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GARBO SPEAKS! SWAIL LEAVES! PLANET SCOOPS BORING BROADSHEET BY ‘ONLY’ 3 WEEKS’ … LOCAL DAILY’S DECLINE, OFFICIAL CORRUPTION LINKED

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By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015) — Those of you who still bother to read the latest drivel in The Boring Broadsheet “learned’ yesterday that Kevin Swail (rhymes with “fail”) left his post in the Pittsfield Highway Department for the cooler climes of Lanesboro.

Stop the presses!

Those of you who read THE PLANET knew about this blessed event the day it happened, June 9, when we posted the following:

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THE PLANET has just received word from our spies that Pittsfield Highway Department head Kevin Swail(rhymes with “fail”) gave public works chief Bruce Collingwood his two-week notice this morning. Sources say Swail has taken a position with the Lanesboro Water Department. You’ll recall (how can you forget?) Swail’s bungling of Pittsfield roads this past winter. His negligence left roads nearly impassable, and his “legacy” can still be felt in the horrible conditions of the Shire City’s byways.

——– 000 ——–

Stale Bread, Lame Circuses

Once again, THE PLANET smoked the local daily, an outfit with the largest news-gathering team in the county. The fun of it is, we aren’t even trying.

The BB’Jim Therrien was a tad late with his story on Swail’s departure, wasn’t he? Only by three weeks. In three weeks, you can negotiate lasting peace in the Middle East and build 63 Quonset huts. Please, though, don’t come down harshly on Jim. The “running scared” mentality that grips “Rug Row” at The Clock Tower requires scribes to toil with blinders on and arms straightjacketed, for you see, The BB only wants cheerful, “Hey, gang, let’s put on a show!” g-o-o-d news, the kind The Suits have ordered in their tireless efforts to swindle your tax dollars while distracting you with stale bread and lame circuses. Elsewhere, a clown staggering out the back of a station wagon faces disdain and boos. In Podunk, Mass., he’s performing “in the arts.” He’s “an economic engine.”

The BB will go after political corruption only outside of Pittsfield. They love it when a gun-loon goes crazy and mows down nine innocent churchgoers in the South. Ditto on a story like the New York prison break. If it involves Pittsfield payola, however, The Clock Tower board room brings out the three monkeys who see, hear, and speak no evil.

Medium Rare

The point goes way beyond an incompetent highway manager lightening the taxpayer’s burden by leaving town. Rather, it’s about the media’s role in public service. When the game is on the level, the press serves as The Fourth Estate, holding the other three to accountability. Every media outlet that conveys news and commentary, such as this one, owes it to its readers and to the public at large to pursue the news fearlessly, objectively, and doggedly.

Fearlessness: It won’t back down in the face of pressure from the Big Shots.

Objectivity: It will follow the story where the information and evidence lead. A warning of “Don’t look behind that curtain” should quicken the journalist’s look behind the drapes.

Dogged: It will face many obstacles ranging from bribes to threats. When these come, one must remain immoveable. THE PLANET alone among media remains unbought and unbossed. We sell no ads. We charge no subscriptions. We present the news and our commentaries freely, without interference, as a public service.

The funny thing is that this isn’t even our full-time work. Our paying gigs demand much more time and energy. The point here is that if we — one man, a fat Rolodex, and a lot of sources — can consistently scoop everyone else without trying, think of what the local daily could do with the same editorial philosophy.

This town would be cleaned up within a year.

As it is, the good folks of the city and county are stuck with a newspaper that doesn’t sell but sells out. Subscribers of The BB are pulling out in a number matched only by the apathy that has gripped the electorate. Soon, no one will subscribe and hardly anyone will vote.

And that’s just the way The Suits want it.

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“Afflicted Sense thou kindly dost set free, / Oppress’d with argumental tyranny, / And routed Reason finds a safe retreat in thee.”Alexander Pope, “On a Fan of the Author’s Design,” VI, (1732).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The views expressed in any comment section are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.

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eddiep
eddiep
8 years ago

So today the bb raised the cost to a dollar and twenty five cents.

nostrodumbass
nostrodumbass
Reply to  eddiep
8 years ago

If they make the paper edible, maybe the working poor could read it, then feed their family. Making it worth $1.25. Mixed berry flavor?

dusty
dusty
8 years ago

Ya gotta give the bird some credit though. How else would we have know about the 88 year old lady that was taken to the ground and booked? Just knowing this made me feel safer going about my day and I knew because the Eagle was at the top of their game in getting this info to the public in a timely manner.

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  dusty
8 years ago

So so true, Dusty.

spagirl
spagirl
8 years ago

Mayor dumb ass declared his re-election campaign yesterday. He wants to make Pittsfield a destination, he said. A DESTINATION? This sums this guy up to a tee. He realizes Taconic’s $120.8 Million price tag is sticker shock to SOME taxpayers. Really? What he knows is he and his City Council shoved that right up the Taxpayers ass…. and then boasts about it.

Dowgerhat
Dowgerhat
Reply to  spagirl
8 years ago

Bianchi, the city council, and The Fairy Boop (TFB), the princess of giddy slobber herself and a Lenox school choice mom, all realize that the THS construction will indeed have many additional overun costs, but they intend to be pensioners and long gone to FL and elsewhere after it’s completed and it’s economic engine sputters and dies. They strive on short term rhetorical hype and appeasement thinking the appendage influence of the educational voting block will allow them to pad their pensions and ambitions. The core educational vote may not be sufficient to their cause as a heavy percentage aren’t city residents, They also prostitute themselves to the usual behind the scene power brokers, that stand to gain a lucrative term from such construction projects.

dusty
dusty
Reply to  spagirl
8 years ago

It certainly seems to be a destination for drug dealers and out of towners looking for municipal work in a place they won’t have to pay any of the taxes that support the place. I assume that is what he was talking about.

Rotten Robert
Rotten Robert
Reply to  spagirl
8 years ago

Response to spagirl

When you refer to Bianchi as dumb ass, I think his official title should be: No. 1 Snake Oil Salesman in Pittsfield followed by his 11 deciples on the currupt city council. Voting for Taconic when Pittsfield along with most communities in this state are experiencing the worst economic state in years, is economic suicide.
Take the revised city charter. The present sitting councilors included a section which gives them total powers to spend city taxpayer dollars anyway they desire and the taxpayers as a result have no powers to change the new charter. Only the present or sitting councilors have that power. If you desire to correct the charter, you have to convince the councilors to relinquish their power. Fat chance of that happening. We the taxpayers are screwed and it will only get worse if we vote Bianchi and his 11 henchmen back into office. “We the people” does not apply in Pittsfield, rather the mayor and his corrupt government rules. Simple as that!

K-Man
K-Man
Reply to  spagirl
8 years ago

Hey lay off our great mayor. He has made our once fair city a destination all tight, a destination for heroin addicts, drug dealers, drunks ,incompetents and freeloaders of all sorts.

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  K-Man
8 years ago

That’s right, and all the back room deals, slap on the back, good Ole boys gather round the bars at East Side Cafe, and Del Gallo’s. Tim Shugrue probably got free pizza and beer for life for getting Capitanio off easy. This town reeks of corrupt. And I am still not buying for one minute that the son-in-law didn’t tip Capitanio off. Ridiculous ….Like the Joe Buffis Jury. They should be investigated.

Henry
Henry
Reply to  K-Man
8 years ago

Let’s not forget the wonderful Meth Clinic he put in the heart of the downtown.

Pat
Pat
8 years ago

Yes, a local newspaper should be the first line of defense against corruption in the city, a watchdog, and not in bed with the corruption as here in Pittsfield. Under these circumstances there is no system of bringing the corruption into the light and of course it only gets worse and the public is not getting the truth. Everything is sugar coated except for the stories the media chooses to blow out of all proportion in order to drive home their agenda.

As an example, with the high rate of poverty here in Pittsfield, there should be lots of articles in the local newspaper about the poverty. Instead, this is kept quiet. By keeping attention away from the poverty, the newspaper creates the illusion that everything is great here in Pittsfield which is what the GOB’s want everyone to think so they can continue to take more and more taxpayer money for their high salaries and pet projects. Then they air misleading information on the local radio stations as they did on Friday saying that Pittsfield people pay much lower taxes than the rest of the state. This is misleading as Dan V. said over the weekend since when you take into consideration the high rate of poverty in the city combined with taxes that are already high since this is Taxachusetts, taxpayers here in Pittsfield are very much overtaxed relative to their ability to pay these taxes.

pemetina
pemetina
8 years ago

Had enough? I have. Vote Craig Gaetani for mayor.

Pete V
Pete V
Reply to  pemetina
8 years ago

Craig has 2 chances of winning slim and none

dusty
dusty
Reply to  Pete V
8 years ago

That is better than Mr Binachi who has no chance in hell of winning.

Southeast
Southeast
8 years ago

Didn’t they lay off about 20 folks yesterday at the BB?

nostrodumbass
nostrodumbass
8 years ago

Maybe Bianchi could give everyone in Pittsfield a “free” subscription to the Berkshire Eagle.
This would be an economic engine for the Eagle.
The citizens would be happy getting a “free” newspaper every day.
Bianchi would be a hero. (To the dumbed down public who actually think the gov’t gives you things for free).
All Bianchi would have to do is raise everyone’s taxes by $1.25 per day.

How bout that shit?

Pummelin Pam
Pummelin Pam
8 years ago

Look at the pictures of the Mayor in the iberkshires and boring broadsheet articles announcing his reelection bid. He is surrounded by all his supporters and loved ones. How could he lose with that kind of support?

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_28402057/pittsfield-mayor-daniel-bianchi-launches-bid-re-election

http://www.iberkshires.com/story/49501/Pittsfield-s-Mayor-Bianchi-Launches-Re-Election-Campaign.html

Carolyn Barry
Carolyn Barry
8 years ago

The eagle laid off 3 on Friday. An editor and 2 managers. They are advertising for independent contractors so they won’t have to pay for benefits. More could follow.

silence dogood
silence dogood
Reply to  Carolyn Barry
8 years ago

I thought they were the foremost local cheerleaders for unions and benefits?

acheshirecat
acheshirecat
Reply to  silence dogood
8 years ago

They have had independent contractors doing work there since they moved into the clock tower building, nothing new here.

Carolyn Barry
Carolyn Barry
Reply to  acheshirecat
8 years ago

not in advertising sales though. Delivery drivers yes.

Jonathan Melle
Jonathan Melle
8 years ago

The Berkshire Eagle is a third rate rag without a conscience. Pittsfield has serious problems, including total corruption in Pittsfield politics. Pittsfield politics has huge debts that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars (about one half billion dollars) that will never be paid back. Pittsfield politics’ finances are unsustainable! Thousands of people have moved away from Pittsfield. There are no private sector living wage jobs in Pittsfield. I would have a better chance at winning the lottery jackpot than finding a good job in Pittsfield. About 70 percent of Pittsfield’s local residents are dependent on welfare services. Pittsfield has become another version of North Adams!

dusty
dusty
8 years ago

A beam has fallen at the price chopper and someone is hurt according to the Eagle.

How in the hell were they allowed to do that construction over the heads of people shopping anyway. One day a guy up on a ladder dropped a tape measure not too far from me. Never seen a place that was allowed to operate like that…any inspectors around?

Home depot cannot even move a fork lift without barricading off an aisle.

Mark
Mark
8 years ago

I saw some kind of ground breaking ceremony today with golden shovels and a big tent set up at the open lot just south of the CVS and just north of the old bus station near Big Y…??? I hope it wasn’t “The Stadium”!!

Dman
Dman
Reply to  Mark
8 years ago

Mark,
This was the ground breaking for the Berkshire Carousel, which is going in there, now that the plan for it in Dalton fell through. Too bad they did not find a spot for it on the 1st Street Common. We hit the farmer’s market there two weeks ago and the renovated grounds, playground and water park were beautiful!

May Hemm
May Hemm
8 years ago

What ever it was, let’s hope it has to do with jobs.

Pat
Pat
Reply to  May Hemm
8 years ago

Jobs? What are those? Pittsfield politicians have no idea what that word even means?

Mark
Mark
8 years ago

Thanks DMan

May Hemm
May Hemm
8 years ago

Wait till thugs start trashing the common.