The Tazer: Doing the Globe's job for them!

We just received another interesting letter intended for the Richmond Globe, this time from LL Enterprises. Tazerville residents may remember them as the firm that conducted a couple polls, including one for candidate Gary Bell.

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To the Richmond Globe,

Regarding the front page Globe Voice article of November 15 to 21, 2006 entitled "Gary Bell: the spoiler's dilemma," we are puzzled that the Globe found it necessary to include LL Enterprises in a story that failed to be about LL Enterprises. Furthermore, pointing out that LL Enterprises utilizes a UPS post office box was not only superfluous, but unprofessional as well.

We could observe that a Yahoo search returns multiple businesses at the address listed the Globe website (Kyani Rochelle's Hair, Jones Cheng & Company, and Fisher Realtors) but no Globe Newspaper Group. Is that significant enough to point out?

Joe L. Fisher, owner of Fisher Realtors, was not only Irma Anderson's campaign manager, but is also the "real estate editor" of the Globe. Is that significant enough to point out?

Of course not. Such revelations would be superfluous and unprofessional, and we refuse to do so.

Though LL Enterprises activities are, quite frankly, none of the Globe's business, we freely admit that the Gary Bell campaign for Mayor contracted us to undertake a poll. If the Globe would care to disclose any conflicts of interest it may have, then perhaps its editorial could be accorded its proper weight.

LLE operations are decentralized and necessitate the P.O. box. However, LLE is not so decentralized as to be incommunicado. We have no record of any attempt by Globe staff to communicate with LLE. There is only the word of the Globe that they ever visited the UPS store where our P.O. box is located. To our knowledge, the Globe placed no telephone calls, sent any e-mail, or even sent postal mail to the P.O. box whose existence they claim to be fully aware of.

LL Enterprises is a business that is in business to stay in business. We monitor our communications many times daily and correspond with clients and personnel nationwide. Though we allow for lapses in technology and the pressures of work, we are incredulous that the Globe could not contact us in time for their "article." Spokespeople are, and were, available to answer any questions the Globe has, or may have had. Thus, we object to the Globe's claim that "no one was available to speak with us."

And while we beg to differ with the whole thrust of the article in question, we shall leave that for another discussion.

For the Globe's edification, presenting fabrications as fact and casting aspersions is the antithesis of journalistic integrity. While the Globe may excel at fiction, its standard for fact is far short of a respectable publication of record.

Sincerely,
RC Williams, Managing Partner
Wesley Westfall, Managing Partner

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Ouch, these guys are sharp! The Tazer likes that...

So we attempted what the Globe couldn't: contact LL Enterprises. We got through on the THIRD ring.

Mr. Williams took a few minutes out of his lunch to speak with us about the article, the letter we were copied on, and LLE's polling work. Seems that their initial survey was an independent effort to fish for local campaign work, and the Gary Bell campaign contacted them.

Williams says he grew up and lived in Richmond most of his life, same as most of the LLE staff, and that they were therefore curious about the local political scene. The Tazer's brief conversation with LLE's chief reveals that while they monitored us, they didn't quite agree with us...until now...

"Between the discouragement expressed to Gary that he told us about, some of the rhetoric during the campaign, and now this article that thinks it's dissecting the election, we've seen an ugly underside to Richmond politics," Williams said. "Around the offices, we used to take issue with some of what [the Tazer] wrote, but over time we've grown to see that [the Tazer is] just as interested in the future of Richmond as we are."

LLE sounds like an above-board outfit with nothing to hide about their political involvement. On the other hand, the Richmond Globe was -- and still is -- an unspoken extension of the Anderson campaign. We doubt that they'll publish LLE's rebuttal, which is why we at the Tazer will do them the honor and let the Globe whine and cry to the bitter end about how nothing was ever their fault.

Nothing was ever the fault of Irma Anderson. Not the homicides, not the city's finances, not double-dipping the car stipend, not the gridlocked council meetings, and now her own election loss isn't her fault either. It's Gary Bell's fault because he's the OTHER African-American running for mayor. If only he hadn't run, Richmond would've forgotten and forgiven her.

Ixion2020, Tom Butt, and now LLE have an opposing theory: the incompetent incumbent should've stepped aside.

What's really pathetic about the Globe (and by extension, Irma Anderson) is that their last stab in the campaign had to be about the division of African-Americans. To us, Gary Bell's speeches and literature always seemed to be promoting unity throughout the City of Richmond. Hmm, makes you wonder, don't it?

Thus, we leave it to you to decide, Tazer Faithful: Who are the REAL race dividers and poverty pimps?