For months we’ve been watching a collection of Berkley-branded pages and accounts churn out the same grievances, allegations and supposed crises: Berkley Tax Payer, The Berkley Eagle, Berkley Town News — Voice for the Residents, Berkley Updates, and the various supporting characters who appear so routinely that Berkley Facebook really should start running opening credits.
These entities each look like something out of Jabba’s Palace or the Cantina scene from Star Wars, rather than independent newsrooms that miraculously keep arriving at the same stories. So we started saving receipts.
Welcome to the Ecosystem
Start with The Berkley Eagle, created February 13, 2026 beneath the noble banner “Free Speech, No Censorship.” Facebook’s identifies Berkley Tax Payer as an administrator.
Curiously, before Facebook associated The Berkley Eagle with the BTP account, it came up in a search for a different profile in February 2026 that turned out to be related. We haven’t been able to locate a flesh-and-blood Berkley resident behind the Cheryl Feinberg account. We did, however, find something familiar: grievances about Cherise Hoak remarkably similar to ones Wendy Cochrane has aired in the past. Is it a coincidence? We’ll let you decide, Dear Readers.
And then there are the supporting characters.
Watch the comment sections long enough and some familiar names begin appearing together. In this particular thread, Cherise Hoak, Gregory Unger, Noel Edgren, Wendy Cochrane and Berkley Tax Payer all make appearances, along with accounts named Michael Sylvia and Lucy Kelson. We aren’t going to tell you who operates the latter accounts because we don’t know, although their limited Facebook histories and familiar writing styles have caught our attention. And we’ll leave it there for the readers to consider the question and make their own judgements unless and until there’s evidence establishing more.
What we can show you is who is posting, what they’re saying and how frequently the same collection of accounts seems to converge around the same Berkley political conversations. Readers can decide for themselves what, if anything, they think that pattern means.
They are literally never-ending…
And naturally no neighborhood tour would be complete without Berkley’s recurring Facebook trio: Noel Edgren, Wendy Cochrane and elected Planning Board member Greg Unger — the Three Amigos, the Unholy Trinity, Berkley’s answer to Charlie’s Angels if the missions involved Facebook outrage, political grudges and keeping the comment section fully staffed.
Unger is especially noteworthy because our records identify him as a moderator of Berkley Town News and a neighborhood watch captain while simultaneously serving as an elected town official. Apparently civic engagement is alive and well on the Berkley Planning Board. It just requires seventeen Facebook tabs and enough screen time to make an ophthalmologist nervous.
While none of this proves who operates every anonymous account, it does demonstrate that these supposedly different Berkley Facebook properties inhabit an extraordinarily cozy little neighborhood.
How to Manufacture a Berkley Crisis
The really interesting part isn’t merely who’s connected. It’s also how the information travels. Berkley Tax Payer has repeatedly asked readers to share their posts into the Town of Berkley Facebook group.
Well, thank you for explaining the distribution model.
Start with a provocative post light on facts and heavy on innuendo and gossip. Next, let the regulars warm it up in the comments, often joined by some of the same recurring accounts, then share it around the smaller pages and groups. By that point enough of the usual suspects are whipped into a frenzy and it’s time to share it into a group of roughly 10,000 people, where our screenshots identify Noel Edgren as an administrator alongside Beverly resident and Patient Zero Mike Jardin, who originally brought the Facebook circus to Town.
Kim Arena, please blink twice if your captors are treating you well.
Mission accomplished. The allegation now looks like a community controversy.
Three Facebook Pages in a Trench Coat
Our favorite example may be a Berkley Tax Payer post shared by Berkley Town News for the Residents to Town of Berkley MA Residents. We needed to use Google Maps to not get lost at this point. Granted, some of them went to school in trailers and by their own accounts still turned out alright, but the shortest distance between two points still remains a straight line. This is a bag of silly string by comparison.
A hive of scum and villainy
Three Berkley-branded properties. One piece of content. That’s not independent corroboration. That’s an up and coming media group. And that’s how repetition becomes powerful. Residents see essentially the same allegation under several different names and understandably begin thinking, “Wow, everyone is talking about this.” No, sometimes 6 people are just having an extremely productive evening.
The Outrage Recycling Center
Eventually every Berkley Facebook crisis burns itself out. The comments slow, everyone becomes exhausted and the town enjoys twelve beautiful minutes of peace. But nothing gets wasted in this ecosystem. Yesterday’s rumor becomes today’s “everyone knows.” Today’s “everyone knows” becomes tomorrow’s evidence. Old insults and controversies get recycled into the next supposed scandal, giving each new outrage a convenient backstory.
Then somebody hits Share and we start again.
We can’t prove that every step is centrally coordinated, and we’re not claiming that it is. What we can show are the connections, administrators, moderators, reposts, invitations and repeated requests to push material into larger audiences. Readers can decide what they think that means.
FREE SPEECH!*
Now stand back. Someone adds an accusation. Somebody remembers a rumor from four years ago. Someone’s sister’s hairdresser supposedly knows what really happened. Old grudges get dragged from storage and attached to the new outrage until, by Comment #73, nobody remembers what started the discussion but half the thread wants somebody fired, put in jail, or assaulted. Speaking of which, stay tuned for our upcoming look at some particularly troubling online comments made by Town of Berkley employee Bob Avilla.
Perhaps nothing captures the absurdity better than The Berkley Eagle declaring itself “Free Speech, No Censorship.” The idea of free speech being in grave danger is absolutely precious considering we have evidence of people who disagreed with these pages subsequently being blocked. Apparently free speech remains a cherished Berkley value provided you select an opinion from the approved menu. Terms and conditions apply. Please see our return policy for details. Offer void where prohibited. Dissenters may be removed without notice.
Private Facebook groups are allowed to moderate themselves. That’s not the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is screaming “NO CENSORSHIP!” from the digital steps of Independence Hall while your other hand is hovering over the Block button. Patrick Henry apparently died for your right to agree with the social media page administrator, or else.
Please Don’t Feed the Wildlife
And here’s the uncomfortable part: this ecosystem can’t survive on anonymous users alone. It needs people willing to feed it. We’re not talking about followers. Plenty of people follow these pages simply to watch the circus. We’re talking about the people who repeatedly like, share and reinforce allegations, helping one accusation acquire the appearance of widespread community consensus. We’ll be looking at that part separately.
Because the goal here isn’t another enemies list. It isn’t to send people after Noel, Wendy, Greg or anybody else. That would defeat the entire point. Accountability shouldn’t require creating another mob.
The goal is to make the trick stop working.
When the next enormous Berkley scandal erupts, look at the original source. Look for evidence. Look at who shared it. Ask whether there is any documentation to substantiate it. Ask whether the five places manically repeating it are actually five independent sources or if the same information being passed around the same ecosystem until it looks like the entire town is talking.
Repetition isn’t corroboration. A share isn’t evidence. A comment section isn’t an investigation. And five Facebook accounts repeating the same allegation doesn’t make it five times more true. Berkley has enough actual problems without Facebook turning every rumor or disagreement into another crisis. So argue. Disagree. Criticize. Hold officials accountable. But stop letting an anonymous Facebook ecosystem decide whom Berkley is supposed to hate this week.
And whatever you do:
Please don’t feed the wildlife.
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