Here’s a riddle for you: what do you get when you cross an ostrich with a junkyard mongrel? (don’t worry, if you can’t figure it out, we’ll let you know at the end of this post.)
We started Side more than four years ago. Over 800 posts later, here we are. And there you are. We defy you to recall more than….oh….let’s say 15 or so.
Out of all those posts, one still stands out as the all time most read. Since then, and happily most recently, our readership has grown, and we have a number of posts that have come in second.
The all time winner, though, is still this one. We think it’s because way too many around town could never believe that ‘such a nice man’ would intentionally lie on editorial page content.
We use that word with due circumspection. Jim McCarthy did not ‘mis-speak,’ or ‘make a mistake,’ or ‘unintentionally mis-represent the facts.’
He lied to us. There’s no getting out of that.
Since then, lots of editors, managing editors, opinion page editors and what have you have come and gone.
McCarthy is now a ‘senior writer’ at MaineBiz. Robert Long has yet to update his profile on LinkedIn. But the once guiding light at our town paper was scooped up by the BDN.
We haven’t subscribed to the paper in years, as regular readers would know. So we were surprised (not really) when we read elsewhere that the current managing editor of the paper is one Bob Mentzinger.
We have no idea how he got the job, or why, or when. A look at his resume, however, should raise some red flags about the objectivity and ‘government watchdog’ role the paper professes to play here in Cape Brunswick, the richest little most perfect town in America.
Mentzinger is, in many ways, the antithesis of an ‘unbiased journalist.’ Some might even suggest that he is a hack, a political mercenary.
You can read this item for starters:
You can read his self-composed profile here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mentzinger
In case you’ve forgotten, the Kennebec Journal is a component of Maine Today Media, the media conglomerate owned by Donald Sussman, billionaire hedge fund manager and husband of Congresswoman Rochelle Pingree. As is the Portland Press Herald. So much for separation of the press and the state.
Anyone with their wits about them knows that the Sussman-Pingree Press Herald has become an unashamed assailant of all viewpoints Republican and conservative. And in particular, a hit squad to take out Governor Paul LePage.
Reporting the news and expressing editorial positions have become undistinguishable in the ‘new print media.’
Herewith a bit more research on Mr. Mentzinger:
http://www.downeast.com/media-mutt/2011/november/more-mainetoday-monks-mess
Also gone, Kennebec Journal city editor Bob Mentzinger. It’s not clear whether his abrupt departure last week had anything to do with the unusual apology published in the KJ after the paper accidentally ran a year-old story on a local woman’s legal problems.
http://bobmentzinger.wordpress.com/author/bmentzin/
http://thebollard.com/2012/08/31/media-mutt/
The Portland magazine used ex-Kennebec Journal city editor Bob Mentzinger to interview the new director of the Maine Film Office, even though Mentzinger is the media coordinator for Democrat Cynthia Dill’s Senate campaign.
Since the director works for the Republican administration of Gov. Paul LePage, that creates some uncomfortable — and unnecessary — questions about objectivity, even though the piece displayed no obvious bias.
Mainebiz also chose Douglas Rooks to write its story on the business community’s assessment of LePage, even though Rooks has been consistently critical of the governor in his weekly opinion column in the Lewiston Sun Journal. Surely, the magazine could have found reporters without such glaring conflicts … One more note on the Dill campaign.
In addition to Mentzinger, it’s also hired Boss Media from the Washington, D.C. area to do consulting work. Boss is the brainchild of former Portland Press Herald editor Jeannine Guttman and ex-Portland TV anchor Patsy Wiggins.
If you have any recollections of Guttman and Rooks, you know both are ideological wolves hiding in the sheep’s clothing of journalism.
You can now add Bob Mentzinger to the upper echelon of that esteemed ‘award winning’ profession.
Want proof? Check out this web page for our local print outlet:
Check the menu under the masthead: “Front Page, Local,…Opinion,…Sports” and more. Oh, and “Church Listings” and “Contact Us.”
And then one more thing: a tab for “Paul LePage,” which takes you to “The Book on Paul LePage,” an extensive (ten pages?) hit piece on Maine’s Governor.
Note there are no similar tabs for any other State or Federal politicians, or for the Brunswick Town Council or Mr. Manager. Or for the Brunswick Development Corporation, or Brunswick Taxi, or The McLellan, or Property Taxes. Or NNEPRA and the Amtrak MLF.
Which reminds us that we owe you the answer to the riddle.
What you get when you cross an ostrich with a junkyard mongrel is….The Brunswick Times Record. We almost used ‘pit bull’ instead of ‘junkyard mongrel,’ but we decided pit bulls have too much dignity and integrity.
Mr. Manager, Mr. Editor. How much more blessed can a town be?
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