A Public Reply to Alan Judd of The AJC

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Alan,

To your recently penned AJC news article;

Beauty, truth and bonds: Is library a classy eyesore?

I say this:

Your piece is an opinion piece.

That is what you provide.

But with this piece being presented on the front page as "fact", I ask... where are the facts?

...all the facts?

Not the cherry picked facts, but all the facts...you know, the ones that will sink your case.

As a private citizen you are entitled to your opinion, just as you faux news brother David Bennett is. Yet this recent piece was not on the op-ed page, it's on the front page. And while there are plenty of good journalist at the AJC and elsewhere, there can be no denying that the public is ripe with complaints of men (and women) of your ilk; individuals who think we (the masses) are just a bunch of idle fools, eager to gobble up your swill.

Not.

All eyes are watching, and with so many news organizations collapsing before our very eyes, you might want to rethink your strategy of playing kissy face with the highest bidder.

I'm not saying that you are taking bribes (though I wouldn't be surprised). No, I'm suggesting that the highest bidder = the loudest, slickest, most well-connected voice.

The media has a responsibility to the public to tell the whole, unvarnished truth. Omitting vital facts = lying. And don't worry, I won't bother to point out all of your omissions, you know what they are.

So does Szabo. So does Pitts.

And if Pitts et Co. are fully at ease with subverting the truth. Let them do that. But that's not your job. You are (supposedly) an unbiased, independent journalist.

Because, what Pitts & Szabo are doing amounts to nothing more than legalized money laundering. They have re-routed and finagled money that in a 2 year vetting process, had been decided to be spent a certain way. They have ignored that 2 year vetting process, in which, not a single citizen asked for a new central branch. Not one. And to that, Commissioner Lynn Riley has gone on the record saying,Pitts et all hijacked the process. But has a prosecutable crime been committed? Not yet. And though what's being done might be legal, but it's anything but right. No, it's wrong.

Very wrong.

In closing, I'll say this. I have no delusions of grandeur in thinking that I am some supreme arbiteur of justice. I am just one man. Yet, it is interesting how the facts seem to have a way of showing up at the most inopportune time...just ask GWB. He can tell you all about that.

Oh yea, and I hear the AJC is laying off 200 journalist. How painful. Yet, with slop like yours being sold as news, I can't imagine why.

Now is not the time to squander money on some extra $100M pet project. The City of Atlanta is already struggling with insurmountable debt. Again, The AJC is laying off 200...hello? Even Starbucks is closing 600 stores...hello? Foreclosures??? Banks are collapsing??? The economy???

You have misrepresented the voice of the people.

You have done the public a great injustice.

And it has not gone unnoticed.

Bests,

Max

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