Don’t worry… if Moriak continues to act as he’s doing, going against everything in the Diocese of the Midwest institutional culture, he’ll end just like Rupert Murdoch… hmm… “Moriak” and “Murdoch” both begin with “M”… one of these things is just like the other… both of ’em are kinda the same!
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I had to laugh yesterday at something Mark Stokoe put in his comboxes…
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In 1941, Frank Mott defined “yellow journalism” in terms of five major characteristics:
- Scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news
- Lavish use of pictures or imaginary drawings
- Use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts
- Emphasis on full-colour Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the USA)
- Dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system
Let’s review. I don’t use scare headlines or even particular clever ones… unless, of course, “News from the Orthodox World” counts, which, I agree, is often scary. I don’t use extraordinarily-large print on minor stories. The largest headlines I ever used were 24 point, above my usual 18 point… that’s not even double. I don’t print pictures or drawings at all. There’s no pseudo-science here, only pseudo-theology occasionally offered, and others submit that. I tend to stick to Florovsky {liar, liar, pants on fire. Stokoe’s fave theologian is ADS: editor}. I don’t do fake interviews and I sign my name to every story, unlike some others we all know {as I do as well, and have done from the outset: editor}. I don’t have Sunday supplements, or comics, although we all appreciate a witty posting. Certainly, I’m never accused of defending the underdog… but more often, by critics… of just the opposite. Therefore, in no way does my reporting qualify as “yellow journalism” using historical standards.
Sadly, you just don’t like the facts I report. If you can point out one fact I’ve misreported… be my guest. Most recently, I was slammed for reporting the Metropolitan was placed on a leave of absence… which he denied. Unfortunately, for you, and for him, the Synod confirmed that my reporting was accurate. So, if you think I’m going to “pull up my tent” and repent for telling you, and everyone, the truth, think again. Our Lord didn’t come into the world to tell Israel what it wanted to hear, or what it expected to hear, but what it needed to hear… the truth. As someone who’s trying, poorly, I admit, to follow his example, I can hope to do no less for the New Israel.
12 August 2011
Mark Stokoe
Orthodox Christians for Accountability
http://ocanews.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/638-Stokoe-Removed-Again.html
NB:
I corrected Mark’s errors to spare him ridicule for his poor English usage and grammar…
BMD
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Mark’s issuing a snarky challenge to all of his “competitors”. Well… Mr Stokoe doesn’t source his news stories. I do… you can go back to VOR, or to RIA, or to patiarchia.ru, or to wherever, and check me. In some cases, there’s no public source, but I’ve gained a reputation for staying true to my sources… Mr Stokoe can’t claim that, as he refuses to give sources for his “public” stories. To be honest, Mr Stokoe’s a former Syosset Chancery drone, and his sources are well-known to all of us. He gets his information from Lyonyo’s coterie, especially Hunchak, Connie Tarasar (probably), Wheeler, Hopko père et fils, and Behr (probably). He spins the news to fit the needs of Lyonyo’s faction; he’s not an objective reporter. Lyonyo and Bobby have had a feud ever since the succession fight in Hubiak’s time. Therefore, when Bobby (and his tittle-tattle ragamuffin hangers-on such as “Monk” James Silver and Love BT) jumped into JP’s camp (for now), that truly cooked Mark’s goose (at least, for the time being), for Moriak’s JP’s little Step n’ Fetchit.
Stokoe’s been looking for trouble, though… he’s trying to be a journalist and an official at the same time… you can’t do that. I’m never going to accept anything “official” if offered… it’d DESTROY my objective distance from the hierarchy. I’m a JOURNALIST… I’m NOT an official. My “job” is to hold the feet of the powers-that-be to the fire… just as Russian and Greek journalists do. Greek journalists at To Vima exposed a crook Athos land deal and Russian journalists at KP exposed a clergy/convent child abuse scandal in Vladimir… they did right! Bishops in the diaspora have to learn that critical journalists are their FRIENDS. Skulking around and lying doesn’t fit Christ’s Church at all. If we’re the “pillar and ground of Truth”… well, we’d best act it, then! If there’s no meaty investigative reporting, the clergy become fat and sassy, which leads to rampant corruption and abuse… just look at the current OCA and ROCOR… including Stokoe’s sponsor Lyonyo.
Here are a few updates before I go. In the Minneapolis Deanery, Moriak just suspended a deacon for reporting to seminary authorities concerns over a seminarian scheduled to be ordained. Moriak didn’t like that, so he suspended this deacon for six months without a warning or any personal discussion. That’s acting like a putzy punk coward in my book. Moriak didn’t give Mark any warning either, nor did he have a personal discussion on the matter with Mark before canning him. To put the cherry on the sundae, Moriak’s appointing his own son (Moriak’s a widower) to a plum parish in his diocese. Now, I can see why the ACROD was glad to see his back. If he’s crook now, he was crook then (and Frank Miloro was the first to notice it, no doubt). After all, my sources tell me that Dahulich participated in Metropolitan Nicholas’ funeral services, but that Moriak didn’t. Hmm… Constantine Buggan did… Mel Pleska did… Herman Swaiko did… but Fathausen didn’t… Moriak didn’t. What’s important here is the distinction between:
- Being too lazy and self-centred to show up… Fathausen DID have a “Life and Leisure” article in the Washington Post to create with a ghost-writer… what was Moriak’s excuse?
- Not being wanted there in the first instance… did Dimitrios Trakatellis put out the “NOT WELCOME” mat?
Lastly, for those of you who care, a mention was made of the affair concerning Mark Stokoe on Portal-Credo.ru. It’s a squiffy source (it’s Rusantsov’s mouthpiece), but what the hey, it’s there. My guess is that Svetlana Vais (a parishioner at the Syosset chapel) or one of the Paris Gang put it up… this is a oddball Renovationist site (trust me; it’s not on the level of patriarchia.ru or VOR, that’s for sure). Here are the URLs (Portal-Credo and the original site):
http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=16620
http://d-st75.livejournal.com/164232.html#cutid1
Pass me the jug… and take a healthy swaller, yourself… oh, I’m a “yellow journalist” by Mark’s standards. Does that bother you? I didn’t think so…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Saturday 13 August 2011
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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