Response To A Comment

Someone sent in a comment earlier stating, why are you attacking Jim Ireton. What has he ever said about you.

In response to that question I'd like to offer the following...

"The farce that goes on in his head"

"His mental state"

"Tea Party induced constitutional constructionist"

"Tea Party tactics"

"Anti Semitic"

"Anti Women"

"Racist"

"Anti immigrant"

"Homophobe"

These are just some examples of what Mayor Jim Ireton called me in just ONE radio interview, ALL of which are lies. You have to seriously wonder the mind set of an individual that would make such remarks, especially after that person had just been handed a defamation lawsuit a few hours BEFORE this interview. Does he care about the taxpayers? Does he respect his position as a Mayor?

You have to remember, Jim Ireton, (when he needed me) would send Salisbury News information to promote whatever event he wanted well attended. If you'll recall some time ago I confronted the Mayor and asked him why we weren't on the Press Release list any more. His response was, "You play nice and you'll get it". Life just doesn't work like that, unless your WMDT, WBOC or the Daily Times. In my opinion it's coercion. You do things my way and I'll keep you in business. If you don't, we'll not let you play in the sandbox.

Mayor Ireton is an elected public official. That means ANYTHING that is done by his Office is public information. It doesn't matter if your Joe Citizen, Blogger or Reporter, every one is invited and should be afforded the opportunity to disseminate such information. If you'll recall, soon after Jim was elected, Chief Webster wanted to hold a Press Conference at the Police Station. Mayor Ireton insisted to Chief Webster that I be allowed to attend. In the past, Webster would hold the Press Conference INSIDE the building and tell me I was not allowed in. This time around, Webster held it in the parking lot OUTSIDE the building in what felt like a 100 degree day. I was worthy of Press then but God Forbid we disagree with Mr. Ireton, we don't "play nice" enough for him and we were cut off.

He showed, (or should I say) he made an example out of me to the rest of the Press and IF they didn't "play nice" the same would happen to them. Hence, look at the one sided news your getting from the Mayors Office in the Press.

What Salisbury News delivers, (to some) is not the most liked news and information, hence the photo today of a Sheriff's Deputy vehicle parked in a handicap parking space. But you have to ask yourself, would you ever see such an image in the Daily Times or on WBOC or WMDT? The answer is no. The reason, they don't want to get cut off. They don't want to be a red flag every time they drive down the road.

Its unfortunate we have to live in such a good old boy environment where you wash my back, I'll wash yours. Doing what we do is not at all easy. However, what we deliver is the TRUTH.

Now, IF I wanted to call Mayor Ireton names, well, I can think of quite a few of them that instantly come to mind, yet I have not. Last week when I wrote an article stating you have to wonder who spends more time in Delaware, me or Jim Ireton. I stated I spend time visiting my Wife and Grandson in Delmar while Ireton spends time in Rehoboth. I got TWO almost instant calls after that article went up saying, you can't call Ireton gay. I replied, I DID NOTHING OF THE SORT! I insisted they read the article again and they said, well, you mentioned Rehoboth. I replied, yeah, OK, what's the problem with that. They said that it IMPLIES it. I replied, REALLY, so your telling me EVERY ONE who visits Rehoboth is gay?????

THIS is the kind of mind set we're living in today. Politicians seem to TWIST things to make it look as if we're attacking them. Mayor Ireton told me in the past his Family owns a home in Rehoboth. He also told me he goes there often. It was Mayor Ireton who tried to IMPLY that I live in Delaware and that I am not a Salisbury resident, this is untrue. NOT ONCE have I received a comment telling me that my challenge to Mr. Ireton is not true. They can't because that would be a lie.

I also know that Councilwoman Debbie Campbell owns property on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Is she not allowed to spend time there? County Executive Rick Pollitt and his Family own beach front property in Ocean City, is he not allowed to go there? Mayor Ireton has every right to visit their property in Rehoboth and I would never challenge that. I also would NEVER call him the names he has so distastefully called me. I am NOT a member of the Tea Party nor have I ever been. I have COVERED their events, just as I have attended MANY democratic events including their crab feasts in which Ireton held up the "I'm Not A Republican" sign. As you can tell, I publish Governor O'Malley's press release on a daily basis being fair and balanced and keeping our readers updated and educated.

I personally worried about Mayor Ireton's condition after he didn't show up for a meeting and did what we thought was the right thing to do by checking up on him. Mayor Ireton never returned my calls or text messages, yet he went on to say I "lied" to my readers because I never checked my sources. Well Ladies & Gentlemen, JIM IRETON WAS MY SOURCE. Again, he never returned the calls or text messages, yet he knew from the messages I left something was seriously wrong. The next thing we all knew here came an alleged spoof phone call. "I have no malice towards the reporter who was in the room at the time" WHAT ROOM JIM?

Nevertheless, the original commenter needs to re think his question. I am not out there calling Jim Ireton names. It's quite the contrary.