Bends Toward Justice

Fear and Loathing of Newspapers and More

"Reading Newspapers in the State of Maine is like paying somebody to tell you lies."

Or reveal your lies?

At a fishermans' forum in March 2011, LePage got some laughs by quoting this line from an unnamed state senator. He liked the line well enough to repeat it to an audience of middle-schoolers about a year later. In February 2013 he escalated from disliking newspapers to fearing them. Again speaking to students, he said:

"My greatest fear in the state of Maine: newspapers."

LePage expanded that he believes other media in Maine are less biased than the newspapers. But, when he was running for governor in September 2010, he blew up at MPBN reporters questioning his wife's claims of citizenship in both Maine and Florida, and the tax and tuition savings his family gained by them.

"Let's stop the bullshit."

Within minutes of "stop the bullshit," LePage tells an easily-checked lie about his name on the title of a family property:

"I never had it on, never had it on, ever."

As he has since, LePage stupidly told an easily-checked lie and was caught. The next day a campaign representative corrected the statement, after the reporter uncovered the truth.
The episode climaxed with a (joking?) LePage threat:

"I'm about ready to punch A.J. Higgins."

In June 2013, following a multipart investigative story on DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho, the Governor's office adopted a "no comment" policy toward three of the state's biggest newspapers. So maybe the governor won't be saying anything stupid to their representatives in the near future.

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