TTSOML #62: Character Assasination By The Willamette Week

Here is a huge part of my story. The defamation of my character by Oregon's second largest newspaper publication, The Willamette Week.

The reporter who wrote the story was Amy Roe.

This will take some time to unravel, but it's going to be done. This libel proved to me that one cannot and should not believe everything they read, and actually, should question everything. I did not think it was possible, in the U.S., to be so defamed. To have a story of absolute untruth written and for a publication to get away with it. What I learned, and what I know, firsthand, is that it is possible, and this fact makes the U.S. an unsafe place.

A newspaper is not supposed to print lies about people. But they can, and will, especially if they think no one will fight it and that they are safe. The Willamette Week already knew I couldn't get a lawyer for the Catholic church case because of my turning Dan into the Bar. I told them this. I was, at that time, unrepresented. I actually had initially thought perhaps an attorney would be interested in taking my case after an article was written about what had happened to me. I thought this, because I thought newspapers and reporters had an obligation to print the truth. What happened, is that Roe knew I was still looking for a lawyer before my statutes expired. I was so defamed after her article, no lawyer wanted me.

I even lost friends after the article was printed, because some of these friends, like me, thought if it WASN'T true, it couldn't slide. They believed retractions would have to be made.

That's the case in theory, but not always in practice.

Laws are only good when there is enough power or resources to enforce the laws. What is true for those without money or the right connections, is that the laws which protect their civil rights, are not enforced.

No one gets a public defender for civil rights.

This means, if a newspaper wants to defame someone who can't fight it, or who can't afford a civil rights lawyer who will fight it, or take it pro bono, they will get away with it.

Character assasination is one of the oldest tricks in the book.

It can happen to anyone, but if one is both vocal about injustice or abuse by a powerful group AND poor, they are vulnerable to absolute demolition of their reputation. There is no guarantee of equality or of protection of fundamental civil rights, such as the right to a good name and to not have lies spread worldwide through a publication which went statewide and is also online for everyone in the world to see.

When I was in Canada, the immigration officials were actually using a copy of THIS article, written about me, as a kind of documentary of who I was, and what I was about. It was totally false, and yet they used it like it was a factual report of my life, written by the BBC or NYT. I suffered damages from this misrepresentation, even in Canada, because people believed a lie I wasn't able to fight.

This entire episode in my life has made me aware of the vulnerabilities of the poor, of the cracks in the system regarding civil rights, and of the nature of propoganda and political strategy and tactic.

The Abbey attorneys knew Amy Roe, and they all went to the same church. She interviewed them and wrote a story for THEM, which helped them to discredit me and made it impossible for me to find legal representation. Not only that, it caused others outside of the system to believe I was mentally ill, because when someone would "google" me, this is what came up. This, in turn, caused great harm to my position as a mother, and as someone speaking about injuries from childbirth, or making reports about assault by FBI employees who approached me AFTER this article was written and published.