It’s been one presidential election cycle since I was above the fold in the New York Times.

The problem is, in 2020, on the eve of the commander-in-chief race, I was the source, not the byline. I was not on staff nor a freelancer for one of America’s most notable newspapers; I was the cautionary tale of a naïve journalist pumping out content for political operative Brian Timpone.

But, before I give my opinion on the matter, first, I will discuss the backstory. Long before I was considered part of what the Times’ report called “a proliferation of partisan local news sites funded by political groups associated with both parties,” I was and will remain dedicated to the craft.

Like many news reports, much of what matters does not make the cut, as seen in the Times report. Reporters Davey Alba and Jack Nicas only used what fit best to further their side of my story.

If we were to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the Times report would have included this newspaper article about me under my maiden name, Santoriello: Township Paid Mayor’s Former Aide for Her Silence in Harassment Claim.

But they didn’t. Alba and Nicas glanced over why I ended up working for Timpone in the first place. According to the duo, “The Times spoke with 16 reporters who have worked for Mr. Timpone. Many overlooked their doubts about the job because the pay was steady, and journalism gigs were scarce.”

That’s not why I left.

But Alba and Nicas cut that part out. My exit from Franklin Archer was directly due to that pit-in-my-stomach feeling I had in 2010 before deciding then that Mayor Tom Kelaher was no longer allowed to grope me while I generated press releases in his favor.

After putting my name out there for the sake of all journalists, as I did in 2010, long before the #MeToo movement, Alba and Nicas admittedly left it out, as seen below:

“The Times uncovered details about the operation through interviews with more than 30 current and former employees and clients, as well as thousands of internal emails between reporters and editors spanning several years,” the Oct. 18, 2020, edition reads.

Out of the 30 journalists noted, only Pat Morris, a New Jersey journalist, and I spoke, with me as the story lead. Like me, Morris was not given any credit for her prior coverage at The Florham Park Eagle in northern New Jersey. She was simply a source willing to talk.

After sending Alba my hard drive to access all my emails, agreeing to a photo shoot, and sending the papers in which my work was published, as seen in the Times Report, I remain a jaded journalist due to the whole truth and nothing, but the truth is left out.  

My whistleblowing past as a public information officer for Toms River was and remains very relevant to Republicans like Timpone now. My angst and willingness to put myself out there was met by glamorizing Timpone’s influence while shouting out to my former employer, as seen below.

“But those operations run just several sites each, while Mr. Timpone’s network has more than twice as many sites as the nation’s largest newspaper chain, Gannett,” the Times report reads.

If I were writing my story, I would have definitely used the fact that after one year with the notable newspaper, where I covered murders, fatal accidents, and fallen soldiers in Iraq, Paula Scully and I were lauded by the New Jersey Press Association as winners for the Lloyd P. Burns Public Service Award in 2006 as Gannett writers.

If I were writing my story, I probably would have said something to the effect “that Underwood, who worked diligently uncovering the truth as a Gannett correspondent, would ultimately have her byline plastered far more places than ‘the nation’s largest newspaper chain,’ could provide her from her daily Jersey beat.  

Ultimately, Timpone’s notoriety led to journalists from Japan contacting me to discuss “pink slime journalism,” which, unbeknownst to me, was a thing. Unlike Audrey Hepburn, who is famous for her quote, “I believe in pink,” I do not.

Long four-year story short, since selling my soul to a political operative unbeknownst to me, I find I am part of a “pink slime journalism ring,” covered by a 2022  Washington Post report that leads to the Times report.  

Being part of a “pink” ring of political operatives is only one phase of my nearly two-decade-long career that began with Gannett in 2005 and ended when the Ocean County Observer folded, and I chose to work for Toms River Township as the first-ever public information officer.

That is why I felt so duped when Alba contacted me through LinkedIn to ask me to be in the report, saying my story was important. She even dangled the lead, noting the Times would use me to start off the nearly 3,300-word investigative report, as seen below:

“The instructions were clear: Write an article calling out Sara Gideon, a Democrat running for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat in Maine, as a hypocrite. Angela Underwood, a freelance reporter in upstate New York, took the $22 assignment over email.”

After digging up my past and putting myself out there, the only quote from me was the one below.

“Ms. Underwood, who wrote the Maine Business Daily article, said she, too, had felt duped once the political agenda had become clear: “You say you’re never going to dance with the devil like that; you just judge people for doing it,” Ms. Underwood said. “And then you’re just in the exact same position.”

So here I am, providing the follow-up that Alba and Nicas never did. Like any other journalist, I find myself seeking to tell someone’s story.

My most recent stint with MPG8 Publishing–covering local California government meetings from the comfort of my Pensacola, Florida home, just like I did for Timpone with the Illinois General Assembly from Watertown, New York- is over, due once again, to an employer not keeping their end of a contract.  

Between 2019 and now, the state of journalism has added several types of media outlets to my resume, with each stint sometimes shorter than the next.

Take, for example, demanding to get out of my two-year contract with Sinclair Broadcast due to the group not fulfilling the terms. This time, two years ago, I was in a newsroom writing up this, and now I am telling my personal tale to the Standpoint News.  

My byline is on dozens of different reports ranging from this data-driven article I wrote with Stacker featured in Newsweek to my work with Timpone posted on Forbes. And yes, my work with Franklin Archer remains, as seen here with a website filled with pages of an Angela Underwood byline.

Bottom-line, there is no state of journalism, but rather a will to survive a dying industry. It is simply a trade through time that documents history, just like the Bible.

With that, in the future, I will continue to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.