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No (SLO) County for Old Men
Aaron Ochs is the author of “Defamers: How Fake News Terrorized a Community & Those Who Dared to Fight It,” a nonfiction uncovering the defamatory, deceptive and criminal practices of online tabloid CalCoastNews. Click here to subscribe to his Patreon, check out exclusive news features and more.
Daniel Blackburn was once angry I called him “senile.”
It was 2016. Blackburn penned a bizarre, self-victimizing editorial that touched on the conspiracy theory that District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill and his “toadies” were on a vicious campaign to smear CalCoastNews. Piggybacking on his colleague Karen Velie’s false claim that I was paid by the supervisor, Blackburn dragged me into his screed, referring to me as a “toadie” that may or may not have responded to some anonymous Craigslist ad seeking a blogger to “change public opinion” in SLO County. Blackburn put my face up there in the article, with allegations that CalCoastNews reporters have “had their phone numbers and addresses posted online; homes vandalized; a family dog poisoned; [and] mutilated cats left on porches” right underneath it. To have my likeness associated with this activity was, quite frankly, insane.
I found it ironic Blackburn commented on my mental state by him “confirming [my] lack of acuity.”
