Blacklisted from the City Newspaper!

Blacklisted from the City Newspaper!

Mary Anna Towler, the Editor of Rochester's City Newspaper has blacklisted Friends Helping Friends, the nonprofit organization I direct, as well as myself, from ever being featured in their newspaper. I'm not even allowed to comment on their interactive webpage. As I understand it, the City Newspaper has blacklisted me for reasons they won't state, perhaps the personal politics of the director of the organization.

Mary Anna Towler, the editor, told me that I was liar and printing anything I said could endanger the financial health of the newspaper (libel). I provided proof of some of the statements I was making and asked Mary Anna Towler to give one example of my supposed lying, and she didn't respond. I do not lie. On rare occasions, I may make mistakes, but I'm almost always good about researching and verifying my assertations before I make them publicly. I would never intentionally lie to the media or in any other professional setting. I asked to meet with Ms. Towler in person and she refused.

I don't think I've said anything libelous to the City Newspaper and I think that Mary Anna Towler should cover "all the news that's fit to print" if she calls the City Newspaper a newspaper.

FHF has been featured repeatedly on every tv station and many times in the local Gannett Newspaper over the past few years.

A few weeks ago, I sent in a press release for a charity bike drive that incidentally featured a children's performer appearing during a small segment of the bike drive. The City Newspaper refused to publish any listing for the actual bike drive, but published a listing for the performer that was a small component of the bike drive without mentioning our name. Other radio, television & print media ran repeated coverage prior to the bike drive and it was extremely successful, raising over 500 bikes in one day. I found this to be especially unprofessional and vindictive of the City Newspaper, almost as a petty, deliberate snub.

In early 2004, the City Newspaper ran a front page story about Friends Helping Friends that caused us a lot of problems due to the City Newspaper's irresponsible journalism. Most of the problems came from the City Newspaper depicting Friends Helping Friends as the only food cupboard resource and from publishing inappropriate statements from myself.

Even though I repeatedly told the reporter to interview FOODLINK, the area's Second Harvest foodbank, or some other food cupboard provider. However, the City Newspaper refused to do so. In addition, the City Newspaper published a sarcastic, off-the-cuff comment where I remarked that other food cupboards/nonprofits were lazy. I know now, and I knew at the time that other nonprofits were not lazy and I did not seriously mean that other charities were lazy compared to me. Yet, the City Newspaper irresponsibly published that quote anyways, infuriating the local food bank. The City Newspaper tried to blame the whole fiasco on me, but after a long argument with Mary Anna Towler, I was able to defend myself re: my side of what had happened re: these and the many other problems with their sloppy "journalism."

I'm a grassroots service provider and am as poor as the people I serve. Many times, business people don't understand Friends Helping Friends and myself and try to victimize/take advantage of our organization like the City Paper does whenever anything goes wrong when doing stories about us.

None of the other 5 tv stations that provide coverage for us, or the one mainstream newspaper, or any of the other "alternative" newspapers (mostly religious focused) that provide coverage for us have ever had problems like the City Newspaper.

I think that barring FHF from any listings, coverage or even commenting on the City Newspaper's webpage about the often sloppily written stories is ridiculous and wildly unprofessional.