The column starts,
"The basic problem behind government today is that it cannot be trusted to tell the truth anymore."
and ends with a slam on Middletown Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill for saying that the best way to help Middletown residents is to lower taxes before she voted for a budget that raises taxes. "Caliendo's" point seems to be that Brightbill wasn't being truthful, yet "he" fails to mention that the cause of the Middletown budget increase was the Democratic/Corzine cut in state funding and state mandated spending.
If that sounds like Jim Purcell's dishonest and convoluted logic, it probably is. I don't know for sure that Purcell wrote that column under Caliendo's name, but I do know for a fact that Purcell often writes for Caliendo.
Purcell and I became acquainted shortly after I started this blog. He was so excited to know the identity of William H. Seward. As an honest "newsman" you might think he'd want to break the story, but no, he thought he had a political ally. A week after we met he called and asked me to drop everything to meet him at the Internet Cafe in Red Bank. He wanted to show off how he was using a computer that couldn't be traced back to him as he sent out Caliendo press releases that he had just written. Purcell, who rails against anonymous writers he doesn't like and can't personally attack, is a ghost writer himself.
Not that there is anything wrong with ghost writing in and of itself. Many leaders legitimately use professional writers. But Purcell has been trying to pass himself off as an honest journalist while really being a political operative in the area he covers. That is not OK. As I told Purcell early on, and as written early on here, he should do one or the other.
The truth in The
For calling for honesty in government while practicing fragrantly dishonest journalism, Jim Purcell and Joe Caliendo are awarded this weeks Obie Award.
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2 comments:
No suprises here. Purcells ghost writing is pretty obvious. ELEC complaint anyone?
Brghtbill is totally wrong as usual and so are you Art....When government in New Jersey reckons with the fact the method used to pay for education is all wrong and a formula is developed that does not put the burden solely on the homeowner ,we will finally get reform.Furthermore the current news about superintendents salaries and abuses magnify this whole process.Corruption,whether in education (which should set an example not teach our kids how to steal ) or at any level of government is raping the taxpayers of N.J. It is hopeless to think anything will change under the current systems. What does any taxpayer in N.J. get for their tax dollar....little or nothing...the most corrupt,expensive state in the union and it isn't all any one political party's fault. They are all guilty and they are all wrong.
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