Rob Williams - the Public Banksters Flack

A reader has pointed me to a recent letter to the editor in Seven Days from the publisher of a defunct "journal" that is now little more than an online nest of anti-Semitic, conspiracy addled hate bloggers - that's Rob Williams hatesite, of course.

Williams, a self described "journalist" and "media dude," who, rather than do the right thing by directly contacting the 7Days publishers or editors with his complaint instead engaged in a little flacking on behalf of the recently failed public banking effort in the Vermont Senate by suggesting that that failure should have received notice in 7Days' recent Money issue. This is by no means Williams first beef with Vermont media professionals. He's repeatedly lectured real editors and publishers on how to do news despite his having run his own tiny bi-monthly into the ground a couple of years ago and now proudly proclaims at his remaining hatesite,

"We make no pretense to “Objectivity”..."

all the while considering himself qualified to critique those real journalists about how they should cover what is, or as in this case, what wasn't newsworthy.

"Missing Story?"

"I always enjoy reading your weekly newspaper. But did you really just publish a Money Issue [April 9] and not do a stand-alone story on the emerging, grassroots, statewide campaign calling for a public bank for Vermont? That 15 Vermont towns passed town-meeting resolutions calling on the state legislature to create such an entity? The UVM Gund Institute's 40-page research study explaining how a Vermont public bank could create 2,000-plus jobs and reinvigorate Vermont's entrepreneurial, infrastructural and economic landscape? Maybe next time."

The rest of his letter is devoted to not one, not two, but three ways to contact the unregistered lobbyist for the small public banksters interest group, the California based Public Banking Institute executive director, Gwen Hallsmith. Given that Hallsmith is making her out of state media appearances (more on that in another post) stressing her position with PBI, you'd think that Williams might have noted that fact. But that would have undermined his claim that this public banking stuff is a truly Vermont based effort. As for "statewide campaign," there were only two towns in southeastern Vermont, half of whom voted down this dog; none in southwestern and west central Vermont or northwest Vermont. Hell, the remaining dozen and a half towns that passed a non-binding resolution supporting this public banking turkey were none other than the hometowns (past & present) of the public banksters themselves, amounting to less than 5% of the state's population. And finally, Williams does not take the time to mention that a number of the claims from the so-called "study" that he referred to were soundly refuted by Vermont's Treasurer, Beth Pierce, but then by his own statement he's not really "objective" in his representations when it suits him.

"Emerging?" The Vermont secessionists have had this public banking crap on their "to do first" for a half a dozen years and have three failed passes at the legislature to show for it. The "small community" of Vermont seceshers (their description) has said repeatedly that the primary method to extract Vermont from "the Empire" is to disengage economically from its financial institutions, no matter what the financial costs to Vermonters pensions, investments and the State economy.

"Example #1 - If Vermont can form a public bank that allows ordinary Vermonters to reap the benefits, Vermonters will have one less logistical and psychological tie to Wall Street and the Empire it enables."

So now there's an effort underway reframe their repeated failures as a success in this year's legislative session. As I said, more on that soon.

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