Fri
Jul 24 2009
06:20 am
By: R. Neal

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?

bill young's picture

Damn it

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

2010 is right around the corner.

JMG's picture

What a moroon, and that's

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."

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

Here's the link:
(link...)

WhitesCreek's picture

Great stuff!

One should not rile the snark.

Pam Strickland's picture

Perfect

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

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

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

The KNS weighs in:
(link...)

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

TN Progressive

TN Politics

Knox TN Today

Local TV News

News Sentinel

    State News

    Wire Reports

    Lost Medicaid Funding

    To date, the failure to expand Medicaid/TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding. (Source)

    Search and Archives