Editor:
I am dismayed the PGN has yet to repudiate the vicious comments posted on your website following your January articles about the indictment of Michael Weiss.
The postings against the Weiss family and their employees are the rancid and racist ramblings of obviously unhinged individuals which could be written off if the postings were not so violent.
What kind of atmosphere do you at PGN want to encourage in the gay scene here if you allow such blatantly unprovable and provocative postings to stand on your site?
I am also disturbed that your reporting of the tax dispute at the Palmer Social Club leads readers to suppose that other clubs under Weiss’ direction are disreputable and that the Weiss family and their management are under wider investigation by local, state and federal entities. This is unfair and unprofessional of you.
It is very disappointing to see PGN, in print and online, abet malicious gossip and impugn personal reputations. The Weisses are not only successful businessmen but also generous (usually anonymous) donors to a host of gay, AIDS and Center City causes.
Do you know how many people the Weisses employ?
Do you know how much the Weisses subsidize the “Gayborhood” the PGN constantly touts by their payroll, their taxes, their seven-day-a-week businesses and their boosterism?
Do you know how much the Weisses have generously given to support the HIV/AIDS community organizations?
It is easy to write sensational front-page stories, such as you did when the indictments were announced. But there has been no follow-up about what the Weisses really are to the community — to their patrons, who are many, to their employees, who are many, and to the many HIV patients like me who benefit from their largesse.
You do a disservice to all these communities by allowing government tax allegations and ugly online rantings to define the Weisses, their employees and their clubs.
I am not a present or former employee of the Weisses or any of their clubs. I am not a personal friend of the Weisses. I am just waiting for some fairness and some professionalism to emanate from your pages.
Harry Adamson Philadelphia