Bricks and Mortars

From September 2014 to November 9, 2018, I was a columnist for The Republican Journal. In that time I wrote 75 columns for The Republican Journal. On November 9, 2018, Dan Dunkle, news director for Courier Publications, owner of The Republican Journal, fired me by email. On November 15 The Republican Journal ran an editorial in which Dunkle attacked my journalism and somehow failed to mention, in 847 words, that he had fired me. On November 19, I submitted an op-ed of comparable length, and Republican Journal Editor Stephanie Grinnell told me I would be allowed only 500 words for my response to Dunkle's editorial. So The Republican Journal attacked my journalism with 847 words, and allowed me only 500 words to defend myself. Below you will find what would have been my response had The Republican Journal allowed me equal time. *** In his November 15 Republican Journal editorial, News Director Dan Dunkle uses 847 words to attack my journalism, yet he somehow f

Fighting Back with Bricks and Mortars On its official Facebook page, the City of Belfast has posted a response to my October 25, 2018 Republican Journal column entitled “Two Hours with Bent Urup.” The column was based on two hours I spent with Urup in in his office in Fredericia, Denmark office September 26, 2018. Urup is perhaps the world's foremost expert in land-based aquaculture, and the column took a critical look at plans by Nordic Aquafarms, a Norwegian company, to build in Belfast a $500 million industrial, land-based salmon farm - one of the biggest industrial salmon farms in the world. First and foremost, this City of Belfast action raises an obvious question: why is the city using city resources – its official Facebook page – and perhaps City staff time to defend Nordic Aquafarms, a for-profit corporation that will at some point be seeking City Council approval for its vast project? Shouldn't the city be maintaining a neutral position in this matter,

Separating FACT from FICTION Bricks and Mortars Lawrence Reichard On November 1, the day before I was ordered by Courier Publications, owner of The Republican Journal, to stop writing about Nordic Aquafarms, The Republican Journal published a full-page ad by Nordic Aquafarms entitled "Let's Separate FACTS from FEAR." The ad came fully 13 months after Nordic first approached the city about its desire to build in Belfast a very big industrial fish farm - or factory - and the fact that it took Nordic that long to figure out the benefits of taking out such big, expensive ads in Belfast's only newspaper is yet more evidence that Nordic suffers from poor management and has little idea what it's doing. In any event, the ad deserves a response from our community. The ad says Nordic will "bring important new tax dollars to Belfast," but every indication is that these tax dollars will be far fewer than Nordic and the City of Belfast would have one belie