Is Richmond Free to Press

Richmond: The capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of 2019 the estimated population is 230,436. Richmond’s population makes it the fourth most populated city in the Commonwealth.

Free: make (information) available for publication. Not fixed in position. 

Press: to act upon with steadily applied weight or force. An act of pressing; pressure. Those who work in the news media, esp newspaper reporters and photographers

It has been a long few weeks since Election Day. Not sure if you are left, right or center. I noticed a graphic on social media this week. It had a fly and a honey bee. The honey bee was trying to explain to the fly why honey was better than shit. I at this point, I am honestly exhausted with this cycle. As a political consultant and activist, I am looking towards the 2021 cycle.

Information should free the reader or viewer. However, the mainstream media does not do that. Why do I write? I write because it provides me a sense of freedom. To effectively communicate my perspective without coming off hostile. I learned to not be hostile from Dr. James Lark of the Libertarian Party of Virginia as well as my mentors in Toastmasters International Regie Ford, Adam Haller and my brother in Christ Sandy Sanders.

I currently feel as if I stuck someplace between the Libertarian and Republican parties. I honestly feel as I stand here all by myself. Many of the musical artists that I grew up with or that I like, do not share my political perspective. I have changed maybe because I have become older, I do not know.

As I have been a political consultant and activist, one of the manners that I communicate with the media is via press release. The release will allow the campaign or organization to  communicate to the media what is going on. I have been sending press releases on behalf of political campaigns since 2015. Most of the time, I never get word from the media outlet about if the release was “received”.

Recently, I did receive a response from a writer who contributes to the Richmond Free Press. Clearly this contributor was not happy with the side of the equation that I align myself with. Please find my response to his original email below:

Good evening,

I hope my correspondence finds you in good health and spirits. For your information your entire response was written in the subject line of the email. Mr. Lazarus it is wonderful to hear from you. I have been sending you all press releases since 2015 when I worked for the Loser for Liberty Campaign.

I understand your perspective sir. As your publication does not support anything from the conservative or libertarian perspective. I honestly feel as if you and your publication feel both of the aforementioned perspectives are a tremendous waste of time.

However, as my mentor and former Richmond City Council Candidate Regie Ford says, “We don’t have to agree but, we need to coexist.”

That is so true. And it was said in true Toastmasters style and class. As a Libertarian Activist, former candidate and now member of the independent media, we have to report what the mainstream fails to. In the immortal words of OutKast, ” that’s why some are found floating face down in the mainstream.”

OutKast

ATLiens

1996.

I write because publications like the Richmond Free Press do a disservice to the Black community. It is shameful. I personally would not pick up my dogs poop with a copy of the Richmond Free Press. You have no respect for different opinions and it is you sir who are the “Uncle Tom’s of this society.

Corey M. Fauconier 

Communications Director for

Mike Dickinson Republican Candidate for Richmond City Council.

Contributor, Virginia Right (www.varight.com)

And Host of Talks Over Drinks (www.TalksOverDrinks.com)

[email protected]

Twitter: @CoreyMFauconier

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

Response from Mr. Jeremy Lazarus Richmond Free Press:

Thank you. Actually the trump train occurred in the interim between the election editions. The Free Press has not in its history been able to report such incidents give such limited space and our history of not doing online reports prior to publication. 

Still your response, while elegant, did not answer the question. Mr. Dickinson was a non-factor other than to take votes from the person who was Mr. Addison’s strongest challenger. That is neither liberal nor conservative, but an obvious fact that is politically neutral. 

So is the fact that Mr. Dickinson’s concession or lack thereof is meaningless given his status in the vote count and his alleged challenge is meaningless under state law. 

And we gave Mr. Dickinson’s candidacy the same coverage as everyone else, which is to say none except for the blurb we published on each candidate. So far as I am aware, Mr. Dickinson made no statements on policy issues before the council, offered no critique of Mr. Addison’s committee nor did anything else that would have justified news coverage prior to the election or at least never brought it to Free Press attention.

Jeremy.

If you would have told me prior to 2015 that I was going to be a contributor for Virginia Right or that I was going to host a podcast style talk show called Talks Over Drinks, I would have laughed and called you “crazy”.

However, the more that I do this, the more it feels right. I kind of feel that I am exactly where I need to be at this point in life. I look forward to continuing on this journey in 2021.