Who says they are speaking on his behalf? Last I heard, "Richie's gutter press mates" were on the opposite end of a lawsuit from him, which at the time, was not only hindering his studio work, but was also stirring up bad press for him. They still have an ax to grind and they could be using a back door to do that since the "death threat" debacle apparently didn't achieve the desired results.

And just for the record, there was never really anything to suggest that Richie agreed with, or had anything to do with, all the BS they managed to get published surrounding the split from Bon Jovi. Everybody just assumed, since it was negative towards BJ and Richie was in business with Nikki, that Richie was in cahoots with Borg and Lund. Richie actually had very little to say outside of responding to questions in interviews promoting the shows he did. And despite the interpretations fans placed on his comments, very little of what he did say (of what could be confirmed actually came directly from him) was negative towards Jon and the band.

The 'negativity' was due, in large part, to the negative way that some fans interpreted what was said because of their own resentment, justified or not, towards anything Richie did or said at the time.