Lance Dutton's revenge. They fired his attacker

You may recall I was among the many strident supporters of Lance Dutton of the Maine Web report who took on the Maine board of tourism and it's smarmy ad agency a while ago.  To silence Lance's persistent charges of wrongdoing, Dann Lewis, the state tourism director tried all sorts of intimidation tactics, including calling up Lance's wife's boss.

Lewis also decided to try the most lethal way to pressure a small independent guy--litigation.  This is being used against bloggers more often than you may think. But Lance stood his ground.

Against him, were political powers and an aggressive ad agency.  Behind him were a handful of sympathetic bloggers who believed in him.


In the end, lance did not get sued and has been pretty much vindicated as the voice of truth in what became a very ugly dust up. The sweet revenge came this week, the kind of culmination that usually only happens in Hollywood movies.

Dann Lewis has been fired by the Maine board of tourism. And it couldn;t have happened to a more deserving person, if you ask me.

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Comments

[Genuine]

Thanks for showing this to me Shel. I looked at this not from Dann Lewis' perspective as much as from the standpoint of the agencies involved. I did coin a new phrase along the lines of being "Dooced", as it appears Mr. Lewis was "Dutsoned".

[Jim Turner]

Oops, I forgot to change from my Superhero identity and give the URL.

http://tinyurl.com/yru949

Jim Turner

[Sherry Lewis]

DANN LEWIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LAWSUIT AGAINST LANCE DUTSON.

On March 21, 2006, Dann Lewis met with Mike Lawrence, Executive Vice President of Cone, Inc., www.coneinc.com, (617)227-2111, who advised that the group of people being slandered by Maine Web Report should do nothing other than ignore the blog, or if palatable, engage the blogger in some sort of dialogue. Dann got on the phone to WKP, and expended a good amount of energy trying to convince Warren Kremer Paino Advertising to back off of any type of legal intervention.

And on that very day, Dann ignited a process by which a meeting would be planned and populated by search engine adword experts, web designers, members of Maine's tourism industry, employees of the Maine Office of Tourism and Lance Dutson himself. Dutson showed up with his lawyer and some friends, and promptly left during the first five minutes of the meeting. Everyone was stunned. They were trying to "engage" him in a very public and meaningful dialogue. That alone speaks volumes. The meeting went on without him, audio tapes were made and sent to him....not another peep about the "issues" he had raised in his blog--the so-called "Pay-Per-Gate". Why? Because he had been outed.

Here it is in writing from Peter Warren of WKP:


Note: forwarded message attached.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: server@sherrylewisresponds.com
To: sherry@sherrylewisresponds.com
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:43:50 -0800 (PST)
Subject: A comment from pwarren@wkpadv.com

Comment:
There was never a frivolous lawsuit filed against Lance Dutson by the Baldacci administration, including any other department under the administration. The lawsuit was filed by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising for reasons such as copyright infringement, defamation of character, amongst others. The lawsuit was not thrown out of federal court; it was withdrawn, without prejudice, by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising on its own terms.

Please respond by: Just looking into it, no response necessary
Name: Peter Warren
Email:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Home Phone:
Office Phone:

Privacy: You may use my name with this issue or question


Lance Dutson has spent over a year weaving an intricate web of lies. He seems to think that the more tangled this web, the harder it might be to unravel. But such is not the case. The truth will be very simple to expose.

---Sherry Lewis

[Sherry Lewis]

P. S. I forgot a very important point:

The two emails that Dutson has repeatedly put forth as "proof" that Dann Lewis coordinated a lawsuit were written on February 28, 2006, long before Dann met with Cone, Inc. At that point in time (again, timelines are important when presenting "the facts") the dozen or so individuals involved had no idea what had hit them. The attacks were becoming relentless and very personal. After the meeting with Cone, Dann made it clear that engagement was the only way to go.

"Talk WITH us"

Dutson could not handle such an approach.

[Dann Lewis' friend, Linda]

I'm posting the true story about Dann Lewis(at least - chapter one) on every Google hit.

http://truthaboutlewis.blogspot.com

Soon the truth will be old hat.

Thank you.

[Linda]

I finally have a chance to absolve myself here.

Last year Shel took grave exception to my statement that MOST people in Maine were not very computer savvy. (Even though it was an Augusta insider who told me that half the folks in Augusta had to be taught how to read an email)

But these 2 events have happened only very recently:

http://outsider222.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/augusta-maine-its-only-20-million/

and:

http://lancedutson.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/whos-the-greenest-i-mean-dumbest-of-them-all-portland-maine/

(Just my belated little lick at I told you so...." ;-))