John Paul – 2/8/12

This page was last updated on February 10, 2012.

Editorial: The Political Who Are; John Paul; Beaver Countian; February 8, 2012.

Less than 15 hours after I published my critique of a Paul piece entitled “Monday Musings Volume 8,” Mr. Paul removed the article from his website. I don’t know if the removal had anything to do with the critique.

The Beaver Countian appears to be a “one-man band” consisting of John Paul, a self-described “citizen journalist.” To date I’ve seen no article bylines for anyone but Mr. Paul and it appears he does all the technical work. In an apparent attempt to hide that fact, in his articles Mr. Paul refers to himself as “the Beaver Countian” and “we.” If I’m correct, I have no idea why Mr. Paul would want to deceive his readers, customers, and advertisers on this point.

Below is a detailed critique of excerpts from the subject opinion piece.

When you get to the end of the subject editorial, see if you noticed what was missing.

What’s with the “AM Radio” bashing? Did one fall off a shelf onto Mr. Paul’s head and he’s holding a grudge? Let’s hope Mr. Paul was kidding when he wrote, “[AM Radio] is just one step evolved from technologies like the telegraph.” Otherwise, Mr. Paul knows nothing about radio and/or telegraph technology. For Mr. Paul’s sake, if he’s a Pittsburgh Pirates fan let’s hope he can get KDKA-FM; all of the other local stations carrying the games are AM, including the evil WBVP/WMBA. Of the 39 stations carrying Pirates games, 34 are AM.

Mr. Paul referred to “reporting by JD Prose.” Mr. Paul failed to mention Mr. Prose, like Mr. Paul himself, is a pundit and the “reporting” was an opinion piece, not a news article. (Note: Mr. Prose failed to disclose he was a guest at least once on the Towcimak show.) I did not critique the Prose piece. You’ll also note any info in the Paul piece that didn’t come from the Prose column came from unnamed “sources.” For example, while Mr. Prose mentioned an unnamed “valued advertiser,” Mr. Paul wrote of “the owner of a dive bar,” “the bar owner,” and “Robert’s Roadside Inn” with no indication of where that information came from. Mr. Towcimak appears not to be one of the sources because Mr. Paul wrote in a comment following his piece, “As for Towcimak’s motivations, that’s a question for him to answer. Frankly, I don’t know the man.” It seems odd for a “citizen journalist” not to interview one of the central figures in a story he’s so fired up about, doesn’t it? As I’ve written before, why should anyone take seriously anything from alleged anonymous sources?

My personal experience with Mr. Paul is to beware of his legal advice. Mr. Paul wrote, “Supreme Court decisions such as one featuring provocative litigants Hustler Magazine and Jerry Falwell, have guaranteed the citizenry’s fundamental right to criticize public officials and public figures in the most offensive ways imaginable.” Not exactly. The Court decided in Hustler’s favor because it ruled no reasonable person would conclude the magazine’s parody ad was true. Public figures, however, do not forfeit protection against defamation (libel/slander). Though the standard is higher for public figures, if while “criticiz[ing] public officials and public figures in the most offensive ways imaginable” you knowingly present false information as fact (“actual malice”), you will still find yourself in hot water. I hope Mr. Paul knows he qualifies as a public figure.

On the Beaver Countian homepage, Mr. Paul described his piece as “A summary tale of censorship.” In August 2011, Mr. Paul and I had a dust-up over a critique I published about a piece on his website written by State Rep. Jesse White (D-46). Apparently unaware and/or dismissive of “fair use” law, Mr. Paul repeatedly claimed I stole his work. You can find the back-and-forth on my Facebook wall, but it appears Mr. Paul since scrubbed – censored? - the dialog from his websites. You can read more in my critique of “Editorial: Time Spent With Tony Amadio and Joe Spanik.”

Did you guess what was missing from the Paul piece? In a piece about politicians, Mr. Paul made no mention of their party affiliation. All parties named, including the “reporters,” are Democrats.