Sleazy Buffalo TV Reporter Charlie Specht Misleads His Viewers Again

Sordid Buffalo reporter Charlie Specht

WKBW-TV reporter Charlie Specht in Buffalo has an impressive resume when it comes to dodgy "journalism" and calumny against the Catholic Church. We have already reported how Specht has previously:

• defamed an innocent priest;
• outright lied to one of his viewers about his research into a dubious abuse claim;
• sleazily recorded Bishop Richard J. Malone in order to try and embarrass him;
• admitted that he broadcast false information about an abuse claim; and
• outright misled viewers as to the nature of the "scandals" in Buffalo.

Now, lowbrow Specht has recently reported that an accuser has come forward to claim that Fr. Lynn Shumway abused him as a 12-year-old boy back in 2009. Yet Specht did not reveal to his viewers until more than halfway through his report that Shumway died last year.

In other words, Specht buried the most critical detail of the story, that the accused will not be available for a response.

"Investigative journalism"?

Charlie Specht fashions himself as an "investigative journalist," whatever that term means in the august world of local television journalism. Yet it does not appear that Specht did any actual "investigating" here other than press the record button for the accuser's cash-hungry lawyer, Paul Barr, and let him babble on in the hunt for dollars.

Never did Specht ask Barr if there were any actual witnesses to support the accuser's claim or whether Fr. Shumway had any other accusations lodged against him. Pesky details for Specht, it would seem, but his viewers may think otherwise.

Be on the lookout for more dirt from Buffalo's king of sleaze, Charlie Specht.