By Beth David, Editor
Oh, boy. Where to begin?
Glass houses much, daughter of Patrick Carr? I am the one who is toxic, but a concerted effort to put me out of business, is not? Going after people’s livelihoods is okay?
Geesh. I wasn’t going to waste any ink on this foolishness, but Mr. Carr’s daughter moved her efforts out from the shadows of Facebook and hidden emails and went public at the Select Board meeting (see page 4), spending her public comment time trashing the Neighb News and me personally. I encourage you all to watch it at FairhavenTV.com
I will not waste my precious space here going on a blow-by-blow of her most disengenious crap. The reality is that she just doesn’t like that I called her precious daddy a bully a few times. Well, look up when I did, then watch the meetings and you tell me if the word fits. It’s called an opinion, and I have a right to it as much as anyone else.
I will say a few things.
First, it is the job of the free press in a democracy to hold government officials accountable. Her father is a town official with documented Conflicts of Interest that her company is also involved in. To put it simply, they are angry that I told everyone about it.
Second, she says in her statement that the town should take away the legal notices from the Neighb News and put their money somewhere else. She says they should find “a more fair and equitable news source to support, one that conducts itself professionally and takes their privilege and responsibility of reporting the news seriously.”
How dare you? Journalism in a democracy is NOT a privilege. It is a RIGHT. It is foundational to what makes a democracy great. You have the right to call me toxic and all kinds of other things, and I have the right to tell people what your father is up to in public meetings. Everything I wrote concerning Patrick Carr had to do with his behavior in meetings or pertaining to the business of his boards.
That’s what you sign up for when you become a town official, volunteer or not. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
As for “skewed reports” and cherry picking dialogue, well, I’m not your transcriptionist. My job is to summarize what happened and choose a quote that backs up my summary. That’s what journalism is.
My reporting on meetings is to give my readers a sense of what happened and to let them know if there were any extra shenanigans. You call it biased, fine. That’s your opinion. I do my best to give my readers the information they need to know what happened. All meetings are online. I encourage everyone to read my stories, then watch the meetings and decide for yourself if I’m skewing the facts and denigrating people.
I give you,...the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
There’s a bunch of other great stuff in here of course.
Until next week, then, see ya
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the Heroes!
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Click here to download the 7/31/25 issue: 07-31-25 FAYAB12U
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