Don't let the Eagle
Tribune fool you. On February 15, 2001 Rumbo
published a column exposing the illegal trash
pickup received by City Councilor Marie Gosselin
at the expense of the tax payers. Gosselin called
the DPW demanding that they remove construction
debris from one of her properties, a private
service that everyone else must pay for. The
story sent shock waves through city hall and
prompted calls from the public (on the Paying
Attention Radio program) calling for Gosselin to
pay the city back or resign.
Ten days later Lawrence resident James Stokes
spoke the during public participation section of
a council meeting to admonish Gosselin after
reading about the story in Rumbo. That was all
hack reporter Mark Vogler needed to justify
"breaking" the story in the Trib
without giving full credit to our publication.
Knowing full well that Rumbo had published the
story almost two weeks earlier, The Tribune
continues to promote the bogus claim that this
story was a feather in their cap and was brought
to light when James Stokes spoke at the council
meeting in February of 2001. Now that the Ethics
commission has fined Gosselin for her illegal
activity, the Trib is patting themselves on the
back once again for exposing the story.
Don't be fooled. This story never would have come
to light at all if Rumbo had not researched the
story and exposed the facts on February 15, 2001.
Councilor Gosselin has issued a public apology
for what she called "bad judgement" and
I think we should accept her apology at face
value and hope that she has learned a valuable
lesson. Only her future actions will determine
whether or not she really has, but everyone
deserves a second chance and I believe we should
give Councilor Gosselin the benefit of the
doubt…for now.
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