Breaking New Ground

When Salisbury News came up with the idea of interviewing all candidates interested in getting their platform message out to the masses, we knew this would set the bar for other media outlets to do the same.

Salisbury News was created because certain information we wanted to get out to the public was rejected by local media outlets. The only way I felt these messages could be heard was by simply starting Salisbury News.

Our audience was very small but we became the talk of the town and eventually, (over the years) we have actually overtaken the daily local traffic. One thing that has delivered repeat visitors is constant daily articles, 7 days a week. The other thing that has proven to bring people back time and time again throughout the day is comments.

It's been a long and difficult road. As many of you know, there's been lawsuits by the Chief of Police, the Mayor and even the Warden. We stood our ground, we fought those battles and while these people bullied others in the past, I was able to afford to fight those battles and win. You stand up to a bully and they will back down. Fortunately for this community, they not only backed down, they went away.

Because we stood up to what we felt was Good Ol' Boy Power, because we provided evidence through documents, video, tape recordings and photos, it was impossible for many to continue steam rolling citizens. The MSM never thought one man with one Blog could ever become as successful as we have and to be completely honest with you, I never thought it would happen either. However, that's where we are today.

The goal, get the MSM to STOP being afraid of those in power. All of a sudden they could go to the Mayor and say, look, it's already out on the Blog, we need to discuss this issue. Mind you, in most cases they still stayed away from confrontational issues but eventually they learned if they want to stay in the main stream they'd have to make some changes.

That being said, I'm VERY pleased to tell you that the Daily Times started contacting ALL candidates to set up times and dates to do 30 minute interviews with the candidates. My hat is tipped to the Daily Times. They are a very powerful resource in this community and it has become vital, (especially in these times) to put these candidates on the record and deliver what they promise.

I know personally how difficult it is to put such a project together. It is very time consuming, yet it's a service you deserve. The DT's makes a lot of money Folks. My guess is that 10,000 people a day subscribe to the DT's. They sell multiple ads for local businesses. They sell obituaries, they make money on classified ads, they make a ton of money on legal ads, you deserve this service and I for one am very pleased they're going the extra mile to do what I feel is one of the most important issues out there, elections.

In the past, many comments have been brought forth to me saying the Daily Times is bias towards certain candidates. I know for a fact they have refused to publish many topics. One example is when Debbie Campbell won a spot in the prestigious Top 100 Women in Maryland. By putting pressure on these media outlets, a new bar has been set. YOU get the opportunity to view and listen to each candidates platform.

I look forward to seeing their line of questions and I can only hope they follow what we started by asking each candidate the SAME questions. I would hope that they do not personalize each interview, time will tell.

Nevertheless, Salisbury News has changed the scope of how news and information will be dispersed and we're very proud of that. All we ever wanted was the truth to get out. We wanted the public to be better informed and I'm very pleased we're all watching that happen.

In closing, one manager with the Daily Times told me 6 years ago, "go ahead, we'd love the competition, it will only make us better." He was right. Keep up the good work Daily Times.