The Woodstock Independent rarely covers anything in government above the municipal level of Woodstock, Bull Valley, sometimes Wonder Lake governments and the local school board.
I only remember seeing a reporter elsewhere at one McHenry County College Board meeting.
Nothing wrong with staying local.
But, recent evidence indicates it has become a mouthpiece for McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks.
See, for example, complete with supplied photo,
Woodstock Independent
McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks looked forward to those projects and more last week during his second annual State of the County …
But more evidence is a scathing editorial January 16th editorial comparing McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio to Stormy Daniels.
Reading like it was spoken by a lawyer giving a closing argument, the piece points out defamation suits involved both the porn star and the public official (called a “politician,” of course).
The Woodstock Independent, which to the best of my knowledge did not cover the smear mailings sent by Jack Franks ‘ allies, asserts that both Tirio and Daniels “pursued defamation complaints that they are destined to lose.”
The editorial concludes, “In Illinois such lawsuits are not supposed to be allowed to stand.”
One wonders what law school Editorial Board members Cheryl Wormley, Larry Lough, Sandy Kucharski or Ken Farver attended.
The paper certainly did not cover the trial over which Associate Judge Kevin Costello presided or it would not have written that the “judge should have laughed the case out of court.”
The verbal decision that Judge Costello delivered after about ten minutes in his office was stunning in its logic.
Confounding is the assertion that Tirio’s Republican primary opponent was responsible for the mailings’ saying “some mean things about him.”
Even someone reading the Northwest Herald should know the primary opponent, a defendant in suit along with Breaker Press and the Illinois Integrity Fund, testified she knew nothing about the mailings.
The editorial does not even mention the charge of “false light” in Tirio’s suit (neither did the Northwest Herald), pretty much an admission that no one at the weekly paper read Tirio’s court filing.
For those with no knowledge about false light, an attorney told me the level of proof is lower than for libel or slander.
The paper does endear itself to me by referring to the anonymous group behind he mailings as “the so-called Illinois Integrity Fund.”
I could not find a link to the editorial.
Did the Independent article about the state of the County indicate if Carol Sente was present to watch his delivery?
Maybe Ed Komenda has applied for a job!
Sends a clear message to honest civilians seeking to enter politics to clean up ‘business-as-usual’:
Don’t even try.
We control local press, and we have more money than G__, and we will spend it to destroy you.
Hi pot, have you met Kettle.
Bear in mind that public reaction on this blog and elsewhere will serve as free focus group data harvest for the extremely skilled law firm representing IIF.
(They represented Bears kicker/high court judge as plaintiff in a defamation suit, winning millions for him and their firm).
They appear to be testing the waters with “ridicule plaintiff” “re-characterize tort as Constitutional Freedom” gambits.
Probably very effective.
Alas, poor Woodstock, we knew you well …..
One may ask: Why was the editorial posted now?
Why by the Woodstock Independent?
Wormley and Lough both vote Republican; Kucharski has not voted in recent primaries.
The last four years of a Republican Clerk were an unmitigated disaster but she did work for Franks and gave him everything he asked for.
We now have a Republican Clerk who actually works for the people.
We have a Republican Clerk who fulfilled his promise of eliminating the office of Recorder (ignore Franks trying to take credit).
We have an honest Republican elected official willing to put forth his reputation and money to stifle garbage literature mailed during a campaign.
Should we look no further than the fact that Koehler and Tryon are openly working with a Democrat?
Are the political elite grasping at straws?
Obviously the Woodstock Independent isn’t so INDEPENDENT!
Tirio has been nothing but a stand up person!
Honest, hardworking, and dedicated to serving the taxpayers!
Franks on the other hand is a true blue politician that is self serving and creates smoke screens to the public.
Keep fighting the fight Mr. Tirio!
Hope you expose the people that like to hide and not play by the rules.
As a purveyor of ideas, this rag is less Brookings Institute than 3:00 A.M. at a Truck Stop.
Oh Cal. Your chutzpah is only matched by your hubris. And your obsessive hate for Jack Franks.
Joe.
You are obviously the new “attack the messenger so people will ignore the message” guy now that Moderate and Angel have disappeared.
Woodstock “Independent”
And yet DJ you keep reading and posting.
I guess you don’t have a very high opinion of yourself.
Known-Joe gets his information from memes on the internet.
Doesn’t really know what they mean.
Democrats good, Republicans bad, that is as far as he can think.
Two things struck me about the editorial (besides the tone and content).
First, it wasn’t signed.
Second, I can’t find it on their website or on their Facebook page.
It looks like it only appeared in print.
I can’t tell if Pokorny really has no idea of how dumb he comes off, or is it some kind of involuntary tic?
Like Tourette syndrome.
That’s right Steve.
There is no category for Editorials or letters on their website.
Only “Pet of the Week”.
Maybe that’s where it is.
Just sent Cal pic’s of the ‘Opinion” by their editorial board.
The letter is so obviously penned by someone who doesn’t want Tirio to continue litigation. Franks himself? Kevin Carver (his patronage minion)?
Why would the Woodstock Independent get involved in this and make well respected Judge Costello seem daft?
Compare a well respected Public official Clerk Tirio to a whore who admittedly lied and had the case thrown out?
Do they think their readers are stupid?
And they made themselves look stupid.
Tirio isn’t going after those named in the case because ‘they were mean’.
He’s suing for defamation because his good name is damaged because they accused him of a C R I M E.
Wormley and her editorial staff don’t have a clue or care about facts.
I’ve never in all the years I’ve been here, I never remember them printing such disgusting garbage and risking their reputation.
This Editorial of the Woodstock Independent’s just adds to any damages Tirio may have already incurred by the defamatory anonymous mailers.
I mean really, the audacity of comparing him to a whore/porn star!
Minimizing his pain by joking it off!
Telling him he has no case, and calling him a frivolous litigator!
They say their circulation is 17,000.
I don’t know if that means paying customers or if that includes the FREE issues they send in the mail the 2nd week of every month.
Joe, I hope you’re taking notes here, Good Buddy.
Saving my copy for you, if you need it.
Before the 4th of July a free edition is delivered to my in-law’s home in Wonder Lake.
Tomorrow you and Wormley can read the crucial verbal decision of Judge Kevin Costello on McHenry County Blog.
A link to the Independent publication showed that Franks, a Democrat who supported Obama, asked this question:
“Would it make sense to have County Board elections in which candidates are not identified by political party?”
That is a terrible idea. Especially in these times when Democrats around the Nation are becoming more extreme, more radical and just plain nuts. Democrats do not want border security. They want open borders. They have compassion for gangs who murder such as Pelosi proclaimed about ms13. They openly harbor illegal aliens and illegals who have committed crimes. Democratic leaders have proclaimed their cities or States as Sanctuaries for illegals. They want to abolish ICE which tracks down, jails/deports illegal alien criminals.
NO. Answer Mr Franks question by saying it makes absolutely no sense to shield the political affiliation of persons running for the McHenry County Board. County citizens need to know the persons who associate themselves with a political party, Democratic, which has gone off the rails in recent years and has veered hard left and supports actions and policies that are harmful to American citizens.
Cal – Just wrote a reply and it got posted to web site immediately. There is great variability as to when our replies are posted. Sometimes immediately. Sometimes quite a while after we go through proving we are not a robot and have to pick out various pictures that have certain conditions. Such as checkmarking pictures that show cars, or hills, or store fronts, or bridges, etc. Why is this so?
I have no idea.
Just following suit to the other local rag, now aren’t they!
Although the Herald seems to be covering the Tirio defamation case fairly so far.
This Woodstock Independent thing is ridiculously way off base.
I feel Tirio is owed an apology.
So, write a letter to the Woodstock Independent.
Wrong Bred.
Having partisan elections for county level offices terribly distorts everything.
It usually makes one party primary the deciding factor.
These have typically had low turnouts.
Then everyone in a county who is not affiliated with the majority party is unrepresented.
Plus it makes county elections subject to influences at the national level which have nothing to do with county government.
Franks is an anathema not because he is a Democrat (which he really isn’t from an ideological standpoint), but because, like Trump (who is not a Republican either) he is a power mongering, self serving, amoral narcissistic dictator.
Neither party needs those.
Tabloid or comic fiction?
Woodstock FakeNews
Since when was the Indie a well recognized source of journalism
Since never, Schroeder!