Is Examiner.com a Real News Outlet or Just a Shell Company?

NO RESPONSE TO REPEATED CONTACT ATTEMPTS, BUT LIBELOUS ARTICLES DISAPPEAR

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 16, 2011) — Since Monday, The Post & Email has attempted to contact The Examiner.com, a purported online newspaper which focuses on “local” issues in various areas of the country.  One of its publications is the Washington Examiner, which appears to be a print as well as internet newspaper.

We have sent three emails and left a voice message using the information on its “Contact Us” page in response to an article by a Mr. Bill Bowman which accused the editor of The Post & Email of being a “hobby seditionist” and an “America-hater.”  The aforementioned articles, as well as Bowman’s other pieces published on Examiner.com, are full of expletives and obscenities which this writer has never seen a professional publication permit.

Editor’s Note: As of 10:44 p.m. ET on February 16, 2011, neither article by Bill Bowman referenced above is accessible on the Examiner website.

Bowman has also published editorials denigrating radio talk show host Michael Savage.  As we reported yesterday, Bowman claims that he is an “award-winning journalist” but provides no link to the alleged award(s) he received nor information on when they were bestowed.

On February 15, 2011, The Post & Email responded to Bowman’s allegations of sedition against its editor and others who have questioned Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as President of the United States.  In an editorial today, Bowman discusses the meaning of “sedition” but avoided accusations leveled against specific individuals.

Bowman has also indicated that he welcomes a lawsuit over The Post & Email’s claim that he has made libelous statements.

Examiner’s Facebook page states that the organization strives to publish news reports written by people in their local communities.  Bowman does not live in this writer’s community nor in Wyoming where The Post & Email is incorporated; therefore, his “reporting” of The Post & Email is hardly “local.”  However, he could have “suggested” his own writing category, which reportedly is “Birther Movement Examiner.”

Writers for Examiner.com are allegedly “Talented professionals.  Avid runners.  Child therapists.  Political activists.  Not exactly the type of people you would expect to find hanging out together.  But all these people are Examiners.  Through Examiner.com, they share their passion and their knowledge and help to make their communities better and more interesting.”

The newspaper’s stated mission is “the inside source for everything local. We are powered by Examiners, the largest pool of knowledgeable and passionate contributors in the world. Examiners provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city wherever that may be.”

However, does Examiner.com properly check the credentials of its writers?

Examiner’s posted Terms of Use state:

6. Prohibited Content and Activities

You agree that you will not post to the Site, or use the Site to transmit or make available any Content that:

• violates any laws or regulations, contains any threats, is abusive, tortious, harassing, vulgar, obscene, indecent, violates any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, is defamatory, libelous, hateful, contains any disparaging statements or opinions regarding racial, gender or ethnic background, or is otherwise objectionable;
• infringes any intellectual property rights of any party, including, but not limited to any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights;
• contains any private information about an identifiable person without that person’s permission, or any content soliciting any personal or private information from any individual;
• you know or have reason to know is false, misleading, or fraudulent;
• you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
• contains any unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or material which can be characterized as “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” “Ponzi schemes” or similar material, any request for or solicitation of money, goods, or services for private gain, or any information (other than advertisements approved by Examiner.com) posted primarily for advertising, promotional, or other commercial purposes;
• incorporates within it any software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs whose purpose or function is to interrupt, destroy or otherwise impair the operability of any software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
• contains links to any websites containing content violating any of the foregoing requirements, or links to any websites for purposes of disrupting the operations of such website, harassing the owners of such website, or other objectionable or illegal purposes.

You further agree not to use the Site to:

• engage in any click fraud or other unethical means of receiving payment based on any Content posted to our Site (including without limitation payment to third parties for non-human traffic to any Content on our Site);
• engage in any conduct which might be harmful to any individual;
• impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
• engage in or facilitate any conduct that is deemed, or found by any court or similar agency, to constitute “stalking” or otherwise harassing conduct aimed at another person or entity;
• engage in or transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.

Is Bowman honoring the Terms of Use regulations of Examiner.com?

Examiner’s disclaimer statement reads:

8. Disclaimer Regarding Accuracy of Content

Much of the Content on the Site, including without limitation User Content, has been provided by or obtained from parties other than Examiner.com. For example, content posted by “Examiners” on our Site is written solely by the Examiners (who are independent third parties, not employees of Examiner.com, and not under the control or direction of Examiner.com) and is posted to the Site by the Examiners without review by Examiner.com. Examiner.com makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of any Content on the Site created or provided by third parties (including without limitation Examiners). Examiner.com makes no warranties or representations whatsoever with regard to any product or service provided or offered by any vendor on the Site (including without limitation advertisers on the Site and individuals or entities placing classified advertisements on the Site) and you acknowledge that any reliance on representations and warranties provided by any party other than Examiner.com shall be at your own risk. You expressly agree to hold Examiner.com harmless for any claims of damage arising from any information, advice, product or service provided or promoted by any third party, including without limitation the Examiners.

Examiner presents varying viewpoints, but its writers do not always appear to cover “local” issues.

Examiner is reportedly owned by Digital Media Group, which is “wholly owned by The Anschutz Company, a Denver-based investment company with a broad array of assets in print and digital media, live sports and entertainment, hospitality, film production and exhibition and wind energy development.”  The CEO of both Examiner and Digital Media Group is Rick Blair.

According to several sources, billionaire Philip Anschutz is Chairman and CEO of The Anschutz Company, which is a holding company diversified in the entertainment, media and and sports industries.  Contact information indicates that Anschutz and Examiner are located on the same street but in different suite numbers with similar but not identical phone numbers.

Walter Fitzpatrick, who is also libeled by Bowman and others whom Bowman recommends, has reported to The Post & Email that he has left three telephone messages with Examiner.com in Denver, CO in response to Bowman’s challenge for Fitzpatrick to produce an audio recording of a conversation between Fitzpatrick and Mr. Stephen Morgan regarding Morgan’s claim that the Tenth Amendment “has been legislated away” and therefore no longer applies in the state of Tennessee.  WorldNetDaily recently wrote about the claim by attorneys representing Bradley County, TN that “the right to physical liberty enumerated in the Constitution…has been repeatedly rejected by the courts.”

Bradley County is part of Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial District consisting of McMinn, Polk, Bradley and Monroe Counties, of which Mr. Steve Bebb is the District Attorney General.

The Post & Email has reported extensively on corruption within Monroe County, TN since last summer.  Our letter to newly-elected Governor Bill Haslam remains unanswered as of this writing, and a call placed to his media representative on  the morning of February 16, 2011 has not been returned.

In his editorial, Bowman had challenged Fitzpatrick to produce the tape in question without contacting Fitzpatrick  directly.  Multiple efforts to retrieve the original article in which Bowman issued his challenge produced an error message today.  However, Bowman’s invitation is reproduced below in Fitzpatrick’s email to Examiner.com, which reads as follows:

To the managers – editors financial officers at Examiner.com:

Hello,

One of your writers, Mr. Bill Bowman, libeled me in Bowman’s article under your Examiner.com masthead as anti-American (click here). Bowman’s article is datelined Sunday, 13 February 2011.

Today is Tuesday, 15 February 2011.

Mr. Bowman challenged me to provide an audio recording I hold of a conversation I had with Attorney named Steve Morgan in January 2010.

I reported separately I would make the Morgan’s recorded statement available on request.

Mr. Bowman wrote in Sunday’s Examiner.com hit piece:

“Ok, I’ll bite. Fitzpatrick, consider this a formal request for a copy of the recording. You can reach me through the Examiner.”

I called your Denver, Colorado office three time yesterday (Monday, 14 February 2011 – 303.291.8800).

A machine triggered response resulted (audio file attached).

I left a recorded message to call me back in each of my three efforts to “reach [Mr. Bowman] through the Examiner.”

No one from the Examiner.com returned my call.

Author Bowman is profiled at Amazon.com (click here).

The email address bounced in my attempt to contact Mr. Bowman directly (bill@truthtopowermedia.com).

Mr. Bowman’s website address hot-links to a commercial (http://truthtopowermedia.com/).

So, as Mr. Bowman directs, you are to send to me Mr. Bowman’s street mailing address in writing. You are to send me Mr. Bowman’s direct email address in writing.

You can send your written response to me by email: jaghunter1@gmail.com.

Or you can mail the information to me via USPS:

I’ll get the recording to Mr. Bowman once I hold your written response in my hand.

Fair winds, following seas,

/s/

Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III

United States Navy Retired (1969 – 1994) – Still serving (John 15:13)

Surface warfare (qualified for command-at-sea) – Naval parachutist

Distinguished Military Graduate – United States Naval Academy Class of 1975,

B.S. Naval Science, Masters Business Administration & Technology Management,

Eagle Scout 1969 – Character counts!

The recording of the conversation between Fitzpatrick and Morgan is here:  DS400003_1

As reported by Walter Fitzpatrick, Bowman’s website as provided by Amazon.com is entitled “Business and Finance Media” but does not mention Bowman.  Its articles are undated and contain no byline, although apparently comments are accepted.

Has Bowman or someone else removed his February 14, 2011 article which libeled Orly Taitz, The Post & Email, Walter Fitzpatrick, Lyle Rapacki, and others?  A complete listing of Bowman’s articles no longer includes the editorial published on February 14, 2011, in which this writer was accused of being a “hobby seditionist.”  However, he lists the above persons in a related article which is still available.

Recent polls indicate that a majority of the American people do not believe Barack Hussein Obama’s birth story.  Last summer, a CNN poll indicated that “Only 42% of Americans believe Obama is a citizen,” let alone a “natural born Citizen.” A recent WorldNetDaily article stated that doubts about Obama’s eligibility have “surged” after an advertisement for a book on advance order through its online store was published on The Drudge Report.

This chart details the different types of citizenship and the common confusion between the terms “citizen” and “natural born Citizen.”

If there were not a legitimate question about Obama’s eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, would “professional journalists” such as Bowman and others spend their valuable time attempting to discredit those who ask  questions and seek answers?  Are they squirming because the past which Obama has spent so much to obscure is about to be revealed?  Why is it that Obama defenders do not appear to be upset with Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, who several weeks ago insisted that his state health department release Obama’s birth records without Obama’s consent?  What about Hawaii’s privacy law?  And what about those who have stated unequivocally that Obama was not born in Hawaii?

In discussing the role of the media in a free society, PBS has quoted Thomas Jefferson as having said:

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

A report issued by the U.S. Information Agency cites several examples wherein the U.S. Supreme Court has stated that the intent of the First Amendment was “to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches” and that it “has upheld the right of the press to perform its function as a check on official power.”

Former Associated Press World Services news chief George Krimsky stated of the press’s role in a free society:

A self-governing society, by definition, needs to make its own decisions. It cannot do that without hard information, leavened with an open exchange of views. Abraham Lincoln articulated this concept most succinctly when he said: “Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.”

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Update, February 17, 2011: While doing a search for something else, this writer found a listing of Bowman’s Examiner.com articles, including some of those referenced here.  Four article titles appear, but only the first one works.  The others, of which at least two became unavailable last evening, redirect the reader to Bowman’s latest hit piece, “Sharon Rondeau haz a mad about me.”

Interestingly, a search was being performed for a WorldNetDaily article which covered the statements of Mr. Stephen Morgan regarding the Tenth Amendment and the state of Tennessee when an Examiner.com link came up entitled “Jackson Sharon Rondeau Articles.”

So who is controlling the search engines, and who is connecting Sharon Rondeau to WorldNetDaily?  Why does a search for a WorldNetDaily article lead a researcher to a list of Examiner articles about The Post & Email, Orly Taitz, and unrelated articles on Egypt?