{"id":13532,"date":"2018-10-11T05:19:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T09:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=13532"},"modified":"2018-10-11T15:01:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T19:01:16","slug":"fact-check-on-fake-news-lawsuit-brick-democrat-did-not-get-patronage-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/10\/fact-check-on-fake-news-lawsuit-brick-democrat-did-not-get-patronage-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact Check on &#8216;Fake News&#8217; Lawsuit: Brick Democrat Did NOT Get Patronage Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VhB5Dw7Ja5E?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The vice chairwoman of the Brick Township Democratic organization has filed a lawsuit against a sitting council member in Toms River, accusing him of operating &#8220;fake news&#8221; websites which reported that she had obtained a job with the municipal government in Brick.<\/p>\n<p>Robyn Gedrich serves as a volunteer member of the Brick Township Housing Authority, but does not now, nor has she ever, worked for Brick Township, Mayor John Ducey confirmed Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Toms River Councilman Daniel Rodrick \u2013 who switched from the Democratic party to the Republican party earlier this year \u2013 has been served with a lawsuit that alleges he operated several Republican-aligned websites and Facebook pages. One of those websites, on which bylines did not refer to anyone&#8217;s legal name, ran a story titled: &#8220;<span class=\"st\">Job Given To Mayor Ducey&#8217;s New Democratic Party Underboss<\/span>.&#8221; It included a screenshot from Gedrich&#8217;s Facebook account \u2013 also included with this story \u2013 that announces a job with Brick Township. The job, however, is a volunteer position as Democratic vice-chair, which has no connection with the municipal government itself. Gedrich, by way of an examination of her social media accounts, has never claimed to hold a position with the township.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-11-at-4.15.46-AM.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-11-at-4.15.46-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-11-at-4.15.46-AM.png 560w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-11-at-4.15.46-AM-400x276.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was served on Rodrick in a bizarre interruption to the township council meeting Tuesday night. A man rushed up to the dais in the middle of the meeting and said, &#8220;Councilman, you&#8217;ve been served with a lawsuit regarding websites serving defamation.&#8221; The man then refused to identify who he was when asked by the council president. It was also unknown who posted a close-up video of Rodrick during the encounter, however sources said the photographer was Paul Williams, a freelance videographer. Rodrick did not appear to react to the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Gedrich told Shorebeat she cannot comment on the matter because she is being represented by an attorney. A copy of the lawsuit, obtained by Shorebeat, says local Democratic operative Jon Salonis \u2013 a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/07\/brick-mayor-faces-criticism-for-thousands-spent-on-newsletter-hirings\/\">Brick Township employee<\/a> \u2013 personally informed a &#8220;co-worker&#8221; that he was aware of the fact that a website known as the Ocean County Chronicle was operated by Rodrick, along with several other sites. Salonis, himself, once operated a Democrat-aligned website known as Jersey Shore Insider.<\/p>\n<p>Salonis, in an e-mail to Shorebeat, said the lawsuit&#8217;s allegation is not accurate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I did NOT speak to any coworker or anyone at all about Mr. Rodrick owning any website and the lawsuit is completely frivolous,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the Chronicle website, the lawsuit alleges, is to &#8220;undermine his political enemies&#8221; and &#8220;promote his own political interests,&#8221; referring to Rodrick.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8134\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8134\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8134\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich.jpg\" alt=\"Robyn Gedrich (Photo: Facebook)\" width=\"799\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich.jpg 799w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robyn Gedrich (Photo: Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The author of the article claiming Gedrich obtained a paid position with Brick Township acted &#8220;in reckless disregard of the truth,&#8221; the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n<p>Legal experts tell Shorebeat the suit would traditionally be considered a long shot, however courts have wavered on whether blogs or websites operated by political figures, rather than credentialed journalists, are covered under New Jersey&#8217;s fair report privilege, which widely shields news publications from civil liability.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit seeks undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages for defamation and false light.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/10\/fact-check-on-fake-news-lawsuit-brick-democrat-did-not-get-patronage-job\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The vice chairwoman of the Brick Township Democratic organization has filed a lawsuit against a sitting council member in Toms River, accusing him of operating &#8220;fake news&#8221; websites which reported that she had obtained a job with the municipal government in Brick&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,3486,2081],"class_list":["post-13532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-daniel-rodrick","tag-robyn-gedrich"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/robyn_gedrich.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3wg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}