Dear Clive,

I never weigh in on stuff unless it really pisses me off. Well, I’m pissed. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Turtle boy too. I case you missed it, Turtle boy IS a community. It’s a community of people who are sick and tired of being force fed specific ideas from the media. The difference here, is that we have a voice now. We’ve talked about all this stuff with our friends, co workers and families. We see the lunacy that society is presenting us with every day. We don’t like it. Same as you I guess. Granted we aren’t sitting under the banner of the once mighty Telegram, but that’s ok. I take issue with your column for a number of reasons. So lets break it down.

“Aidan Kearney, son of former School Committee member Mary Mullaney, is the face behind TurtleBoy Sports, a crass and craven local blog that peddles the cheap thrills that dehumanizing groups and individuals bring to some people.”

Ok, we’ve established that you think Kearney is Chief Turtle. First shot is dragging his mom into it. His mom. To what end? I learned in 6th grade that bringing mom into it is where you go when you can’t win fairly. You STARTED with that. This won’t go well.

Second, Although signs seem to point that Kearney is the guy, signs ALSO pointed to the cop in Ferguson being indicted on Civil Rights charges, the Patriots deflating footballs and Brian Williams being in an aircraft that came under fire in the mid east. How’s that working out. Unless you get video of this guy typing up a “hot sports take,” you have no CONCRETE evidence. Just some signs.

“Mr. Kearney’s Worcester address is the business address, so however he chooses to distance himself from the blog, he owns it legally and morally.:

Owning it and writing it are 2 different things. If calling out someone’s mom and making a guess at the owner of a blog without concrete evidence is responsible, moral, journalistic integrity, then I’ve been naïve.

” this guy, until recently a teacher at Shepherd Hill Regional High School, appears to have a fair share of enablers. So much so that he feels the blog is the true voice of the community, bragging of how warmly it and its cesspool of profanity-laden commentary are being received by judges, doctors, nurses, teachers, cops and firefighters.”

Fair point, Why would anyone who sells advertising on a site brag about who reads it?

As for being the voice of the community? He’s obviously the voice of an active, vocal part of it. Now I would think, as a journalist, that that would have been one hell of a story. “What makes Turtle Boy Sports tick?” Why are all these people that read and comment doing it? Pretty simple answer to me. They either agree with it, or they came to see the train wreck. Not unlike every other media outlet on in the US. Another story idea! “Is Turtle Boy Sports the future of internet media?”

“Last October, his alleged lewd and intimidating behavior toward a young woman at a Patriots-Buffalo Bills game in Buffalo triggered an investigation by school officials at Shepherd Hill. Mr. Kearney, however, chose to resign rather than face the music.”

Alleged. I love that word. It gives you the chance to make MORE implications that you have no evidence of against a person you really aren’t 100% sure is the right guy. Alleged. Protecting you from actually coming out and having to prove this guy did anything. Amazing how similar this is to, say, someone blogging anonymously to protect themselves about having to prove….never mind. Maybe the meme is right and you are Turtle boy.

I guess the Editors at the Telegram were desperate to try and grab some clicks, and with this article they sure succeeded. Unfortunately for them, they’re not endearing themselves to any of his readers, which doesn’t help your flagging numbers.  Lord knows I haven’t read that thing in years. I get my news as it happens on twitter.

I figure at some point either we find out that it was Kearney all along, or the real guy comes out and Kearney sues you and the paper for Libel. I really don’t care, but it would sure be fun to see the latter.

In the end, I never thought you would have entered into a war of words that you had no shot of competing in, never mind winning.  They baited you and baited you and you, and your editors, bit like hungry fish. Usually that ends poorly for the fish.

As all things I’m sure the Telegram powers expect this will die down by Saturday. I don’t think this is the place where things die down. That’s why I keep coming back.

Sincerely,

Another Turtle Boy