MONTROSE DAILY PRESS
A Bias Press Is As Dangerous As The Mob They Ignore
Montrose Colorado would not be an effective Biblical Hate Crime Arena without aiding, abetting and complicity from the Montrose Daily Press.
Cover-Up #1: Treasury's Icon was used for torture and nobody will break their sacred oath or dishonor the Mason's flippy-gig pyramid any more. Eddy LaBarr is the only one anywhere who doesn't know what this thing is. Keep what a secret? The final death of the Masons? We (The victims) are expecting Woody to come out with this super degrading article in favor of MPD/MCSO's perps. I think the Montrose Chamber has had enough loss of downtown business and reputation due to corruption in local government. ...This couldn't happen without the Montrose daily Press...
| Site Author's Note: There is a point in the letter below. In the years after our holocaust The Daily Press ran multiple articles glamorizing the MPD's SWAT team. I submit that accurate detailed monitoring by the Daily Press would curtail illegal activities by local law enforcement. |
An Open Letter to the Montrose Community
Dear Montrose Residents,
In my opinion, Montrose Daily Press Publisher Stephen Woody is bias, doesn't back up his employees if they come in conflict with his socially elite buddies and prefers to run his paper in accordance with all those other papers that give journalists a bad name; In short, he runs a pamphlet or a public relations newsletter for his buddies, but he does this under the guise of a newspaper and thus he deceives the public and his advertisers.
Woody has a sheet of paper outside his office that says something like, Backbone is more important than wishbone on the road to success. As I tell you this story, you will see that Woody is a spineless appeaser of Big Business and anything else that increases his power. Schopenhauer called it "will-to-power," and Nietzsche called it "vengeance," but I believe it's these things and that which they arise out of: COWARDLY FEAR.
My first day at the Montrose Daily Press was July 5, 2004. I moved out here from Denver, and upon arrival Daily Press Editor Dale Shrull told me that I was not to act as a public relations person for the Montrose County School District Re-1J. I never did, and it cost me my job.
The previous education reporter at the Daily Press rarely quoted sources outside of Re-1J. Re-1J spokesperson Linda Gann was one of his primary sources, and there was rarely, if ever, someone who disapproved of Re-1J quoted in his stories. This is not journalism. This can be verified at www.montrosepress.com; search Jason Monroe.
Early in my stay with the Daily Press, Gann released the news that the Montrose High School campus may be closing its doors during the school day. I promised to keep this under wraps until it was publicly released. Near the same time, Re-1J decided to implement Professional Learning Communities (PLC) into its schools. With the implementation of PLCs into the Re-1J schools came a change in the district's Wednesday schedule. Gann released this information to me, but there was never an agreement to hold the release of this information; it was requested by Gann, but I never once acknowledged that I would hold the information. Gann was furious, but later announced that I had not agreed to hold the information. According to Shrull, Woody was angry because Re-1J was angry. The public was interested, as they told me, and reading Woody's paper, but if Re-1J is unhappy, Woody evidently is as well.
A short time later, Re-1J Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction B.J. Brown told me that Re-1J was working with the Black Canyon Boys and Girls Club, Montrose Regional Library and the Montrose Recreation District to provide after-school activities for students affected by the Wednesday schedule change. I wrote a story about it, and not a week later I found out from the Director of the Black Canyon Boys and Girls Club that this was not the case. He told me that Re-1J had not contacted him, and that Brown would not return his calls. I then called the library and the Recreation District, and they told me the same story. Brown had lied, and I reported it to find numerous parents that were angry with Re-1J for this. It was sometime after my story on the school schedule change that Gann began not only going over my head, but over Shrull's head by talking to Woody when articles came out that Re-1J didn't like. Woody never addressed Re-1J issues with me, ever.
One day Woody wrote a column about independent films that were in theatres. This was around the time that Fahrenheit 9/11 came to Montrose. Woody introduced a number of other independent films that were out, and one of these was Supersize Me. I had seen the movie months earlier in New York City, and I asked Woody if he had seen it. He acknowledged that he had not, and he actually said that he would not report on it because the local McDonalds owner does so much for the community. Who does Woody think he is dictating whether material wellness is better than physical wellness? This is just one example of what the employee handbook at the Daily Press describes, in my opinion, as a "conflict of interest." Woody hadn't even seen the movie, and wouldn't even approach the subject due to his bias regarding the owner of McDonalds.
After my story showing that Brown had lied about after-school activities, according to Woody the day I was fired, many more incidents arose in which Re-1J was unhappy with my reporting regarding it. Neither Shrull, he said, nor I knew about these things until the day I was fired. On Sunday, August 22, a story I wrote about the bus routes in Re-1J appeared in the Daily Press. This was evidently the last straw. I got to work on Monday, August 23, and received e-mails from Gann saying that my choice of the word "massive" to describe bus route changes was odd. The word was in quotation marks and the entire quote from which it was pulled was in the story. The quote was by the director of the busing company Re-1J contracts to provide busing services for the district. I later found out that Gann was mad because she wanted the Daily Press to run 11 pages of school bus route changes, and the Daily Press had not done so. On an average day the Daily Press runs roughly six pages of staff-written articles, and Gann demanded 11 of her own for free.
This whole time I'm remembering what Shrull told me upon my arrival: Don't be Re-1J's public relations person. Woody never told me otherwise, and my job description didn't say anything about public relations work so I continued as I had been told to do.
On Monday, August 23, Olathe Middle and High School held a ribbon cutting. I arrived early, and attempted to talk to Board of Education member Dr. Louis Winkler. Winkler mumbled the answer to a few questions, but I could tell he didn't want to talk so I let him be. Moments later Gann came walking up with a photographer from the Daily Press. I would later be told that Gann was asking the photographer how to deal with me because I didn't want to strictly report the sunshine in Re-1J. When a school district springs numerous and "massive" changes upon a community a reporter will inevitably have to relay the fact that there are angry parents and community members. This is what I did, report all sides of the story as a journalist does and a pamphleteer does not do, and this is what I believe Woody and Re-1J were mad about.
After Gann asked the photographer about me I went to talk to Brown. Brown is usually very personable and very friendly. I approached him to discuss the after-school activities and how they were progressing. He looked at me with a blank face, told me to talk to Gann and walked away. After Winkler denied comments, hearing that Gann was asking about me, and Brown shunning me I knew something was going on. Re-1J served a meal to people who attended the Olathe ribbon cutting ceremony, and the photographer was seated and eating while I went and stood in line. As I was waiting in line, Re-1J Superintendent George Voorhis sat down with the photographer. From across the room I could tell by the look on the photographer's face that Voorhis was talking about me. The photographer told me that Voorhis asked, "So how's that new education reporter working out?" Something was definitely up, and since no one would talk to me I decided it was time to take other measures.
I told Shrull about what happened after getting back to the newsroom from the ribbon cuttings, and he passed it off as nothing. A couple of weeks prior to all of this, I was told by a very reliable source that the decision to close the MHS campus was probably made by administrators and not by Myers as was being given as truth by Re-1J. Pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Law, SS24-72-201 et seq., requests from public information can be made and the public entity, in this case Re-1J, has to either notify the person requesting information why they don't have it and where it can be found or to provide the information within three working days. I wrote a request asking for the salaries of the entire Re-1J staff, as I had been told to do, as well as letters e-mails, memos and other documents regarding the closing of the MHS campus. I dropped the request off at the Re-1J administration building at about 10:30-10:45 a.m. on August 24, and went back to the newsroom. No later than 11:20 a.m., Woody came into the newsroom asking where Shrull was, and everyone told him that he had left. Woody told them to call him back immediately. Woody then approached me at my desk.
He held my public information request up in his left hand, and said: What the hell is this?
I replied, "It's a request for public information."
Woody then asked me why I had written it, and I told him it was because I wanted public information. Woody then proceeded to go on a short rant, using profanity throughout (a violation, in my opinion, of the Employee Handbook). He told me that I had no right to do such a thing, and that I needed to clean out my desk and said, "Get the hell out of here. You're done." He then added this and that other things as he continued on his red-faced emotional diatribe. I approached him and asked him for this in writing and he declined. I then asked for him to explain why a reporter doesn't have the right to ask for public information, and he denied me this as well. Woody had received my public information request from Re-1J because my signature was copied on the sheet he held up in front of me, and I only signed those sheets that went to Re-1J; in fact, no other printed sheets existed.
I was under the impression that the media spend millions of dollars a year defending the right to access public information is the way I had attempted, but evidently doing so when the publisher is buddy-buddy with the entity that you're requesting the information from changes everything (another conflict of interest). I was under the impression that the Daily Press spent a reported $28,000 in legal expenses to acquire a diary that it first attempted to acquire, I can only imagine, using the same method I had been fired for using.
Employment at the Montrose Daily Press is an "at-will" relationship. Woody has every right to fire me at any time with or without notice, just as I have the right to quit at any time in the same way. I do not currently believe that Woody unlawfully terminated me. However, I am given the federally and locally mandated right to access public information. As a journalist I am expected to know how to do this, and this is, according to other journalists as well, a routine occurrence. I am entitled this right, and the Employee Handbook, which I signed off on upon employment, does not state that I forfeit this right while I'm at work. My lawyers and I now believe that when Woody fired me for utilizing a right, which I am granted under the Colorado Open Records Law, Freedom of Information Act and the United States' First Amendment he broke the law in the form of discrimination. We believe he discriminated against me for using my rights. This is yet to be tried in a court of law, and will be tried in Denver so as to avoid what I've been told is a corrupt legal system in Montrose, but according to my lawyers success in such cases is high. We will have to see as this lawsuit makes progress.
The irony that I find most astounding is that Woody's livelihood as a member of the media is reliant upon the right my lawyers and I believe he stole from me. Without the First Amendment Woody would not be doing what he is doing, and I believe the above sequence of events not only illustrates his "will-to-power" mentality, but his willingness to manipulate the information the public receives to fit his personal agenda. In my opinion, Woody is a perfect example of what is wrong with the media today: He runs a pamphlet under the guise of a newspaper, and he does so to support his own myopic beliefs and his primal "will-to-power" thirsts.
If you believe the above information, which is subjectively truthful and can be proven in numerous ways, to be as disgusting as I'm sure you cannot help but think it to be, I recommend the following: Cancel your subscription to the Montrose Daily Press; call Stephen Woody at his office (252-7099); call Woody's supervisor John Mathew at 1-800-777-9425, and I recommend you call Linda Gann at 252-7901.
This will be in the news soon, and has already been. If you have access to 850 KOA in Denver I recommend you keep tuned in for further information regarding these events and other events at the Montrose Daily Press and within Re-1J. Records of these exchanges will be or have been sent to my personal contacts, which include but are not limited to the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, NBC News, LA Times, Denver Herald Dispatch, Westword, Denver Daily News, Montrose Monitor, FrontPage Magazine Publisher David Horowitz, Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Press Association, Colorado Governor Bill Owens, Colorado Senate President John Andrews, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo, U.S. Senator Wayne Allard, U.S. Senate Candidate Peter Coors, Colorado Federation of College Republicans Chairman George Culpepper, Western Slope Libertarian Party, Colorado Department of Education, the Independence Institute, the Buckhorn Institute, Auraria College Republicans officers, Creative Resistance officers and political attorney at law Ryan Call.
In my opinion, incidents similar but essentially different pertaining to the relationship between Woody and some of the Montrose City Councilors are present as well, and I will continue to research this and publish reports thanks to generous donations of citizens of Montrose.
If you would like further information, please contact me.
Always,
Former Montrose Daily Press Education Reporter