The Secret News Announces
'E-VILLE LEAKS'
Tracy Schroth, long time Emeryville resident and editor of The Secret News announced the launch of 'E-VILLE LEAKS' a new ongoing feature that will highlight public documents that Emeryville City Hall might not be so keen on the public scrutinizing .
Ms Schroth told the Tattler she sees a need for these documents to be circulating in the public realm, "A big part of what The Secret News is trying to do is get at the truth- a truth that the people in power often don't want exposed. So, even though much of what we print is public, it's not publicized. And because we print verbatim documents, we're letting the people evaluate more directly what the city is and isn't doing". She intoned, "We're not acting as the middleman (or woman) or interpreter, and thus be accused of distorting 'the facts'."
Asked about the obvious connection to the international whistle blowing website WikiLeaks, Ms Schroth said, "What ever its problems, WikiLeaks broke the most important stories in the past two years. So, I see real value in what they are trying to do". She added, "And at the The Secret News, this is just one approach we're taking; we will also continue to report and interpret the news as we see it".
E-VILLE LEAKS will appear on an occasional basis at The Secret News.
The Secret News is here: www.thesecretnewsonline.com
There is no valid comparison between this and WikiLeaks anyway. The Secret Blog is just publishing documents which are public record. WikiLeaks was publishing classified and privileged information. No City employee or official is under any misrepresentation that anything written in a public document would not be made public. Publish away, it's not like the City is hiding anything. It's not the City's job to publicized EVERYTHING, just to make it available.
ReplyDeleteWe're by no means excluding classified and privileged documents - we'd love to print those too!
ReplyDeleteHow do you like the flippant comment from the city employee (or apologist)at 11:19?
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your colleagues seem to come unglued whenever the Tattler posts an embarrassing public document. So it's "publish away" now but lets see the reaction from the apologists when The Secret News or the Tattler posts the next document.
Check out the June 5th Tattler story about the embarrassing Goldman Housing report. The city is so upset and angry that I posted that report that they broke California law and wouldn't permit me even to make a comment at a Housing Committee meeting. Mayor Nora Davis allowed the Chairman of the committee to freeze out any comment from me...until I threatened to go public with the Brown Act violation of citizens access to City Hall.
The above commentor would like people to think there's no culture of quashing dissent in this town. To him I say: Try publicly taking a dissenting position on a topic near and dear to the Power Elite and see how you fare. We'll wait for your report.
I think you should stop playing nice when the city breaks the law.
ReplyDeleteThey need to feel consequences.
I agree with the July 12 commentor but Brown Act violations are very difficult to prosecute and the Nora Davis knows it. I've appealed to the city attorney, Mike Biddle but he isn't interested in this. He doesn't care about citizen access here in Emeryville. Violations need to be taken up with the county prosecutors office. The best way to force compliance I think is by public embarrassment, a vigilante consequence.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to this? Might be a good time to post Emeryville staff salaries.
ReplyDelete