Fumo flunkeys pressure a TOLLROADSnews advertiser to quit - EDITORIAL

Mitchell Rubin Fumo on his website Fumo this week in AP pic Ruth Arnao/Rubin

The Fumo culture lives on in Harrisburg PA. A senior officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Friday afternoon asked one of their consultants who advertised with us to withdraw their advertisement.

This is a firm we respect. They are one of the best in the business. Their representative told us that people at the Turnpike Commission had called and asked what they thought of our reporting of the Fumo affair and the Turnpike. He said they agreed our reporting was "very strong."

Guess that was being polite. To say our reporting is very strong is a high compliment. A strong story needs strong reporting. Guess he really meant to say we were "too strong" or "over the top".

He refused to be drawn into any discussion of where we were too strong, or wrong, or unfair. He just asked for their advertisement to be removed as soon as possible from our website.

"By close of business today, please," he said - this at about 4pm.

Our gut reaction was to be accommodating. No one should be associated with this website who doesn't want to be. We were somewhat shocked at their stance, but we only wish the advertiser well. They do good work and so far as we know they earn an honest living.

We obliged and removed the ad.

But it's Saturday morning, and we have now thought more about this.

Were we too strong?

Maybe we were too strong and unfair? You must always be self-critical and be prepared to go back and look at your writing again.

We've gone back through the two articles on corruption at the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In places we did go too far. We've made some changes. Not major changes, but we've added in some needed qualifications, chopped some of our comment where on rereading it got a bit preachy or superfluous, and reorganized the pieces slightly.

One place we definitely went too far was in a caption saying Vincent Fumo had a "fraudulent" picture of himself on his website. That was silly. And humorless. Men in their mid-60s commonly use pictures of themselves taken when they were in their early 50s. And if they try pass themselves off as 40 it is cause perhaps for mockery, but hardly for condemnation.

Sorry Vincent Fumo. We wronged yah there.

The articles are still strong

The reporting is still strong. It needs to be. The facts are strong. A federal grand jury after a several year long FBI investigation has said that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has no record of Michael Palermo doing anything in return for $220k. We've asked the PTC. They won't comment on it, so we have to assume the grand jury indictment is correct.

The indictment notes that this phony consulting contract was entered into shortly after Mitchell Rubin became chairman. Rubin himself described as Senate Contractor # 5 is accused of being a beneficiary of $150k from the state senate organized by Senator Vincent Fumo and of having done no work for that money either.

So Rubin was the beneficiary of fraud for five years and apparently the facilitator of fraud for the benefit of another Fumo associate Palermo in his present position. This is in the context of him being a close buddy of Vincent Fumo and the husband of Ruth Arnao, who are both described as compulsive serial thieves in exhaustive detail in the grand jury indictment, and indicted on 139 criminal counts.

Though he has not himself been indicted the indictment describes fraud, thievery and racketeering on the part of Mitchell Rubin, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. That's the bottom line which no honest reporter can avoid.

The ad goes back up

We have put the advertisement that they wanted down back up. We entered into a contract to run that advertisement for a year. There is nothing in our contract that gives the advertiser the right to request its removal before the year is up. It will stay up for the contracted period.

Normally we wouldn't be sticklers about the contract. If someone has a good reason to change the contract we'd go along.

This is a special case. If we take the advertisement down knowing its removal was at the instigation of Fumo's flunkeys at the Pennsylvania Turnpike we are buckling under to them. We are letting them think they can succeed by financial pressure and subterfuge against the press, rather than by explaining and justifying themselves.

We'd be encouraging bad dogs by rewarding bad behavior.

Let them know their consultants tried to remain in their favor and that the advertisement remains up despite their efforts to have it taken down.

Advertisements are not endorsement

Advertisements are not to be seen as sponsorship of this news service or an endorsement of it. We've never sought money on that basis.

Many of our advertisements were unsolicited.

You should only advertise if it helps you get contacts, draws attention to your services, and serves legitimate business development and corporate advertising purposes.

If someone complains about us, tell them: "He's out of control." It'll be true.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-02-10