Union Leader Ignored Rich Girard Sex Scandal
Conservative Newspaper Initially Suppressed Story — OPINION
Former Manchester alderman and School Board member Richard H. Girard is running for mayor. This opinion piece is being reprinted for informational purposes. Due to the Union Leader newspaper having seemingly abandoned its archives, and the online advertiser-driven dynamic that favors fresh Internet “content” over old, the availability of contemporary accounts of the Rich Girard Sexting Scandal is limited. At the time this opinion piece was published, New Hampshire Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas (R-4th Dist.) was in his third term as Queen City mayor. A censored version of the Rich Girard Little Mel sexting conversations is available here.
Manchester, N.H. — It’s been over a week since the New Hampshire Union Leader was tipped to the existence of salacious “sexts” between ultra-conservative radio talk show host Rich Girard and one of his fans, yet, the newspaper has ignored the scandal. The quashing of the sexting scandal involving Girard, who portrays himself as an orthodox Roman Catholic and broadcasts on a “Christian” radio network, is ironic as Union Leader publisher Joseph W. McQuaid is being represented with an award next Wednesday recognizing him for “opening government to the people [and] promoting the independence of information.”
That information apparently does not extend to Rich Girard, who in seeking sex with his fan, asked the woman if she had obtained a birth control device that many pro-life people consider an abortiofacient, capable of inducing the abortion of a fertilized egg. Hobby Lobby’s lawsuit to deny certain types of birth control coverage included this device. Girard has supported Hobby Lobby’s position, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a controversial decision that blurred the concept of the separation of church and state.
Joe McQuaid’s Darling
Yet, despite the revelations of the sexting and even more stunning hypocrisy of Girard, Union Leader readers have not been made privy to this information. Rumor has it that the newspaper will run an article in its Sunday News edition, but many observers are skeptical about whether the Girard sexting scandal actually will be covered. If it is, it likely will receive the plain-vanilla coverage of a white wash.
Rich Girard is a darling of Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid. Girard has boasted that he has access to information such as the IP addresses of those who post on the newspaper’s web site, and the Union Leader has been supportive of Girard’s efforts to oppose a new right-to-know policy on the dissemination of government information that requires requesters to pay for copies of the information. The new RTK policy brought Manchester’s municipal government into line with standard RTK policies practiced by the State of New Hampshire and other municipal governments, including the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act.
This did not please Girard nor the Union Leader, who believe that the near-bankrupt City should subsidize their media operations by providing information for free, regardless of the cost of labor.
“Act of Contrition”
On Monday, July 14, after the sexting scandal was broken online over the weekend, Rich Girard took to the airwaves on his “Christian” radio station and offered an “act of contrition” that proved more act than contrition. He did about 15 minutes of apologizing for his loathsome behavior with a catch in his voice that conveyed to the listener the crocodile tear in his eye, then lambasted me and others who broke the news of the scandal.
By the second half-hour of the Girard at Large show, Rich was his old, bubbly, Democrat-hating, extreme-right wing so-called “Republican” lovin’ self, laughing and having a jolly old time with his guests. The buoyancy of his mood increased during the second and third hours of the show.
Girard that Monday did did exactly as I predicted he would: Using the Evangelical preacher caught-with-his-britches-down defense. “I have sinned. The Bible says we are all sinners. Therefore, sinning makes me a better Christian.”
In Rich Girard’s cock-eyed worldview, Adolf Hitler would be the most virtuous person in heaven, if he hadn’t committed suicide and thus been sent to the other place. What specious, detestable “Double Think”.
The Ironies Abound
The ironies abound in the Rich Girard sexting scandal. Rich Girard has gone after information, including the personal emails of his perceived enemies, in order to glean information that he can use to try to embarrass, harass and humiliate them. This includes using a spy ring, to which the fan Girard tried to seduce belonged to, to collect info on his perceived enemies on social media sites, such as Facebook.
Girard has boasted of his having obtained information from private and closed Facebook pages, and claimed that no one has any expectation of privacy on Facebook. His spy ring also apparently has successfully hacked into Facebook’s private messaging function, and has even purloined messages from one if not more members of the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
How ironic, then, that Girard was hoisted on his own petard. His sexting of the woman in question, a fan and admitted part of his spy ring, took place on Facebook’s private messaging service. And the “sexting” dialogue was posted on Facebook on Friday, July 11th, setting the Queen City’s political community abuzz that afternoon.
The Union Leader was tipped off to the existence of this scandal on the 11th. It has still to inform its readers about Rich Girard’s transgression, despite the radio host having admitting to his bad behavior on both his radio show on Monday and on his TV show on Thursday, July 17.
Will the Union Leader run a story on the Rich Girard sexting scandal tomorrow in the Sunday News? Time will tell if Joe McQuaid’s award for “promoting the independence of information” is as much as farce as Girard’s phony act of contrition.
NOTE: The Union Leader did publish the sex scandal story in its Sunday edition, in Ted Siefer’s “City Hall” column
This opinion piece originally was published under a different title on he Yahoo! Voices platform on July 19, 2014. The Union Leader did publish the sex scandal story in its Sunday edition, in Ted Siefer’s “City Hall” column.
