The Sun article about the new owners of radio station 99.5 FM cancellation of conservative talk radio program Talk of the Town drew a bountiful amount of Facebook comments from the show’s supporters and detractors when it went up online Thursday evening.
One came from Democratic Gainesville City Commissioner Susan Bottcher. Bottcher repeated this quoted from John Caracciolo, the CEO of new station owner JVC Media: “Shows come and go. That’s the business.”
Bottcher frequently offers Facebook comments on Sun articles, but the timing of this one drew some attention. She submitted it during Thursday night’s lengthy Commission meeting on the arbitration over the biomass contract as members of the public reiterated their criticism of the city’s decisions involving the plant and contract.
Her comments then drew some comments.
Republican political consultant Alex Patton offered up this: “I am curious, did you blog from the dais? Isn’t there a City Commission Meeting regarding biomass going on at the moment of your post? ”
Reader Patrick Ruegger then wrote:” Ya what’s the deal with that? I was just watching that meeting on tv. Little did I know it was such an unimportant discussion that commissioners were cruising the internet on their phones out of sight of the cameras. Go figure…”
Another reader, Kathryn Ward, defended Bottcher: “Mr.Patton, when you’ve heard it all before, do you really need to hear it again? When shall we talk about the waste of tax payer’s money that is endless discussion about biomass.”
Bottcher’s comment also received 10 “likes” on Facebook.
She could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning.
Update 11:40 a.m. :
Bottcher posted this response on a Sun article about last night’s biomass metting:
Patrick Reugger – If you read my reply to Alex you’ll see that I went to the Gville Sun site looking for possible posts about the on-going meeting. Often people, who are not in attendance at city hall, will make comments to those posts. I consider those comments worthy of consideration and may even share them “live” at the meeting itself. All voices should be considered.
If you were watching the video you must have noticed the mayor was periodically checking his cell phone throughout the 7 hour proceedings. Who was texting him? Someone in the audience? Was the fact that his attention repeatedly diverted as much of a concern to you as my 90 second diversion on the Gville Sun’s website?