Nosy…And Lonely?
Posted on September 21, 2008 at 11:23 amThe THP has completed its investigation of the unauthorized background checks performed by Lt. Ronnie Shirley but has revealed a bit more about that illustrious list of 182 which included two journalists and a country music artist:
Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson and U.S. Attorney Ed Yarborough will evaluate the case delivered to them on Friday. THP Lt. Ronnie Shirley is accused of running unauthorized checks on as many as 182 private citizens and state employees. Many were women, a fact that the patrol leadership has been reluctant to elaborate on.
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The Price You Pay For The Life You Choose
Posted on August 25, 2008 at 11:33 amJeff Woods thinks the media is blowing the fact that THP Lieutenant Ronnie Shirley ran a background check on journalist Brad Schrade is no big to do:
Let’s stop all the whining. This is the way the world works: We write stories that people don’t like, then those people try to get back at us. Any reporter who feels intimidated by the snooper trooper ought to find a new line of work.
Murder Ink: Papers React To THP’s Investigation Of A Journalist
Posted on at 7:15 amThe editorial voice of the City Paper:
Certainly, running background checks on members of the press — particularly one fervent in monitoring the problems in the THP — appears far out of bounds of Shirley’s duties or anyone in state government for that matter. Such actions absent of any cogent, real-world explanation smack of the kind of political dirty tricks and intimidation tactics common to some of the worst moments and lowest points in our American democracy. The potential for misdeeds and a chilling effect on the press is enormous.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has classified Shirley as simply a “nosy” trooper. It would be convenient to be able to give Bredesen the benefit of the doubt, but this latest revelation about Shirley’s use of the state’s background checking ability to apparently research such a key member of the press to the THP is past the tipping point — even if in the end he proves to be the nosy type the governor suspects.
Ink By The Barrel
Posted on August 24, 2008 at 12:46 amThe head of the Tennessee Highway Patrol says their investigators won’t use ‘storm trooper’ tactics when contacting and interviewing the 182 people unlawfully investigated by the agency.
No word on whether Brad Schrade has made any similar promises about his reporting tactics in light of the revelation that his was one of the names on the list.
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It’s So On: Schrade One Of The Journos Investigated By Rogue THP Officer
Posted on August 23, 2008 at 11:56 pmAnd they thought Schrade had been up in their grill before:
A list of 182 people believed to have been subjects of background checks from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer includes the Tennessean reporter who revealed the highway patrol’s probe into the officer’s unauthorized activities.
Brad Schrade, who has reported on the highway patrol for years and first reported the probe earlier this month, received a call Saturday morning from a highway patrol special agent who said that Lt. Ronnie Shirley, the subject of the probe, had accessed Schrade’s background information.
SEE ALSO:
Bill Hobbs
Bredesen’s Watergate
Hurtt Pride
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