P.S. I will concede the KNS's point that the records request is overly broad and involves innocent bystanders.

Thanks, hardened journalist Randy. Somebody has to report the news.

I'm not weighing in on the details, but when I was a journalist there were a few items that were sacred, among them the open meeting law, the open records law and the right to protect sources.

The Sentinel will fight this and if needed a ton of other media and journalism organizations will join in as friends.

It's all but sacred-who and why doesn't matter.

Dangerous territory. Regardless of how big or small you think the story is, KNS needs to be protected from giving out confidential sources. Whistle-blowers need protection, and typically newspapers are the places where these people go. And as a blogger, you or Horback are going to have some "confidential informant" give you information, and you're going to be hit with a subpoena. Many news outlets would go to bat for you, but it seems everyone is burning KNS because of politics and not looking at the ideologies of a career politician on a witch hunt.

They should also vet them.

Just for the record, I agree that the KNS should not reveal their source.

It's also not clear how the overly broad demand for records will reveal the source, though. It could be anyone who walked in the door. Or maybe they weren't even there and sent the KNS emails. Or the person Burchett assumes is the source was there on an unrelated matter. We don't know. I imagine the court would throw it out on that basis alone if it isn't withdrawn first.

Without knowing the real purpose of the subpoena, though, it's a bit of a stretch to cry tyranny and whatnot. There could be a legitimate purpose unrelated to KNS reporting, and a better way to accomplish whatever it is.

On the other hand, it would have been helpful for Burchett's lawyers to explain why they are demanding the info. They way it was handled left them open to the reaction they are getting.

Or Donila met the source elsewhere. That's just as likely to have happened as not. It's a fishing expedition. And there's a strong shield law in Tennessee. Using your divorce lawyer as a bait and switch doesn't make it what it isn't. The judge can see through this nonsense.

Post edited for clarity.

Yes, they should have gotten more backup documentation. It would have added a lot to the credibility.

Like that assertion from your confidential source that McElroy "confronted" the process server and videotaped the incident? The one that's been discredited by Jamie Satterfield?
~m.

Like that assertion from your confidential source that McElroy "confronted" the process server and videotaped the incident? The one that's been discredited by Jamie Satterfield?
~m.

It's more objective to say it's been denied by Jamie Satterfield, who hasn't yet answered Randy's question re whether she witnessed the event.

I can't think of any objective reason whatsoever to videotape or confront a process server serving a subpoena.
~m.

45.04 governs subpoenas for taking depositions, so apparently there is a deposition scheduled at the lawyer's office on July 11th. Also cited is rule 45.02, which talks about the kind of subpoena being issued, but it contains language that an order for compliance with the subpoena must protect a person who is "neither a party nor a party's officer from undue burden or expense resulting from compliance." Of course Rick Hollow and the KNS are going to stage the Constitutional Philharmonic First Amendment Orchestra as grounds for quashing the subpoena like they always do, but there is also the practical reason that it's a pointless, irrelevant, and unduly burdensome on a non-party.

I just find it a little ironic that someone citing information from an unnamed source would criticize someone else for failing to better vet information from an unnamed source.
~m.

But words, unlike actions, have definitions, and discrediting requires a higher standard of proof than denying.

for his objections to a tax increase for the school system all in the name of "for the children". A bunch of publicly paid people were clammoring for more money for more publicly paid people and Burchette simply said No.

We have the most expensive school system in East Tennessee and if you can't run a school system on $400 million, let's see what the problem is before soaking the taxpayers again and again.

The big sphicters didn't like being told no, so the KNS didn't like being told no and the KNS has realized how irrelevant its editorial policy is in the community, particularly under a prevailing Burchette budget, so they put a hatchet job togather.

In my opinion, the KNS is a pitiful and deplorable newspaper from an editorial, journalistic itegrity, and financial standpoint and I'm glad to see somebody else take them on and let them practice their selective journalistic ethics and standards in front of a judge from time to time.

This entire thing goes away if Allison Burchett provides the receipts and invoices for the six unreported "reimbursement" checks she wrote to herself.

Why doesn't Jack McElroy ask his co-conspirator to do just that?

Any of you Sentinel people can take that question. Even you Pam. It is pathetic that the Sentinel plays this game that it is Tim Burchett's fault his wife won't or can't provide the missing receipts and invoices.

The only thing that would make this stranger is if Tim sued Allison for those missing receipts and invoices and she had to visit the campus Kinko's for a little receipt recreation. Like that hasn't happened before.

Y'all know this doesn't have a thing to do w/ the school budget. Get over your obsession w/ conspiracy theories.

And, I have nothing to do w/ news stories. Y'all know that too. Get over that.

The paper raised legitimate questions, and rather than deal w/ the answers like a responsible grown man, Timmy is trying to create a diversion. Not very responsible, but that's politics.

KNS: Subpoena on hold

Not sure I understand all that, but there you go.