The Standard Free Holder’s David Nesseth Comes Out and Admits to Posting Under Pseudonym – Cornwall Ontario – March 1, 2010

Cornwall ON – What an odd and weird world it can be.    I wrote this EDITORIAL about the Standard Free Holder suspending my ability to post on their site.   Their sole objection; at least in writing to date; is that I sign off Jamie Gilcig – www.cornwallfreenews.com

Of course I do that simply to disclose who I am.  Lowell Green and other media people have talked about “anonymous”  posters; trolls, and others with axes to grind, and by not disclosing who they are can do a lot of damage and sway public opinion that they just might not be able to if they had to disclose who they were.

A while back we were having fun suggesting that the Free Holder’s Claude McIntosh was posting on the Free Holder using a pseudonym.   As I have stated before I only post here as admin or my own name; Jamie Gilcig.

The Free Holder has never had a comment signed by one of their many reporters or editors.

David Nesseth decided to write me a nasty email.   Here are a few excerpts:

Jamie,

I wish people wouldn’t alert me when you get the itch to vomit on your keyboard.

Maybe if you had any sense at all, you’d realize that offering coffee for sale inside another separate business doesn’t constitute a “retail outlet”. Think you may also have failed to mention in your editorial that Reg is a partial owner in your business. Very transparent.

Now those are some very odd comments.  Mr. Coffey clearly stated to Mr. Nesseth during his interview with him that he was a silent and very tiny minority owner of our company.   Mr Nesseth’s own story was about Mr. Coffey’s Coffee being available at another retailer so I’m not quite clear on his logic????  Is it different to sell Coffee outside of Cornwall than at a store in Downtown Cornwall, two blocks from the Free Holder?   Maybe someone else can figure that one out?

What disturbed me actually was his admission:

“I had to post on your sorry blog to clear the air.”

Well I verified this and in fact it looks like Mr. Nesseth did in fact post on our site using a pseudonym and not signing as David Nesseth or something clearly identifiable.   His comment was also directly related to what he wrote for the Free Holder.   Was this done at the direction of his editor or with his editor’s knowledge?

So is it fair dinkum for media to allow their employees to post on their “competitors” sites using a pseudonym?   This is exactly why I only sign as myself.      The bigger question is how many id’s do the Free Holder staff post with on their own newspaper and should it not be disclosed when one of their own employee’s wish to post their opinion or make a comment on a news story?

And yes, we sent an email to the Free Holder and the apparent manager in Kingston for the online version.

To me this sordid and unneeded incident really focuses on the need for local media.   Having someone punch buttons from Toronto, or Calgary, Ottawa, or even Kingston for a media outlet in a city of nearly 50,000 people just doesn’t feel right….

Jamie Gilcig – The Cornwall Free News

What do you think Cornwall and Canada?  Feel free to post your comment below and participate in our poll.

 Loading ...

please visit our sponsors: