The question is does Michael Best & Friedrich have to issue a statement distancing themselves from Jason Thompson daily, or will they cut their losses and work on restoring their reputation?
Employee MD Kittle was writing about a Janesville restaurant that praised Paul Ryan (R- The Capitol) and faced a backlash from the local community. Then painfully to MDK, he(?) also had to write about how the exact same establishment let recall supporters use his empty parking lot during the recall and the backlash he felt from Walker supporters.
“Congratulations to Paul Ryan!!! We are proud to have someone from
Janesville Wisconsin to represent the USA …he is a big fan of the
Italian House and his signature is on the “wall” Best wishes to Paul and
his Family!!!” the Facebook site declared.
Within minutes, the seemingly innocuous post generated a barrage of
angry comments from some of the restaurant’s Facebook page’s fans who do
not ‘like’ the Republican Ryan. Beyond directives like, “Stay out of
politics, crawl back into your kitchen,” others threatened to take away
business.
“I really do like the Italian house, but if they are for Mitt Romney
and Paul Ryan, then I won’t go there again, sorry, you are a business,
dont mix it with politics,” one commenter said.
Halabi, who tried to calm the politically aggrieved, said he wasn’t
making a political statement, just expressing civic pride. Some of his
customers got that, one suggesting Halabi run for president. But others
didn’t and the misunderstanding cost the Italian House business, the
owner said.
What was most galling, Halabi said, is that he had been down this
road a few months ago, arguably on the other side of the political
divide.
A group of Janesville Democrats pushing their end of the recall campaign against Republican Gov. Scott Walker asked
Halabi if they could use his restaurant for a staging area for their
petition drive. Halabi agreed, offering his empty parking lot for a
couple of hours on a Sunday, when the Italian House is closed.
He quickly heard an earful of criticisms, some on par with the
hateful posts following the Ryan post, from angry Republicans who felt
he had crossed the line.
Halabi said he was just doing what he has done for the past quarter
century in Janesville — help customers when he can, no matter who they
are.
“If I said no to them, I appear like I’m on the other side. I want to
be fair to both” he said. “I got the phone call from Republican
customers of mine. I got totally bitched out.” He likened the
experiences to having “acid under my fingernails.”
A Facebook post during the Paul Ryan flap summed up the sentiments of some on the right.
“This coming from a place that supported “recall walker” is now
jumping to the FAR FAR right??? I’m confused, the owner must have ben
born with the same silver spoon ryan has….. Whoever is handing out the
silver platters please stop buy my house!” the commenter said.
While this story points out the need for people in WIto just take a breath sometimes, but that is a different story. Where MD Kittle actually reported was on a story that took place in March of this year. One that took place earlier in the year and one that the righties used incessantly to point out how they were on the right side of the recall debate.
Thanks to MD Kittle's reporting we find out that the story was false and the participant lied to us. We also find out that the participant who lied to us, is big in the "tea party" astroturf movement - Santo Ingrilli!
On Saturday, a group of six Scott Walker supporters decided to visit
Rox’s Bar and Grille in Pewaukee, WI. They had spent the day at a rally
supporting the governor, and one of them was wearing a “Scott Walker is
My Hero!” t-shirt.
They arrived at the bar around 1am, showed
their IDs, and were told to have a good time. About an hour-and-a-half
later, as they were on their way out, members of the group say the same
bouncer who checked their IDs told them that because of the Scott Walker
shirt, they were no longer welcome at the bar (although the exact
verbiage used remains unclear).
A woman named Joanna Langworthy,
who was one of the six, wrote on her blog that “the doorman said to
never come back, due to wearing gear promoting Governor Scott Walker,”
while Facebook and earlier reports suggest “don’t come back here wearing
that crap again” was the phrase employed. Others maintain the bouncer
said, “the next time you come here do not wear that shirt…my owner does
not want that kind of stuff here.”
This was so bad the hate triumverate of radio right wing squawkers set their henchmen on this establishment big time. As usual it was not pretty, and also as usual it was not true. According to the mysterious MD Kittle(emphasis mine):
The storm has passed at the Rox Bar and Grille since April, when the Pewaukee pub and restaurant made national headlines over a politically charged T-shirt.
The shirt declared “I support Scott Walker” on the front. On the back it said, “He’s got nads.”
Dino Giacomantonio said he didn’t care for the
message the shirt sent, worried that other patrons would find it
offensive – politically and otherwise. He told the bar’s bouncer to
inform the patron that kind of shirt would not be acceptable in the
future.
The next day, a Facebook post
by the disgruntled patron, who claimed he was kicked out of the bar for
being a Walker supporter, launched a comment war on the Rox Bar and
Grille’s Facebook page. The heated debate was picked up by Wisconsin
conservative radio talk show hosts.
The Rox, which had been opened a couple of months, was painted as a
partisan speech crusher, something Giacomantonio, who says he’s as
apolitical as they come, asserts that couldn’t have been further from
the truth.
Beyond idle talk of a restaurant boycott, Giacomantonio said he
received two death threats. Others threatened to burn down the
restaurant, or, Giacomantonio claims, release cockroaches into the
eatery, among other scares.
The worst of it, he said, occurred over three days.
“Those three days, it was the equivalent of watching your child being
assaulted and not being able to do nothing about it,” he said. Cooler
heads prevailed, when the disgruntled patron, Santo Ingrilli, and Giacomantonio’s friend Nathan Sass issued a joint statement asking for calm on Sass’ blog, “A Shot of Truth, On The Rox.”
But the incident cut into profits, something a new restaurant doesn’t
need, the establishment’s manager said. Some have worn political shirts
into the bar since. Giacomantonio has let it go.
Franklin said there’s no escaping the bitterness spilling over from politics into other spheres.
So Santo Ingrilli, AFP and tea party Astroturf member and blogger, lied about what actually happened to him in order to make scott walker look better. Ingrelli's exaggeration of the truth, caused someone to get actual death threats and a local business took a major hit.
Would it not have been better to just tell the truth?
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