Page 3 Girl

Those who follow Hoboken politics (you) may have been surprised to see the following in this week's Hoboken Reporter:

•  Beth Mason's employee, Matt Calicchio, on the cover in a feature story about his June 7 trial date.  He's accused of harassing a School Board mom in the presence of her 5 year-old daughter.  

• Beth Mason's employee, James Barracato, describing his failed Nazi-smear attempt against GA to Al Sullivan in Al's weekly column, Between The Lines.

Very interesting, right? 

Because historically, the editorial bias of the paper would never have published either. The Calicchio story reveals the ugliness of longstanding Dark Side tactics- bullying and intimidation of political opponents.   The Barracato story takes the behind-the-scenes operative and exposes his lame and tawdry effort to feed their paper a false Nazi-narrative against a blogger (me).

Both men, Calicchio and Barracato work for the same boss.

Beth Mason.

Both men, Calicchio and Barracato, were on her payroll at the time of the alleged harassment and the ginning up a Nazi-narrative for the local press while peddling it to Jewish watchdog groups.

But HER name was conspicuously absent from both Calicchio and Barracato pieces.

Why?  Because...

Beth Mason is The Reporter's Page 3 Girl!

That's 4 consecutive weeks of 1/2-page ads on page 3- premium space- with no election in sight.  

May 6, 2012- The Hoboken Reporter, page 3

Turn back the clock to late April, and one may imagine this ad space was booked about the time Barracato was pimping the  'Nazi blogger' piece to The Reporter.  Remember?  That's when GA and MSV got emailed accusatory questions and were offered a chance to "defend" ourselves.

What preceded that?

Barracato meets with the publisher, and reporters, peddles his drek, hands them Photoshopped MSV and GA screen shots. Then, boom-boom-boom-boom: week after week of ad-buys.

Coincidence?

May 13, 2012- The Hoboken Reporter, page 3

Well, the story Barracato pitched never got published.

So at the end of the day, what did Mason's money buy?

It bought what you didn't read in either Calicchio or Barracato's piece: a name.

Beth Mason.
 

May 20, 2012- The Hoboken Reporter, page 3

If Mason's name was ever written in either piece, it didn't survive editorial review. 

So you have 'political operatives' named without naming their (known) employer.  Th HR writes as though these 'untethered' political operatives are 'driving the bus'.

They're NOT.  It's Beth Mason.

So... how much LONGER should we expect our newspaper to keep her OUT of the story.  But not for Mason hiring/directing these named individuals, there would BE no story.

(But its OK to name her victims, right?)

May 27, 2012- The Hoboken Reporter, page 3

Now, GA was in the Union City courtroom last week.  So were Mason's videographer Tim and his assistant Not-Perry, and BoE member Carmelo Garcia's sister-in-law Tanya, who works for Mason as Gallery 1200.

But reporter Stephen LaMarca only mentioned me there.  How come?

LaMarca wrote a very fair, balanced piece on the BoE 2 weeks ago- not an easy feat for such a  hot-button issue. Which tells me the kid can write well and be fair.

So with respect to not mentioning the Mason entourage in the room, I will assume LaMarca didn't know who they were.  I will point them out to him next time.  Yep, Mason had her crew in attendance- a handful of people on her payroll sitting in the court room- but only Minutillo's 'side' gets mentioned.

In conclusion, GA's got a question for Dave Unger, the publisher of The Hoboken Reporter.

Is the Page 3 Girl buying ads or protection or BOTH?