Media Frenzy 2.0

Ever since County Executive Mark Hackel released phony audio files in December 2016 in attempt to silence Warren Mayor James Fouts from pursuing the Freedom Hill Illegal Dumping Issue, The media has been relentlessly pursuing the Mayor of the third largest City in Michigan at all hours, including weekends, and incessantly phoning him at his home.

The less obnoxious Television stations have been parked outside the Mayor’s residence shining bright TV lights into his home until late at night. The more obnoxious ones are knocking at the Mayor’s door hoping for an “exclusive interview”, a “gotcha interview”, or endless questions about the engineered recordings.

Mayor Fouts has even encountered death threats. A voicemail that was left for the Mayor described how someone “would like to put a noose around (the Mayor’s) neck and watch (him) choking until all the life was out of (him).”  Another suggested that “(the Mayor) need to do everyone a favor and commit suicide.”  These are unacceptable obscenities and vial threats based on unfounded and unverified information that are threatening the life of an elected public official who has dedicated his life to improving the quality of life for Warren residents.

While the City of Warren police continue to offer the Mayor around the clock security and police patrols, the Mayor felt that he was a low priority and felt these people only did this after being incited by the repeated airing of the phony tapes on every station.

Prior to this incident, The Mayor anticipated watching the local Television News Stations, which now he dreads because of the incessant reporting about the phony audio files.

During the city-sponsored January 16 annual Dr. Martin Luther King Ceremony, the media was obsessed with the latest release of these engineered recordings. This media’s unquenchable thirst for sensationalism ruined the solemn ceremony and turned it into a media circus trampling on the musical instruments of the Renaissance High School Quintet’s band instruments.

The media does have some responsibility to show restraint and a balanced story, but clearly this is NOT the case with regards to the Mayor of the third largest city in Michigan. Sadly, it would appear that the media’s view of the Mayor is dark. They have no room for considering all of the good the Mayor has done for the city of Warren, nor any room for the real culprit, and no room for respecting the Mayor’s right to privacy or his right to confront his accuser.

The media, in effect, has become an echo chamber for an electronic lynch mob. It’s a sensational story, so why stop the drumbeat?

What is most hurtful to the Mayor however is that his- so-called political “friends” who called for his resignation-a rush to judgment. These “fair weather” friends were more than eager in their elections to use the Mayor’s personal endorsement in their successful campaigns. This confirms that adage of President Harry S. Truman: “If you want a friend in politics, get yourself a dog.”

This public “every politician for himself or herself” desertion has caused the Mayor much personal anguish. While the Mayor had anticipated that life has its ups-and-downs, this has been downright disheartening to him, especially after helping those candidates with personal help and endorsements.

Much of this criticism aimed at the Mayor has come from outside of the City of Warren from individuals who are spreading viscous lies about the Mayor.  To fuel the flames, anyone who had a past grievance with the Mayor are  now competing with each other to get media attention by lying and conjuring up ridiculous stories.  The more outlandish the lie, the bigger the news story.

The silver lining throughout this experience has been the outpouring show of support in solidarity of the Mayor from the residents of Warren who have stood and continue to stand behind their elected official.

Mayor Fouts is grateful to these these loyal supporters from the bottom of his heart. It is this confidence in him that keeps the Mayor working hard on the behalf of his constituency creating a safe, clean, and forward thinking city.

In a statetemtn, Mayor Fouts said “…that God gives him the strength to withstand the unfounded criticism that he’s had to endure.” and that “with the help and faith of many he will continue to work hard for the deserving Warren taxpayer, undeterred from his mission to serve and protect the residents of Warren.”

A Statement regarding the recent public attacks from a disgruntled former consultant against Mayor Jim Fouts

Over the past few weeks, a series of fake recordings have been floating around the media channels, alleging that someone, purportedly Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, said some terrible things.  And while dirty tricks and diversions are nothing new, these vicious attacks have gone too  far.  A common denominator in the release of these fake audio recordings, and naturally, the most vocal in its corroboration, is Joe DiSano, the former disgruntled political consultant.

Well known in political circles for orchestrating and implementing questionable political tactics such as phony and misleading mailers, fraudulent and slanderous automated phone messages, and spreading malicious rumors on social media, Joe’s misadventures have on occasions landed him in hot water.   In fact, one such incident of dirty political tricks resulted in a record setting monetary judgment issued against Joe DiSano.

Joe’s obsession with the Mayor of Warren began when the Mayor didn’t agree to employ DiSano with the City of Warren.

Extremely upset over the Mayor’s decision to not hire him, Joe DiSano threatened the Mayor in front of numerous credible witnesses, that included an elected official and an appointed official, and has held a longstanding grudge ever since.  This grudge, eventually grew into an obsession with the Mayor, and his social media presence.  This obsession manifested itself in numerous ways, including stalking and trolling the Mayor’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and creating multiple fake accounts to harass and slander the Mayor of the 3^rd largest City in Michigan.

Playing dirty political tricks and being involved in numerous scandals over his tumultuous career as a political consultant, Joe DiSano has delivered on his promise to stalk, harass, and slander Mayor Fouts, in an attempt to distract the Administration from continuing to implement the Mayor’s multiple development initiatives that have greatly improved the quality of life for the residents of Warren.

Joe DiSano has made a career of creating dirty political stunts, making false statements about multiple elected officials, initiating robocall campaigns and many other political tricks, and was in fact quoted in multiple publications as stating that “voters don’t look at fact-checking websites or research the claims made.” online, insinuating that sensationalism, not facts, drive votes.   One such incident resulted in a record setting monetary judgment against Joe DiSano for such dirty political tricks.

Joe Disano, along with his wife, were temporally employed by the Hillary Clinton campaign.  Mayor Fouts, a vocal supporter of the former democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, was attacked by Joe and his wife at the Democratic Debate when the Mayor cheered in support of Bernie Sanders.  Following this incident, Joe’s wife proceeded to further verbally assault  the Mayor in the spin room, and then published an extremely offensive post on a personal blog.

Joe Disano had also been employed by Rizzo Waste Management Services.  As many Warren and Macomb Residents recall, this company had been the center of a scandal in Macomb County.   Rizzo Environmental Services, requested that the City of Warren outsource its sanitation department, to which the Mayor did not agree.  Moreover, Rizzo Waste Management Services had asked for a $10 / Per Ton increase in recycling with a Guarantee of at least 30,000 tons at one time.  The cost to the taxpayers of Warren would have been hefty, an additional $880,000.   Mayor Fouts refused these services, and as a result , Rizzo Services no longer works for the city of Warren.

In short, it is evident that Joe DiSano, driven by greed and revenge, has no credibility.