By Michael Gaffney
Yesterday, I discussed the fabrication of a so-called “movement” to remove the Worcester School Superintendent, Maureen Binienda. As it turned out, the entire “movement” was started by Councilor Sarai Rivera when Binienda made a decision to keep the children safe at Claremont Academy by stationing a school resource officer (police officer) there.
Naturally, the race-baiting leftist police-hating crowd, opposed the idea. As Rivera and her pal, School Committee Member Dante Comparetto are both race-baiting leftist that hate police, they attempted to stop Binienda from protecting children. Both made attempts at council and at school committee to prevent Binienda from doing her job, and both were soundly defeated.
In response, Rivera had her husband, Jose A. Encarnacion, and their interfaith group cry racism and call for Binienda to be fired based on statistically insignificant disciplinary data over the course of two years. Let’s be clear, the data is so meaningless, Comparetto and their supporters at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette have avoided using it as evidence to support their claim. Instead, they make broad generalizations that avoid discussing the data.
The attempted coup against Binienda backfired.
Despite organizing a rally calling for Binienda to be publicly flogged and run out of town, Encarnacion was back-peddling last night. He now claims his group didn’t want Binienda fired, they just wanted a discussion about how racist the Worcester Public School are.
Scott O’Connell, a reporter with the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, then did a make-up article interviewing the school committee members to assure the public that Binienda was in no danger. And, the school committee members did not disappoint. Some expressed anger at Comparetto’s behavior.
Yet, it was O’Connell’s shoddy reporting and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette’s editorial staff that failed to disclose the connections between Rivera and Comparetto. Namely, that both opposed the school resource officers since their implimentation and that Comparetto is a regular at Rivera’s church during election season, Rivera was on Comparetto’s host committee, and they campaign together.
Had O’Connell and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette been honest with themselves in acknowledging that the alleged movement against Binienda was not organic; rather, it was a campaign ploy, the story probably wouldn’t have been published. Instead, they contributed in pushing a false narrative and refuse to acknowledge it.
While it is really nice of O’Connell and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette to print the second article, the responsible thing to do would have been to disclose the relationships between the parties and making inquiry of them as to their plot to get Binienda fired for doing her job.
As with the wrongful termination of a former city employee, Brittany Legasey, which appears to have been done at the behest of former City Councilor Tony Economy because Legasey’s roommate ran against him, we have another corruption scandal at City Hall that the so-called paper of record, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette has chosen to sweep under the rug.
In sum, the plot by Rivera and Comparetto needs to be fully investigated.
Both should be sanctioned publicly by the City Council and School Committee.
Worcester should not tolerate corruption and the threat of retaliation against an employee doing her job because a councilor or school committee member is on an ego trip.
But the story goes on…
O’Connell may have dropped the ball with his reporting, but Clive McFarlane spiked it.
McFarlane and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette deliberately failed to disclose that the leader of the interfaith group calling for Binienda’s termination was Rivera’s husband, Encarnacion. Instead, they published an entire column along with a press release from the interfaith group knowing they are married and that the battle between Rivera and Binienda over the school resource officer is still ongoing.
As with O’Connell, McFarlane also did a make-up article, waxing about Binienda’s great work and experience. Of course there is one “but”…
McFarlane and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette published an article today that claims the “Worcester community” refuses to “acknowledge and address the presence of racism.”
Instead of taking responsibility for the complete lack of journalistic integrity, they redirect, blaming Worcester.
Apparently, it is acceptable to mislead and collude, because the community of Worcester is full of racists that don’t understand that they are racists.
[Disclosure, McFarlane and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette once published an article calling me a slave master. I guess they have just expanded their name-calling to the entire city].
There is more to this story, such as Mayor Joe Petty pandering to the same group calling Worcester a racist haven, but he always panders. Or, Comparetto claiming that Worcester is overwhelmed by the KKK and a “crazy amount of racism”, but his hatred for Worcester is well-known.
The Worcester community is not racist. The only racists in Worcester are those tearing up the City by leveling the accusation against anyone they disagree with an those that fail to speak out against it.
