Former Hoboken Freeholder candidate: ‘No more Beth Mason and her fascist supporters’
Reflecting on the demise of Beth Mason’s political “career,” former editor of the Hoboken Journal, Kurt Gardiner opines on the years long war against the First Amendment undertaken by Beth Mason. |
This is a woman who as a political public figure has demonstrated that she will go to any lengths to suppress her constitutionally protected critics. This being accomplished with smear articles by her operative ghostwriter and editor on Hoboken 411, purported frivolous lawsuits by operatives falsely claiming harassment including herself for simply being served a subpoena and of course the landmark victory for First Amendment rights in the defeat of her minion Lane Bajardi vs. The Hoboken Bloggers. In the issued legal decision favoring the defendants last July, Judge Patrick Arre stated that this litigious action was a “SLAPP lawsuit disguised as defamation case” and that “it approached a fraud upon the court.”
Numerous emails obtained in discovery have shown the extent of political operations covering quote “Beth Mason’s flank” by the plaintiffs including an email with Lane Bajardi pleading with Ricky Mason to support his potential legal action. Now that we know the facts of the case and have the legal judgement, the main purpose of the whole lawsuit was to suppress her critics and send them into bankruptcy as a few Beth Mason supporters have stated to me personally. Thank goodness for the just verdict and the fact we live in the US and not some dictatorial totalitarian regime. The idea of a gulag for bloggers has firmly been rejected by the courts.
So here we are on the cusp of a major First Amendment victory for freedom of speech in Hoboken and just today a bitter core Beth Mason supporter told me to stop blogging which I have not done since 2011. I do reserve the right to comment as I see fit and still do as stipulated by the First Amendment. Again, what is it with Beth Mason and her fascist supporters who seek to suppress free speech of their political opponents? The hypocrisy is overwhelming. There can be no transparency without constructive criticism.
I will not miss Beth Mason in Hoboken City Council and we will not have to deal with her duplicitous pro Monarch Towers bait and switch proxy either in Monarch Man.
Perhaps now politically retired, Mrs. Mason can spend time with pursuits she is passionate about, tracking giant killer raccoons and performing squirrel autopsies.
Bloggers may not be journalists but they have a right to free expression. In the immortal words of journalist scion Edward J. Murrow; to you Mrs. Mason I say as politely as I can, Good Night. Good Luck. And Good Riddance.
Kurt Gardiner (l) seen here at the 10th anniversary of 9-11 at Pier A with former NJ State Attorney General Paula Dow and Mayor Dawn Zimmer. |