Hi, I am Bryan Bentley, and I am blogging from an undisclosed location in the Charter Township of Plymouth. I am currently on double secret probation, and under ther threat of being thrown in the Plymouth Township Pokey. This threat was leveled against me by Township Supervisor, Richard Reaume.
Richie doesn't like me calling and asking hard questions of him, or his other crooked cronies, and a couple weeks ago, he threatened to have the police throw me in jail. Of course he did this after taking liberties with me, and insulting my journalistic capabilities. In short, he made fun of my writing. Well, I'll be the first to admit that I am no journalist. I am no writer. I have never tried to pass myself off as anything but a pissant blogger. But here's the thing, if I am such a shitty writer, why does he have his knickers in a bundle over me?
Simple dimple. I expose the hypocrisy that goes on at the Plymouth Township Hall. Sure, I may do it in a clumsy way. I may expose these people in an in-artful way. But when you cut through all the crappy writing, the truth is right there for all to see. I think that is what pisses guys like Richard Reaume, and Ron Edwards off.
These idiots have never in the past failed to complain to the editor of Patch about me. They complain, but they are never able to point out a lie, and therefore my blogs have stood. They have say that I play fast and loose with the truth, but never offer an example. Therefore my blogs have never been removed. Not one.
Not one blog has been removed until my last one. Well, technically, it has not been removed yet, but I have been told by the new editor. Nicole Krawcke that if I don't make one specific change to my blog, it will be revoked.
Did I screw up and write something false? No. Did I lie about somebody? No. Does the actual writing suck? Maybe.
The problem with my blog, the reason that the first blog of the approximately 40 that I have written in the past will be revoked is because of the Pinocchio Rule.
Yes, old Pinocchio has gotten me in trouble. I am now under double secret probation with Patch as well as Mr. Reaume.
Bottom line is that I posted a campaign ad that Treasurer Ron Edwards put out years ago when he ran for Township Supervisor as an Independent. Yes, before Ronnie was our Treasurer, he ran as an Independent for Supervisor. He then had a political epiphany and became a Republican, which started his career, as our Treasurer. By the way, he stated in that ad that he was going to push for term limits for local elected officials. "No longer a career." Well, seeing as how he is now in his 5th term in office, I decided to fact check the rest of it, and share some of my opinions.
These fact check pieces are almost always accompanied by a number of "Pinocchios" when an untruth is found. You've surely seen them if you follow politics.
Well, based on the total absurdity of his campaign ad, I found it necessary to illustrate the point by putting a picture of him on the blog with a rather small and understated Pinocchio nose. The whole ad was one big lie, so I felt justified. Every promise was broken, so I felt it appropriate.
Truth be told, the pic is just so damn funny, how could I resist? It's a joke for cripes sake! I'm not the first to put a Pinocchio pic of an elected politician on a blog. I'm not the hundredth, or even the thousandth. This gets done all the time.
So anyway, I post my blog. I get favorable responses via email, facebook, and even a couple of calls. I know people are reading, and sharing my blog, because I can see the little boxes that show whether it has been liked on facebook, printed, or emailed. With the new layout at Patch, this is the only way to see if folks are reading your blogs. They used to list the five most popular blogs, but that metric went away. Whatever.
So anyway, I have forgotten the blog after a day or so, and my mind moves on to WWE, football, and baseball. Suddenly I get an email from the editor, Nicole. It basically reads like a Kindergarten teacher talking to a petulant child, which is basically how the relationship is between the new editor and myself.
Truth be told, I am not opposed to, or insulted by this. I am actually used to this treatment. My lovely and virtuous girlfriend has a favorite question that she claims she often finds necessary to ask me. "How old are you?" I always answer 46, and she always tells me that maybe I should act like it. Then she reminds me that I am actually 51, which by the way, is older than her. But I am getting off track.
So Nicole sent me a nice email. She basically says Hi Bryan, I think you know why I am emailing you. You really need to take the picture down. If you don't I will be forced to revoke your whole blog. Yada, yada yada, have a nice weekend.
Well the easy thing to do is take the damn picture down, and replace it with another comb over pic of Big Ronnie. Problem solved.
I can't do that. I have several problems with replacing the pic. The first problem I have is that I bought a nice bottle of wine for the unnamed (because of my double secret probation) person that created the pic for me. I have money invested in this darn pic, and I want a return on my investment dammit! Good wine is not cheap!
The larger issue here, is that it's just not right to make me remove it. I replied to Nicole's email. I informed her that these Pinocchio pics are at national web sites all over the internet. I gave her many examples, and even HuffPo, which I mistakenly said owned Patch, had a Pinocchio pic of George Bush. So the case I made was that it would be hypocritical for Patch to revoke the pic when HuffPo had no problem running one.
I also sent her examples. Two former Presidents, and the current sitting President all have pics of them with Pinocchio noses floating all over the internet. I have never heard one of them complain either. Elected officials expect and know that they are held to a different standard than a private citizen. So the bottom line is that 3 US Presidents get Pinocchio noses, and deal with it, but a low level politician, like a Township Treasurer gets his panties in a bundle over a Pinocchio pic, and Patch now invokes the "Pinocchio Rule" and demands that I remove it. I reject that.
I had every confidence that Nicole would see the light, and let my blog/pic stand. I was wrong. I received a response from Nicole which basically said that while she sees my points, Patch holds to a higher standard, and that the Pinocchio pic I posted was a "personal attack." Please change the pic, or I will be forced to revoke your blog. Yada, yada, yada. Have a nice day.
Hold everything! A personal attack? A Pinocchio pic is suddenly a personal attack? Damn near every politician in the digital age has their very own Pinocchio pic. Some would say that you haven't really arrived as an elected official until you've had a Pinocchio pic attached to your name. I reject the personal attack argument.
Then I started to think of Nicole's statement that Patch holds itself to a higher standard. Saying that Patch holds itself to a higher standard than HuffPo, is in my opinion, setting the bar pretty low. I mean cmon. HuffPo? That's like saying that the US Senate holds itself to a higher standard than Congress. Nancy Pelosi. NuffSaid
At the end of the email, Nicole, in larger fonts (she's making a point here) informs me that Huffington Post does not own Patch. AOL owns both of those web sites.
Well I stand corrected Nicole. You are right. I should have remembered this. I should have remembered this because just recently, the AOL Chairman, Tim Armstrong just laid off about 1/3 of the Patch workforce.
The reason I mention Tim Armstrong is that he is one of the creators of Patch. It's his baby. Patch was created by Armstrong and a couple other guys in 2007. Then in 2009, AOL acquired Patch, which by the way, was right after Armstrong became AOL's CEO. Armstrong just recently reduced itself from 900 sites to 600 sites, and laid off roughly 500 employees. Armstrong said that they did this to make try to make themselves profitable.
There are those that say part of the problem is that they are getting fierce competition from independent bloggers. Hmmmm
So here's some food for thought. If you are getting the squeeze from independent bloggers, why would you make it so difficult for a pissant blogger like me to do my thing? Oh yeah, Patch holds itself to a higher standard.
Patch is bleeding money, and losing employees, but you are going to cling to the higher standard principle? Not to toot my own horn, but I have been told that my blogs are some of the most "clicked on" of all the rest of the blogs. Clicks equal traffic, and traffic equals advertisers, and advertisers equals money, and money equals jobs.
While I brag about my blogs being popular, I have to be honest. I currently do not have much competition. Lately, I do not see some of the bloggers that used to post. Tony Lolillo was a personal favorite of mine. As of today, I mostly just see Real Estate agents blogging for customers, Yoga instructors blogging for customers, Lawyers blogging for clients, and today a Landscape/Nursey blogging for customers.
No disrespect intended, but it seems like a lot of folks are using the Patch blogs to game the system and get free advertising. That my friends, does not equal money.
If you click on the "more blogs" box on the front page, you will see that I am actually one of the very few bloggers that seem to have an actual opinion about something. Isn't that what blogging is supposed to be? I am one of the very few bloggers that is not selling anything.
Well that makes it easy for Patch to single me out for attention. How can a real estate ad be in danger of being too edgy? How controversial is Yoga? Take the first ten blogs on the list, and add up the traffic, and compare that figure to my one "lesser than standard" Pinocchio blog. I beat them all combined. Now ask yourself, are you here to make money, or are you here to cling to a higher standard? I think I know what Mr. Armstrong would say.
Maybe it's just a picture fixation? When I consider this, I remember that at the very meeting announcing the Patch layoffs, Mr. Armstrong actually fired a guy on the spot, in front of about a thousand Patch employees, for having the audacity of taking a picture of those seated at the table. This made all the national news sites. The conference call, and subsequest firing went slightly viral for a day or two. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZU858RF8i0
So maybe this is just fallout from that ugly day. I don't know. If I was a Patch employee, I might be a tad sensitive about cameras and pictures after Armstrong's meltdown.
Now, I could try to argue that Nicole is violating my 1st Amendment rights, and I actually threw that out there just for fun, but that is not a valid argument. A company can hire a person to write for them, and they also have the right to edit their material if they don't agree with it. They can also fire a person if they don't agree with their content.
Well none of this applies to me. They can't fire me because they don't pay me to write for them. I wouldn't pay me either, as I have no illusions of me being the next Edward Murrow or even his red headed stepchild. I am a poor man's version of a mediocre, pissant blogger. I know that. It most likely takes me ten times the amount of time to write a blog than Nicole takes to write ten real news stories.
I blog because I was encouraged to do so by the former editor here at Patch. I tried one and found it fun. Now I blog as a hobby. When I blog about folks like Richard Reaume, and Ron Edwards, I do it because people deserve to know about their dirty deeds. People read my blogs because in my own clumsy way, I speak the unvarnished truth about these people, and folks like Big Ron complain to the editor, because they do not want these truths to be exposed.
The fact is, since the new editor took over, there has not been one story by Patch covering the deeds of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. To my knowledge, I am the only person at Patch who has written anything about these clowns.
Patch is supposed to be a web site that was created to cover "news and human interest stories." Maybe they just do not think that they get enough "clicks" from the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. More likely, because of the layoffs, folks like Nicole are just stretched too thin to be able to be in three places at the same time. Actually I know the latter to be true.
I know the latter is true, and that is the reason that they should utilize a blogger such as myself. As objectionable as I sometimes am, at least folks get to hear an opinion on the doings at the Township Hall. As objectionable as I am, I do manage to get my fair share of clicks.
In a way, for a lot of people, I am like a car crash. Folks don't want to see it, but they can't resist watching. My old editor kind of liked me, because 50% of the folks hated my guts, and the other 50% liked that I had the testicular fortitude to say the things I say. That gets you clicks, which equals traffic, which equals advertising, which equals, well, you get the point.
In the end, Nicole will win out on this Pinocchio issue, and that is the way it should be. It is her call to make, and she made it. Nicole has always been more than cordial to me. She has been cordial, and as far as I am concerned, she has the patience of a Kindergarten teacher when dealing with me. We just disagree on this issue.
I have a feeling that in considering this Pinocchio pic a personal attack, Nicole is simply looking at the issue through an idealistic prism. She is young, talented, and idealistic, and those are all fabulous qualities to possess. Those qualities are fine in almost every aspect of life, but they can't survive in the world of politics.
I have been around long enough to know that there is no idealism allowed in politics. Politics is a dirty business, and Ron Edwards is a skilled practitioner in the dirtier aspects of the game.
I do not look at politics through the rose colored glasses that I once possessed in my youth. Age and experience have changed the way I view folks like Ron Edwards in particular, and politics in general.
So in the end, we had all of this discussion over a stupid Pinocchio picture. Nicole will rightfully stand behind her decision to remove the blog, and I will rightfully stand behind my decision not to remove the picture.
Did I mention how much a good bottle of wine costs?
The whole thing is actually rather funny, and I guess that is a good thing. It reminds me of a quote by Noam Chomsky, and just because I am quoting him, does not mean I subscribe to his beliefs in any way. It's just a fitting quote.
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." ---- Noam Chomsky
Another fitting quote: "I don't make jokes. I just watch the Government and report the facts." -----Will Rogers
Update: I have decided to relent, and change the Pinocchio Pic of Ron Edwards. I am doing this only because people need to see the facts contained in the blog, which in the end, is far more important than a stupid Pinocchio pic, no matter how funny it is...
Here is the link to the Pinocchio blog. You'll have to use your imagination as far as the Pinocchio pic goes because, double secret probation. ;)
http://plymouth-mi.patch.com/groups/bryan-bentleys-blog/p/flashback-friday-featuring-treasurer-ronald-edwards
