For a year or two now, Carrie Hutchens has been investigating the background behind the Terri Schiavo murder, and she has shared much of that here at Dakota Voice. June Maxam and her publication, the North Country Gazette, have also been taking a closer look at the Schiavo fiasco, as have a number of other organizations across the country, including LifeNews.
Going back almost as long as Carrie has been writing for Dakota Voice, she has encountered periodic "resistance" from June Maxim (I don't think I've been involved in these encounters first hand, but Carrie has told me about them and has forwarded a few of June's emails to me for consideration). Carrie and I have always wondered why June seemed so hostile toward Carrie's work, when many of June's stories on the Schiavo incident were also exposing interesting information about the duplicity of those involved in Terri Schiavo's murder.
Well, yesterday LifeNews published an article which indicates Carrie wasn't the only one getting a hard time from June:
The North Country Gazette is a New York-based web site run by June Maxam. Since her death, NCG has published numerous lengthy articles investigating key players in the debate -- including Michael Schiavo, Judge George Greer and other Florida officials who paved the way to Terri's death.
Those articles have been helpful. Unfortunately, NCG has been repeatedly attacking LifeNews.com and other news sites that report on the aftermath of the debate about Terri.
Maxam's antics began when, in 2006, LifeNews.com posted a well-written editorial she penned concerning Michael's political action committee and his efforts to defeat pro-life politicians who supported Terri and her parents.
Irate that LifeNews.com would afford her column a wider distribution, Maxam emailed a scathing letter asking that the column be removed. We complied immediately.
In an email exchange afterwards, Maxam made it very clear she was not supportive of Terri Schiavo or her parents' efforts to protect her life. Though she had written strong investigative pieces concerning the major players, she appeared to be more interested in the investigative journalism than the cause of protecting disabled people like Terri.
Maxam also publicly indicated she is not pro-life and, in a post on her web site attacking LifeNews.com, wrote, "We are not affiliated with any pro-life [or] right to life group" and added "His causes are not necessarily ours" referring to LifeNews.com's support for Terri and her family.
The LifeNews article goes on to provide quite a bit more background about June's hostility toward anyone else who writes about Terri Schiavo.
I guess we still don't know ultimately what's behind June's hostility. But we know a little more than we did, and we also know it wasn't personal toward Carrie.
Carrie, keep up the good work! It's a pity the quality of June's work is detracted from by her lack of professionalism.
3 comments:
There are serious questions about the attacks levied at NCG by someone (Bob Ellis) who has no clue what he's talking about and who has relied on specious hearsay. Journalist he's not, just an ill=informed blogger. Could you point me to one "investigative" piece that Carrie Hutchens has written about the Schiavo case? All I've seen is tired old opinion, nothing new and most of it mirroring articles that NCG has done. In fact, she quotes them quite often. I've never seen any attack on Carrie Hutchens by NCG so where you're getting that is unknown, perhaps it's just another feeble attempt to attack the NCG. And, you rely on LifeNews as your source? It was absolutely ludicrous for Ertelt to assert that NCG didn't and doesn't support Terri Schiavo or her parents. Ertelt apparently whined to the Schindlers and asked them to tell NCG to quit picking on him which of course they didn't do. How dare he put that family in the middle of his feud with NCG. I've got an idea the perceived problem Carrie Hutchens has with NCG isn't about writing but more her overbearing, huggy, superficially sweet interfering mode. Perhaps the biggest question is if she's such a hot "investigative" reporter, why she's smogging along on some Christian blog and a "former" police officer. You should get your facts straight before you engage in a hit piece and get yourself named in a defamation suit. Shame on you. Relying on hearsay is dangerous, get's people killed, like Terri Schiavo, especially self-serving hearsay like that of Ertelt. You should have done your homework before you reckless and maliciously blasted The North Country Gazette and its publisher.
Let's see if you engage in censorship too. My bet is that the afore sent comment never gets published. That should make good editorial fodder.
Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author. AKA Censorship
June, all I know is that Ertel's assertions sound a lot like what Carrie has passed on to me--including some forwarded emails that included some unkind words and even some name-calling that I'm not going to repeat on this blog.
It's sad and regrettable that you seem so threatened when others write about Terri Schiavo. Carrie has told me you've done some great work, I believe Ertelt has commended your work, and so did I. Nobody's trying to steal your glory. We appreciate the work you've done. Why don't we all just try to get along, especially in this Christmas season?
By the way, I have comment moderation enabled to keep the cursing, spam and off-topic garbage off the posts. I had a problem with that last year, and don't want it coming back.
Merry Christmas, June!
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