BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 2, 2020) — THE PLANET‘s expose on The Berkshire Eagle spiking reporter Heather Bellow’s follow-up story on D.A. Andrea Harrington’s vehicular woes  has opened up one of the floodgates, and we have heard much more from newspaper sources. We present the comments as received, editing only for clarity and continuity.

CAVING TO PRESSURE

As a Berkshire Eagle insider I can tell you one very specific way the editors and owners cave to pressure.

If the news is unflattering to the city council or mayor, either a call, text, or email will go out from Tyer or any number of the councilors. It will include what they think the position and talking points should be, in a couple days those exact talking points will end up as an editorial.

Case and point the recent Our Opinion editorial: “OUR OPINION: Home loan program will benefit Pittsfield”

This originated as set of bullet points from Tyer both directly and indirectly via three city councilors and two other city employees. When the idea surfaced to push the mayor on why she didn’t seek alternative funding as promised, the direct quote was “We need to boost ad revenue. Do you want to be out of a job.” The thought process is that the paper will offer special ad rates to highlight the program to construction companies and to banks. These are two of the highest ad groups right now.

REPORTER NOTES ON HARRINGTON’S DRIVING ISSUES

• Andrea Harrington was notified by the Clinton County Court at least four times that they could easily find. A bench warrant was issued for failure to respond/appear. New York State contacted her twice at her given mailing address. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles contacted her six times.
• Her insurance company, when asked, said “We contact every client by phone and mail. We make every attempt to notify our clients that their license has been suspended and that they are not covered by insurance. That’s normally at least five notifications, three by mail and two phone calls.”
• When Harrington was driving suspended, she was fully aware that she was breaking the law. There is also a question of who’s car she was driving. That was never settled before the investigation was stopped.

• She must have received some notification because months after her license was suspended, she mailed a check to the original issuing jurisdiction, five days after another letter was mailed out.
• The evidence strongly suggests Harrington lied about the entire situation and failed to take responsibility for her original ticket and all the problems subsequent to that initial failure to pay. In fact if one looks at the evidence, she did everything she could to try and conceal the truth. In CJIS, a technician alleges there’s a hit for her office running her d/l three times during that period of time, almost as if someone is checking to see the status of their own d/l. As an officer of the court, it appears she knew and continued in her criminal activity.
• On D.A.’s office in general: All the inside forces that are left (those from the former administration who weren’t fired and those new hires who haven’t resigned or been fired) are trying to keep out of the glare of, as some in the office call the D.A., mini-Medusa. There are lots of rumors of inappropriate relationships in that office.  No one will go on record.

HELEN MOON AND HER ‘JAILING’

There is absolutely no record of Hellen Moon being stopped and placed in jail as part of a felony MV stop. There is no record based on her name, various spellings of her name, finger prints matching her name, nothing in CJIS at all. Unless she can provide proof, it appears that she lied about the incident.

RANDOM NOTES ON INSIDE AT THE EAGLE

• Blox CMS is a horrible content platform.
• The board of the Eagle should meet once a month, not once a quarter.
• The paper is failing quickly and badly.
• Morale is at an all-time low as we get more content from services outside.
• Heather Bellow got hit hard for her good work.

• Local government does absolutely interfere in news coverage. Crime reporting is practically non-existent. You could fill pages of newsprint with all the petty crimes happening in the Berkshires.
  The police have actually stopped taking reports on much of the crime that’s low level and quality of life because they don’t have the staff and the D.A. isn’t going to do anything that goes against her narrative.
• The city is dying and it’s due to lack of leadership on all levels. This includes the Eagle‘s failure to act as the Fourth Estate, a role that includes being a watchdog over government.

STORIES THE EAGLE HAS SPIKED DUE TO EDITORIAL DECISIONS VIA PRESSURE FROM LOCAL POLITICIANS

• Harrington and her driving record. Including who was paying for the car.
• Why Adam Hinds was forced to leave UN service.
• Alleged misappropriation of funds at Soldier On. They had a work program and would “collect and invest” the funds of the clients. Many of those that lived there claimed their money was taken, there was an investigation going on, reporters were tasked, and it disappeared. Poof!
• An investigation into corruption at the highest levels of the PPD, including allowing certain dealers to work certain areas unfettered.

• Millions of dollars of missing funds at city hall, all under Kerwood’s watch.
• If you don’t think Tricia Farley Bouvier and Linda Tyer don’t influence news stories, remember the Berkshire Museum art sale. Eagle editors and staff knew about the focus groups, knew about the sale months before it was news. There’s a whole series of photos of meetings, the paintings, people from the auction house doing inspections. The Eagle supported the sale, the Eagle allowed Tyer, Hinds, and the museum board set that narrative.
• The Eagle has failed the population of Berkshire county. The circulation is down because everyone knows it’s a propaganda arm of the local big shots.

LACK OF JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS AT THE EAGLE

There are two classes of people and two very different standards applied to stories at the Eagle.

If a story is about one of the protected, which includes most of the current administration, friends, family members and supporters — If it’s a positive story, it’s run as basically a press release. There is heavy consultation with the subject or subjects and sometimes there’s a huge give-and-take on how the story is written. An example: Barry Clairmont suing Melissa Mazzeo. There was a lot of background that was overlooked. Barry got full say in what amounted to a press release. There was no investigation into second- and third-party witnesses who alleged wrongdoing. There was no investigation into Barry’s reputation and there was plenty of background that would have been adverse to his claims. All of it was ignored. There was no real discussion about the state “investigation” into Mazzeo’s allegations that Barry was illegally in the area where ballots were locked up. The “investigation” which amounted to the clerk and Barry saying they did nothing wrong. It was taken at face value as truth. No investigation into the time he actually spent there or members of the public that also lodged complaints.

The bar is also set extremely high when the story casts any of the protected in a negative light. All of a sudden sources matter. Anonymous and even on record sources have to be double and triple verified. The process has created a chilling effect. If you get a story about Wynn, you might as well not even run with it because the editorial interference is so hard to overcome.

Another example would be the stories about Berkshire Money Management (BBM). There’s never any pushback. That story about handing out PPE and the problems it created, it was much worse than what ever made the news. There also was a story about a note on a car because BMM supported BLM. It ran unchecked or verified. When the story began to look false, any further investigation stopped.

The $10,000 employee bonuses — There was no background on where the money came from. Was it from the PPP and was it a way to offset against profits? Do loans wouldn’t have to be repaid?
It’s doubly concerning because there’s a quid pro quo in this relationship, as the principal writes for the paper and buys ad space. That in and of itself should be disqualify this person as a contributor. However, There’s never any pushback.

ANDRE HARRINGTON’S PROPERTY TAXES

Raw Notes:

• Her problems with property taxes dates back to at least 2018, maybe earlier but it’s hard to tell.
• Paul Lisi treasure and tax collector.
• Amy? or Danielle Fillio (problem town admin from Stockbridge).
• It was hard to get information out of this group because the tax collector was out on sick leave. Something divulged even though all the details were HIPAA violations.
• They would not provide copies of tax bills even though they are public records.
• One contact indicated that with every tax bill a there is stamp on the bill indicating past due bills. They bill quarterly with two bills sent out semi annually. That would be eight notices of past due. Since Andrea was in tax title she would have been given at least six more notices.

• A part-time employee indicated that Andrea called in and screamed at anyone who was on the phone.
• Public records in meeting minutes seem to indicate that the tax collector wanted to publish names at the end of each year and two selectmen, Pilsen and Manzolini, both stopped the process on at least two occasions.
• Another part-time employee not related to the process at all indicated that she was aware of the issues as she was not able to get permits and allegedly did in permitted work on her home. He stated that since “Richmond is a small town with inept leadership and staffing, nothing would be documented.”
• Nothing was ever presented and the investigation stopped after the first report.
• Richmond has a history of open meeting law violations as well as failing to fulfill public records requests.
• Quote from a Town of Richmond employee: “These are some of the same issues that haunted Fillio’s tenure in Stockbridge. The problems just moved north. Pilsen encourages that behavior.”

———- ooo ———-

If the editorial staff at the Eagle wishes to confirm or rebut any of this information, as they well know, THE PLANET is more than happy to hear what they have to say. We are always open to present “the other side” — in fact, all sides, any story.

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“Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization” — Author Rebecca West.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”]

LOVE TO ALL.

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