Will Money Buy Your Vote?

GameOn 365 has been doing a lot of advertising supporting an illegal referendum to allow them to illegally rent property from the Town of Greenburgh. They are placing half page ads in all the weekly newspapers from the area hoping the people of Greenburgh will read them. They haven’t advertised in the Journal News, yet. The major issue with advertising in Greenburgh is there isn’t any real coverage and/or reporting for Greenburgh. There certainly are the reprinted verbatim press releases from The Paul talking about discounts for riders on the MTA or Highline Parks for the old Tappan Zee Bridge – if an when a new one is built. But there is no challenge by the press of The Paul’s illegal actions, decisions or policies only continual, blatant endorsement. Additionally, the New York State Attorney General’s office maintains a hands-off policy for familial reasons. As the saying goes, “nice work if you can get it.”

In the previous “articles” appearing in the weekly rags, the focus of all the articles has been on maintaining The Paul’s position of moving forward with the illegal GameOn 365 proposal as well as voting yes for the Proposition #1 Referendum on this November’s ballot, approval the proposal. The ads, reinforced with a yard sign campaign throughout the Town utilizing the same layout and design, boasts a $5 million payday for the Town and that the bubble is “good for Greenburgh’s kids”. A lie? If The Paul is saying it, it most likely is. But regardless of who is lying, the payday is not only inaccurate, but remains inaccurate for the duration of the fifteen-year lease for this “temporary” structure (can you see the hypocrisy of fifteen years and temporary?). It appears the blitz is on and GameOn 365 is hoping spending scads of their money will buy your vote.

In an article in the October 23-29 issue of the White Plains Examiner, which has several other Examiner monikers in other locations, there is a half-page ad to “vote yes” for Town Proposition #1 on page 9. ABG is not sure what a half a page ad sells for, but they’ve been running them every week. That’s certainly a nice investment for the Examiner. On the next page, there is an “article” with the headline, “Town of Greenburgh Residents Encouraged to Vote on Sports Facility.” The subsequent information “reported” is strictly everything Martin Hewitt, the GameOn 365 project manager has been saying all along. This “article” is nothing more than an advertisement under the guise of an article, probably written by GameOn 365. It is not only a distasteful use of journalism, compromising any integrity the paper used to have, but also it doesn’t “report” anything with accuracy. It’s easy to compromise your journalistic integrity for a few bucks.

ABG is sure they will be advertising in the Journal News shortly before the November 6^th election. Their insurmountable problem in Greenburgh is that the Town usually gets so little or no coverage from the print media and little coverage when something “big” happens, such as a shooting, death, etc., and even then it’s reported once or twice and they’re gone. It’s one reason The Paul is able to get the coverage he does – they’ll swallow everything he offers hook, line and sinker. The Journal News, a paper with an agenda, has been reduced in size to that of the weekly newspapers. Their subscriptions have been steadily declining as more and more people resist their agenda-drive by cancelling their subscriptions and not buying newsstand copies. In fact, the Monday and Tuesday papers are the smallest of the week with maybe a page or two of local information. When the Gannett Corporation took over the individual papers, morphed them into one, homogenized, bland edition, they began saying goodbye to their base, the area they covered and the region as a whole. It’s apparent their bad management policies and strategies have not only had a negative affect to the bottom line of the Gannett conglomerate, but for the people who would purchase their products and rely on it for information.

In the end, ABG hopes the Town Proposition #1 is defeated. We’re not against a sports bubble if it is truly good for an area. What we’re against is the illegal methodology and apparent collusion between The Paul, the Town Board and GameOn 365. It’s illegal, it should not have gotten this far and must stop. We can only hope.