FauquierFreeCitizen.com gets an occasional earful from the few defenders of abuse by Fauquier County government and its corrupt ways. Mostly, though, we’re grateful for the overwhelming praise and support.
County officials not known for understanding the Bill of Rights have charged our news site with many things ranging from not presenting all sides to inciting anger.
Fauquier County officials have been invited on multiple occasions to present their side in these electronic pages. (Hear sound of crickets chirping.)
Unlike other news sites that print the talking points of the county government and fail to probe, FFC is a little more skeptical about the bosses in county government. Indeed, we have caught the county government in outright lies. Yes, we said it: Lies. Not just “misinformation” or “inconsistent with the facts.” Read our motto, taken from Herman Melville.
Now, one supervisor has accused FFC of reporting incorrect information. We have invited him to present his side. (Again, hear sound of crickets chirping.) One made thinly veiled reference to us using a term like “Washington special interests.” At approximately the same time, he threatened to raise taxes on working farms as the county continues to grab up more tax-exempt property using the process of easements.
One angry, anonymous commenter, allegedly a county employee, accused FFC of failing to present accurate information in our Bring in the Clowns editorial, asking, “Where do you get this information? You don’t have any sourced documentation.”
Well, we had already told our readers that, stating “nothing appears to be in writing.” But we did ask in the editorial itself for the county government to respond. I even sent the county government this written request:
“From: Mark Fitzgibbons
Sent: Mon 1/21/2013 9:07 AM
To: XXXX
Subject: comment?
XXXX,
Does the county have any comment that could clarify?
Mark
http://fauquierfreecitizen.com/bring-in-the-clowns/”
With Fauquier government ducking our questions and violating the Freedom of Information Act, FFC will nevertheless continue reporting what we know. Readers can count on that.
But what’s most interesting is how certain Fauquier government officials have responded with such incivility. That’s a whole, longer series of articles and editorials. But the spotlight has been shined on them and they don’t like it, responding sometimes with threats and insults. Tsk, tsk.
Maybe they’re cracking under the pressure of so many lawsuits against the county that are making their cronies nervous. It’s tough to attract business to a county known for being unfriendly and bullying to business, and that cannot seem to manage money as its burgeoning debt shows.
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