The Silly 'Newspaper' that Suddenly Appeared Just 51 Days Ago: A Reminder

[You may have read this already or heard about this: that silly paper with the garish headlines, huge pictures, inflammatory charges, with hardly no ad revenue has only been around for 51 days. That's it. Margaret Menge is the 'publisher'—or so she claims—and she did something very similar in 2012 to manipulate an election in Lake Worth.

So, without further ado, read what Menge did in 2012:]

This is a revelation discovered by a loyal reader of my blog; putting the pieces together.

On January 16, 2015, Margaret Menge (self-described journalist/editor) issued the first edition of her 'new' newspaper, The Lake Worth Tribune. It is important to note this first issue is 53 days prior to a municipal election in our little City of Lake Worth.

In 2012, Margaret Menge did something almost identical, in scope and tactics, but less the printed page.

On Sunday, July 29, 2012, Margaret Menge rolled out her on-line 'newspaper' called The Lake Worth Sun. The last story in The Lake Worth Sun appeared 100 days later, on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. That was election day in Lake Worth.

After the election results on November 6, 2012, there was no longer a purpose for The Lake Worth Sun.

The format of The Lake Worth Sun and The Lake Worth Tribune are very similar in both style and content.

• Both have wide formats and unusually large type.
• Very large pictures and headlines dominate the story.
• News stories bolstered by selective facts and outlandish descriptions of public figures (see below).
• Both feature prominently a 'Crime Blotter'.
• Both are highly critical of the PBSO and Lake Worth PBSO District 14.

Consider this, in the 100 days of The Lake Worth Sun there were 86 stories: news stories, weather, and crime. Of the 86 stories in Menge's Sun, 30 (or 35%) were on crime and PBSO.

The following is just one example of a profile of a Lake Worth public figure by Margaret Menge: this is about the City Attorney Glen Torcivia. Here are some examples of the wording Menge employs in her 'news story' published in The Lake Worth Sun:

• "Torcivia was sharp. Really sharp. And smooth."
• "He's got a New York accent (Brooklyn, I think) that he can't hide."
• "[H]e hits on his homeboy credentials next"
• "At which point one might begin to ponder the breadth and scope of the job Torcivia is applying for."
• "So what parts of the five-hour commission meetings won't be occurring any longer now that Torcivia is i̶n̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶g̶e̶  [sic] serving as Lake Worth's interim city attorney?"
• "With an attorney's communication with his client (Lake Worth) protected by attorney-client privilege, a lot of things of interest to the public can easily, could easily, (will easily?) slip behind this veil."
• "So with this attorney seeming to be willing to handle so many things on behalf of the hapless commissioners, it's all a bit concerning from the perspective of the public's right to know."
• "Glen's good. But he might be too good. Watch him. He just might take over."

The depiction of City Attorney Glen Torcivia stands in stark contrast to the sunny portrayal of former-Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill. Note this from Menge referring to Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell from the article on Suzanne Mulvehill:

Commissioner Scott Maxwell's response (he was the one interviewing candidates) was sneering and bullying, and I'm going to guess that every woman in the room that night felt revulsion swell up inside her stomach as he responded to Mulvehill with barely contained rage.

How dare a woman question him.

So what do you think now about Margaret Menge's integrity and her claims of being a fair "journalist"?

Read what Menge wrote about Nadine Burns recently in The Lake Worth Tribune.

The parallel is there, but the means of delivery are different now. This is an orchestrated phenomenon.