Too funny.

The McElroy list:

(link...)

SUBJECT: Public records request for emails

Dear Mr. Jarret:

The Knoxville News Sentinel is making a public records request for any emails to, from or otherwise distributed between Sept. 1, 2010, to present from the attached list of addresses.

The Tennessee Public Records Act, specifically T.C.A. 10-7-503(a)(1)(A), provides "public record or records" or "state record or records" means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any government agency.

The Knoxville News Sentinel, pursuant to the above provision of the Act, is requesting copies of these emails contained in any file, electronic data compilation, whether on computer, in a storage medium or otherwise, or other system or records, file, records retention storage facility, system or otherwise, whether written or electronic, in any form whatsoever related to this request.

The Knoxville News Sentinel is willing to pay a reasonable cost for the material -- preferably copied on CD -- and ask that it be notified in advance if the cost will exceed $200.

Please email the response to me at chestert@knoxnews.com or contact me at 865-342-6344 when the information is available.

Bummer, I didn't make the list. Sniff.

I got the biggest giggle from the background. It suggests that he knows what to do with those things.

Get the distinct impression that McElroy is concerned what people are saying about his newspaper and trying to find some e-mail that they can take out of context and hummiliate the people on McElroy's enemies list.

To me is that the Truth Squat is too stupid to figure out the list is in alphabetical order. He complains about being #7 behind somebody else. Poor guy.
In other news, A virtually unknown local blog, "Brian's Blog" reached an all time high readership today with a total number of views topping out at 16, nearly eight times it's normal daily readership! Congrats Truth Squat "Team"!

I have no idea what the KNS wants with these emails, but if they went to and from county email addresses, they ARE a matter of public record.

Is that Mark or Mike Padgett on that list?

That's a strange list. I wonder if it's derived from the KNS commenter database. Or maybe they padded the list with a bunch of decoys to obscure the true target.

KAG spotted some interesting email addresses and has filed her own open records request:

Mr. Jarrett:

Please consider this email to be a formal Open Records request made by a Knox County citizen, pursuant to T.C.A. 10-7-501 through 10-7-515.

I am the mother of Henry Louis Granju, whose injuries and subsequent death were the subject of a criminal investigation handled by the Office of the Knox County Sheriff's Office and the Office of the Knox County District Attorney, beginning on April 27, 2010. It is in that context I am writing to request that Knox County provide me with legally defined access any communication dated between April 27, 2010 and January 1, 2012 to, from or otherwise distributed by any Knox County email address, or any email address within the KnoxSheriff.com server and email system that in any way references. mentions or includes any of the following email addresses:

[Redacted]

If you are not the appropriate individual within Knox County government to address my Open Records request for emails to and from the KnoxSheriff.com email system and server, I ask that you please proceed with processing my request related to Knox County email addresses, but that you also direct me to the legally defined records custodian within the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

Pursuant to Tennessee's Open Records Act, I am requesting copies of these emails contained in any format, electronic or physical (printed copies), and contained within any storage or file medium, including but not limited to desks, filing cabinets, storage rooms, lockers, mobile devices such as Blackberries, netbooks, laptop and desktop computers, external drives or servers, and any type of cloud based digital file or storage, including those hosted by vendors or contractors of Knox County government and/or the Knox County Sheriff's
Office.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this written request within the seven (7) working days required under Tennessee's Open Records Statute. Please let me know by return email when I can come by your office and pick these records up at a time convenient for your staff, as well as what the cost to me will be for their reproduction (costs defined by T.C.A. Section 10-7-506(a) ). If mailing the documentation to me would be more convenient for your staff, I will be happy to provide my USPS mailing address.

Please let me know if you have any questions related to my Open Records request.

Thank you for your time and public service.

Katie Allison Granju
Knoxville, TN

I heard one extremely funny theory that McElroy unknowingly got hold of Lee Tramel's email list -- hence the addies of his wife and family.

Good for kag.

Anybody know how many hard drives will fit in a microwave at one time?

Just kidding. I'm not Tyler. But Jack McElroy may be.

Here is the latest in the McElroy wannabe Murdoch hacking.

(link...)

Can Moxley Carmichael and Rick Hollow save what is left of the last daily paper?

Tell us Jack, how did this seem to be a good idea?

Hornback is claiming they're getting another list:

(link...)

What gives with McElroy? Looks like the newspaper man is on his own witch hunt.

Are him and Strickland just trying to hassle Burchett, claiming the actions are unrelated?

AHEM:

(link...)

Evidently my source was correct.
So who hacked Tramel's email account, and why did Jack Mac want it?

So you're not supposed to pick a fight with the guy that buys ink by the barrel, it's better to pick a fight with the guys with the badges and guns? Guess Jack Mac can't give up old habits.

Allison Burchett must have Jack Mac hypnotized.

Can someone summarize for me what's happening? I'd prefer not to click on those links.

I have a feeling it has something to do with
school budget loss + jack McElroy = political retribution.

And throw Allison Burchett in there to be on the safe side.

I have a feeling it's all inter-connected. I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but hey, this is Knox County.

"To expedite this request and to avoid the time and expense of reviewing every email, this superseding request is only for the following information from the "header field" of each email: "From:," "To:," "Sent:," "Cc:," "Subject:" and the names of any attached files. We are NOT requesting the bodies of the emails or the contents of any attached files."

Ok; THAT seems a little weird. Maybe they plan to follow up with a second FOIA request for emails with certain subject lines?

Could possibly have been printing out whatever e-mails along the way she thought would have similar value as would copies of the checks which appered in the KNS.

McElroy drops the FOIA request for identification of e-mails which he already has copies of and if the ones he has copies of are not identified, they he filed a complaint with somebody showing the e-mail he has a copy of. Classic game of Gothcha, all in an effort to continue to smear Burchett since he brought their "agenda" to a screaching halt.

In my opinion, it doesn't do much to improve government unless McElroy thinks the county should have an email retention policy to eliminate all e-mail more than X many days old unless stored and retained for legal purposes. In that context, there are a number of ways to suggest that rather than these inconsequential games that do nothing except cost the taxpayers money that could have been used for other legitimate county purposes.

The target of this Gotcha may actually be the new law director Uncle Bud. KNS wasn't a big fan of his in the beginning and his official duties will begin in a couple of weeks.

Classic game of Gothcha, all in an effort to continue to smear Burchett since he brought their "agenda" to a screaching halt.

Well, here's an idea: what about using Occam's Razor and assuming that the KNS asked for these emails because they are pursuing some kind of story?

Nah, that'd be boring.

(link...)

Also the part about not becoming part of the story....

All this being hush hush is what's worrisome and suspicious.

If they have something then why would they hide it?

Only 2 reasons:

They don't have anything, they just want to act like they do.

They don't have anything, but they hope they will find at least something they can spin together in hopes the public might buy it as wrongdoing.

I think somewhere in this campaign/check mess, McElroy crossed an ethical line, and he's trying to cover it up.

It seems odd that McElroy has not editorialized about the email addresses, or at least in general why he wants them, as he did about the video and Shield Law.

It's not as if he would leak a potential story to competitors, or that he is trying to surprise someone.

Everyone knows he has them, but no one knows why.

His credibility suffers each day he is silent.

(link...)

This is troubling

(link...)

Is McElroy stating he's used an FOIA 50 times, or that he's looked at other people's emails 50 times?

He needs to explain himself.

McElroy and KNS are beginning to make the Dept of Homeland Security and users of the Patriot act look like a bunch of pikers.

A lot of people are throwing aroung the term FOIA, but the KNS request has nothing to do with FOIA. FOIA is the Freedom of Information Act, which is a federal law dealing with federal infromation. Our requrest was made under the state Public Records Act, which covers state and local reocrds. Two different laws.

Is anyone curious about the other 50 Open Records requests in 2012? Jack said this is "normal" operations and not related to a pissing match with Timmah.That means normal is 51 requests in 30 weeks or 1.7 per week.That projects to about 88 per year.I suppose that average would have held for the last 5 years of "normal" operation. Therefore, we likely had 88 x 5 = 440 over that period.If each request revealed 500 e-mail addresses,as 2012/51 is said to have done,then the total of examined e-mail contacts could be 440 x 500 = 220,000. Wow...Is this reporting or NSAesque data mining?

JCB: Don't understand what was fraudulent about the BOE budget. In fact, it was the most transparent budget I've seen. You could agree or disagree with its components, but to call it fraudulent is wrong. -- s.

Jack, Scott Barker does not deny that the KNS has obtained many private e-mail address books and their tens of thousands of associated links and info.He goes on to say ,..." My guess is that we submit hundreds of public records requests every year.".... Therefore the KNS spends a lot of time going through literally hundreds of thousands of data group entries looking for something to print.I love newspapers and look forward to reading several every day. I love the feel, the smell, and the great detail of newspapers.Some of my happiest memories are reading the Times on Sunday morning in bed.The notion that the KNS is reduced to dumpster diving through private electronic debris and civil minutiae ,hoping to find a nugget around which to build a story is sad.Where are your reporters ? Jack, we expect better of you.

In fairness to the Sentinel, broad sweeping FOIA requests are definitely going to be the smartest,quickest, easiest and cheapest way of verifying information. Creepy as it may seem, it is a necessary, and I believe, good check on out of control and potentially abusive uses of power.

I think it would be a mistake to change the act based on what may or may not turn out to be a journalistic slump. Despite anyone's emotional reaction to anything the Sentinel has done lately, any and all local newspapers are a vital part of their community and the freedom to operate and report freely is key to their effective function.

I think it would be a mistake to equate , for lack of a better term,"a misreported story" for broad based incompetence. Like most large institutions, one can point at good or bad. In other words, we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Tor.

I'd stay off the Silk Road, though.

The News Sentinel got the story about the Knoxville abortion clinic closing from AP and the Nashville Tennessean. That's pitiful. It is definitely a huge loss to this community. The anti-abortion folks are really anti-women. They are trying to make sure no caring, professional doctors are available to do abortions which leaves desperate women at the mercy of hacks and profit makers.

My midwife-backup doctor also performed abortions and they tried to run him out of town by publicizing his address and harassing him. That meant the midwife ran the risk of no doctor backup. Now how can that be anything but anti women and babies?

This is the reason Jack McElroy is snooping on private emails?

(link...)

Looks like Betty's source was right. That is pretty weak tea to go snooping with. Not a single government email was used. Ivan Harmon's email was with the City of Knoxville not Knox County. And Harmon didn't work for the City at that time.

So does McElroy really believe that the Open Records Act of Tennessee trumps the 4th Amendment. I want to see Rick Hollow argue that in court.

Fisch, I think McElroy is wrong. You can't go after private emails. State law doesn't trump the 4th. McElroy should be turned down for not following the Open Records Act. So what else did McElroy fudge on?

Emails sent to and from private addresses are public records if one of the correspondents is a public official conducting public business. For example, if a county commissioner sends an email to a constituent regarding a zoning issue, it's a public record, regardless of whether it was sent from a private or public account.

The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures conducted by the government. I hope you understand the difference between a government agency and a privately-owned newspaper (or an individual such as kag).

It is up to the government agency to comply with the Public Records Act, not the person seeking the record.

Similar to Katie's request, yes, any citizen can file an open records request.

We have filed several with state and local officials regarding road projects, and have gotten prompt replies almost every time.

One local agency balked when we asked for copies of public feedback regarding a road project. They said the people who responded didn't have any reason to think it would be public record. Plus, they said we were just trying to identify people to carry out a "vendetta" against. (In fact, we knew they were fudging the "for/against" numbers to the local media and just wanted evidence.) We cited state law, they talked to their lawyers, and produced the records. A subsequent request for public feedback about the project had a big bold notice that responses would be public record.

Anyway, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Open Records Counsel has everything you need to know, including forms and instructions.

(And you don't even need forms. Katie's letter above is an excellent model, except you don't even need to state why you are requesting the records.)

What amazes me is that this law has been on the books for decades and people still fuss and carry on about it.

When I was an undergrad for one of my classes -- I think it was a survey class, but this was the late 70s and I can't swear to that -- my partner and I did a project where we went to several local government offices and asked to see certain records. All were public records. The catch was how many initially told us that they couldn't hand over the records, and had to ask their boss. So here we are with slightly different details -- fussing about who is responsible for the emails from the sheriff's office -- and not wanting to hand them over.

Public records are public records are public records. Period.

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government did the same kind of survey a few years ago. I and a handful of my colleagues volunteered to help. It's amazing how government workers in different towns and counties vary in their understanding of the law. Volunteers went to places all over the state asking for the same four documents, all of them unquestionably public records. About one-third of the requests were denied outright. Unacceptable.

Not necessarily correct when it comes to kids and juveniles is it?

The problem is that the KNS has seemingly used every excuse to justify what it has done.

Fact is if the KNS had more credibility it would be dealing with these questions and suspicions.

But that's its own damn fault.

It's brought this on itself, and once the engine jumps the track, the rest is sure to follow.

"Not necessarily correct when it comes to kids and juveniles is it?"

Refers to public records being public.

Yes, the law is clear, and it's really no big deal.

As for Brian Hornback, I can assure, having been the subject of one of his recent blog posts, that he makes up 99 percent of what he claims to be reporting.

The lack of understanding of common journalistic practices and well established regulation such as the state open records act by people on this blog is not unusual. After all, you folks only"play" journalist a few hours a week and you're not held accountable.

What is harder to understand is that you criticize professionals journalists, any of which have more more experience than you in this regard, without even trying to get your facts straight. Why not look up the information about FOIA or the open Records Act and engage your brain before you start running off at the mouth.

If there is something illegal or improper about the KNS open records request there exists a cadre of educated, highly motivated individuals at the city, state and county government who could make and prove such allegations. The reason the county complied with the request is because it is a simple, legal request of the type they respond to much more often than 50 times a year.

If the posters on this blog or on Hornbeck's blog were held accountable for their false and misleading accusations they would probably consider more carefully what they write. Rest assured, the KNS is held accountable for everything it publishes.

Thanks for chiming in. Some folks who post here have some journalism experience and understand. Others are active in certain areas and have some experience with public records requests. The most vocal in this thread, however, are those who don't have a clue and apparently won't learn. I suspect at least one or two are on the list of requested emails and are more interested in lashing out than understanding how the law (or journalism, for that matter) works.

Agree with Randy.
Having finally seen the Tramel email, it's not overtly racist, it's just a typical election year "embarrassing relative" smear. If he let the recipients' addresses show, he wasn't much concerned for their privacy, so that's on him.
Apparently the 'story' is GOP political operative/cop sends kind of creepy, sort of dumb political email to friends and family and political allies. Not exactly a newsflash, And since no story ensued, I'm not sure what the problem is, although I don't know why the NS would be interested in those email addresses.

How is it that the News Sentinel did not report this story?

(link...)

(link...)

(link...)

(link...)

(link...)

The Sentinel's request specifically said they do not want the content of emails. They just want to see how often mail from the county's mail system goes to those addresses, information that can be extracted from the county mail server.

No remote mail servers need to be contacted. No one's inbox has been violated or needs to be accessed. They want to see whether Tramel uses his county account for personal or political mail often or just now and then.

What's going on with this records request is quite simple if you remain grounded in what is factual.

When Brian Hornback had printed the McElroy emails last week I saved the list in an Excel file. There were 84 names. This morning I counted the number of email addresses without proper names. 27 of those emails were cryptic email addresses. They were non-names. For example, tvcsrr@something.com.

Much has been made ignoring Calypso's posts. Too technical and whatnot. You can play dumb. But even a computer illiterate like me understood the point.

On the Upfront Page Jack McElroy said, "The truth isn't quite so nefarious. The News Sentinel obtained the list from the county when it responded to an earlier public records request. Tramel had used the list to distribute some political material from his personal email address. On the list was at least one county government address. So the information entered the county's computers, and it popped back out in response to our unrelated query."

That is a falsehood. There is not a single county email address in the Tramel email.

So various Scripps employees had gone to great pains to allege that the Tramel email is not the source of the email lists.

It is the source.

You may not like Brian but he broke the story and the facts are not disputable.

I will be making a complaint to the Scripps Ethics Program Director at 513-977-3899 Monday. And on (link...) today. It is one thing for McElroy to deceive the readers. He has a lot to lose for his actions. But for every single Scripps employee that posted in this thread to play dumb and add in that falsehood shows the ethics problem is company wide at the News Sentinel.

While the News Sentinel stalked those on its enemies list Trustee John Duncan III is not reported on. I find that offensive. That $10,000 ethics fine that Duncan III escaped from is the same ethics fine that the News Sentinel is pushing for Mayor Tim Burchett. That is unethical.

I'm not on the McElroy enemy list. But the fact that a list like that exists has moved me to do something about it. Scripps owns the News Sentinel and it is their job to clean it up.

Feel free to call the ethics director if you believe there has been an ethics violation. That's why Scripps publishes the number. I am confident there has been no ethics violation.

To my knowledge (since many of the posters here don't use their real names), Bbeanster, Sandra Clark and I are the only Scripps employees who have posted on this thread. None of us is a reporter, and they don't work a KNS. A couple of freelancers who write columns for us have posted here, but they are not Scripps employees.

I have consistently said the Tramel email was the source of the email list. Typically, I don't even know about what the news folks are doing and in this case I did not know beforehand about the records requests. However, I do know now. You can call me a liar all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that we obtained the email as part of a records request. Anyone who doesn't like that should complain to Knox County, because Knox County was the organization that released the records.

I don't know anything about the Duncan situation, but we have not shied away from reporting on the trustee's office. After all, we broke the story on the improper bonuses paid by Duncan. I do know that for some reason we did not report Burchett's first campaign finance violation in 2006, when he was not fined, until he was fined for his second violation in 2008. At that time, Drew Rawlins, who is the director of the campaign ethics office, said first-time offenders typically do not get fined.

The editorial board has NOT called for Burchett to receive a fine; we have called for an investigation to find out whether the irregularities uncovered by our reporting constitute violations that are subject to fines. That investigation is now under way.

Isn't this something, we the public, should have heard from our local paper Scott and not from a blogger? The two people that are responsible for our local tax money can't handle their own shoe box campaign funds and reports.

Scott can you share with us what did Duncan do to warrant that maximum of a fine?

I believe that if something goes through a county server or a county computer, even if it a Yahoo, G-mail etc., it is still legally a public record.

My time is better spent on other, more productive endeavors. Thanks, Randy, it's been fun and I've enjoyed trying to explain what we do and answer questions about journalism, but this has just degenerated. If anyone has any questions about this or other topics, you can email me at barkers@knoxnews.com.

Do I get to be on the enemies list? I can be quite the fearless, biting smartass when I want to be. I would wear my badge of skullduggery with pride, I swear.

"Jack McElroy lied about the Tramel email. And so have you. It was the source of the enemies list. Not open records requests."

Let me get this straight. McElroy enlisted Tramel to compile an enemies list for him?
~m.

I remember back years ago when McElroy invaded someones privacy and put their address in the paper. People here didn't like it much. So laugh it up and have fun. But this man has a history you shouldn't forget.

Their address? Really? Do you think he googled it? Live in fear or don't.

I believe the poster was referring to this.

While we are on the subject of whether the KNS treats specific subjects of its news coverage differently depending on the personal, social or political opinions of those overseeing the newsroom, I'd like to raise the issue of how the Sentinel decides which stories are opened up for online commenting, and which are not.

The ability to allow or disallow aggressive public commenting on specific stories is a very, very powerful bullyclub that the local newspaper now wields in this community. For example, how is it that Commissioner Ownby is treated with compassion and respect by KNS management in its decision to disallow commenting on stories about Mr. Ownby's current difficulties, yet others of us who have been the subject of the newspaper's reporting over the past year or two have not been offered the same compassion? (Let me be clear that I support the KNS's decision to disallow commenting on the Ownby stories; I only wish that all of us facing painful news coverage of sensitive issues in our lives were offered the same respect.)

Here's something I wrote about this topic recently:

(link...)

I don't know about an enemies "list," but it's difficult not to question the objectivity of the newsroom when some subjects and topics of news coverage are intentionally protected from the newspaper's publication of a barrage of hurtful, inaccurate and often pointless anonymous commentary, while others are not afforded that protection.

-Katie

"objectivity of the newsroom"

I don't think it is so much the objectivity of the newsroom in question, as it is the objectivity of the editor, which is even more troubling.

As far as public access goes, state employees have been warned that supervisors can search for their Facebook accounts, even if they never access those accounts from a work computer, which is against workplace rules, at least in some departments.

But they were told sometime ago that their personal Facebook accounts could be reviewed.

Just got an email stating I am on the list.

Not sure why, unless McElroy is deriving a list from the first private email addresses he obtained.

I never received an email from Lee Trammel.

What's McElroy up to trying tyo put a chilling effect on the electronic sharing of ideas?

He crossed the line sometime ago.

Newspapers are allowed to fish. Sometimes they get results. What they are doing is the public's business. And as long as you were communicating with a public official, whether it was via an official email account or not, I figure you might as well figure that communication is subject to some public scrutiny. Those folks are afterall, going about the public's business, so they should be doing it publicly. Yet some if them have proven that they'd rather work in the shadows. They make it harder on everybody, including the citizen. And all this feather ruffling makes me believe that somebody has something to hide.

Y'uns can keep chasing Rooster down rabbit holes, or you can stay in contact with reality by recalling what KNS actually requested: "To expedite this request and to avoid the time and expense of reviewing every email, this superseding request is only for the following information from the "header field" of each email: "From:," "To:," "Sent:," "Cc:," "Subject:" and the names of any attached files. We are NOT requesting the bodies of the emails or the contents of any attached files."

Allow me to repeat that last line for morons: "We are NOT requesting the bodies of the emails or the contents of any attached files."