Letter in Fitchburg Newspaper Accuses MassNews of “Smears”
By MassNews Staff
            A “Letter to The Editor” in Friday’s “Fitchburg Sentinel” would have been humorous if it wasn’t about a matter which is crucial to the citizens of this state --- and to the nation. 
            Fitchburg is home to Emile Goguen (D-Fitchburg), the courageous Rep who continues to lead the effort to Remove Chief Justice Margaret Marshall from the Supreme Judicial Court before the 72-year-old Goguen retires at the end of the year.
            Because the Fitchburg paper ran the letter without comment, no one refuted any of its many inaccuracies. That job remains for us at MassNews.
             The letter is an excellent example of why we send airplanes and radio messages to the citizens. Without those messages, many would continue to believe the untruths that are in this letter. It attacked us for our “smear campaign” against Judge Marshall.         
            Those words are repeated in the large, four-column headline above the letter. Its opening sentence is: “I would like to address the ‘smear campaign’ on Judge Marshall.”
            The writer was motivated by the airplanes she has seen as we attempt to get our message out, over the heads of the Sulzberger family at the New York Times, in order to inform the citizens. The Sulzbergers own the Boston Globe and have almost a total monopoly on the news in Massachusetts.
            After the letter-writer spent so much time on the topic, she criticized us for putting our resources into “a topic so trivial.”
            She’s helped us more than she will ever imagine in our effort to explain why we cannot stop alerting the citizens.

We Emphasize Marshall’s Disastrous Courts, Not Gay Marriage
            We no longer emphasize gay marriage when talking about Removing Judge Marshall from office. That’s only half the story. It’s still hugely important. But so are the disastrous courts across the state under her leadership.
            Our first story this year, after we returned from vacation on Jan. 23, was about the state courts being a “disaster” according to a panel of leading citizens headed by the former President of Boston College. The panel had been appointed by Judge Marshall herself to evaluate the entire court system under her leadership.
            But the panel was so critical of Marshall’s leadership that she kept their report a secret for six weeks. She did not release it until she had prepared a “spin” to accompany it. She finally released the two on the same day, March 4, 2003. Her spin has been very successful. The news about her disastrous courts has been buried. It goes without saying that it was never reported by the Boston Globe.

Many Wrote about Our Radio Message Which Says the State Was Ranked by Lawyers as "45th in the Nation"
            Many radio listeners inquired about our radio message (sixty-seconds long) which says the state was ranked as 45th in the nation.
            It's a direct quote from the "News Release" of the panel which they intended that Judge Marshall would make public in January 2003 but she kept the Release under wraps for six weeks until her response was ready on March 4.
            The panel said that the information came from a 2001 U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey of corporate attorneys. The wording in their “News Release” was: "In a 2001 U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey of corporate attorneys, Massachusetts ranked 45th in terms of timeliness."
            (We should note that every message on the 50,000 watt radio station WBZ is carefully scrutinized by the lawyers at CBS in New York for accuracy. They do a good job. Obviously, we provided them with the source of this statement before it went out over the air.)