top of page

Mr. Bernard E. Waterman

Waterman Broadcasting Corp.

3719 Central Avenue

Fort Myers, FL 33901                                                                                             March 14, 2016

Dear Mr. Waterman,

            Once again we herein file a formal complaint against you and your staff for what has to be the epitome of "junk journalism" in your recent broadcast "Cape Coral living facility declares war on city." And, once again, your broadcast was riddled with erroneous information and misleading facts. Exactly where did your "investigative reporter" go to journalism school?  

            This entity has now concluded that all of your broadcasts pertaining to our situation was purposely done in a direct attempt to discredit our religious entity and cause us irreparable harm.

            As an affiliate of The National Broadcasting Corporation, your derelict reporting is a disgrace to the profession and a serious discredit to NBC News in its entirety.

            As a licensee of "Public Airways," you are not only conducting yourselves in a biased manner, but you are doing a disservice to the public. If this is an example of your typical news reporting, than it is evident that you shouldn't be licensed for public broadcasting.

            There is no other explanation than that your staff intentionally made false and misleading statements, insinuations, innuendos, and accusations in a deliberate attempt to distort the truth and mislead the public. The fact that both your reporters, Bryan Anderson and Annie Hubbell were given complete copies of our 15 page February 16, 2016 (including all exhibits) letter to Cape Coral legal representative Mr. Robert C. Shearman, and our 6 page Formal Declaration of War, both completely detailing the issues, grievances and remedies of the declaration. Yet, none of them were even mentioned in your so called "Breaking News" story of our "Declaration of War." Additionally, both Mr. Anderson and Ms Hubbell were given the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of both of our attorneys, Robert Burkett and Alan Hamisch, yet they called on the City's attorney for information and comment, but not either of our knowledgeable attorneys. Why?

            Furthermore, your "investigative reporter" than proceeded to make rash accusations or insinuations that we were some kind of a "religious sovereignty" in collusion with the City's attorney, Shearman, who made unsubstantiated and uncorroborated disparaging statements in an attempt to justify his erroneous claims and discredit our religious duties to assist the poor.

            In his final personal statement, the "investigating reporter" then made unsubstantiated biased and prejudiced rash accusations and insinuations that our documents are costing Cape Coral taxpayers for "extensive attorney time."

            Please be fully advised that our recent Declaration of War against the city of Cape Coral has nothing whatsoever to do with a prior stair issue on our private residence next door as you erroneously claimed. The current declaration of war is, and will always be a war against the immoral, inhumane, and UN-Christian actions perpetrated by the City's bias, prejudiced, and discriminatory policies and procedures as to the issues of discrimination against its low income citizens as fully outlined in our formal Declaration of War.

            We did not issue any Press Release or requested any news coverage. You and your staff did so on their own initiative. We question the decision to do so, and adamantly object to how it was portrayed. We have previously requested that you cease and desist from any further erroneous broadcasts until you agree to report the truth and facts of our continuing dispute with the City of Cape Coral. You ignored that request and again reported and stated false, misleading, and erroneous uncorroborated facts. Your misquoted, misstated, and completely ignored information we supplied to you created a serious situation of defamation to our Religious Community, our Officers, Directors, Community Members, and vulnerable Residents residing at The Haven of Divine Love Facility.

            We have previously notified you of your wrongful actions on your prior broadcasts, (see our letters of 4-7-15; 8-15-15; & 8-15-15 attached) which you ignored, and which gave you ample time to correct your wrongful acts. However, not only did you fail or refuse to correct said errors, you have now initiated additional wrongful acts. There is clear and convincing evidence that your recent broadcast, as well as your previous broadcasts, were deliberate, with malice and forethought, and were done as intentional acts to not only mislead the public as to the facts and truth, but to collude, aid and abet, and conspire with the wrongful actions perpetrated by the City in both the staircase issue and the current discrimination against the low income citizens of Cape Coral. As such, you have cost us irreparable damages by causing the public to have wrong information which sabotages our claims. Please be fully informed that we will be assessing you an amount of $100,000.00 for specific damages (excluding future punitive damages) and will be assessing and billing you the amount of $1,000.00 per day for each day until corrections of your erroneous actions and information to the public is made.

            Your actions have discredited the reputation of NBC. Please be fully advised that we will be filing a formal complaint with NBC Universal and Comcast Corporation requesting a full investigation be made as to your actions.

            Additionally, you have violated your public air license agreements. Please be fully advised that we will be filing a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission also requesting a full investigation be made by them.

            Please also be fully advised that we will be publishing this correspondence along with the improper activities you have performed.

            I humbly request that you take our correspondences seriously and correct your improper behavior immediately. For an entity who is not afraid to take on the abuse of authority by the City of Cape Coral, we have no fears or qualms about taking on and disclosing the improper activities of a public broadcasting enterprise.

Respectfully submitted,

Jerome F. Valenta

President

CC;       Edith B Waterman

             Steven H Pontius

             Robert E. Beville

             Gerald W. Poppe

             Darrel Lieze-Adams

             Bryan Anderson

             Annie Hubbell

             Robert Burkett

             Alan Hamisch

bottom of page