BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Now that really hurts… .
George Capsis and Dusty Berke have accused Arthur Schwartz of “stealing” Capsis’s newspaper, WestView News. … But, at this point, that’s not exactly new news anymore.
Recently, though, Capsis’s trusty street newspaper box has gone missing, too — quickly followed, in short order, by a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. poster swiped from right off the side of his building.
Capsis, the nonagenarian publisher and founder of WestView News, always proudly kept a metal newspaper box stocked with issues of WestView on the sidewalk outside his Charles Street townhouse. But in December, the box suddenly vanished. Not long after, a blue R.F.K. Jr. campaign sign that was pasted on the building’s exterior near the front door also disappeared.
Schwartz, the founding senior editor of the breakaway Village View (originally New WestView News), said don’t look at him.
“Why would I steal George’s box?” he scoffed. “No one involved in Village View even talks about WestView anymore. Their last issue was in October. It’s irrelevant.
“The box was probably illegal,” he shrugged. “Stores get street furniture and installations removed all the time. Usually it’s [done by] the Department of Transportation. Just like I got Dusty’s bus towed,” he quipped.
Last January, in just its second issue, Village View’s letters page piled on Berke’s 9/11 Tiles bus — which had sat for years at Mulry Square, at Seventh Avenue South and Greenwich Avenue, facing the wrong direction and without the meter being plugged. Police subsequently towed the vintage vehicle — plus arrested Berke after she hopped on board it, desperately trying to stop them.
“I have never had anything to do with her bus,” Schwartz asserted then. “Never spoke to anyone official about it. … I was not involved.”
The Democratic district leader said he did not snatch the R.F.K. Jr. placard from Capsis’s property, either, and was incredulous that he was being asked about it.
“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I saw it there three months ago, but then it disappeared.”
Raising the ire of some Villagers, WestView News last year endorsed anti-vaxxer R.F.K. Jr. for president.
Meanwhile, Schwartz noted that Village View had recently put out its 15th monthly issue.
“Front-page story about Beth Israel lawsuit. Scooped everyone. Even you!” he crowed.
Yes, great job! Absolutely, no question… . But when you are the attorney actually filing the admittedly crucial lawsuit, chances are high you will get the scoop! … Anyway… .
For her part, Berke said things at WestView fell behind a bit when Capsis, who recently turned 96, got COVID for the second time, followed by pneumonia. Although she treated his COVID before with an alternative medicine, Argentyn (colloidal silver), she said this time he received antibiotics. (The F.D.A. has warned that Argentyn is not safe or effective for treating any disease or condition.)
“We were going to do a November/December holiday issue,” she explained. “We did a book review of Kennedy’s Fauci book — and then he got pneumonia.”
Berke noted she felt it was “interesting” that on Capsis’s birthday in December 2022, “his paper was stolen” and that then on his most recent birthday, “the box was stolen and the R.F.K. banner was stolen.”
Where can I get Westview consistently? It used to be at Rite Aid occasionally but no more. I especially like the extensive event listings in the back.
The demise of WestView News has one word – Dusty.
No idea who did it, but kudos to whoever it is – they obviously understand that RFK Jr. is a whack job whose presence in the race threatens our fundamental democracy. Shame on WestView News for promoting him and his lunacy.