News-Record.com

Beason is a long-time mover and shaker whose clients have included everyone from BB&T and AT&T to the video poker industry to Dale Earnhardt, Inc.* Mark

How long have you known that Beason was the Good ole boy dude behind the whole mess at the Capital since it appears that he is Mr undertouchable in this state. The question you should be asking is why in the heck has the mainstream establishment media in this state has given this crook a pass for so long?

Re: Beason. "Why in the heck has the mainstream media in this state given this crook a pass for so long?"

So what's up with that Mark?

Aside from this transaction - which is clearly not right - what is it he's alledge to have done?

Yup, he's been a lobbyist for a good long time, yes, he's been successful.

Connie, your more serious point - leaving aside personal animosity and rehtoric - is why haven't newspapers written more about lobbying, the culture of lobbying and its influence on lawmaking.

In many respects, I do think that's a failing, one that is slowly getting corrected (witness the focus on the realtors this year.)

On the other hand, if the question you're asking is how long have we known - for printable sure - that Beason was the source of the $500,000, it's only been since he was named in court yesterday.

Has he been a prime suspect, #1 on the list in fact, for a good couple of weeks? Yup.

Once again, there's a difference between what you think you know, what you know and what you can print.

Mark, respectfully, I don't believe that the differences (between what you think you know and what you know and what you can print) are as large and difficult to navigate as our newspapers would have us believe.

My story (which speaks to ineffectual state oversight of publicly-funded healthcare programs and "non-profit" institutions) has been under the N&R's nose for years. Your Editor has taken great pleasure in telling me to buzz off.

(I won't.)

It just takes a little digging. Our journalists these days are pretty much just showing up for press conferences or waiting for the sound bite/press-release-disguised-as-news. And you can't make a move without a corporate lawyer's approval.

The scandals that are now raging were brewing and churning for literally years. For YEARS, no one but no one so much as asked a deep question or printed a negative word. And I KNOW there is MUCH MORE to discover (and report) in the wake of Jim Black sinking in his sea of slime. He as much as said so at his sentencing hearing.

It's shameful.

Mary, respectfully, every story is not about you.

As for the differences between printing what is rumor and what I can prove, we'll simply have to disagree.

Shame the Rhino doesn't have an office in Raleigh to investigate - they don't wait for the proof, they uncover it!

Yeah, right, silly me. Waiting for documents and sources and things that prove a thesis rather than talking out of my hind parts.

Mark, respectfully, cut the crap. That was a cheap shot worthy of Cone . . . and you're better than that. Or at least I thought you were.

Perhaps I was wrong. Just as I was wrong to buy into the "citizen journalism" thing.

Many stories lately (that the N&R tap-dances all around) DO tie into my situation . . . and I am going to point those tie-ins out.

And if you want documents, I've got them. All you have to do is ask. You won't have to talk out of your hind-part.

Silly me. I didn't think reporters were supposed to "wait" for these things. You-all should be digging.

Amen, Karen.

Mary ... no crap here. Go back and look at your comments over the past couple years. I would say more than half of them - and there are dozens - refer back to your story. I have empathy, to a point. But lets take a reality check.

We do dig. But at the end of the day, if you shovel out a dry hole, well, there's nothing to report.

To summarize: You folks are complaining about reporters not publishing accusations of criminal activity for which we have no documentation, no official source, nothing that would pass muster in a jouralism 101 class much less a court of law.

You're entitled to your opinion, but you really don't want newspaper journalist like me going down that path.

Actually, yes I do.

Here's s "reality check": In your Black story today (re: the state's pound of flesh in the form of a one million dollar fine), you printed some good old-fashioned rumor and innuendo about the political dealings of my own "Representative" Harold Brubaker (R, Randolph County). You really had no real proof to back it up, but Jim Black made the allegation so it was good enough to print in the paper.

After all, he's a right upstanding convicted felon.

By the way, kudos for printing it, because "Speaker" Brubaker has been WAY too big for his britches for a very long time . . . very snotty to the mere peons.

The trouble is your approach. You are waiting for information to be exposed (presumably by law enforcement or legal filings) and trickle down.

My argument is that you/others could take a different tactic . . . like taking the information (AND DOCUMENTATION REGARDING CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR) I have presented to Harold Brubaker (not to mention a good portion of the state legislature), and saying to them, "This is the law as it is written. And it says certain things are supposed to happen. But they aren't happening."

"Dr. Johnson is right about what the law says with regards to her situation" (of course, that would mean you'd have to actually LOOK at the documentation I am only too eager to provide if you/your bosses would only ASK).

For anyone who may be reading and getting ominous ideas, this incriminating information is NOT stored at my home or my Mother's.

You would then ask the "honorable" former "Speaker", "So what's the problem in enforcing the law? What's the real deal here? You're this physician's representative and you can't even answer a letter, or an e-mail. What (or WHO) is keeping you from lifting a finger? What (or WHO) blocking this investigation? And WHY are they blocking it? Who does it serve?"

And watch him squirm.

In other words, you start at the bottom (with just one of many angles of approach) and you work your way UP.

And my situation (as someone who cannot afford the big lobbyists - fighting people who can) very much fits into the bigger puzzle. It's far from a "dry hole".

And by the way, (like Cone & company) you can diss what I've been doing in these blogs all you want, but if I had waited on the local newspapers to tell this story, I'd still be trapped in a black hole.

At least this way I can see a little daylight.

It's supposed to be what journalism is about, but I've pretty much given up on that.

Mary:

The Black hearing is different. What he said was said in open court - a public venue, not to mention a venue covered by fair report clauses of libel and slander law.

Brubaker was available to respond, on the record as was a third party in the transaction. All speaking on the record, for attribution.

If you can't see the difference between that and printing rumors, attributable to no one, then I'm not really sure I can help you out.

NO Mark. That is NOT going to work this time. There is NO difference.

Where my case is concerned, "non-profit" Randolph Hospital exectuives, Bob Morrison and Steve Eblin lied under Oath in discovery during a court proceeding . . . to save themselves some money and keep a local Pediatrician down (and their "market" cornered).

That sort of thing IS governed by the SAME perjury & contempt (as well as libel & slander) laws that cover open court proceedings. The law, as it is written (as opposed to practiced) makes NO distinction. The truth is the truth and is absolute protection.

And a lie is a lie . . . and damning proof of the story I've begged local journalists to tell FOR YEARS.

But (again) the newspaper has to be willing to LOOK at the documentation. Your Editor has made it CRYSTAL CLEAR that he cannot be bothered to do even that.

I've done the dance of jurisdiction. I've spoken "on the record" for the STATE AND FEDERAL regulators and the politicians, and for my trouble I've been treated like dirt . . . mostly because (unlike one of my physician compariots who arrived in Asheboro at about the same time and got everything he ever wanted) I don't have the right last name and I don't have the money to "pay-to-play".

That's where the local newspapers are supposed to come in and level the field.

So yes, this story does come back to me and my situation. Why do the Duke boys get "justice" and I get squat?

It's your job to ask.

And if Morrison and Eblin don't answer, you might consider (again, if you LOOK at the documentation that I could provide) that it's the journalistic equivalent of taking the Fifth.

I hear Lex is on the healthcare beat now. I won't hold my breath.

As for the GPD situation, if the rumors are not fit to print, then why are Jerry and Bledsoe not in court defending a "libel" charge from someone/anyone . . . as opposed to fielding death threats?

"The Bledsoe has a grudge" excuse only goes so far.

And the slime-pool in Raleigh is WAY DEEP. For years, no one has so much as stirred its ugly, black waters. You CANNOT approach it (as a journalist) with the Anne Frank notion that, "I believe in my heart that most of them are good."

Your heart, I think, is in the right place. And your blog (in my LOWLY opinion) represents the best of what the N&R has to offer. But I'm sorry. NOBODY at your newspaper gets to talk to me like I'm an insignificant stray. Not after the medico-legal cluster-screw I have endured right under the N&R's nose.

You guys "sold" these blogs as your way to interact the with public . . . and get stories out there that might not otherwise get air time. But that's just a lie. Many, many people have told you-all that something is very wrong at your paper . . . if not in these blogs, then by cancelling their subscriptions. Your newsroom just indured a employee bloodbath due to falling circulation.

You guys still don't get it.

And if you can see what the attitude (and the chip on your collective shoulders) is costing you, well then I'm not sure I can help you out.

Okay, Mary, it's obvious you feel passionately about this but are unwilling to even take a peek out of your very narrow reality. That's your prerogative but don't expect me to buy into it.

Mark, another cheap shot, this time worthy of Roch. I've been in the GSO blogosphere long enough to have experienced them all. It does not become you.

OF COURSE I FEEL PASSIONATELY ABOUT THIS!!! MY LIFE AND PEDIATRIC PRACTICE IN MY HOMETOWN WERE DESTROYED . . . BY OVERPAID SUITS TAKING THE PUBLIC FOR A VERY BIG & EXPENSIVE RIDE ON THE PRETEXT OF "SERVICE". I AM FURIOUS ABOUT IT!!!

My "reality" is this: In February I wrote a letter to my so-called "representatives" in the NC legislature. The NC Medical Practice Act, as written, REQUIRES the NC Medical Board to make referrals to appropriate law enforcement agencies (in this case that would the NC Attorney General) when they have evidence of criminal activity (http://www.awhitewall.com/perjury.pdf) in their possession.

Moreover, as it is written, the Act does not currently specify that the Medical Board only refer matters that pertain to doctors.

That letter (minus one or two very sensitive paragraphs . . . that I can also back up with evidence) was posted on my blog: http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2007/02/nc-medical-board-has-choice-it-can.html.

Now the Medical Board would like me to just shut up and go away . . . because it's embarrassing to admit that they do no have mechanisms in place to protect the duties they require. They don't protect or EVEN CARE about medical whistle-blowers, and I personally know of a number of cases in which patients (children . . . not that anybody really cares) have been place in harm's way becasue the Board was slow to act . . . or did not act at all.

MONTHS after sending the letter, a story surfaced (http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070614/NEWSREC0101/70614023/-1/NEWSREC0201) that the Board was taking measures to codify and "clean up" the Act.

If you recall, I e-mailed you about the story. The resultant post is here: http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2007/06/nc-legislature-is-re-writing-medical.html

Here's what "clean-up" actually means: The Medical Board and State Legislature would rather re-write the section of the Act that might finally give me some measure of "justice" (as a public servant wronged), than simply DO what the law currently says it requires . . . and hold Randolph Hospital executives accountable for their bold-faced lies.

That's an under-the-table political smooth-move worthy of Jim Black and his sycophants (good word, Bubba).

The Medical Board is composed of a bunch of gubernatorial (translation: political) appointees and is actually run by lawyers. They are located in Raleigh, and this IS YOUR BEAT.

If "citizen journalism" means anything, you'd AT LEAST sniff around. The story has, after all, been handed to you on a silver platter.

You . . . your bosses . . . simply don't have any more excuses.

Don't expect me, as a reader or citizen, to buy into those excuses.

"You . . . your bosses . . . simply don't have any more excuses.

Don't expect me, as a reader or citizen, to buy into those excuses."

In general, I think the N&R needs to make better choices in the stories they choose to cover, and how they cover them.

This has become very apparent over the last few years.

I see no sign of it changing, however.

The saddest thing of all is that I don't either, Bubba.

The myth of citizen journalism is the biggest lie perpetuated in the N&R's blogs.