Local Blogger Complies With Court Order to Remove Nilan Content

By Joe DurwinPittsfield Correspondent
02:17PM / Thursday, June 28, 2012Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Stockbridge resident and blogger on local affairs Daniel Valenti has complied with a judge's order to remove all blog posts making reference to Meridith Nilan, who was spared penalty earlier this month in a ~~hit-and-run~~ motor vehicle incident that nearly took the life of Pittsfield resident Peter Moore.

In total, Valenti says he removed about 76 posts from his blog PlanetValenti.com.

"We have removed all posts that reference the Plaintiff, her father, and references to the victim of the Dec. 8, 2011 incident," said Valenti on his blog. "We went beyond what the court asked to demonstrate our good faith in dealing with the order."

Valenti says he received the one-page court order Wednesday night, and while the blogger, who has written in the past for The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield Gazette and other publications, says there are First Amendment issues with the court's decision, he will abide by it.

On Wednesday, Valenti told iBerkshires via email that he had yet to see the judge's decision and he would have to see that before determining his next course of action.

"I found out about it while reading the comments on my blog, ironically," Valenti said. "I've never had any contact with Ms. Nilan nor do I intend that. I will also add that this case brings up an interesting First Amendment discussion."

The Nilan/Moore motor vehicle incident had comprised the top or primary story on the blog for several months earlier this year, and has been a continued point of interest for its group of regular commenters. According to statistics obtained from various site traffic tracking services, searches for information about Meredith Nilan have accounted for just over 8 percent of the blog's total traffic in recent months.

PlanetValenti.com was launched in September 2010, and has several times become a center of controversy and accusations of inaccurate reporting. The self-proclaimed "Voice of the Little Guy" has also broken several local stories. The domain PlanetValenti.com is registered as owned by Troy Book Makers, of Troy, N.Y., with Susan Novotny listed as the contact person. Novotny is co-owner of Troy Book Makers and owner of The Stuyvesant Plaza Book House in Albany, N.Y.

Valenti has frequently maintained the site attracts many thousands of readers, though he has several times declined requests to provide statistics backing this claim. In December 2011, Valenti claimed the site was ranked 2,397,097 of all world websites, according to Alexa.com traffic rankings. As of today, however, Alexa lists the site as ranked 3,741,979. Other site-traffic measurement services also rate it as being in the high 3 millions (the lower the ranking, the higher the traffic), depending on how recent their gathered data.

More detailed statistical estimates obtained from another online traffic index, SpySiteTraffic.com, indicate that the site receives an average of 15 readers per day, with a monthly average of about 451 readers, but they do tend stay longer than average, at about 8 minutes on the site. As compared to other online sites devoted to local news, PV.com appears to garner just a little under a 10th the readers of iBerkshires, or about 3 percent that of BerkshireEagle.com.

Editor's note: The hit-and-run charge was dismissed. We have corrected the description based on the court ruling.

Tags: blogger, columnist, court order, Nilan, planetvalenti.com,

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Advocates Request Pittsfield Office of Neighborhood Safety

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:23AM / Monday, August 31, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Advocates want an office of neighborhood safety within the City of Pittsfield following a string of gun violence incidents this summer.

Last week, during a virtual meeting, the Pittsfield Freedom Project called for public health interventions, such as violence interrupters, hospital violence intervention, and a neighborhood trauma response team.

"I'm sure everyone is aware; there have been at least four shootings. I've heard from people in the community that there have been more than that, but these are the ones that have resulted in injuries," said filmmaker Jenny Herzog.

"Resulting in one homicide and at least seven injured over the last couple of months."

Recent shooting incidents in Pittsfield ranged from June 18, when a person died after being shot in the area of Tyler Street and Pleasure Avenue, and another person was injured, to August 18, when one person was injured after shots were fired on Circular Avenue.

Herzog produced the documentary "Hear Me," which explores the impact of poverty and gun violence on young people in Berkshire County. Attendees also heard from local advocate and fourth-generation Pittsfield resident Kamaar Taliaferro, CEO of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence Ruth Zakarin, and Ben Snyder, a sociology professor at Williams College.

"Here we are again in another cycle of gun violence, without the tools we need, seemingly without the will to demand the tools, and even if we did, without leadership that would even understand what we're asking for," Taliaferro said.

"And it's not like we don't have the resources to build what we need. At least $1.3 million has come into Pittsfield every year for the past six years, targeted to interrupt the cycle of gun and gang violence that we are in this moment. And dating back even further, Pittsfield has received gun violence prevention money and has received gang violence intervention money since like 2014. Since the last time there was this like emergent cycle of gun violence in our community."