Newmarket's Era and Newmarket's CIA

Wow.  

I can only imagine the long faces at the Era head office today.

Darryl Wolk was the Era's eye witness source for the crazy story that alleges Maddie Di Muccio threatened the family members of the erstwhile PC nomination candidate, Stephen Somerville.

It is one thing for the newspaper to accuse someone of criminal activity even after the York Region Police have closed their investigation without charges.  (If there even was an investigation). 

But it is quite another thing to base that allegation on some crackpot, looney tune that Darryl Wolk has turned out to be.  

What else would you call a person who has been on a 72-hour rat-a-tat-tat twitter tirade, posting hundreds of tweets obsessively focused on Councillor Di Muccio.

What else would you call a man who calls himself Newmarket CIA? Or who threatens to throw a resident "under the bus" should the resident decide to campaign on behalf of Di Muccio this fall.   

  

Crackpot, looney tunes.

Wolk is no more a credible source for news than he is a credible candidate for elected office.  

If the rumours are true that the Era is facing a disciplinary tribunal regarding the authenticity of the threat story then I hope that Maddie Di Muccio is taking careful notes of Darryl Wolk's twitter feed for the past few days.  It will be all the evidence she needs to demonstrate that neither story nor the accuser are credible.  

The Era newspaper should accept the inevitable and admit that the reporter relied too much on the word of someone who isn't a reliable news source.  Surely the Era editor has seen enough of Darryl Wolk by now to confirm that Wolk's tin foil hat is screwed on too tightly.  

A newspaper owes its credibility to knowing when to print a retraction.  The readership doesn't expect the paper to get every story right, but at least have the integrity to admit when it got the story wrong.