candidate before the first early vote is cast.
So, Ms. Tomlin, that's either supreme ignorance and stupidity on the StarNews' part, or journalistic malpractice that deserves a good looking at by the parent company, in our opinion.
Either way, there's NO excuse for how the StarNews BEFORE you got there, literally COVERED UP for Julia Boseman.
NONE!
Now, if Exec Ed. Tomlin had just stopped at the water's edge of her complaint and left it there, we could understand.
But no, instead, homegirl gets personal, strongly insinuating that The Wilmington Journal doesn't separate news from opinion, and that her paper's reporting is ''free from the influence of bias and opinion.''
Then Madame Tomlin caps it with the cute, but immature and unprofessional line, ''Is it possible that there's a lesson here for you as well?'' followed sarcastically with, ''Warmly, Robyn.''
Well let's get ''warm'' Robyn, since we're now on a first name basis.
This newspaper defies you and your staff to carefully go over our Boseman stories and tell us what isn't factually true if we've defined it as such.
We dare you!
Secondly, for an executive editor of a NYT-owned newspaper, you sure are dumb.
As journalists, we are not only responsible for keeping our opinions apart from our reporting, but we are also responsible, as professional journalists, for not allowing our personal feelings about a story keeping us FROM reporting that story!
Your fine puppy paper ran silent and ran deep better than a German sub off the coast of Florida when it came to the Boseman story.
The only time your paper asked any so-called ''tough'' questions of her was when her taxes were overdue, properties foreclosed and another family was at risk.
The Star News completely ignored a world of troubling questions about Sen. Boseman long before ANY of that. You never looked at her campaign finance reports. Never asked who is giving her money and why. Never asked why she wasn't the lead sponsor of 1898 legislation in the Senate after co-chairing the 1898 Commission. Never questioned why the state NAACP had big problems with her. Never looked into her record in the black community.
And that's just getting started!
The family of the founders of this paper has served this community for over 100 years even though one of its members was banned from Wilmington in 1898, even though the family received KKK threats during the 50s and even though the family and paper were victims of a bombing in the 70's.
THIS black newspaper, Ms. Tomlin, NYT et al, has served this community and state for almost 100 years, and it does so with dignity, courage and commitment to right the long wrongs that the mainstream has historically, and yes, cowardly turned its back on.
The kind of cowardice that was on full display for a full six months the StarNews covered for Sen. Boseman, stuffing all of her dirty laundry under its selective silence and dereliction of duty.
So in closing, because we have to go out and shop for a better turkey than the one we're talking about now, this newspaper will NEVER accept being talked down to by ANYONE. PERIOD!
And we'll certainly NEVER accept that kind of uninformed BS from someone who ''is new in town'' and is already making weak excuses for some of the shoddiest journalism this side of a Bill O'Reilly exclusive.
So NYT, we hope this open letter has been instructive. Talk to your girl, Robyn, about how best to register her complaints with other media outlets in the future, and better accept constructive criticism.
Because if the egomaniacal nonsense she sent us is a sample of how she is going to lead the Wilmington StarNews to greater heights, then you guys are better off publishing Archie Comics!
Happy Turkey Day, Robyn.
Warmly,
The Journal
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