At last Wednesday’s Bucks County Commissioners Meeting, Megan Brock revealed that her phone number has been blocked from calling any Bucks County Government offices.

Two days later, the Bucks County Courier Times attempted to address the issue by publishing an online opinion column written by its editors, including Executive Editor Shane Fitzgerald.

Two more days later, the column was printed in the Courier’s hard copy version, this time without any reference whatsoever to being an opinion piece.

The gist of the editors’ column is that Bucks County blocked Mrs. Brock’s phone number from calling all county offices because Mrs. Brock was “verbally abusing” Commissioner Diane Marseglia’s executive assistant, Anna Payne.

In perfect alignment with their complete lack of journalistic standards, the Courier’s editors did not even attempt to speak to Mrs. Brock before publishing this column which essentially accuses her of harassment and verbal abuse. This directly violates the Courier’s published Principles of Ethical Conduct For Newsrooms, which claims that “We will strive to include all sides relevant to a story. When news develops and we can’t include important perspectives immediately, we will share updates, including additional sources, when possible. We also will share attempts to reach sources who add value to the story.“

I went ahead and spoke with Megan Brock, and now I feel compelled to once again Correct the Courier.

The column spends the first 703 of its 1178 words pontificating about the state of COVID discourse in Bucks County before actually addressing what happened and why. Finally, mercifully, they get to the point:

“County Commissioner Diane Marseglia on Wednesday said blocking the resident’s number was intended to be for only one direct number, from a front-line staff member who routinely returns constituents’ calls. That staff member, who had talked with this parent several times, said she couldn’t take the extensive verbal abuse anymore.”

The Courier’s editors printed as fact that the staff member (Commissioner Marseglia’s assistant Anna Payne) spoke with Mrs. Brock “several times”. Unfortunately, that claim appears to be untrue and easily disproved by simply speaking with Mrs. Brock.

Mrs. Brock sent me call logs from her service provider that show she could not have possibly spoken to Ms. Payne any more than one time in August 2020 before her number was blocked.

Moreover, the call logs also show that Commissioner Marseglia used her cell phone to call Mrs. Brock about a week later. It does not make sense that Commissioner Marseglia would use her personal cell phone to call someone who she believes to be “verbally abusive”.

“We don’t see the upside to naming the parent or the county employee who ended up in a place where she couldn’t stand the thought of talking with this resident again. Neither deserves what probably would come their way.”

First of all, why does an office assistant have the power to block private citizens from contacting their government? If the Courier was honest, they would start with that question. I believe that question deserves an answer.

Secondly, the county employee in question is Commissioner Marseglia’s executive assistant Anna Payne. Why do the Courier editors not want to name her?

Could it be because she is an elected Democrat Supervisor in Middletown Township? What if I told you that at the time Commissioner Marseglia and Ms. Payne blocked Megan Brock’s phone number from calling the County, Ms. Payne was Supervisor of the Township in which Mrs. Brock lived?

Do you think that would be “relevant to the story”?

I love it when the Courier claims to be unbiased. The entire editors’ column is an obvious attempt to protect Commissioner Marseglia from scrutiny by applying a veil of journalism to a completely one-sided story. It’s literally one-sided in the sense that the Courier took every word from Commissioner Marseglia but did not make any attempt to contact Mrs. Brock.

Despite this, the Courier’s editors still find a way to claim that they take heat for being unbiased:

“We ask tough questions. We analyze the data. We talk to both sides. Facts are still disputed and our motives questioned.”

First of all, let’s all just get out a good laugh that the Courier literally writes “We talk to both sides“, when this particular column is a blatant example of how they don’t.

Furthermore, to my awareness the Courier and its editors have never once questioned the efficacy of any form of COVID mitigation. I’m honestly not sure what they’re talking about when they claim “We analyze the data“. I have never seen anything close to data analysis come from the Courier during the pandemic, but I would love to see it if it exists.

Maybe they could start with the Bucks County data that clearly shows mask requirements in schools have made no difference.

Ask yourself, have you ever seen the Courier provide objective analysis of whether or not mask requirements in schools actually work? If they “asked tough questions“, then I must have missed it.

“We know a segment of people won’t believe Marseglia. But in light of where we are right now on this subject, it’s easy to understand how public officials and their staff members can get to a point where enough is enough. Maybe it’s not a good look for the county in one sense. But it’s a good look that the county supported one of its employees who doesn’t deserve the verbal onslaughts.“

Stunningly, the column ends with the line that I’ve bolded above. With that line, the Courier’s editors acknowledge as fact that Mrs. Brock delivered “verbal onslaughts” to some poor, unnamed, sweet, innocent county employee who doesn’t deserve them.

• Never mind that Mrs. Brock can produce call logs that show she could have only spoken with that county employee one time in August 2020 before being blocked.
• Never mind that the county employee just happened to be Mrs. Brock’s elected Township Supervisor at the time.
• Never mind that Mrs. Brock’s side of the story includes Commissioner Marseglia erupting into a verbally-abusive tirade of her own when she used her personal cell phone to call Mrs. Brock in August 2020.
• Never mind that Mrs. Brock did not even realize she was blocked until 18 months after the fact. Definitely do not ask yourself how she could be so determined to harass county employees that she went 18 months without realizing she couldn’t even call them.

Never mind any of those things, because Mrs. Brock’s side of the story doesn’t matter to the Courier. The editors, including Executive Editor Shane Fitzgerald, have a job to do here and it’s not to provide objective reporting. No, their job is to protect Bucks County Government from scrutiny.

In this case, very deserved scrutiny.