‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

[tulc]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

At Liberty University, all anyone can talk about is Jerry Falwell Jr. Just not in public.

“When he does stupid stuff, people will mention it to others they consider confidants and not keep it totally secret,” a trusted adviser to Falwell, the school’s president and chancellor, told me. “But they won’t rat him out.”
That’s beginning to change.

Over the past year, Falwell, a prominent evangelical leader and supporter of President Donald Trump, has come under increasing scrutiny. News outlets have reported on business deals by Liberty University benefiting Falwell’s friends. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen claimed that he had helped Falwell clean up racy “personal” photographs.

Based on scores of new interviews and documents obtained for this article, concerns about Falwell’s behavior go well beyond that—and it’s causing longtime, loyal Liberty University officials to rapidly lose faith in him.

More than two dozen current and former high-ranking Liberty University officials and close associates of Falwell spoke to me or provided documents for this article, opening up—for the first time at an institution so intimately associated with the Falwell family—about what they’ve experienced and why they don’t think he’s the right man to lead Liberty University or serve as a figurehead in the Christian conservative movement.

In interviews over the past eight months, they depicted how Falwell and his wife, Becki, consolidated power at Liberty University and how Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends.

“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”

tulc(thought this was interesting)

 

[Jamsie]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article231717833.html

 

[A Realist]

...interesting article......

 

[Tom 1]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

Birds of a feather...

 

[ArmenianJohn]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

It's just amazing to me that this goes on and so many are so silent and even follow this man. Truly amazes me. Of course in this day of Trump and most of the followers he has (most of them the same) it shouldn't surprise me.

Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

 

[AlexDTX]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

When Christians pursue fame and fortune, they are pursuing the world and will always get dirty.

 

[Uber Genius]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

Would that the media would have reported on the Clinton's corruption, or Biden's payoffs by the Chinese, or Obama's million-dollar freebie on his Chicago mansion with the same sort of effort... Shoot ...any effort would do.

Don't suppose you are posting anything about the 1200+ fake news stories on Russian collusion by NYT?

As a Libertarian I am no fan of Trump's and watch Jerry Fallwell senior takeover the Evangelicals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fallwell sr. subverted the message of C. Everett Koop's and Francis Shaeffer's deeply integrated call to historical shaping of culture to the "New Fundamentalism," which was antithetical to intellectual foundations. Instead of deeply serving our culture with hospitals, care for the poor, care for orphans and elderly, deep intellectual engagment at our colleges, government, NGOs, our businesses, we got bumper-sticker messaging and had to be satisfied with small amounts of good rather than a sea change that was on its way.

That someone such as Fallwell jr. are corrupt doesn't seem interesting in the least in less one is looking to just flood the media outlets with anything that poisoning the wells to looking at Trumps record as POTUS.

Again, I'm not holding my breadth here.

 

[JackRT]

Again, I'm not holding my breadth here.

Just how wide are you?

 

[Tom 1]

Would that the media would have reported on the Clinton's corruption, or Biden's payoffs by the Chinese, or Obama's million-dollar freebie on his Chicago mansion with the same sort of effort... Shoot ...any effort would do.

All of that was and still is in the media, over and over again. Clinton was investigated endlessly by Republican committees for the same things, despite there being nothing to charge her with. You could find both of those things out by reading the news.

 

[FreeinChrist]

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence

tulc(thought this was interesting)

It is interesting how they point out the difference in Falwell Jr. from Falwell Sr. The ones talking have many positives to say about Falwell Sr. in how loving he was to others and that his death was like losing a father. The business affairs were up and up.
Now?

 

[Uber Genius]

Just how wide are you?

Oh Canada...makes sense now.

 

[Uber Genius]

All of that was and still is in the media, over and over again. Clinton was investigated endlessly by Republican committees for the same things, despite there being nothing to charge her with. You could find both of those things out by reading the news.

And of course you or I could bleach bit our hard drive and smash phones once we were informed of a Federal investigation. And Comey, after a lifetime of making Fedral cases, just happens to ask no questions whatsoever identifying intent.

Not very convincing.

You are arguing against something media studies have consistently concluded since the 1960s. This is not a contraversial claim at all. And they stories to which you refer showed up late after a few conservative outlets prevented them from not covering it.

But I don't thinks facts are going to change your mind here.

Here is an article citing both liberal and conservative pollsters suggesting only 7% of news media identified as Republicans.

The Media Bubble Is Real — And Worse Than You Think

Of course we have studies that are peer reviewed that show a range where national news outlets represent themselves as "Democrat" 4-5 times as frequently as "Republican" since the 1960s. The article above would actually be 13/1.

How do you feel about the constant ad hominem attacks of the POTUS instead of engaging his governing?

"Here is an interesting article, Donald Trump's tan is from a tanning bed, it is not natural."

 

[Tom 1]

And of course you or I could bleach bit our hard drive and smash phones once we were informed of a Federal investigation. And Comey, after a lifetime of making Fedral cases, just happens to ask no questions whatsoever identifying intent.

Not very convincing.

You are arguing against something media studies have consistently concluded since the 1960s. This is not a contraversial claim at all. And they stories to which you refer showed up late after a few conservative outlets prevented them from not covering it.

But I don't thinks facts are going to change your mind here.

How do you feel about the constant ad hominem attacks of the POTUS instead of engaging his governing?

"Here is an interesting article, Donald Trump's tan is from a tanning bed, it is not natural."

Gotta say it, your super genius tag just lost some of its shine. Do you have anything better? Something verifiable, perchance?
You could start with the laws Clinton and Comey broke, and an explanation of why those legal experts who call them ‘grey areas’ are wrong. Or maybe why Clinton was investigated so many times for the same things?

 

[Tom 1]

And of course you or I could bleach bit our hard drive and smash phones once we were informed of a Federal investigation. And Comey, after a lifetime of making Fedral cases, just happens to ask no questions whatsoever identifying intent.

Not very convincing.

You are arguing against something media studies have consistently concluded since the 1960s. This is not a contraversial claim at all. And they stories to which you refer showed up late after a few conservative outlets prevented them from not covering it.

But I don't thinks facts are going to change your mind here.

Here is an article citing both liberal and conservative pollsters suggesting only 7% of news media identified as Republicans.

The Media Bubble Is Real — And Worse Than You Think

Of course we have studies that are peer reviewed that show a range where national news outlets represent themselves as "Democrat" 4-5 times as frequently as "Republican" since the 1960s. The article above would actually be 13/1.

How do you feel about the constant ad hominem attacks of the POTUS instead of engaging his governing?

"Here is an interesting article, Donald Trump's tan is from a tanning bed, it is not natural."

The article is interesting - I think it’s pretty clear that the ‘bubble’ media are out of touch with the concerns of people in much of the US. To say that means they don’t cover this or that story however is demonstrably false, the article for example makes the point that by reporting extensively on the whole Clinton email thing they compounded the disconnect - writers for the big news outlets certainly appear to have very little understanding of how their reporting is received. None of this supports your assertions however.

 

[tulc]

(snip)

uhmmm...if you wanted to talk about all those, shouldn't you just start a thread to discuss them?

That someone such as Fallwell jr. are corrupt doesn't seem interesting in the least in less one is looking to just flood the media outlets with anything that poisoning the wells to looking at Trumps record as POTUS.

The article was about Jerry Falwell jr. Maybe you should either discuss that or start that thread about all those other things you seem more interested in talking about?

Again, I'm not holding my breadth here.

As far as I can tell no one in the thread had asked you to hold your breath, so...seems like a good idea not to.
tulcjust a thought)

 

[tulc]

as a follow up to one part of the OP
New Photos Emerge of Falwell at Miami Nightclub

New Photos Emerge of Falwell at Miami Nightclub

One day after POLITICO published a piece in which Jerry Falwell Jr. denied visiting a Miami Beach nightclub in July 2014 and alleged that any images showing such were “photo-shopped,” a new trove of photos showing Falwell at the club has been released.

Seth Browarnik, the owner of World Red Eye, a photography company that documents Miami’s bustling nightlife scene, says he was unaware how many photos he had of Falwell until Falwell alleged that his site’s images were manipulated—prompting Browarnik to explore his photo archive to prove otherwise.

On Tuesday, Browarnik published the newly unearthed photos on his website, WorldRedEye.com, along with a strongly worded “rebuke” of Falwell’s claim of photoshopping.

“First things first,” Browarnik told me over the phone, “we didn’t even know [Falwell] was in the photos. Number one! Finding him in the crowd is like a ‘Where’s Waldo?’”

Browarnik lives high up in a South Beach skyrise, from which he can see the Falwell-owned Miami Hostel. Not that the owners of the flophouse crossed Browarnik’s mind that often. He didn’t even know his company had taken any photos of Liberty University’s first family partying at Wall, a Miami Beach nightclub, until he saw them identified in the piece published by POLITICO yesterday.

“All of a sudden, I scroll down and say, ‘Oh my god!’” Browarnik said.

It wasn’t an exclamation of excitement as much as indignance. In the article, Jerry Falwell Jr. repeatedly claimed that the photos—which POLITICO obtained from World Red Eye, which World Red Eye has had on their website for five years, and which show Falwell partying at Wall on July 19, 2014—were manipulated. “If the person in the picture is me, it was likely photo-shopped,” Falwell said.

Browarnik said he felt insulted. “My integrity is everything in this business,” he said.

Jerry Falwell Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

tulc(thinks it seems to be getting even more interesting)