This was a historic week for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and its parent company Block Communications. The paper was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting in response to the Tree of Life shooting last fall. That award included not only great breaking reporting, but also investigations into the alleged shooter Robert Bowers.
Those investigations detailed Bowers’ prolific internet and social media use, which was filled with anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric, and alt-right conspiracy theories. One of Bowers’ post read, “Open your eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!”
But in this same week, a board member for the company that owns the P-G, Block Communications Inc., was sharing her own anti-Muslim conspiracy theories related to the fire that burnt much of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
Susan Allan Block is the wife to Allan Block, who is the chairman of Block Communications, and the sister-in-law to John Block, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the P-G and the Toledo Blade. She was named to the BCI board in October 2018 and Allan Block said she “will be on a slate of directors to be elected by shareholders at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in January,” in an October 2018 Blade article. BCI also owns five local TV stations in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.
In an April 15 Facebook post, Susan Block wrote:
“Even if it was on purpose we will never be told that! Can you imagine what the French response would be to that! Uncontrollably! Total chaos! We will never know!”
Shared from a friend’s news feed. This photo was taken at the scene of the fire today. Why were these men laughing?!
“12 churches, in France, have been attacked in the last month and a media blackout. It’s Easter week. Yeah, a coincidence. Ok”
The attached photo is of two men who appear to be smiling and laughing with a burning Notre Dame in the background. According to Politifact, the image is doctored and the two men were artificially inserted into the image. Politifact says the doctored image has been “used to support claims that the cathedral fire was a terrorist attack and fueled anti-Muslim rhetoric.”
A call to BCI requesting comment for this story was not returned.
French officials have said the Notre Dame fire started on accident from an electrical short circuit.
On April 17, Susan Block shared a short video on Facebook that appears to show a man walking on the balcony of Notre Dame as it was burning. She wrote, “The truth needs to come out!”
According to Politifact, that video was originally posted on an aggregate social-media page called Equinox News Network with the caption “No workers present at the time that the Notre Dame Cathedral fire started……So who is this guy dressed in Muslim garb??”
But Politifact notes the video was “flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed,” although the video is still up, and the person in the video is actually a firefighter. The video was cropped and edited out of a more than three-hour livestream and, according to Politifact “doesn’t allow the viewer to clearly see it was a firefighter” and the clip “doesn’t last long enough to show other firefighters who show up in the same area moments later.”
Susan Block’s doctored photo post was screencapped and tweeted by Blade reporter and Toledo Newspaper Guild president Nolan Rosekrans.
P-G reporter Christopher Huffaker shared Rosekrans’ tweet and showed frustration that ownership would traffic in posts that undermine the work of journalists. Huffaker also noted the similarities to Susan Block’s posts to that of alleged Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers.
P-G web associate/designer Matt Moret was also dismayed by Susan Block’s posts. On April 17, he tweeted “Nothing to see here, just a head of my news company spreading bigoted falsehoods and questioning the validity of an industry propping up her wealth.”
The Newsguild of Pittsburgh, the union that represents P-G staffers, has been in a longtime battle with BCI to secure a raise and better working conditions, as has the Toledo newsguild. Both staffs have not seen a raise in more than 13 years.
Last July, before she was named to the board, Susan Block shared her thoughts about The Blade in a Facebook post writing, “I’m not an employee of The Blade or any of our business. I could care less about ‘saving The Blade.’ We run it like a charity for the benefit of the community. It’s way more trouble than it is worth.”
Before Susan Block was named to the BCI board, she worked for a hedge fund, owned a pastry shop, and was involved in pharmaceutical sales.
On April 17, Susan Block also shared a link to a Russia Times story about Catholic Churches in France that had been vandalized. She wrote: “‘Something’ is happening & ‘someone’ is responsible! Wake up world – there are people who want to destroy everything Christian & society as we know it!” Russia Times is the TV network fully funded and operated by the Russian government.
Susan Block’s doctored photo post also drew a sharp rebuke from P-G Washington bureau chief Tracie Mauriello, who found irony that Block posts fake news, but doesn’t lend support to the P-G‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning staff.
This article appears in April 17, 2019 – Pittsburgh City Paper.
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Thank you for this information. I will share this article despite the fact that you conflated the RT reporting of actual vandalism in French churches with the Breibart interpretation of that article.
This is worthy of a news article? Must not be any real news to report on so lets just start criticizing social media posts.
How Orwellian.
The fake media in Pittsburgh also missed out on a chance to expose the Pittsburgh Diocese years before the PA Attorney General got downwind of their shenanigans.
Years ago I was reporting the abuse, the cover-ups and naming all the names but, the media was not permitted to report the truth. Compare my press release with the Horowitz Law firm site as they beg for victims of Father john Wellinger to come forward.
https://adamhorowitzlaw.com/clergy-abuse/f…
Compare it with the recent posting of Horowitz Law firm.
Read for yourself and judge for yourself:
PRESS RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Mike Ference
412-233-5491
mike@ferencemarketing.com
The Last Call: Second Protest Announced
Pittsburgh, PA November 10, 2011 On December 5, 2011, well-known local activist Mike Ference will stage the second in a series of Last Call protests targeting local institutions and individuals tied to cases involving the abuse of children and young adults. The protest will take place beginning at 11:00 am in front of the Allegheny County Detectives Bureau in Dormont.
Ference is targeting the bureau for failing to take action after he presented detailed information about alleged clergy sex abuse, cover-ups and other criminal behavior as early as year 1986. Detectives Dennis Logan and Keith Andrews basically blew me off. They werent the least bit interested in asking me any questions or following up on anything, Ference says.
He adds that Assistant District Attorney Laura Ditka also showed little interest, although she did help him secure the police report on the attempted murder of his son in 1989 the event that inspired him to begin his work as an activist. Ference says he had been unable to obtain the report directly from the McKeesport Police Department, and that then-McKeesport Mayor Jim Brewster remained reluctant to release the files, even though they are considered public record.
Ference initially began investigating the attempted murder of his son because he felt the case had been botched and prematurely closed by the McKeesport police. William Scully, then Public Safety Director in Clairton, gave Ference notes on the case and encouraged him to continue investigating on his own. A central issue was whether the shooter had been sexually abused and encouraged to study the occult by a local Catholic priest. In more than two decades of work since then, Ference has uncovered and written about numerous related tales of child sexual abuse and cover-ups in the region.
What has happened in the Mon Valley is every bit as disturbing as Cardinal Bernard Laws cover-up in the Boston Archdiocese and the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case unfolding at Penn State, Ference says. What Ive found again and again during my investigations is that such abuse cant happen without various community stakeholders looking the other way. My Last Call protests are an effort to expose some of the individuals and institutions we need to hold responsible.
Ferences December 5 protest will concentrate on one specific report of clergy sex abuse, cover-up, and possible intimidation by persons associated with the Pittsburgh Diocese. Based on an interview and email exchanges with the alleged victim, telephone conversations with the victims parents and interviews with other individuals in community, Ference summarizes the case as follows:
In 1988, former Catholic priest John Wellinger fed drugs and alcohol to an 18-year-old college student from the University of Pittsburgh at the students apartment. According to the victim, Wellinger also gave him a Mickey which knocked him out for several hours. Upon waking, the youth called 911, ran down his apartment steps and met the Pittsburgh EMS squad at the bottom. The EMS took him to the emergency room of Presbyterian University Hospital, now part of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The young man was given a bed. Wellinger followed him to the hospital and into his room. The victim asked Wellinger to get his nurse. When the nurse entered the room, the young man informed the nurse that Wellinger was the person who harmed him. The nurse ushered Wellinger out. The parents of the victim were summoned, but the victim claims that he was never seen or treated by a doctor and that the police were not called.
Ference also quotes from emails sent to him by the alleged victim: My dad did report Wellinger’s behavior. Did you forget the excommunication letter he received from the diocese that I told you about? Did you forget about my dad being forced off the rectory grounds by West Mifflin police? Or maybe you forgot that I told the nurse in the ER that night that a priest did this to me. Or maybe you forgot how my family was ostracized from the neighborhood. We werent quiet, Mike. We were ignored. Just like you and everyone else. I was abused.
In correspondence with Rita Flaherty from the Pittsburgh Diocese, Ference has been told that the Diocese is not aware of any allegations concerning this individual. In an email dated November 9, 2011, Flaherty writes:
If someone has come to you with information that they have been abused, please have them contact me directly at 412-456-3060 or through our hotline number 1-888-808-1235. We would want to meet with that person and hear their story first hand and see what assistance we could provide to them. After dealing with the person directly, we follow our policies of reporting any alleged abuse involving a minor (no matter how old the alleged victim is now) to the appropriate civil authorities in the area where the abuse allegedly occurred. It is certainly my desire to assist any victim of abuse with their healing to the best of my ability.
Ference says this email represents a positive change from the deny, stonewall, cover-up and hush up tactics that he has found to be common in cases involving clergy. However, he also feels the time for patience and gradual change is long past. For two decades I have called on certain institutions and individuals to come forward and take responsibility for their roles active or passive in child sex abuse, he explains. This is the last call those who dont do the right thing will be outted at a series of protests where I will publicize incriminating details from my 22-year investigation. Abusers who have harmed children and those who knowingly covered up the crimes will be named I want everyone in our community to know who the bad guys are.
Additional protests are in the planning stage. Ference says UPMC Hospital in Oakland is a likely site because of its ties to the clerical abuse case discussed above. He is also considering the police departments and municipal buildings of McKeesport, Clairton, and West Mifflin, due to their involvement in the mishandled investigation of the attempted murder of his son. District Attorney Stephen Zappalas office and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were also mentioned as stakeholders who have been more interested in protecting the church hierarchy than punishing abusers and defending children.
For more information on the December 5 protest or other upcoming events, call Mike Ference at 412-233-5491, or email mike@ferencemarketing.com.