On the heels of today's scandal and their admission to a reporter being "indirectly" involved, the President and Publisher Howard L. Griffin has announced the Daily Times are taking away the business responsibilities from Greg Bassett and are bringing in Tom Claybaugh as General Manager/Regional Vice President of the Daily Times.
You might say the ship is sinking fast and the DT's is bringing in a big hitter from Rochester, NY to hopefully salvage what is left.
It's about time someone did something.
42 comments:
Great news indeed! It is about time!
You think it will be the correct thing to do? Will GB stay on board?
I believe the scenario put forward by Joe is accurate. While the Times seems to put anybody's name forward for ANY type of accusation, regardless of validity, why not name the "fired" reporter? Is this not news? It would seem a few folks were consuming along with Ireton and came up with a very dumb idea. It may not constitute a criminal act for the mayor to make a slurred phone call, but like all things political...the cover up is the disgrace. The mayor should come clean! Nobody "spoofed" his number, he just made a command decision while under the influence...with the expected results. Bassett's departure may not be linked, but rather a result of longstanding decline. It will be interesting to see if he stays with Gannett...he has been waxing poetic about Berlin so much lately...maybe a weekly rag is where he finds a safe harbor. Give us all a break!
Seriously, it is about time!!!
I think its rediculous that this is going this far. We've all been pranked called before....
and being in the public eye sometimes means getting one or two more than the rest of us.
Do people really need to be loosing thier jobs over this?
Their foolishness in local politics was getting very frustrating to believe anything they put in print at all. Let's hope play time is over for that rag and maybe I'd start reading it online again. Right now until I see improvement, I still wouldn't pay for it. I hope they truely make amends and stop the BS bashing the only sincere hard working council people we've had in years.
Problem being more than likely it will be a pumped up version of the propaganda we have now.
@2:12 when it is not teenagers who are doing the prank calling and it is grown adults who are political figures then ummmmmmm yes someone does deserve to be fired over this. Especially if they use a local news paper to cover it up.
The DAY is coming.
Absolute lies in our only local newspaper 2:12? Of course heads should roll, this kind of crap has been going on long enough!
Maybe the "heavy hitter from Rochester" will bring along a copy of Gannett's ethics code? Bassett seems to have selectively lost the larger parts of his.
Quote from the Daily Times article today, Bassett- "Eventually, the police investigation would lead back to an associate of my reporter. The reporter wasn't directly involved, but the reporter's involvement merited full and quick disclosure."
So just how did the reporter's aquaintance get Ireton's phone? This smells like dead fish!
Let he who is wihtout sin cast the first stone.
It's about time that Bassett and Sara Lake got theirs. Their bias, unethical approach to journalism has been totally disgusting for quite a while now. I hope he resigns and we put a real unbiased, just the facts editor in his place and restore some integrity to a once respected paper.
@ 2:37 that does not fit this situation what so ever.
@2:36 Quote from the Daily Times article today, Bassett- "Eventually, the police investigation would lead back to an associate of my reporter. The reporter wasn't directly involved, but the reporter's involvement merited full and quick disclosure."
And I do not see any "full discloser" in the article what so ever. Seems to me a reporter took the fall for the DT and Ireton.
The first stone was cast a long time ago by Tighlman calling good, honest, hard working taxpayers "The Dirty Dozen." Seems to be far more than a dozen now!
The outright lies of thye WWTP being under budget and ahead of schedule (quotes from both Tighlman and Comegys) was a flat out lie and the paper supported the $60,000,000 blunder by hiding the truth!
the dailey times isnt even good enough to eat crabs on anymore!
Now it's time Ireton man's up and resigns. He just lost his hole card and he's got nothing left!
I will be applying for employment at the paper. They need good management. They need people that are truthful and have good credentials. Of course , I'll never get the job , the news media is far from truthful .
What a smuck. He walked right into that one didnt he. Very funny.
"I think its rediculous that this is going this far. We've all been pranked called before...."
THERE WAS NO PRANK CALL. This was Ireton drunk dialing, woke up regretting it and now the DT's is lying for him by saying it was a prank and not Ireton at all.
Has Ireton, at any time, denied making the call?
If so, only 2 possibilities:
He lent Frank Caliendo his phone or someone spoofed it.
Is the phone owned/paid for by the city? Then Chief Duncan has a responsibility to investigate and report to city officials and the complainant about the use of city property to perpetrate "pranks." Without than information, why would anyone answer any call from Ireton's phone? Let him/impersonator/spoofer leave a message/record that will not violate MD's phone tap laws.
No way, no how does Bassett's "coming clean" statement rule out the associate of the reporter being Ireton.
Great point 3:20
We know by now we've seen a lot of deceptive wording in the paper. No matter who made the prank call, what goes out in print is all Bassett. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. He made his bed, let him sleep with the fleas.
Now, will Ireton do the right thing and grow up and put his big boy pants on?
One little blogger brings down gannett. Whoda thunk it.
Wait until Gannett finds out Joe Carmean is Delusional. If you think this is a scandal...
Got them by the ole sack this time Joe!!
This once and for all proves that the paper's reporters have absolutely no ethics code of conduct. This conduct goes a lot further back than Lake. Who will suck up to Ireton, Dunn, Smith and Tighlman next?
Now I am really wondering if the local TV stations will have anything to say about all this? It's about time they quit burying their heads in the ground too! Come on WBOC and WMDT, grow a pair!
Joe Carmean is Delusional, holy crap. Makes sense though. Another scam by the daily rag to bring you down.
Why has Bassett hung on to that scumbag Carmean. I would gather yes men are hard to come by any more these days.
So Greg Bassett has been demoted, good! I hope they run that jackass out of town.
I feel bad for Greg losing his job. He should apply with the city. They have lots of openings because employees are quitting left and right. Especially in Public Works.
see what you get for slandering greg?
Carmean is Delusional!!! That is big news! More Daliy Slimes garbage.
It's about time the rid fat head of the DT
"I feel bad for Greg losing his job. He should apply with the city. They have lots of openings because employees are quitting left and right. Especially in Public Works."
Great! How do people who need jobs apply for these?
I thought so.....
I am unable to find this major announcement on the Gannett site or any where else on the net.
Maybe they will do some investigative reporting for a change instead of just reprinting court documents which is old news.
How juvenile was this all? Was it an intentional drunken prank? The reporter WITH the mayor? Later cover-up including police and paper media?
Are they ALL about 12 years old? Something tells me they thought it was funny as hell ... at the moment.
Did they NOT think that upon further inspection they would look like children? Naughty children at best.
Where are the responsible adults in this community?
Fun pranks among friends, and I said "FUN" pranks are all fine and good right up until, well, what is the saying? "...Until somebody gets their eye poked out."
This wasn't just silly, it was stupid and sans responsible adult judgment, impaired or not.
The government of a small city, and Salisbury is just that, a small city by any standard, should still have responsible governing, foresight, and accountability.
When it devolves into middle school pranks, we have a problem.
People, GROW UP! Stop screaming and pointing fingers. Don't hide behind the anonymous. Most of us grew up here. Do no accept trash because we don't have to. We need solid leadership on multiple fronts from governing, reporting, and policing along with community involvement. Step UP, lend a hand, don't just stand on the sidelines complaining.
Let's help each other, help our community, ahem, graduate into adulthood, shall we?
I don't feel bad that he may loose his job. He's been using the only newspaper in town to trash good, honest, hard working council people. He burned his own bridges.
Using the newspaper to sway votes to the corrupt, is, well corrupt itself, call it what it is, trash.
Greg Bassett, you're finally getting yours. Karma baby!
You've screwed over GOOD people for YEARS and now we get to sit back and watch you go down, finally!
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