In This Corner - Robert Slager |
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Exposing the "Wareham Free Library" Facebook page scam for ALL to see
Well, this is a first. I have just been banned from the Wareham Free Library Facebook page.
It wasn’t because I used profanity or defamed anyone. It was because I had the audacity to ask who is actually responsible for moderating and registering the page and why the page was being used to secretly raise funds for a private corporation - the Friends of the Wareham Free Library.
For that my comments were deleted and I was banned from making any more. One comment I made on the seperate discussion board about the Wareham Free Library was deleted and marked as "irrelevant" by the moderator. Usually the words "library" and "censorship" are mutually exclusive.
A few minutes after this column was updated with that information on Sunday, the comment suddenly reappeared. Not all the comments, mind you. Just that one. The response from the moderator was "Thank you for your interest in WFL."
The Facebook page for the Wareham Free Library is not sanctioned by the town of Wareham nor is it affiliated with the Wareham Free Library. Acting Library Director Marcia Griswold has confirmed that. The Facebook Page looks very official, but it’s being run by people who refuse to identify themselves and who banned me for asking who they are.
It gets worse. On the fake Observer web site there is a thread called “Becoming a friend of the library through Facebook.” Here are some of the comments that were posted under that thread:
“Please check out becoming a fan of the library on Facebook. Let's see if we can get 1000 fans before the end of January. It is almost 300 now! Those that wish to donate towards purchasing books thru Facebook make you checks out to the Friends of the Wareham Free Library and send to 59 Marion Rd., Wareham 02571. It's our library lets show how much we care about it.
Priscilla Porter”
Here’s another: “Just checked and we have 345 fans!!! We have a commitment for $1 per fan. Anyone wanting to match that? Anyone want to make a penny on the dollar donation? Ten cents on the dollar? Make your checks out to Friends of the WFL.
"Since we were told we can't have book sales (1. we are "uncooperative" 2. there is an ongoing investigation, 3. the money might not be going to "this" library 4. we don't know where the books are coming from), this is a great way to raise money this month.
"We average $1000 per month from book sales. Since our fiscal year began, we have purchased $20,000 in books and materials (invoices given to the acting library director as proof that the money is indeed spent on the main library). But the library budget included NO money for books and materials. In order to be certified, we need to spend 15% of the town's allotted library budget on books and materials (of course, the paperwork that was due in October must also be submitted and Pacheco has until Feb. 3 to get the legislation passed.) So, what about it?? Pass this message to your Facebook Friends, and think about making a donation. Write the word "Facebook" in the memo line of your check.”
No where on the Facebook page did it say that money was being raised for the benefit of the Friends and not necessarily for the library itself.
So, the Friends of the Wareham Free Library are secretly using the very official-looking Wareham Free Library Facebook page to raise money for its private organization, an organization that has repeatedly refused to allow the public to inspect its financial records, an organization that refused to turn financial documents over to investigators from the Inspector General’s office of the state of Massachusetts, and an organization that already has nearly $1 million under its control.
Wow. When I pointed all this out on the Wareham Free Library Facebook page, my comments were deleted and I was banned from the site. Yes, people who claim to support a public library actually banned somebody for questioning the use of an official-looking Wareham Free Library Facebook page to raise money for a private organization that is under investigation by the state. Why not ask people to just donate directly to the library through the town? I know first-hand that's the most direct method. I have a $1,000 cancelled check to prove it. I have a thank-you note from Susan Pizzolato, the former acting library director, as further evidence. She said the money was used to buy books and materials.
What assurances can the Friends give that the funds they are raising will go to the Wareham Free Library? These people are already sitting on nearly $1 million. If they're running the Facebook page, why not just say so? Why all the secrecy? Why is a representative from the Friends now begging people not to read this column? Why did former selectman Cindy Parola put a picture of a "vote" sign on the Facebook page and write "just reminding all Wareham Free Library fans who live in Wareham and are registered voters the importance of voting in elections."
The private Wareham Library Foundation (a separate group) has nearly $400,000 under its control. And the Friends are still soliciting donations? For what? These alleged support groups already have all the money they need to help the library but they continue to make the town beg for it. They dangle it like a carrot in order to maintain their sense of power and self-importance. It's shameful.
Is anybody else shocked that alleged supporters of the library would support censorship? How many folks out there want to bet that the Wareham Free Library Facebook page is moderated by people who post comments on the local hate web site? Who wants to bet Take Back Wareham plans to use the list of Wareham Free Library Facebook fans to further its own political agenda? How many of the "fans" who signed up on the Facebook page know it's not affiliated with the actual library and is being run by people who will not identify themselves?
I received the following response on the Facebook page from somebody named Brian McDonald: “Look facebook groups are created by people you do not have to be sanctioned by anyone you friended the group they didnt friend you. they dont have to tell you if they dont want. so leave it be bud.”
One fan of the Facebook page – Jacqueline Geary – did respond to my comments before the moderator deleted them. She said she saw no evidence on the Facebook page that anyone was asking for money.
She was correct. The fund-raising effort was being done on the sly at first, on the fake Wareham Observer web site. They’re trying to gain 1,000 new fans, apparently to use as a mailing list to solicit funds for the Friends of the Wareham Free Library. But they didn't let anyone on the unofficial Wareham Free Library Facebook page know that for days, and that's disgraceful. Later, after this column appeared on-line, the fund-raising aspect was finally revealed on the Facebook page as well as on the web site for Wareham Week. In fact, The Friends of the Wareham Free Library were allowed to write their very own story about it.
The word that comes to mind is sleazy. People are being tricked into joining an unofficial Wareham Free Library Facebook page being run by people who won’t identify themselves. These “fans” are being fooled into becoming targets for financial solicitation from a group that considers itself private and won’t share its financial records with anyone.
Of course the moderator of the Facebook page never answered my question as to who is running the Facebook page. Somebody named Maureen McDonald (that last name keeps popping up) wrote: “Everyone ignore the man behind the curtain Mr Slager. Wow we reached 600 if everyone that signed up could contact one person and ask them to join we could have 1200 by the end of the day.”
In an apparent attempt to discredit this story, Dick Wheeler (a former library trustee and a vocal supporter of Take Back Wareham) wrote on a local hate web site that he hired a private investigator to research my work history. He's claiming that while I worked at the San Francisco Examiner I "answered the phone when you called to place an Ad for your Dodge Dart! (Slager) did start out as a reporter based on the bogus writing samples in his job application, but they soon found that his real writing required so much editing for errors in spelling, grammar and accuracy that they yanked him off the beat and put him in a back room spot where he would do less harm."
That, folks, is an absolute lie. Wheeler simply made it up. I started as a part-time clerk for the Examiner while I was putting myself through college. Over the next seven years I became a writer for the business and sports sections. I never worked in advertising and I left the Examiner in 1993 on excellent terms to become an assistant sports editor for another daily publication. That occured shortly after my best friend died on AIDS. I can prove all this. Wheeler should be ashamed of himself for writing such lies, all to try to cover up this latest library lobby scam.
It's interesting that Wareham resident David DiPietro, a blogger known as P-Span who runs the Take Back Wareham web site, recently joined the San Francisco Examiner Alumni Facebook page. He never worked for the Examiner. If that's the "investigator" Wheeler is using to dig up dirt on me it's too sad to be funny.
On Wednesday, Wheeler finally publicly admitted he made the whole thing up.
This kind of nonsense speaks loudly about the honesty of both Take Back Wareham and the library lobby (which is really one in the same). In my opinion, this Facebook page is an absolute scam and should be investigated by law enforcement officials immediately. Everyone reading this column should become a “fan” of this Facebook page and ask the exact same question I did. Let’s see how many people the cowards behind this atrocity ban before they will reveal the truth.
The link is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wareham-MA/Wareham-Free-Library/58606537635?ref=search&sid=100000377865276.1787104478..1
We've now had 18 reports that such questions are not being allowed on the Facebook page. Please keep trying, folks. There is no place in Wareham for this kind of censorship and deception.
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In This Corner - Robert Slager - 68 opinions posted |
