Two weeks ago, when Councilor At-large Mike Gaffney used Turtleboy Sports, a blog owned by Holden man Aidan Kearney, to publish salacious information from our editor�s past, two very serious issues arose.



The first is the conduct demonstrated in the screenshots Gaffney sent to Turtleboy Sports. Several years ago, Walter Bird, Jr., the editor of this paper, exchanged texts and Facebook messages of a sexual nature over several months with a woman involved in local politics. The conduct is inappropriate and we take it very seriously. To address the issue, Bird has been placed on leave while the management team conducts an internal investigation. Though the investigation is ongoing, we feel it is fair to say that this situation is concerning from an ethical standpoint, and Bird has expressed to the staff a deep regret for his actions.



But remember: an elected official, unhappy with his press coverage, shared information with an anonymous blog in an attempt to attack a member of the press personally. This brings us to our second issue.



There are myriad ways to air grievances to and about a newspaper in a professional manner. Gaffney, a lawyer who serves as chairman of the Worcester Republican City Committee, could have written a letter to the editor criticizing our coverage. He could have requested a meeting with our publisher. He could have chosen any number of tools public officials have long used to criticize their press coverage. Instead, Gaffney chose a sordid and malicious option. He made no attempt to conceal his agenda; he set out to deliberately sabotage Bird�s career. He posted a screenshot of an embarrassing conversation between Bird and a woman to his personal Facebook and Twitter pages, and later sent an email to Turtleboy Sports with more embarrassing information. The blog, always hungry for the kind of sensational content Gaffney provided, published the email in full with added commentary.



In the email he sent to Turtleboy Sports, Gaffney mentions other women Bird had made advances on, but withholds the information, saying the screenshots would out the women in question. But he also threatened to post those screenshots if Bird denied their existence. This is a clear and public threat, but more concerningly, it demonstrates that Gaffney�s consideration for the privacy and wellbeing of the women is secondary. Furthermore, if he had gone public with information about Bird because he felt a moral imperative to do so, or in order to initiate a communal debate on questionable behavior, he would have shared those screenshots when he first got them. Instead, Gaffney sat on them. He waited for an indeterminate length of time in order to drop a bomb when it was most advantageous for his own political objectives.



Unfortunately, this is not the first time Gaffney and Turtleboy Sports have worked in lockstep to attack other figures in Worcester Politics. The proclivity shown by both Gaffney and Turtleboy Sports to discredit or silence people who disagree with them has soured open conversation in Worcester. It creates a climate of fear for local citizens and elected officials.



We feel our reporting on Gaffney has been accurate and fair. We feel our handling of this ongoing situation has been, and will continue to be, thorough, professional, and ethical. Our goal is to work through a difficult time with integrity.



It�s unfortunate Gaffney did not share that objective.