----------------
It is most disheartening when a campaign for public office resorts to accusations of alleged petty wrongdoing. For example, an individual who happens to be designing and supplying campaign materials for Seb Giuliano, queried, on the Middletown Eye, as a private citizen, a question about a Florsheim campaign worker. It appears that the question asked was based on a case of mistaken identity and did not pertain to the individual working for Florsheim. Immediately after this Facebook comment was posted, however, the Florsheim campaign, without proof, accused the Giuliano campaign of orchestrating an effort to defame a political opponent.
Regardless of whether the individual who posted the comment volunteered or acted as a vendor for the Giuliano campaign, they are also a private citizen who has the freedom of speech to post whatever they want on social media at their own discretion. In no way does this prove that this was done at the behest of the Giuliano campaign, in reality, it is just another accusation with no evidence designed to defame an individual, in this case, Mr. Giuliano. Stretching the facts to fit a political narrative moves us down a dangerous path where we will accomplish nothing except for eroding the trust of the voting public.
By promoting this as a news story and publicly demanding an apology, the Florsheim campaign is attempting to have Giuliano apologize for something that was done by a third party acting as a private citizen, and out of his control. For the record, Mr. Giuliano has denied any knowledge of this incident and the individual who posted the comment has also said for the record that this was done at his own sole discretion.
After this entire debacle played out over social media, and also in our local news publications, I found it truly ironic that what the Florsheim campaign is accusing Giuliano’s team of is also happening on social media pages run by Florsheim. An individual posted a comment on a video post published on Florshiem’s Facebook page that accused Seb Giuliano of being a “crook”. Not only is there no factual basis for calling Seb a crook, it appears to rise to the level of slander and is another low blow in the mold of the comment Florsheim’s campaign is crying foul over. Seb has not lowered himself to call out Florsheim’s campaign for this patently false post. He is above engaging in mudslinging and simply wants to focus on the issues that matter for Middletown residents. I find it sad that politics has gotten to this point where, instead of focusing on real issues, we focus on “gotcha” statements and pettiness. They say “if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones” and it appears the Florsheim’s glass may be cracking a bit if this is what he and his supporters are resorting to less than 3 weeks before the election.
No comments:
Post a Comment