Bullet News Niagara, the same online news source that shamed M.A.D. weeks prior for the home demo outside of John Holer’s house, ran a short run down of a recent Niagara Falls City Council meeting wherein Councillor Wayne Thomson presented a proposal calling on the City to bill Marineland Animal Defense (that is with an “s” and not a “c” - google is a great invention for basic fact checking fyi) to cover the cost incurred when City staff was used to clear the sidewalk out front of John Holer’s residence of side walk chalk. This is most likely the first instance of City staff ever being employed to wash side walk chalk off, and also one of the first times it has ever been presented as “graffiti” - which is typically reserved for, you know, paint that cannot be washed away by the rain. We find all of these actions a continuation of the absurd theater that is Niagara Falls politics. Councillor Thomson says, “I don’t know why they did it…” Do you think it might have had something to do with a backroom deal orchestrated at council to strip demonstrators of public lands in which to protest? Of which Thomson played a leading role in supporting. Do you think it had something to do with the 47 families who lost thousands of dollars or to do with Paula Millard who committed suicide? Do you think it had something to do with the extensive loss of life and deplorable conditions at Marineland? The list goes on forever.

To continue and aid the exposure of this faux council (read coalition of capitalists + Wing and Gates) we are prepared to offer one alternative. We will cover the cost of the City, who directed workers to aid in protecting the interests of one of it’s own, if Councillor Thomson agrees to being filmed while singing and dancing to the “Everyone Loves Marineland” theme song, both without and while wearing the King Waldorf costume. Councillor Thomson has fallen over himself in recent weeks to defend John Holer and we think this offer will aid his efforts in presenting himself as the Councillor most likely to be bought out by corporate interests in Niagara Falls. We will await his response.

As for Bullet News Niagara, this online news source has now twice written positions on M.A.D. without contacting us for a response. The first was a brutal shaming insinuating that animal liberation activists in Niagara do not campaign against enough places of animal use in Niagara. They were responded to with over ten locations demonstrated against in the past 3 years. As an online news source, if you cannot beat the fact checking of larger corporate media you are not providing an alternative. You are selling ad space on a website designed for hits - a place where facts are negligible, smearing is king and retractions are unnecessary. We feel sorry for journalists who lost their careers during the corporate take over of local media, of which many make up Bullet News and the online journo community in Niagara, however, sharpen your skills or lay it down. Being a shill for the greediest of your community isn’t going to exactly restore glory.