Welcome Back Tony Muma & The Standard Freeholder Allows Claude McIntosh to Lie to Cornwall – June 2, 2013

TonyCFN – The buzz is that Tony Muma is coming back to Cornwall and the Freeholder.    Some of you may remember the crack reporter who lost his job when Quebecor chopped a bunch of jobs last winter.

Mr. Muma was supposed to come to CFN after his termination but disappeared.   Poof, without a word!    We’re happy to know he’s well and from what we heard will be replacing one of the current staffers of the Free Holder.   Apparently most of the girls are leaving the Free Holder.

Speaking of the Free Holder Claude McIntosh was scribbling about me; but this week he crossed a line by writing a very big bold faced lie.

Mr. McIntosh stated that I had written the following.

 

… The Blogger announced that Denis Thibault had been fired as head of the Eastern Ontario Training Board. That is news to Thibault (and his employer). “Ya, I was surprised to hear that,” chuckled Thibault. His is just one of many bogus resignation annoucements posted by The Blogger over the last 18 months.

Of course Mr. McIntosh never put a link or posted an image of me typing such words.  In this instance it’s simply because they don’t exist as I never typed them.   How Mr. McIntosh could knowingly lie is odd enough.  How an editor or two at the Free Holder could allow it to go through without fact checking is quite another.

There are certain freedoms when it comes to opinions.   For instance if I said Etienne St. Aubin was a jerk it’s fair dinkum even if Mr. St. Aubin isn’t a jerk.  If I state as fact that Mr. St. Aubin is a jerk because he did something and he didn’t then it’s not fair dinkum as the Free Holder discovered when they had to print an apology for Claude’s outburst?

Solutions to lying like Claude has?  I can send a note to Brian Dryden at the Freeholder and Tycho Manson, their legal beagle in Toronto.   If they make it a big a laugh as they have in the past then I’m forced to issue suit which is timely and costs money.

Should anyone have to sue to stop a media outlet from lying about them or defaming them on a semi-consistent basis?

What kind of professional media outlet behaves that way?   As much as some people make fun of the Sun they are a professional news organization.   I can’t imagine them sinking to this behavior as a news organization even in a competitive media war.

As for calling me a blogger again instead of stating the truth, that we are an online newspaper,  Mr. McIntosh works for a newspaper that passed on sharing with the public that the only hospital in this city had mould in the CCU unit.

This weekend a story ended up in this newspapers lap because they called the Freeholder Saturday morning and it was closed.    They called us and that story has pulled in over 25,000 page views and over 1,500 you tube views of our interview footage, and gone National appearing on Bourque Newswatch Saturday.

The Free Holder also didn’t cover the largest Day Care in our city being shut down by the ministry, nor a SIU police incident Friday night.

Nor did they cover Wal-Mart trying to boot out our local school bus drivers Survivor night fund raiser for CHEO.  After CFN, the only media outlet to come to the driver’s aid, did a story did the good folks at Wal-Mart change their mind and the driver’s broke a record raising over $14,000.

The Free Holder doesn’t cover a lot of hard news.   The scary part is what important hard news haven’t they covered over the years?

Maybe they should hire a few “bloggers” ?

No Mr. McIntosh, you can keep calling me a blogger.   The FreeHolder can keep allowing you to outright lie in your column.   They can keep ignoring our community and not cover real news about real people in our city because they’re worried about losing an ad here or there.

The Free Holder has all but ignored the Whistleblowing cases.  It’s all but ignored Elder Abuse stories.  And it all but fought against the victims from Project Truth.  A muzzle order prevents us from writing about a conviction that if shared would hugely humiliate and clarify the Free Holder’s role during Project Truth.

Newspapers have a role and responsibility, especially in a smaller community.  When a newspaper turns a blind eye to injustice it’s horrible. When it participates in covering up injustices what term would you use for that?

Mr. McIntosh has been writing about myself and CFN for quite awhile.   He refuses to use my name, but by using the name of our Paralegal in our lawsuit against the city has clearly identified myself and CFN.   He has lied to the community.   The Free Holder has lied to our amazing community.

We all deserve better.

In the meanwhile we will live up to the promise of our Mission Statement and vision; something that over 53,000 Unique Visitors believed in during the month of May; a rise of over 25% from April.

Hopefully one day this city’s media will live up to higher standards.  Hopefully when caught lying there will be a public outcry.

What a dark sad day for our community when such lies are told in public.   And if as speculated by many, that Mr. McIntosh and the Free Holder are doing so at the behest of most likely their largest advertiser, the City of Cornwall what does that say about our community?

Jamie Gilcig – Editor – The Cornwall Freenews –   The Most read newspaper in Cornwall Ontario by Cornwall Ontarians.

And darn proud of it!

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19 Comments

  1. I think that a lot of people have tuned little mac out, after his second caught lie I began to wonder …what else has he lied about.He has lost respect with his constant rants & lies all in all trying to save Kilger,s reputation
    Keep up the good reporting Jamie,he should fully retire.
    Best of luck to Tony

  2. Jamie…do I get a “half a byeline” for being the first person to point out this “third or forth Misquote” by coffee break…three minutes after they published it online friday night???

    It took about 2 minutes of FACT CHECKING…to realize either little mac was half crocked in a watering hole when he wrote this..or ..well fill in the blanks….as to why he would print such nonsense that ANYBODY…could realize..was untrue

    If he meant his column to be a humour piece..it should be labelled as such

    Here…i will write his column for the next four weeks

    Ed Lumley did this
    Ed Lumley did that
    Ed Lumley thinks this
    Ed Lumley thinks that

    Mayor Bob Kilger says it..and I repeat it…SO IT MUST BE TRUE

  3. Author

    MJK, yes, you can get part of a by line 🙂

  4. The Sun is a professional news organization. The Standard Freeholder is simply, I believe, a weak link in an otherwise strong chain. Chinks in local managements armour have been evident to this reader for quite some time.

    Take Claude’s fixation on you as a compliment.

    Suffice to say that if Claude did not feel challenged by you he would not be devoting so much effort at such a blatant attempt to discredit you. You would be invisible to him. The twilight is looming and Claude is attempting to harness the last rays of his career like an athlete who has passed his best before date. Sad.

  5. Best wishes Tony on your return to Cornwall. If I were you, I would be trying to get back that job at CFN. Reporters at the Freeloader are not respected because they don’t report the truth. That is a dead end job. CFN is much more well known and respected. But then again, if you are happy going nowhere…….

  6. Author

    We still have the brand new Windows 8 computer we purchased for Mr. Muma. The man just went poof without a word….

  7. Jamie
    I only talked to Mr Muma once..online…but he seemed like a decent chap under the great pressure felt by any new journalist.
    They expect you to produce copy for the street version of paper..online content..video content…maybe start a blog..all the while…people move away from established newspapers.
    And in the blink of an eye…your job vanishes..
    Muma can speak for himself..but…losing a prized job must have hit him hard…as he seemed to vanish online as well
    Myself..i wish him well…least he doesn’t have old mac around handing out advice to any in the news room –that were foolish enough to listen.

  8. Tony Muma you left Orleans for Cornwall? Are you well? LOL LOL. Oh my dear Ottawa. SF = toilet paper of record is going down hill. The girls are leaving the toilet paper of record for good reasons – most likely they found a better place to work elsewhere. The toilet paper of record no longer has a printing division in Cornwall – Fossoli but in Brockville. All the jobs are leaving.

  9. Author

    Yes, and we reached out to him when he was let go and then poof, mysteriously he was gone without a goodbye. I’d heard he was selling cars in Ottawa. A very odd situation indeed. Human nature is a funny thing. Talented boy though.

  10. Perhaps one day Tony will see the light of type as his to shine and the opportunity will be here for him.

    As for the ‘toilet paper of record’, I still see it as a weekender much as the Seaway News is.

    That would mean a three way split or four with the Seeker Mag. and the Glengarry all hitting the streets and the garbage can at the same time.

    Perhaps there is light at the end of this dark tunnel after all. The advertisers will be scrambling then…and guess where the line up will be……..especially when all these laws suits are sorted out and you among others will be the truth merchants long overdue.

  11. Actually the ‘COMPLMENTARY’ Standard Freeholder copy once a week covers an entire week of their kind of sterile news anyway. This way, those that chose to can still send in their fliers with it just like the Seaway News does too.

    People tire of having to dump all those waste papers out to the blue box. So many just tae t from the front right to the Blue Box as it is one wonders how on earth these papers can afford to stay in business.

  12. Tony, Tony Tony WTH are you doing????
    Don’t go the dark side, your smarter then that. If you want to get ahead in life join CFN. SF is going down the drain & so will you. They let you go, say goodbye & don’t look back!!!

  13. Open Letter to Editor Standard Freeholder
    Would somebody answer a simple question…Why did coffee break claim this about CFN “ The Blogger announced that Denis Thibault had been fired”
    It would seem even a first year Journalism student_ would print a very different story_ when confronted by just this headline alone!!!
    I do believe your readers deserve and explanation.
    CFN story below
    “Is Cornwall Ontario City Councilor & Eastern Ontario Training Board Director Denis Thibault Done? “

    CFN – It’s been a rough year for Cornwall Ontario City Councilor Denis Thibault. The long time Liberal mover, shaker, and friend of the legendary Ed Lumley has actually countered council recently over the sham exercise of having a public consultation this deep into the failed Kilger mandate.
    Word at the last Waterfront Committee meeting was that he had resigned. He had never recovered from the brutal waterfront public consultation that saw his dream of 2,000 waterfront condo’s sink under the weight of picketing Little Leaguers.
    Fragmented council? His words, not this scribblers. Those hardly sound like the words of someone about to rerun or perhaps even finish his term. With age and his own health concerns some are wondering if Mr. Thibault may leave the ship before it sinks; maybe as soon as before the May 24th city court date with Deputy Fire Chief Rob Hickley?
    COFFEE BREAK Friday
    … The Blogger announced that Denis Thibault had been fired as head of the Eastern Ontario Training Board. That is news to Thibault (and his employer). “Ya, I was surprised to hear that,” chuckled Thibault. His is just one of many bogus resignation annoucements posted by The Blogger over the last 18 months.

  14. Jamie I wish you’d tell the truth and say “Claude McIntosh is a JERK!”

  15. Jamie knows that Claude MacIntosh is a jerk but he is too much of a fine gentleman to lower himself to Claude’s level. I respect Jamie and he has the only newspaper anywhere that I will look at any day.

  16. Then why has’t Jamie reported on the ultra virus Mohawk Court that tax payers have been forced to pay provincial fines to. I have sent CFN and the FH proof that this court has not been given authority to hear let alone hand out provincial traffic tickets. Ontario has not appointed judges or a crown attorney to Akwesasne nor has Quebec. The proof was in the letters from the Ontario Justice Ministry, AANDC, and the Quebec Government. They have been collecting money from the travelling public for over 20 yrs now plus they have been getting funding from the Gov. to enforce only by-laws of the community. Provincial traffic laws are not federal by-laws. People need to know that this is not a real Ontario Court of Justice. Akwesasne complains that their rights are violated but yet they have abused the rights of the travelling tax paying public for far too long and have gotten away with it. CFN needs to ask Akwesasne to show proof from the Canadian government that they have the authority to gold this court and collect fines or pay the money back. Double taxed.

  17. Author

    Spirit Bear we have been given no documentation on anything you just mentioned.

  18. I sent it to the reporter that covered the last story at the four corners on the Island the one in which brian David wanted the CBSA to come back to the island with guns. Give me your email and I will send it to you then.

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