Lies, lies, telling you sweet little lies....

A five-year-old boy is without a mother, a young husband is without a wife or his full-term baby this month. According to friends of the young widower Danville Regional Medical Center may be to blame.

The young woman, due to deliver her second child, went to the hospital and complained of not being able to breathe. She was told she was "having a panic attack" and then sent home where she and her unborn baby died. The autopsy is being conducted out of state at Duke because of fears of a cover-up.

Will we see the news of this in The Danville Register & Bee? Not likely. The paper has, according to Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisor Coy Harville, a "million-dollar contract" with the hospital. That usually translates into "no negative press." I know I was told not to write about any of the almost 50 cases of neglect, abuse and financial issues there. If there is any news it will be only that a lawsuit was filed.

I've had to deal with the financial screw-up of their billing system - which is still not fixed. And - Jennifer and Raymond Custer - the recent recipients of the Habitat House for Humanity (and both in wheelchairs), both long-term hospital volunteers, tell me the hospital has a new policy of not allowing the handicapped to volunteer. Hm....won't see that in the paper. And while individual doctors and some staff truly are wonderful and caring, you have to wonder what's really happening there. Staff tells me they will be fired or forced out if they express any dissatisfaction at all with the hospital. Sad. The whole point of finding and getting rid of waste, abuse, incompetence is so the majority of the community benefits - not the dunderhead causing all the problems.

Follow the money...the paper can be bought for the right amount of advertising....or if you know the right people...remember, the other media reported on the paper's drunken sports editor but Arnold Hendrix kept it out of the Register & Bee....until Bernard Baker had a long moment of ethical pressure and ran a story about a DUI, thus ensuring himself, as he told me, "On Arnold's sh*t list." Crossing Arnold by criticizing his very good friend John Coscia also earned photographer Richard Davis a place on the list. It's really sweet that Arnold cared so much for his friend, but really sour that he black-balled anyone who tried to bring reason to the situation. Still - Media General likes that in a person.

So, do you worry about what's being hidden in Danville? Not until it affects your family. Ask the paper why they pulled a reporter out of Richmond and opted against covering what our politicians were doing - in favor of having another reporter to cover car wrecks and fires - which sell more newspapers. Who cares if you know what legislation (uranium, dog and pet laws) and other things are being debated and decided without your knowledge or input - unless you choose to live in Richmond while the legislators are in session. Nope. Who cares what your leaders are doing! GOTTA sell those papers to money in the pockets of newspaper stock holders who mostly live outside Danville....


Do any of you belong to the Kiwanis? Rotary? Elks? Ask Publisher Steve Kaylor about that. Ask him how he justifies feeding you a steady diet of fires, car wrecks and stabbings rather than talking to the hunters and finding out about what's happening with efforts to make hunting with dogs illegal in the state, or giving PETA advocates the right to come into your homes for no reason other than they want to to inspect your homes if you have more than two dogs, breed dogs or adopt a pet from the local animal shelter?

Farmers make up the majority of the county's income. Why doesn't the paper have an ag page? No advertising. Doesn't matter what's important to the community. What matters is what is important to the newspapers' profit and loss statement.

Did Steve Kaylor tell you all that the paper wasn't going to move operations, that the paper was going to do this and do that...he lied didn't he? He has known for more than a year about the plans Media General had for layoffs, for moving money and operations out of the area. He lied to the woman who asked him point blank what he was going to do about the reporter who filmed her breasts without her consent or permission and then showed the video around the newsroom so Bernard Baker, Robert Benson and Arnold Hendrix - all managers, could come over and laugh at it and make rude comments. Maybe I'll post photos of all three men later so you can see how they "qualify" to make rude comments about a woman's body....

Wake up Danville. You're being denied access to information you need and that could help your businesses...all so the Register & Bee can make a dollar...