by Dan Mancuso,
publisher
I have been warning the county about social media hound Chris Barnett’s use of personal social media for county business. It’s public record and must be maintained.
A few weeks back, Barnett posted a video of himself in his county office defending the shenanigans of the Simon Hare resignation.
I shared it on my Facebook page asking, “Does Chris Barnett even believe the bull **** that comes out of his mouth?” Shortly after, the video was unavailable, and Barnett had blocked me on social media.
I sent a public records request for any video made by Barnett in his county office. All of the commissioners were included in the email along with county legal Wally Hicks and the Oregon attorney general.
The county sent me three videos, but not any from Barnett’s personal page, or his three other, so called, news pages. One of his fake news pages had a fake story about a fake town that quoted fake city councilors about the dangers of fake news. I searched high and low and could not verify a single person quoted, who lived, let alone was on a city council of any towns by that name in the United States. In another fake news post, Barnett cited, “The Character Assassination of Elliot Gray, when defamation and lies go too far.” In this likely AI generated fable, Barnett cites a newspaper that ran a headline titled, “Tech Consultant Linked to Cyberstalking Scandal Exposed.” A very easy and quick search of the internet and Bingo, nothing came up.
Another post of his asks this question, “Who Do You Really Get Your News From? Fantasy writer? Someone who needs therapy themselves? A person mad at the world wanting sympathy or social media troll? Read on…” That one gave me a good chuckle.
Anyway, I digress, Barnett knows I sent the request, he knows he has access to the video and is now refusing to comply with a lawful records request.
The next step is to file a complaint with our Josephine County District Attorney Josh Eastman. The sad part about this is that Mr. Eastman is completely understaffed and over worked. You can thank Barnett if the DA’s office is not in court convicting criminals, due to the lack of morals and values that Barnett’s behavior can be described, by not responding to the legal request.
All of this is smoke and mirrors from a guy who from my perspective of his behavior, is that of a child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and thinks he can lie his way out of it. “Admit nothing. Deny everything. Make counteraccusations.” A phrase credited to Roger Stone, a political consultant whose antics go back to the Nixon-era.
He then cries out about this attack and “criticism of me is just unfair.” Mr. Barnett, I’ve got a news flash for you, “Fair is where you show your pig.”