A Chronicle Told By An Idiot

I have a general policy to not name the owner of the Buffalo Chronicle, to link to its stories, or otherwise to promote it in any meaningful way. This is, in part, why I am not even going to bother to publish this at the Daily Public.

About a week or so ago, the little-known local bullshit artist who runs the fake-news-before-it-was-a-thing rag published a half-true piece about legal work that I did for Erie County at my former job. The article itself seemed written by an illiterate, and had more than a few inaccuracies.

I debunked a bunch of the information in two tweets – here and here. His insinuation was that the average $75,000 per year of legal work my former firm billed to Erie County at bargain rates was the quid for the pro quo of me supporting County Executive Mark Poloncarz. That is, of course, idiotic. I had supported Poloncarz before I did work for the county, during, and after. I have not touched a county case in almost a year at my current employment, nor do I derive any benefit – monetary or otherwise – relating to the former work that I did.

Interestingly, a few years ago, just after Frank Parlato bought out ArtVoice, local shit-stirrer and former Democratic County Executive candidate Peter Reese sniffed around to try and write this story. Reese called me at the time and I referred him to my boss for comment. Nothing ever came of it.

But Reese has a new toy – the owner of the Buffalo Chronicle. How do we know this?

Looks like the owner of the Buffalo Chronicle went on Reese’s payroll on or about April 14, 2019. The “Better with Reese” BOE campaign filings show that Reese directly paid this individual $3,500 in the four weeks from mid-April to mid-May in order to fund attacks in his rag against me, Mark Poloncarz, Legislative candidates Lisa Chimera and Howard Johnson, Nate McMurray, Judge Burns (who presided over Reese’s BOE case and whom the Chronicle accused of corruption), and Judge Sue Maxwell Barnes, whom he accused of “bribery.” All of this is to fuel some sort of anti-Democratic HQ vendetta by Reese and other Pigeon stan accounts.

The whole thing is projection. The Chronicle accuses me of being on the take in exchange for biting commentary against dummies like Kathy alt-right Weppner and noted local convicted criminals Kristy Mazurek and Steve Pigeon, while a candidate is paying the Chronicle’s owner a handsome sum for “consulting” fees. And what happens? All of a sudden, the Chronicle miraculously finds itself slamming people with whom Reese has some beef. I was a vocal Poloncarz supporter before I did legal work for the county, during, and after. Nothing about what I did changed, except that when I wrote about county issues, I added a disclaimer about that work. If anything, during the time that I did legal work for the County, I regularly withheld comment about county government goings-on.

So the accusation that I was paid off for my commentary is stupid and preposterous. Here, we have Lorigo Democrat Peter Reese shoving $3,500 at this person who can barely scrape two coherent sentences together, and for what – “consulting”? Consulting? I’m at a loss to recall a candidate whom this person has consulted or advised – Egriu? Martin? Mascia? Giambra? Al Coppola? – who has made any significant electoral headway. I mean, that sort of consulting is what he does when he isn’t being outed in Canadian media for his fake stories. Or that time he claimed that Preet Bharara would indict Andrew Cuomo on a Saturday after a holiday.

Joe Illuzzi was savvier, more talented a huckster, and had a genuine knack for running that horrible site of his. Illuzzi was also a better writer, which isn’t saying much.

Stay tuned.