You see, James Lamar Gibson didn't know it yet but he was being used by Triad City Beat founder and con man, Brian Clarey in an attempt to get me to be Brian's axe man in an attempt to steal customers away from competitor Yes-Weekly. Problem is, Brian Clarey grossly underestimated Billy Jones and the rest here at EzGreensboro.com.
You see the problem for Brian Clarey and Triad City Beat appears to be an inability to pay their bills as evidenced by this lawsuit filled by Yes-Weekly Publisher Charles Womack, Document #15CVD1433 filed in Guilford County on November 6 2015.
Seems Brian Clarey owes Charles Womack $8,700 since November of 2011 and never bothered to pay it back.
So you see, When Brian Clarey sent Eric Ginsburg to do the story Playing with the numbers: Yes Weekly’s changing circulation on November 10th it was really about revenge, not numbers. But here's the part Brian Clarey and Eric Ginsburg never told you:
Charles Womack paid for Brian Clarey book with a $12,000 loan. Brian paid him back the interest-free loan for printing the book by having the money deducted from his paycheck Brian was also supposed to pay Charles $1,700 for ads in Yes-Weekly and $7,000 in profits as a return to Charles in making the $12k loan. And for whatever reason Brian never paid it all off.
During the 10 years Brian Clarey worked for Charles Womack me got multiple DWIs and multiple drug paraphernalia charges as shown by these records provided by the Guilford County Courts and yet even knowing this Charles Womack let him stay on.
As for Yes Weekly's inflated circulation numbers: Brian Clarey and Jordan Greene worked at Yes-Weekly for a 10 years knowing there were problems with the circulation numbers and yet they did nothing about it, choosing to ignore it and collect the paychecks.
As Editor of Yes-Weekly, Clarey knew about the circulation problem for years. He could have even had a hand in it. Eric's Triad City Beat article proved nothing. Clarey and Ginsburg didn't run the story on circulation questions for 18 months as they tried to build a business competing with Yes-Weekly. They ran it when they got desperate for cash, when political ads failed to create anticipated revenues after 18 months of never asking the tough questions of local politicians for fear it might cost them advertising revenue.
And after Brian was served with a lawsuit from his old boss.
Then Clarey and Company followed up with a second attack piece in a town so small everyone knows everyone else's business sometimes even before they sober up and learn about it themselves.
So when Brian Clarey claims that Triad City Beat was hacked, do you believe him? As I wrote in Was Triad City Beat Really Hacked? Part 2:
"I've never claimed to be a journalist and I still don't claim to be a journalist today, but EzGreensboro and the Internet have raised the bar for journalism in Greensboro. Get with the program or be prepared to be ripped to shreds. And watch your advertising dollars dry up just as we did to the Rhino."
Lots of us have made the mistake of getting hired by the wrong boss, James has it in him to go on to do great things. Bryan, I hear you're a pretty good bartender. Jordan, there's still hope for you in journalism somewhere as you follow in the footsteps of your Daddy's best friend, the late Hunter S Thompson. As for Eric: I hear he'd be a good fit for the French Foreign Legion as you need not know French going in and need not be too bright to stand in front of incoming bullets. And it just so happens the FFL is hiring. Click the link, Eric, there's instructions as to how to join.
