Is the Free Press Alive and Well at the Dallas Morning News?

In the May-June 2007 issue of The Business Owner Journal we published an article titled Scam Alert? GW Equity. In short, we warned people about GW Equity (it recently changed its name to Generational Equity). We asserted, and continue to assert, that it is really in the business of collecting up-front fees, and that it sells a very low percentage of the businesses relative to the number of up-front fees it collects.

GW Equity sued The Business Owner Journal for defamation. The lawsuit was widely reported by news outlets, including The Dallas Morning News. My firm, DL Perkins, which publishes The Business Owner Journal, defended itself and, for discovery, we requested that GW prove my claims to be false by producing the actual number of retainer fees that it has collected and the actual number of businesses that it has sold. The judge upheld our request. GW then promptly dropped its lawsuit.

Subsequently, I contacted The Dallas Morning News reporter Eric Torbenson to inquire if he would be willing to let the world know the rest of the story by writing a follow-up article. He had written a couple of stories that painted GW in a negative light. He said that he was under new orders to never write a story again that mentioned GW Equity. He also said that he would soon be retiring.

So much for free press.