Reprinted from The National Herald
George Capsis publisher of WestView News culls the voice and wisdom of his West Village readers. “Arthur Schwartz can steal our name but he cannot steal your words” Photo credit: Dusty Berke
-By Penelope Karageorge
NEW YORK – Publisher George Capsis – witty, wise, and fierce as he celebrates his 95th birthday – is immersed in a battle for professional survival as lawyer Arthur Schwartz mounts an attack to steal his paper, WestView News from him. Says Capsis: “I called the police and am going by the law. I have talked with a number of lawyers who are sympathetic to what we can do. The paper is liked and respected by the community. Schwartz can’t win an election. He keeps being defeated. So the paper would be a nice ego tool for him.”
According to Dusty Berke, Capsis’ assistant, this bizarre theft, with a paper launched calling itself the New Westview News and copying the real paper’s masthead, is taking place in the most underhanded way. “They’re trying to make George look incompetent,” says Berke. “Liza Whiting has been tricking people into thinking that she comes from WestView, even stealing ads. Advertisers have no idea about the chicanery. The fake paper just took the ads and put them in.”
Says Berke: “Schwartz has been trying to steal the paper for years. In 2013, when he was representing George, he created an outrageous contract and claims that George signed it.”
Two of the people writing for the paper were tricked into believing they were in touch with the real paper, when it was the bogus WestView news they were reporting for.
Capsis founded the paper 20 years ago after a successful corporate career. “I was in my seventies when I left my last paying job and founded WestView in 2003.”
His neighbor, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, tagged George “the King of Greenwich Village” and the title is apt. Through the paper, Capsis has put his heart and soul into promoting worthy causes, including campaigning to bring a hospital to the West Village.
When the artistic hub of the Village, the Cornelia Street Café closed and the Greek-American Writers Association lost their home base, Capsis came to the rescue, introducing the group to the Rev. Graeme Napier, pastor of St. John’s in the Village, an Episcopalian church sympathetic to artistic causes.
Can Capsis keep the wolves at bay? According to Berke, George has the right stuff, despite being faced by double-dealing and underhanded tactics. “He’s feeling so terribly violated,” Berke says. “But he’s not giving up the good fight.”
Arthur Schwartz in his attempt to capture the readers of WestView News has printed a full page to attack the 9/11 Tiles for America bus which has sat on the corner for six years. On Tuesday, Jan 17th, the 6th precinct was ordered to tow the bus and haul it away. Dusty rushed from a production meeting to caution the police from removing the bus and of the fragility of the tiles. She pleaded with the officers not to tow the bus for fear the tiles would be damaged in transit. Dusty was summarily handcuffed and dragged into a police vehicle and hauled to the 6th precinct. She refused to be fingerprinted and have a mug shot, stating she committed no crime and was trying to protect the memorial tiles.
Arthur Schwartz may have been successful in having the bus towed to a police lot. (it will cost Dusty thousands of dollars to retrieve the bus and the 9/11 Tiles). If you believe the 9/11 Tiles for America Memorial belongs in the village write to us at WestView News or visit us on social media and email your local politicians and demand they create a permanent home for the surviving 9/11 Tiles that can be open to the public.
Schwartz is just a bad guy. A big crook. He stole cameras out of a building. He will steal anything.