BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Part Three of a Series

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016) — So much for The “new” Boring Broadhseet. The pitiful rag shoved it to citizens by showing its first loyalty is to The Suits, dutifully printing a gushing lead story on Page One yesterday about what a superlative idea it will be to grant five more years of tax breaks to multimillionaire Richard Stanley. While The BB was glorifying the fattening of an overstuffed but malnourished and failing Beacon Cinema, THE PLANET was digging up more of the REAL story.

THE BB

Not all is harmonious in the newsroom. The hopes of a new era each day recede into the mists. The reality has hit in the newsroom that local owners of The BB know nothing about running a newspaper. They know even less about journalism. Meet the new bosses. Worse than the old bosses. They got The BB’s distressed properties for pennies on the dollar and with it bragging rights at the Stockbridge Country Club. That’s OK for playing the big shot, but it does little for the community’s reasonable hopes for a crusading local daily.

THE PLANET heard from one of our newsroom sources, who spoke of an editorial meeting that mentioned our coverage of The Beacon’s request. We’re putting 2+2 together. (a) The BB has their meeting. (b) THE PLANET has rankled Important People. (c) The next day, The BB presents coverage so propagandistic that it fails as journalism. PR, puff, and cheerleading yes. Journalism, no. It’s clear that someone from city hall, or at least a water carrier between city hall and Stanley, sent orders to The BB to counter THE PLANET’s coverage.

THE BLUE-COLLAR

Meanwhile, THE PLANET heard from a recent former employee of The Beacon, who spoke to us about working conditions there. She said Stanley was rarely to be seen and complained of management’s poor treatment of employees. She cited as an example the order for Beacon staff to search pocketbooks, backpacks, and any bags to check for smuggled in refreshments. Staff resisted to no avail. The former staffer said that following the check policy, attendance at The Beacon dropped significantly.

She said staff repeatedly went to management about issues such as the cleanliness of bathrooms, lack of supplies, and, one one occasion, a emergency exit that was either blocked of locked. Each time the complaints were dismissed, said said. These claims align neatly with other reports of poor customer service at The Beacon. We have lost count of people who have told us that they tried the venue once or twice, only to swear never to go back again.

THE BOOKS

Another source familiar with The Beacon’s finances shared the belief that the venture “has not been profitable [in the nearly nine years] of operation. The Beacon has not once met its estimates of revenue or its projections of attendance. Folks will recall the grand promises … that it would bring 250,000 additional people to downtown Pittsfield. That has not happened, obviously.”

We asked how the city council — or anyone else, for that matter — could decide on facts and not fiction if a continued five years of tax breaks are in order for The Beacon. Answer: “The only way to know for sure is to open up the books.”

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The pattern is clear, for it has happened time and again with so many of the “quasi-public-private” projects: EV Worldwide, WorkshopLive!, Spice Restaurant, The Beacon. Citizens will once again have no say, even though they disapprove. It was the same way with the new high school project that The Suits shoved down your throats. Resign yourselves, ladies and gentleman. They’re going to do it again.

It’s clear the city council needs to deny this request.

It’s also clear that in Pittsfield, the game is rigged.

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“Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina.” — Marty Robbins, “El Paso,” (1959).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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