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September 19, 2024

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Why I erased an article

By Carol Pelosi

I erased the news article about the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce and its former president Liz Simpers because, with my attorneys’ counsel and my wish to stop any further legal action against me and the Wake Forest Gazette, Simpers and I — and others involved — signed an agreement in which she agreed not to pursue further legal action and I agreed to remove the article.

I received a cease and desist order from Simpers attorneys two days after the article was published at 5:38 p.m. on Friday evening, July19,2024, demanding a retraction, an apology, and threatening legal action against me and the Gazette. Too late to hire a lawyer. But I called an attorney friend, he recommended Mike Tadych with Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych in Raleigh, I sent Mike a long email about the situation, and on Monday he began working on the matter.

Simpers sent me an email pleading to remove the article for her family’s sake on Thursday. We saw that as an opportunity and Mike Tadych began working with her attorneys and all parties agreed to the resulting agreement late Friday afternoon, July 26. The agreement traded removal of the article for Simpers and her family agreeing to end all legal threats against me and the Gazette. The agreement makes plain that removal of the article is not a retraction or other disavowal of the article and it confirms no admission of liability by anyone.

I do not see the removal as a betrayal of journalistic ethics. The article had more than 100 comments and everyone who wanted to comment was able to, some more than once. Copies of the article are on other sources not controlled by me or the Gazette. And last week was very stressful. 

The Gazette never has been anywhere near profitable, not at $100 a month for advertising, and I like it that way. I am thankful for my two advertisers, Bright Funeral Home and Wake Electric, both operated by people who know they are working for the Wake Forest community and require the highest standards in their operations. I try to do the same for the Gazette.

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44 Responses

  1. Liz is back to posting on Social Media. She will continue to act like nothing has happened and not face any consequences. People will still like and comment nice things on her post which will only continue to feed her ego. She will learn nothing and do it again. She is a sociopath and any right minded person would flee Wake Forest, but she will stay and continue to act like everything is perfect and people will continue to feed her ego. I doubt she’s even embarrassed or sympathetic.

    1. And are her friends on social media just completely oblivious to her wrongdoings? I cannot for the life of me fathom how anyone could still support a friendship with her knowing what she did.

    2. She is an entitled malignant narcissist. How about Wake Forest takes away her Main Street Award? And she has created Simpers Consulting. She will defraud more people if the community doesn’t keep this truth alive.

    3. Agreed. I cannot figure out how she has hidden this from all of those FB friends and now has a consulting business. WHO is going to hire her for services?? I hope no one from this town.

  2. Cowardly move by Simpers. She doesn’t want to face the consequences of her actions. She is hiding behind lawyers and cease-and-desist orders. I hope she read every single one of those 100+ comments on the previous article. You certainly did not owe her ANY type of apology for simply reporting on an issue affecting your town. And she is brazen for asking for one. Where is her apology for embezzling from not one, but TWO organizations??

  3. Are you going to be able to re-post the article or do additional follow up reporting on this issue? People deserve to know. Some public money was involved and people are entitled to know. Where are the town leaders on this issue? Why are they being silent instead of representing we the people?

  4. I Corinthinians 6:9-11 (KJV)
    “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

    Thank you for your reporting. I am sorry you removed the article, but thankful that ThisWeekInTheTriangle.com is covering your reporting. Before Reformation Baptist Church published PersecutingThePersecuted.com, we were advised by legal counsel that if the allegations were true there would NOT likely be a lawsuit.

    1. Where do you see it being covered on thisweekinthetriangle.com? I searched the entire site and scrolled through and don’t see it anywhere

  5. Please share WHATis the removal process OF THE MEMBERS … Oh here is how:
    RESIGNATION, MAJORITY VOTE or EXPULSION. Since they were in on it the aforementioned will not happen. We see that the board is WEAK. They covered up the embezzlement. Just as you allowed Liz to resign then the Chamber of Commerce members that were invoked in the cover up should do the same..

  6. First, Carol, thank you for your honesty and transparency in reporting – whether you agree with something or not, you report the truth. 2nd, Shame on the Chamber! Some fine folks on the board, but they handled this 100% wrong. Embezzlement is a felony, even if paid back. Just because someone is nice, or has rich parents to pay back, does not negate the crime. This is what is wrong in the world today – NO ACCOUNTABILITY for actions. This is Liz Simpers’ 2nd offense (that we know of). She should have NEVER been hired by the Chamber. And, how did this happen, if she supposedly didn’t have access to anything financial?? Where were the checks and balances? Not even a slap on the hand – allowed to resign instead of being fired (this was 2nd mistake, 1st one being hired). Really cannot comprehend why she wasn’t charged? Chamber has not been transparent and ‘saying it’s a personnel’ issue doesn’t matter at this point. Maybe they are being ‘hampered’ by some type of signed agreement her lawyer drew up?? Liz Simpers 100% brought this on herself – and she needs to own up to this, rather than hiding. Any respect for her before this came out is now a fat 0%!! No matter what the Chamber does going forward, respect for them will never be the same. They need to ask themselves if this was someone they didn’t like, would they have handled this differently??? They didn’t have the …… to hold her accountable!!

  7. Go Carol! I’m sorry you are being put through this wringer but I’m very glad the truth was finally able to come out through your brave journalism. Thank you for all you have done for the Town of WF over the years.

  13. So she doesn’t want it to effect her family??? Perhaps she should have thought about that before she embezzled, not once, but TWICE! Once from the YMCA and now the WF Chamber of Commerce. What’s more disturbing is that the Chamber Board KNEW about her 1st embezzlement and hired her as President of the Chamber with the stipulation of not handling money.🤯 The Chamber Board is culpable.They let her “resign” and pay back the money. This is a felony. Carol, you did the right thing. You informed our community. We had a right to know. The business community. They had a right to know. Thank you Carol.

  14. Did Simpers make any arguments or provide any evidence to prove that the article was inaccurate, or did she just not want it out there?

    Very sorry to hear that you had to go through this stressful situation in your efforts to keep the community informed.

  15. Carol, I know who you are and what you mean to this town. I thought I knew Simpers, but I guess not. She pleads to you to remove the article for her family’s sake? Not because the information was incorrect or misleading, but it hurt her family? Is that not true of all criminal activity? Wake Forest and/or the Chamber need to have a backbone. This is even more embarrassing than canceling the Christmas parade, and of all things, a really bad precedent despite the technicality Mayor Jones explained in her Facebook post. The process should be you are convicted or plead guilty, you get your verdict and sentence if guilty and then pay back restitution. Plus, while she was doing this she was on the payroll? How about claw back compensation for that too? The lack of a criminal charge is alarming and a revered historian and truth teller being possibly sued and disparaged in any way is outrageous. I understand that you want to move on, but if there ever was an instance where a go fund me page was appropriate, this is. Like I said, Carol, I know who you are and better understand how truly challenging and discouraging your service to this town can be especially since a groundswell of support for you did not materialize. But others also know of you, what you do for us and that’s the only positive side of this situation.

      1. My husband just set up a GoFundMe page — Help Carol Pelosi defend local journalism — and I hope you can find it.

  16. Unbelievable! Behind the happy-go-lucky, privileged facade and all the “perfect family” social media posturing lies a really troubled and dishonest thief.

    She really had a lot of people fooled, and more than once. She will eventually be held accountable.

    This is not going to blow over.

    Thank you for putting the story out there for as long as it lasted.

  17. It seems that “trades” are her MO, since that’s exactly how she weasled her way out of the mess she made- agree to pay back the money, everyone signs an NDA and all is well. The problem is that she’s not being held accountable and will most certainly weasel her way into another local busienss/organization, as she has already attempted to do. The CoC board wanted this to remain hidden, so that they didn’t have to take responsibility either- it doesn’t look good when a board pushes her up through ladder to President when they knew what she had done at the YMCA and chose to ignore it. We have some real issues in Wake Forest with our public and community leadership. Filled pockets are winning out over morality and it’s a slippery slope for our town. Thank you for printing the original article. So few people would have known the truth if it weren’t for you.

  18. Your loyal subscribers know who you are as a journalist. We know the Gazette is a labor of love. The Gazette came out on top. How many new subscribers resulted from last week’s article?

    Simpers ostracized herself when she failed to face the music. She drove the final nail in the coffin when she bullied the media & the community. There is no spinning this to work in her favor.

  19. I am pretty outraged that a decent and, quite frankly, extremely competent 80-plus year old local journalist was intimidated to take down a well-researched article about the misdeeds of a public figure.

    I’ve heard a bunch of words recently about the death of Democracy.

    Well, without such reporting from curious and fair-minded journalists like Carol Pelosi who ask pertinent questions about how government spends taxpayer money and applies rules and laws, DEMOCRACY does indeed die.

    All politics are LOCAL.

    Carol does the job that some are afraid to touch. She does this job because it’s her calling.

    God Bless you Carol Pelosi.

  20. Thank you for your courage and transparency in publishing the article to begin with, as well as this unfortunate follow up. I wish more sponsors would support your honest, local journalism.

    There was a post on the small WF reddit page that linked to your article. It was also recently locked and removed by the page moderator. It seems they were also threatened legal action by Simpers. She certainly is a rich and powerful woman that no one in this town wants to mess with. She won’t even deny the allegations or try to clear her name honestly, but she will bring hellfire and legal action against anyone naming her. God help us if this is any indication of how our country is truly run behind the scenes.

  21. Thank you for the original article and this follow-up. You shed light on someone who has taken advantage of this community, at least, twice. Perhaps this will make others aware before hiring her. Especially because she now has a consulting firm.

  22. I am sure the whole situation was not an easy one for you. From researching all the way to writing of this article. The situation was a drain on a lot of people and it appears that you took the brunt of it. I as an individual appreciate the effort you make to keep citizens like me informed.

  23. If I leave a comment will I receive a cease and desist order?

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