FC: Retirement home resident denounces jailed journalist Paul Trummel

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Also, Bruce Johnson from Davis Wright Tremaine (an excellent law firm that 
represented Politech when threatened by Kirkland, Washington) sends along 
this link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134469009_trummel06m0.html

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03610.html

I'm sending along the below message not for the truth of the statements -- 
I  hardly believe that Paul is a sociopath or anything more than someone 
who writes his mind. I'm including it so Politech readers can see what kind 
of allegations are being made and how this may have influenced the judge's 
decision.

-Declan

---

To: declan () well com
From: aufargis () peoplepc com
Subject: Fwd: paul trummel
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 21:17:05 -0700 (PDT)

------- Start of forwarded message -------

Subject: paul trummel
From: aufargis () peoplepc com
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 15:13:45 -0700 (PDT)
To: declan () msn com

Mr. Declan McCullagh

It is obvious that you have not examined Paul Trummel's
case with the appropriate seriousness it demands. It is
clear that your piece on the Internet is solely based
on the proposition that Paul Trummel, being a holder of
a Press Card issued by a large international
organization and a self-proclaimed free lance writer,
is by definition innocent of any charges of harassment
brought against him as if, the concept of freedom of
expression places any "professional" scribe above the
needs and demands of a morally discriminating society.
As if the civil liberties of journalists should not be
based on the obedience of the law. As if the ethical
and moral rules of conduct of "journalists" should be
written as he or she goes along.

The overheated treatment of the Paul Trummel affair by
the so called, "Internet Media" not only lacks
intellectual reflectiveness but is filled with
partiality and incompleteness. It is tendentious and
apologetic and more often than not, flamboyant and
self-serving. The implicit and unavoidable idea behind
what has been aired in the Web is that ethical and
moral rules do not apply to those writing in the
Internet.

It has always been my conviction that any professional
journalist would submit facts to valid corroborations.
At least twice. May I recommend that you inform
yourself a bit more  about Paul Trummel so you may be
able to preserve the necessary objectivity of your
profession.

The following may be of some help.

Paul Trummel is already a free man.

Free to think and act as his conscience dictates and to
face the clear and undivided responsibilities that his
presumed journalistic profession demands. His liberty
however, is not in the hands of Judge Doerty but in his
own. He is in jail because he violated a Court Order
that commanded  him to remove the NAMES AND PERSONAL
ADDRESSES  of the Staff and Board of Directors of
Council House from his Web site.

He WAS NOT ordered to shut down his Web site. He WAS
NOT ordered to stop publishing his views. His Freedom
of Speech was not ever questioned by the Court. This
order was issued by Judge Doerty with the intent to
protect the privacy of those against whom Paul Trummel
leveled the most absurd and unfounded accusations.
Accusations that were and are demonstrably and
factually untrue. A sensible and reasoned protection. A
protection that even Paul Trummel could expect from our
Courts.

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, this simple aphorism seems
to be beyond the reach of Paul Trummel's comprehension.
His stay in jail is the consequence of his actions,
actions for which he is solely responsible.

Paul Trummel's belligerence is evidenced by his
malignant rants, hyperbolic tone, stylistic tics, high
voltage style,  vitriolic genre, obfuscatory rhetorical
tactics  and Marxoid content, (an organ grinder has
more variety than his prose) all this hides the paltry
and baleful narcissism of a man desperately attempting
to invent a persona who never existed.

Paul Trummel is a delusional man who believe in his own
fantasies about himself and his writing, full of
conspiracies themes, reflect a profoundly damaged
personality.

In some occasions Paul Trummel has posed as a retired
Professor of Rhetoric, in other occasions as a
Professor of Journalism and as a retired London
Journalist. Unfortunately it would impossible to anyone
to find a university (here or abroad) were Paul Trummel
may have held such positions, and LEXIS/NEXIS seems to
have ignored Paul Trummel's journalistic work. This
"journalist" has systematically refused to interview
any one of those against whom he directed his wrath.
The management of Council House and the members of the
Board of Directors would have gladly spoke with this
"journalist" and most certainly answered all of his
question, unfortunately this opportunity was always
denied to them. What Paul Trummel calls journalism is
not journalism; it is hubris.

Indeed, Paul Trummel has a Press Card but possession of
a Press Card does not necessarily makes one a
journalist. Paul Trummel's Press Card suggestively
points to the decline of objectivity and seriousness of
the organization(s) that have issued one to this man.
Societies are constantly revising their moral
principles in order to improve their ability to
regulate behavior, this is a rule that should also
guide those who issue Press Card and those who practice
journalism. Paul Trummel behavior negates this sound
and elementary proposition however, in a knew jerk
reaction, he is been treated as a victim by some
members of the Internet media. Then again, these are
self-policing associations with, it seems, extremely
flexible ethical rules that apparently do not insist
upon the element of trust, the desirability of
self-restraint and the moral obligation as well the
ethical vision required for the exercise of this, once
noble, profession. These are principles essential to
the public welfare, the same public welfare that the
media pretend to speak on behalf of.

By any reasonable standard one may wish to judge Paul
Trummel, one must understand that Paul Trummel views
his Press Card as a license to offend, abuse,
intimidate and demean others. His anti-Semitic impulse,
his homophobic compulsion, his hatred of minorities and
Muslims in particular can easily be detected in his
rantings. Paul Trummel is well know by the Seattle
Chapter of the American civil Liberties Union who
refuses to intervene in his favor.

Symptomatic of his character, Pal Trummel steadfastly
omits to mention in his writings the fact that, having
made  terrible indictments and the most egregious
accusations against Council House, he was the cause  of
a series of audits from different state agencies and
that IN EVERY instance Council House received a clean
bill of health.

It should be noted that Paul Trummel's odyssey in life
is filled with conflicts with University Presidents,
Department Chairmen, Provosts, District Attorneys and
Professors. A visit to the records of the King County
Court House in Washington State will show to anyone
interested in it that Paul Trummel is nothing more than
litigious buffoon and that this is not his first
eviction. Twenty Seven people, of very respectable
social standing,(University Professors, lawyers,
Department Chairmen, District Attorneys, etc) having no
relation whatsoever with Council House, have
volunteered to sign Amicus Curia showing Paul Trummel's
compulsive litigiousness, a compulsiveness that on
innumerable occasions has caused grief.

Paul Trummel is a sociopath with an uncontrollable
compulsion to demonize anyone with whom he may
disagree, unfortunately, this sociopath holds a Press
Card and the narcissistic intellectual arrogance of the
journalism industry may make him a victim of censorship
instead of denying him, in the name of Respect for The
Press, the right to terrorize honest, decent hard
working people.

Felippe Jacques
a Council House Resident




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