• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Free Speech Anytime He Wants: W-B Man Posts His Views Where All Can See Them

Posted on: Monday, 30 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Jon Fox, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Jan. 30--WILKES-BARRE -- It's just after noon and Mark Cour has newspapers strewn on the floor around his bare feet. There's an ashtray full of cigarette butts near his computer monitor and a can of Genny Light beer set on a coaster.

Bloggers have been called the pajama media -- lobbing opinions into the blogosphere from their living rooms doesn't necessarily require a person to put on pants.

Cour, in fitting fashion, is wearing a black tank top and what appear to be boxer shorts.

The previous day on his blog, Wilkes-Barre Online, Cour took longtime U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski to task for continuing to push an inflatable dam for the Susquehanna River, before switching the topic to Nanticoke.

Unimpressed by what he called the "flailing rebirth" of the congressman's hometown, Cour concludes that "Paul Kanjorski is no Dan Flood."

Blogs seem to be the media flavor of the moment, but in the Wyoming Valley, Cour is one of just a few writing about local politics on the Web.

An exterminator by trade, Cour posts his unvarnished opinions about politics, society, the city, his life and his wife on his Web site. But it was his concern for Wilkes-Barre that first pushed him to the Internet.

"All I really wanted five years ago was for Wilkes-Barre to get its (stuff) together," he said during a recent interview in his wood-paneled living room.

"When the city started spiraling out of control a few years ago and I started writing letters to the editor."

The Times Leader seldom published his letters, and when they made it into The Citizens' Voice, Cour said, his words were so heavily edited that he didn't even recognize the letters as his own.

He eventually turned to his computer as a way to circumvent editorial page editors. That was in 2000.

When Tom McGroarty was mayor, Cour saw a city in decline. He had plenty to write about.

"It was insane. Look what he did to the city."

Under Mayor Tom Leighton, Cour sees things looking up a bit.

The front door to his North End home is plastered with "I Believe …" magnets, and his Web page, more often than not, is peppered with praise for the mayor who launched the slogan.

He's not sure if Leighton can rightly be crowned the mayor who saved the city, but he's surely competent, Cour says.

"Is he a visionary? I don't know. Isn't it enough to balance your books?"

Cour recalls meeting Leighton years ago, when Leighton was a councilman and Realtor.

"The first time I met him was at a termite job," he said. "He had no idea who I was."

A moustache and glasses cover much of his face, and Cour is jumpy, even in his own living room. Yet he exudes an intelligence and an unshakable sense that he knows what's going on and he knows exactly what he thinks about it.

The first time he met Leighton, Cour said he knew he was the one with the best shot to knock McGroarty out of office.

"You have name recognition," he recalled telling Leighton.

Tacked up at eye level near his desk is a photo of Cour posing with the new mayor at his inaugural party. Leighton is wearing a big grin, Cour a slightly outdated suit.

Some officials in City Hall have become more aware of Wilkes-Barre Online, and at least one pays close attention to the blog.

Councilman Jim McCarthy has taken to e-mailing comments to Cour regarding his posts. The outspoken councilman's words appear in the hot pink type Cour reserves for letters from his readers.

"He's got balls," Cour said of McCarthy. "Do you see a lot of politicians sending e-mails to bloggers?"

Cour's opinions aren't limited to city politics. Many of his posts are riffs on life in a city characterized by equal parts urban decay and downtown rebirth.

Cour calls himself a conservative, but adds that really he's "all over the place."

His writing has won him a large enough base of readers that he sometimes garners a mention on Sue Henry's local current affairs show on WILK-AM radio.

It's a medium Cour identifies with.

"Is there any difference between what a blogger does and what talk show hosts do?" he asked.

Perhaps Henry recognizes the similarities as well.

"She actually sent me an e-mail and said why don't you come up and do a tape to audition," Cour said.

There are a handful of other bloggers writing about the Wyoming Valley, but Henry says she reads Cour more than the others.

"He's extremely smart. He is always very unfiltered," she said. "Do I always agree with what writes? Of course not, but at least he has the audacity to put it out there."

------------

To read Mark Cour's blog, go to http://wilkes-barre.tripod.com [http://wilkes-barre.tripod.com].

Jon Fox, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7219.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

More News in this Category