A “fake news” website appears to use an email list belonging to Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton to attack his opponents and praise his allies. Tamarac residents have complained about emails from the “Tamarac Post” website attacking city officials. REDBROWARD previously exposed the deep ties between Bolton and the Tamarac Post.
Tamarac Post recently featured stories attacking Tamarac Commissioner Elvin Villalobos.
In May, Villalobos made headlines when he questioned the propriety of political committees tied to Bolton receiving large contributions from city vendors. Soon after Villalobos made his allegations, the Tamarac Post began a series of articles attacking him.
Many residents and city officials question how the Tamarac Post obtained the email addresses of city residents. Federal law requires sites to obtain permission from recipients before sending emails. Some residents told REDBROWARD they never signed up to receive emails from the Tamarac Post.
REDBROWARD obtained the most recent email blast from the Tamarac Post. Near the bottom of the email are options to “unsubscribe” and “update profile.”
REDBROWARD clicked on “update profile.” We were redirected to a new page entitled “Update Your Commissioner Marlon Bolton Profile.”
Generated by Constant Contact, the email provider used by the Tamarac Post, the page continues:
You are seeing this message for one of the following reasons:
- You are a current member of the mailing list for Commissioner Marlon Bolton and would like to update your profile.
- You are a previous member of the mailing list for Commissioner Marlon Bolton and would like to re-subscribe to this list – Welcome back!
This is not the first time technology exposed direct ties between Marlon Bolton and the Tamarac Post.
In September 2021, a link provided by the Tamarac Post revealed “MBOLTON” authored stories attacking City of Tamarac politicians. Since late August, five Tamarac Post stories were written by “Maria Colson.” An August 26, 2021 story was a puff piece praising Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton for a meaningless political appointment.
The next four stories featured baseless attacks on Bolton’s fellow commissioners. The most recent story contains numerous false claims against Mayor Michelle Gomez, Vice Mayor Elvin Villalobos and even former Mayor Beth Talabisco.
In March 2021, REDBROWARD exposed Marlon Bolton’s deep ties to “The Tamarac Post,” which was owned and operated by close Bolton ally Anthony Bonamy.
The Tamarac Post repeatedly wrote stories praising Marlon Bolton and his then-Commission co-hort Elberg Mike Gelin. The City Of North Lauderdale fired Bonamy from his position as deputy clerk after REDBROWARD revealed his role in the website. Bonamy was quickly hired as an aide to Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness.
On August 31,2021, REDBROWARD revealed how Tamarac Post reporter Maria Colson was not a Tamarac resident.
According to her social media accounts, Maria Colson was a twentysomething woman living in Sidcup, England. According to her LinkedIn page, Colson worked for TJ MAXX and a public policy firm. Both jobs are located in England, NOT Tamarac.
Colson’s Tamarac Post bio gives a vanity website, mariacolson.com, which appears to be a dead link. Links to her Facebook and Twitter accounts are also provided.
According to her Twitter account, Maria Colson is deeply interested in British animal rights causes and climate change initiatives. She made no mention of Tamarac, or Broward, or Florida or even the U.S.A.
REDBROWARD attempted to contact Maria Colson via her Facebook page. She never responded to questions about her reporting.
Why were stories allegedly written by a young Englishwoman posted under “MBOLTON?”
How did the Tamarac Post get access to the Constant Contact account for Commissioner Marlon Bolton?
Who is writing these attack stories for the Tamarac Post?
