It seems the megadonor with more dollars than sense, Lenore Broughton, has experienced a rare flash of insight. Late this afternoon, Broughton suddenly announced the end of True North Reports, the right-wing “news” website.
Broughton, who must be described as a “reclusive heiress” per the sacred rules of journalism, had been single-handedly bankrolling TNR for years. Did she get tired of handing our her money and getting bupkis in return? Is she moving into a new realm of estate planning? Could she — horrors! — be taking my advice and investing her fortune in projects that might promote the conservative movement in Vermont?
Who knows. She certainly won’t tell us. She never talks to the press, and reacts with anger when a photographer tries to take her picture. She ran TNR as a closed book; no contact information was listed on the site. TNR’s (expired) entry in the Secretary of State’s corporate registry cited Broughton as Registered Agent, included no other names, and listed her Burlington home as TNR’s address of record.
Broughton’s very brief farewell gives thanks to TNR’s two employees, editor Bruce Parker and “reporter” Michael Bielawski, best known not for the quality of his journalism but for his positively unhinged Twitter feed:
And who can forget his open invitation to a cage fight?
Finally, this one’s a testament to his literacy and his incomplete grasp of state government, not a quality you want in a Statehouse reporter:
Yep, “univiseral” “mail ins,” as in mailed ballots. And no, the governor isn’t the secretary of state’s boss. And to think I once got fired for using the word “dick” on Twitter.
Anyway. Besides Bielawski’s output, TNR was home to countless opinion essays by the likes of Rob Roper and John Klar. We don’t know how big a readership TNR enjoyed, but I think Broughton dropped an indirect hint: “…we thank our loyal readers. Their monetary contributions were welcome tokens of support…”
“Welcome tokens” as in small quantities of coin? Yeah, that rings true.
You might expect me to do a merry jig on TNR’s grave, but no, none of that. The operation’s capacity for irritation was dwarfed by its irrelevance. I visited occasionally when things were slow, but rarely found anything to write about. Sure, I could have made sport of Klar’s racist-adjacent musings on the reg, but that would have gotten old real fast.
Now, there is one person who might be dancing up a storm at the news: Guy Page, the one-man show doing business as the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Instead of splitting the tiny audience and tinier pool of advertisers for conservative blather, he’ll have the field all to himself.
Otherwise,to paraphrase Old Abe Lincoln, the passing of TNR will be little noted nor long remembered.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Let’s hope that TNR will be “little noted nor long remembered,” though I wonder what Broughton is up to and where she’ll show up next.
She’s still got the Institute for Human Flourishing. And I’m sure there are plenty of conservative galaxy brains beating a path to her door, since she’s got a well-earned reputation as a mark for harebrained schemes.
“she’s got a well-earned reputation as a mark for harebrained schemes.”
And the money, which is what they’re really after.
The easily predictable John S. Walters doing what he has always done. Smearing anyone he disagrees with, without even knowing why he disagrees with them. In those few moments of lucidity, Walters shows us that he stands with those that want castrate and permanently mutilate the genitals of children and of course without the consent of parents. What good purpose does this serve those children and society? I can’t imagine living a life where I make absolutely no useful contribution to the betterment of humanity. What a dreadful existence.
At least I have a “few moments of lucidity”
Stu is correct Walter’s. You react as a spoiled petulant child.
The only thing worse than a petulant child, is a petulant man.
When they react like this, I know I’m doing something right.