Sometimes it seems like there's a race to see which entity is the least-trusted: Congress or the news media.
When putative members of the media spread outright falsehoods and make crazy untrue accusations against people they don't even know merely because they disagree with an opinion someone expresses, it doesn't help their credibility at all. It calls into question everything they say and every allegation they make.
Enter Jacob "Jake" Payne. Payne, a native of Morgan County who now appears to live in Louisville, is best known as the proprietor of the now-defunct blog and news aggregator site PageOne Kentucky, and a companion site focused on Louisville called The 'Ville Voice. His major claim to fame is going after Joshua Powell, former school superintendent in Montgomery County. For some reason, he's taken his Web sites offline, but he still maintains an active Twitter presence, which he uses to attack conservatives and fellow liberals alike. He's just as likely to go after Gov. Andy Beshear for what he calls a timid Wuhan Chinese flu response (seriously?), or Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer just for breathing, as he is U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie or Sen. Rand Paul, two of his favorite targets on the right. He markets himself as a political consultant, opposition researcher, and "journo."
Payne seems especially sensitive to topics involving the Kung Flu, as he has stated on Twitter that he caught the virus early on last spring. He rails against "misinformation" and claims that anyone who suggests publicly that people should make their own decisions on whether or not to take the shot is putting people's lives in danger.
And that's where this tale takes us. As noted here last week, GOP bigwig Tres Watson publicly advocated forced vaccinations of public employees, and he was called out for that anti-freedom stance here. And then after that, liberal Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford made mention of Watson's suggestion that schools be financially rewarded when their employees reach certain immunization goals. Payne is a big fan of Blackford's, so that's what kicked this saga off.
From my personal Facebook account, I commented on Blackford's column that Watson showed his RINO credentials by suggesting forced vaccinations. That comment set Payne off.
On his Twitter account, he launched into a series of bizarre and utterly untrue accusations against me. The only things he got right in his screed were that I'm fat and I disagree with him politically. Everything else he alleged was undeniably false.
I have never met Jake Payne. I probably wouldn't recognize him if I met him on the street. It's highly doubtful I have ever been in the same room with him. We don't move in the same circles. I avoid Louisville like the plague and only go there occasionally for work-related conferences. I also don't go to Frankfort unless it's for work purposes, and I don't stick around town when those meetings are over. I don't attend political fundraisers, especially not the ones for liberal candidates he'd be likely to attend, nor do I go to functions like Lincoln Day dinners or meet-and-greets. And I don't think he would have ever attended or been interested in any of the work-related meetings I've had in his hometown of West Liberty over the years. I certainly have never run from a room screaming in any instance, much less after encountering him face-to-face.
I have never seen photos of his deceased mother, much less distributed any in an attempt to harm or discredit him. I don't even know what her name was. The only autopsy photos I've ever seen were of Dale Earnhardt and Neil Bonnett, and that's only because they were shoved in my face 20 years ago in a NASCAR group I was in. (Something like how I couldn't avoid seeing garish photos and videos of Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware's gruesome leg injury years later).
Payne blocked me on Twitter months ago when I corrected an error he made in one of his tweets, when he mistook former Kentucky basketball player Fred Cowan with the former Kentucky attorney general of the same name, but I have sources who informed me of his tweet. Because I was unable to respond directly to him, I created a backup Twitter account and posted a reply. He blocked it, too, but not before doubling down on his crazy allegations. He claimed to have screenshots where I had distributed photos of his mother, and claimed he had sued me over it. Funny, I never got served with that lawsuit.
Think about it. If he can so easily and falsely accuse me of doing that, who else has he falsely accused? He's frequently made that claim, and not too long ago accused a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives of doing so. He even went so far as to call her a particularly vile name that rhymes with hunt.
I don't agree with Payne's world view at all. He seems to be one of the most liberal pundits the Bluegrass State has to offer. But we don't disagree on everything. Neither he nor I have any use for Jamie Comer, who now represents Kentucky's First District in Congress.
But if he can lie so easily and loudly about me, what else is he being untruthful about? How can he be expected to have any credibility when he got those accusations about me all wrong?
At least I made my point -- to him, directly, on Twitter through a backup account, and to the public here. He obviously has me confused with someone else. Spreading autopsy photos of a political opponent's relatives isn't something I'd do. Attack the message, sure, but in general, it's not cool to attack the messenger with something unrelated to the topic at hand. I don't believe in cancel culture. I don't want liberal viewpoints silenced. The way to combat free speech is with more free speech. I want liberals to have a voice. They let us conservatives know what we're up against, and the vast majority of the time they validate our positions and prove us right.
And proving our point becomes easier when the loud liberal voices tell outrageous lies for the world to view.
