February 15, 2011 09:28 PM UTC

Guerin Green is a Journalist Like Colorado Pols is an Apple Pie

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• by: Colorado Pols

You may have been following the strange, bizarre saga of a Denver School Board Member recall and the threats by the editor and publisher of two local newspapers to a couple of Polsters. (*We should note, by the way, that we have never written one word about this attempted recall — a few people have done so via diaries, but Colorado Pols has never weighed in on the issue one way or the other).

Guerin Green, the editor and publisher of the North Denver News and Cherry Creek News, has been masquerading as a “journalist” in order to justify the harassment of two people for posts made on Colorado Pols. Yesterday we posted the audio file of a threatening message left for the Polster Laughing Boy. If you missed it, here’s the message:

Can’t see the audio player? Click here.

Today, Guerin Green wrote a blog post at Cherry Creek News where he confirms that it was he who left the message, and then he has the audacity to try to explain it away as some sort of fact-finding journalistic mission:

The quickest way to get an anonymous party to break his cover is to get him to do it himself. It has always been this way. On Friday, I placed an inflammatory call to the party, without identifying myself. That was followed on by communication via a trusted vector- done publicly. As in most cases, the anonymous party generally overreacts, and places, in this case, on the internet, indisputable proof of his identity. It may seem unconventional, but it was the only way to get the story, as the anonymous party would never agree to confirm his identity on the record because of the clear harm that could come to his employment. [Pols emphasis]

The ironic thing, in this case, is that the anonymous party came to our attention via a tiff he had with Jose Silva in the course of his real job. Silva was the principal antagonist in a failed effort to recall Andrea Merida. The task then was to corroborate Laughing Boy’s identity independently. Posting on ColoradoPols, he has done so. In confirming his identity, he also proved, within reason, that the attacks on DeFENSE on that site and elsewhere, are not likely a coordinated effort. It just seems unlikely to use someone as careless and as hot-tempered as a political operative, or even a stooge.

Um, yeah. What “story” was Green trying to get? The story of the true identity of a poster on a political blog? This wasn’t an “investigation.” This was and is harassment, and it should be treated as such. No real reporter leaves anonymous messages threatening the employment of another person in order to “get a story.”

We’d say that Green should be ashamed of himself, but this is the same guy who once published a completely untrue story as real news, and later ripped his critics for not understanding that it was obviously satire.

Green is no journalist, and certainly not a news “editor,” whether he takes the title or not. He’s not even qualified enough to be labeled a “yellow” journalist. Green is a huckster. A 21st Century snake-oil salesman who uses his “newspaper” to make himself look more professional. But you can’t hide a fraud with ink and newsprint.

Mr. Green obviously pulls stunts like this in an effort to bring more attention to himself and his “newspapers,” so unless we are forced for some reason to bring him up again, this will be the last time we discuss him or his “newspapers.”