A funny thing happened on the way to the junkyard story in New Boston – the story disappeared from WMUR.
Set the “Way-Back Machine” for the second week in January when CNHT started helping John and Mona Winslow, owners of Duke’s Garage in that town.
I went to meet them and was sitting in the kitchen going through court records the lawyer who abandoned them left behind when I was informed WMUR had just showed up with a camera man.
If you know me and CNHT you know we stay away from the established media because…because they never help. Well that might be harsh. We did have one good news account of when CNHT helped catch Rosie McNamara, the Ashland Town Clerk who misappropriated over $2 million dollars, but that was a local news outlet.
You never heard of the largest, organized, municipal theft in NH? I rest my case.
Back to New Boston.
An ace reporter from WMUR came into the Winslow home along with a cameraman. John was interviewed, Rep. Keith Ammon was interviewed, I was interviewed. The station did a 90 second spot about the junkyard controversy. I was led to believe the “rest of the story” intrigued the professional news outlet, like documents they saw that showed vested property rights and personal property were being abused by a court and contractor bent on shutting down Duke’s garage by any means.
But what happened?
The law firm representing New Boston called WMUR and asked them to take down the story. When I called WMUR to offer an update on the New Boston issue I talked to one of WMUR’s employees who says she was aware of that but could not comment further.
I emailed more info about the New Boston court case – with specifics – no answer, no reply, no new stories.
So now you know how the media works in NH – and has since 1988 when I first got involved with this rigged game. It is one single standard that never lets me down.
If the general public knew how much abuse of taxpayers goes on in NH some might actually be shocked.
In 2009 CNHT became involved in Atkinson, NH, when asked to help get rid of an abusive part time police chief. He is no longer swaggering around town with a badge and it wasn’t easy. In the process of putting pressure on that municipal cancer we bumped heads with the Atkinson’s notorious banty rooster moderator. He stopped our CNHT photographer, Garyn Brownfield, from taking photos of the deliberative session. That action sent us to court several times and Atkinson tried to countersue our activist. The result was a Mexican standoff. But the banty rooster has not been a moderator or attended any Atkinson Town Meetings since.
When WMUR showed up at Winslow’s – before they were apparently chased off by a single phone call from a Manchester law firm, I thought things might have changed. Public pressure can be a handy weapon for a couple in their 70’ set upon by the town they live in – if they can get the facts to the public.
This makes me wonder why, just before the most important hearing in the Duke’s Garage case, their lawyer filed a Motion to Withdraw citing “lack of communication.” What we need in this case is more communication – with the general public. Thanks to many new sources of information in the new news media, such as the blogs many of us write for, New Boston, WMUR and the lawyer who bailed on Duke’s Garage can run, but they can’t hide.
The Coalition of NH Taxpayers is the last resort for taxpayers caught in municipal nightmares. We don’t take cases to fundraise off of – but we do require donations to keep going. Check out our website: https://www.cnht.org/news/about/donate/