Press Release: WBEN’s David Bellavia Gives CAO CEO Equal Time 5-13-19 – Community Action Organization of WNY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
L. Nathan Hare
CEO/Executive Director
Community Action Organization
716-881-5150
WBEN’s David Bellavia Gives CAO CEO Equal Time
L. Nathan Hare, on radio program Sunday, explains recent CAO events
BUFFALO, NY May 14, 2019 – Community Action Organization of Western New York’s CEO and Executive Director L. Nathan Hare defended his stewardship of the CAO Sunday and, along with WBEN radio host David Bellavia, criticized The Buffalo News for reports that “are a fallacy and a hoax.”
Hare reported on WBEN’s Hardline public affairs program[2] Sunday that each time the newspaper did another article, he sent factual rebuttals, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor and other documents showing why the articles were slanted, partial or disingenuous, which the paper refused to publish. Other officials who had arguments about facts in newspaper articles were given space to present their side, but not the CAO or Hare, he said.
“The truth is everything they wrote, I sent something to them to respond immediately,” with facts,” Hare told Bellavia.
“They asserted things. I provided documentation supporting things I was saying, and they never published it,” he said.
Bellavia said he asked Hare to come on the program because Bellavia said no one at the newspaper was giving Hare time or a public forum to respond to charges and character attacks on him by two former board members who Hare said tried to take over the CAO last fall.
“There have been a series of articles written in The Buffalo News,” Bellavia said, “but this man has had no opportunity to defend himself in a public platform … and we’re hitting him [today] with everything he’s been hit with in The Buffalo News, and the only difference is that you have a chance to respond. And I think that’s only fair when a man’s character is being maligned.”
“We’ve gone through every allegation and there’s no teeth to any of it,” Bellavia said.
For instance, Bellavia said that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a News article that he would defer judgment on the CAO and Hare’s performance until he saw a county audit of operations. Bellavia said that made it sound like Erie County contributes millions of dollars to the CAO’s $52 million annual budget.