Tom Shaer Responds...

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: You can go back to the beginning of the internet and find that I have never made a posting on these sites. I read them but I don't think people normally need to hear from me. I should probably just be quiet now, but it's human nature to want to defend yourself. : At no time did I know anything negative about David Hernandez' recent business dealings. When Hernandez reconnected with me in January 2009, I had not seen nor heard of him in eleven years. When he reached out to me I called the same FBI agent who, in 1998, had told me about Hernandez' felony charges. That agent and other people told me they knew of nothing suspicious about NextStep or Hernandez. : The agent said to me "He was always a bright guy, often times people turn their lives around and do legitimate work". : So, since I knew nothing that would affect Mike North's TV show or the Webio, what was I supposed to tell all these people who I am now being criticized for not calling? : I would have looked like a guy trying to ruin a party with negative baggage from the past. : If I thought there was anything negative NOW, of course I would have called the people involved. : I truly believe everybody has an obligation to stop something bad from happening if they believe it's about to happen...or even probably happen. Neither the FBI nor anyone else made me think anything negative about Hernandez currently. : No one called me to ask about Webio, and Mike North didn't call me-and he shouldn't have, to ask me about his sponsor for the TV show. What was I supposed to do, Call people around town in February and say "Don't apply for a job with this guy", "Don't accept his sponsorship"? : He seemed to be a legitimate businessman now and I would have been committing defamation against a fellow human being whom I had been told was now clean. : I also, never in a million years, thought full time employees of established radio stations would go to an internet Webio company that would take years to catch on. I really felt-and this is key-that if I knew about his past, then other people who did mortgages with him or were friendly with him in the 90s knew the same thing. : I have been criticized for telling my story this week and I believe the criticism was justified. I was wrong to talk about this after the fact, because no good has come of it. : I don't mix in the media conversation circles as I used to, which is why I didn't know who was going to work for Hernandez until the hirings were announced and I had no desire to hurt anybody then or now. I talked this week because I believe in journalism, cooperating with writers and having the whole story come out. But sometimes it's better to just mind your own business. I minded my own business in January-February and I did not do so this week. I will have to accept the criticism and also those comments which have defended me. : Thank you, : Tom Shaer : : : WTF?! Tom Shaer's not giving it to us straight, he must have an ax to grind against WSCR & North. He says it wasn't his job to warn the passengers on the Titanic?!

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