White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Paulin On WPCNR Oct. 22 Article. Statement Lead to Letter Tampering Charge

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. By Assemblyperson Amy Paulin. November 2, 2003: WPCNR reproduces the transcript of Assemblyperson Paulin's electronically transmitted statement to WPCNR commenting Saturday on the WPCNR article of October 22, "Fois Speaks." It was this statement that prompted Robert Fois to charge that Ms. Paulin and County Legislator James Maisano had conferred with Howard Sturman on the content of his "Letter to the Editor," which lead to the letter not being published in Eastchester Town Report.

Here is the text of Ms. Paulin's statement:

Saturday, November 2, 2002:

Statement from Amy Paulin

I have avoided commenting on my opponent’s effort to reduce our election contest to negative campaigning. I have spent the entire campaign talking about the issues that concern the residents of the 88th Assembly District and the work I have done in the Assembly for the past two years and for the twenty years before that as a citizen advocate. I fundamentally object to the smearing and mud-slinging that my opponent has resorted to in an effort to salvage a losing campaign. However, at this point I must set the record straight because the so-called information disseminated by my opponent’s campaign in collaboration with Robert Fois and reproduced on WPCNR is false.

As confirmed directly to WPCNR by Howard Sturman, publisher of the Eastchester Town Report, I never pre-screened articles that were to appear in the newspaper. What I did do was complain after Mr. Fois’s articles appeared that he seemed biased against me in his reportage. At the time I was perplexed. It is obvious now what was going on, and it explains exactly why Mr. Fois no longer “reports” for the Eastchester Town Report. Far from being an objective, non-partisan journalist, Mr. Fois was and is supporting my opponent. This is why he was put on a leave of absence by the Eastchester Town Report, a fact also confirmed by Mr. Sturman. It is simply untrue that Mr. Fois asked to be put on a leave. In fact, Mr. Sturman disputes Mr. Fois’s entire account of what happened at the Eastchester Town Report. Mr. Fois’s collaboration with my opponent also explains his complete lack of respect for journalistic standards and ethics, a point that I hope will remind everyone what his real motives are: to assist my opponent in smearing the reputation I have built up in over twenty years of service to the community.

I have tremendous respect for the intelligence of the voters. I know that they have evaluated my character based on my work over those twenty years and my accomplishments in the Assembly for the past two years. I also have faith that, thanks in part to Mr. Fois and the fact that my opponent’s entire campaign has been reduced to a negative smear effort, they now clearly see my opponent’s character as well.


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