A Sonoran Truth Editorial, August 1, 2013.
Unlike dog poop Don Sorchych of the Sonoran News, we print letters from parties who espouse contrary views. Recently, we ran a couple of articles about John Hoeppner, a long time public figure who reminded us of his involvement in the founding of Cave Creek:
Apparently John is OK with dishing it out, but he can’t take criticism. John writes: “It is apparent that your intention is to do harm to my reputation by attempting to bring me into the ridicule, hatred, scorn and the contempt of others. Your libelous statements about me are intentional, malicious and defamatory.” ST response. No John, we mean you no harm. You do an excellent job all by yourself. You expose your foolishness by exposing your history and the fallacy of your logic. Further, you and your cronies use the Sonoran News to advance your agenda. It’s a propaganda machine, similar to a previous totalitarian regime promulgated by Goebbels. Sorchych recently published a Swastika in the Sonoran News and passed it off as meaningless. If you associate with someone who appears to be a Nazi sympathizer, then you get branded accordingly. Even your picture on your website makes you look kind of crazy. Fake hair color, fake smile, yeah, that’s the guy for our business. Secondly, you speak in generalities. What statements are libelous?
John continues: “Because of your obvious malice, I have requested that my attorney explore general damages for injury to my reputation, and special damages for any potential loss of business. Damages will be accrued based on the number of days your libelous information remains available to the public. I strongly suggest that you immediately remove all electronic posts using my name or likeness from the Sonoran Truth and any affiliated websites and/or publish a retraction. Additionally, I find it somewhat hypocritical that you are trying to hide your identity. If needed, you can be located and identified.” ST response. This is textbook Dog poop / Bentley logic. First you attack, then when rebutted you claim you are a victim when in fact, you are being a bully. You are being a bully now. The best way to avoid being mentioned on our blog is to avoid associating with Sorchych and keep your mouth shut. If you pursue your First Amendment rights, then we have the First Amendment right to editorialize on the fallacies of your arguments and draw parallels to the past. In the context of the First Amendment, public officials and public figures must satisfy a standard that proves actual malice in order to recover for libel or slander. The standard is based upon the seminal case of new york times v. sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1964), where the Supreme Court held that public officials and public figures cannot be awarded damages unless they prove that the person accused of making the false statement did so with knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of the statement. To our knowledge the statements that we have made about you are true. You founded Cave Creek to stop Bob Kite developing the northwest corner of Schoolhouse and Cave Creek Rd.; you formed Quiet Skies, and you appealed a speeding ticket. You have yet to cite anything specific that is false. You have not addressed anything specific said about you that is not true that we should retract.
Whether we publish anonymous or not is irrelevant and immaterial to our criticism of your flawed logic. We consider you to be part of the problem of the divisiveness promulgated by Sorchych. We have no interest in harming your business. Frankly, we have no idea why anyone would hire you. You argue like a spoiled adolescent– from your reptilian brain. Frankly, it is our opinion that when you speak or write in the Sonoran News, you sound stupid. As such, it’s hard for you to avoid being branded as … stupid. Even your emails in this instance, appear to us as stupid. In addition, others in the community took criticism of your comments which the Sonoran News refused to publish:
http://www.sonorantruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20130717-Sonoran-News-Guest-Editorial.pdf
It seems you are acting as a straw man for Sorchych, a puppet. Don’s already in litigation for defamation. If you wish to file a complaint against us, go ahead. We’ll be happy to counter sue you, Don, Linda, Conestoga and all the rest of the sycophants who have caused harm to this Community.