Snark bitten
Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 6:20am

KNS: Knox County mayor's aide targets blogger

Scott McNutt, a paid part-time blogger for the News Sentinel, put his "Snark Bites" blog on hiatus last Friday after Knox County mayoral spokeswoman Susanne Dupes complained to McNutt's supervisor at his full-time job that he was posting his political satire on company time.

That's some real Mayberry bullshit right there.

And certain people in transparent glass houses of their own making ought not to be hurling virtual bricks.

For example, are taxpayers paying county employees to blog and twitter at work? (See here, here, here, and here.)

Are county taxpayers funding employee sightseeing excursions of Washington D.C.? And paying for Blackberrys so they can twitter about it? (See here and here.)

Or maybe she was on vacation or personal leave time. Or only blogs and twitters during "breaks." She should get the benefit of the doubt with a presumption of good intentions and so forth. Otherwise, people would be calling her boss to correlate and cross-reference her personnel and time sheet records with her blogging and facebook and twitter time.

See how ridiculous that is?

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bill young's picture

Damn it

Submitted by bill young on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 7:21am.

Even Mayor Ragsdale admitted that some of the stuff that went
on in his adminastration needed to stop.

I agreed.

The Mayor took the needed steps to stop what had gone
down.

But just because the Mayor was cleared of criminal charges &
put the skids on an ouster.

What was going on was,at best,poor management.
At worst,ignoring the spirt of the law.

Perception is the reality in politics.

Over the last year or so the perception of the mayor's office
was not positive.

Hopefully,as the Mayor likes to say,moving
foward he will change that perception.

The Mayor is headed in that direction by
working hard for the citizens of Knox County.

But there is a bit more work to do.

Because,many have always perceived the Mayor's
office as a bit vindicative.

These recent actions,out of the Mayor's office,
doesn't help change that perception.

My advice to the Mayor.

Golden Rule,my man,Golden Rule.

Bbeanster's picture

2010 is right around the

Submitted by Bbeanster on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 8:29am.

2010 is right around the corner.

JMG's picture

What a moroon, and that's

Submitted by JMG on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 8:40am.

What a moroon, and that's right, 2010 is around the corner. My concern is that Scott doesn't suffer job repercussions because of this. What repressive bull. I hope they (KNS) do check out the blogging and twittering on the other side of the fence.
OTOH, SnM has a butt load of material for the next Snark bites.

Nobody's Somebody's picture

Ragsdale/Vandevate/Dupes: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Submitted by Nobody's Somebody (not verified) on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 10:23am.

Probably who ever is running for County mayor will remember this type of stuff when it comes time to retain people on the staff.

gonzone's picture

Sounds like

Submitted by gonzone on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 11:21am.

Sounds like a great argument for anonymous blogging, just like the old SKB.

Too bad there are so many assholes, but it is reality.

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

Rachel's picture

I would say the Mayor's PR

Submitted by Rachel on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 12:02pm.

I would say the Mayor's PR person doesn't understand the nature of the internet. One way or another this was gonna get out there, and it makes her look vindictive.

A much better strategy would have been just to ignore Scott, or laugh him off if asked. Now she's gone and gotten him on the front page of the newspaper, where more folks will discover and read Snark Bites.

EricLykins's picture

Or to an inappropriate degree

Submitted by EricLykins on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 12:58pm.

"My boss and I have a running joke about being evocative. I can do that to an appropriate degree, but that is a different skill." Susanne Dupes

sclark's picture

Dupes

Submitted by sclark (not verified) on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 1:09pm.

This is the same public servant who called security to have Betty Bean removed from the mayor's office recently.

Of course, anyone who thinks Ragsdale has a PR squad of independent thinkers/actors has not been paying attention. -- s.

JRWnKnox's picture

I'm sure glad Rags and Duped

Submitted by JRWnKnox (not verified) on Fri, 2009/07/24 - 1:54pm.

I'm sure glad Rags and Duped have taken care of their staff and county business that they have time to worry about someone else's employees.

I can't wait until he's gone. He's an embarassment to Knox County. The only thing worse would be Lumpy as county mayor.

SnM's picture

Thank you

Submitted by SnM on Sat, 2009/07/25 - 6:28pm.

Thanks all for your support. A new snark will be posted soon.

Here's the link:
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/mcnutt/2009/07/loose-snark-terrorizes-coun...

WhitesCreek's picture

Great stuff!

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Sun, 2009/07/26 - 8:53pm.

One should not rile the snark.

Pam Strickland's picture

Perfect

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Mon, 2009/07/27 - 11:25am.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Nobody's picture

How dare you malign this

Submitted by Nobody (not verified) on Sun, 2009/07/26 - 6:21pm.

How dare you malign this citizen-hero's attempt to root out inefficiencies wherever she finds them? Someday, we can hope she'll turn her considerable powers to her place of work.

Ragsdale2010's picture

Let's see if county commission will have Ms. Dupes appear

Submitted by Ragsdale2010 (not verified) on Mon, 2009/07/27 - 11:42am.

at the next meeting and answer a question or two about why she would contact a citizen's employer attempting to violate his civil rights regarding his freedom of expression guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution. This is how local governments get tangled up in federal court trying to silence their critics. The county doesn't need this type of gestapo tactics, particularly coming from the 6th floor county mayor's office which had demonstrated its incompetence time and time again. Showboat. But I read to children. Move the community forward. Van de Vate was smart enough to not bother anybody regarding their First Amendment rights.

Michael's picture

Update

Submitted by Michael on Mon, 2009/07/27 - 1:07pm.

The KNS weighs in:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jul/27/pressure-on-blogger-was-an-outr...

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