Spartanburg’s Newspaper Continues Reporting False “Facts.”

As the SC Senate District 12 runoff campaign moves toward its end on Tuesday, June 24, Spartanburg’s Herald-Journal newspaper continues disregarding the truth in favor of biased reporting.

In articles published over the past few days, the newspaper’s reporters asserted support to a specific candidate from groups with which the newspaper has previously taken issue.

In a June 17th article titled “Sanford backing Bright for Senate,” Trevor Anderson wrote, “The common thread between Bright and Davis is that they are backed by S.C. Club for Growth, South Carolinians for Responsible Government and Conservatives in Action.” Anderson then inserted an editorialized nickname for those groups from a member of the county’s legislative delegation who otherwise had no reason for placement in the article.

In a June 18th article, “Bright heats up contest with Talley,” Robert Dalton, a reporter who consistently editorializes in news articles wrote that the five legislators who attended a news conference endorsing Lee Bright came because “they are supported by the same ‘out-of-state special interest groups’ backing Bright – the S.C. Club for Growth, South Carolinians for Responsible Government and Conservatives in Action.”

While we have not received any comments from the two of the three groups, after inquiring, Conservatives in Action’s spokesman sent us a copy of an e-mail he sent to reporter Trevor Anderson and Representative Scott Talley on June 17.

The e-mail in its entirety read:

Mr. Anderson,

I read your article today ”Sanford backing Bright for Senate,” and as Conservatives in Action’s spokesperson I felt the need to contact you about a major inaccuracy in your piece. Please note that I also copied Representative Talley on this message.

Among other things you stated, “The common thread between Bright and Davis is that they are backed by S.C. Club for Growth, South Carolinians for Responsible Government and Conservatives in Action.”

Please know that 1) As an educational organization, Conservatives in Action does not endorse or oppose political candidates and 2) Conservatives in Action has not allocated any resources for issue education in the Senate District 12 race. As a side note, Conservatives in Action was not involved in the Senate District 46 race between Senator Ceips and Tom Davis.

I wanted to clarify these points for both you and Representative Talley as matters of fairness and honesty, and I hope you can make the same clarification for your readers.

If you have any questions regarding Conservatives in Action’s activities, please feel free to contact me.

The spokesman said that Trevor Anderson did not inquire with Conservatives in Action about specific groups’ activities, and even after an attempted clarification was made, certain members of the newspaper’s political beat ignored the denial.

We made one inquiry to these groups and received an e-mail contradicting the newspaper’s “facts.” Why is the Herald-Journal jeopardizing its actual or perceived journalistic integrity?

What’s the rest of the truth? We’ll update you when we find out what it is.

TRUTH UPDATE: We followed up with the Conservatives in Action spokesman today (June 19) to see what response he received from Anderson regarding the e-mail or if anyone contacted him to apologize for falsely reporting his group’s support. He infomed us that he has not heard from Trevor Anderson with a response or correction and that no one from the Herald-Journal has contacted him to issue an apology for reprinting the allegations in a separate story.

Greenville County is Fishing for Trout.

One of our readers, Jennifer P. sent us the following e-mail.

“If your blog is interested in truth in politics, there is a great story in Greenville County politics that someone needs to get to the bottom of. The local news media (Greenville News and the television stations) are all just repeating what they are told and don’t really do any investigative reporting. Check out the story about County Councilman Tony Trout and the recent FBI search warrant of his computer equipment. Apparently, Mr. Trout sent spyware via e-mail to the county administrator’s computer and to other council members. Trout says they are retaliating against him because he has exposed their graft and corruption regarding illegal road paving contracts.”

We have the federal affidavit available here as a PDF.

Councilman Trout contends that he was within his rights to install the virtually untraceable spyware on county administrator Joe Kernell’s computer because the administrator is his employee. However that position was contradicted by Greenville County’s attorney Mark Tollison who said that Mr. Trout was incorrect and that the administrator works for the entire council — not a single member — and that court precedent also rules against Mr. Trout.

Federal investigators today obtained a search warrant for the software manufacturer’s offices in Orlando, FL. Full details of the warrant are not known, but we have been able to confirm that it does mention the manufacturer CyberSpy Software, LLC and the software product RemoteSpy. As of this afternoon, CyberSpy Software executives said they had not yet received the warrant.

Last night, on the motion of council member Dr. Bob Taylor (father of Representative-Elect Wendy Nanney) Greenville County Council authorized an ad hoc committee to monitor the investigation while the council is recessed until August. The committee, which has the authority to contract with outside attorneys on the county’s behalf, consists of Chairman Butch Kirven, Vice Chairman Judy Gilstrap, Dr. Bob Taylor, Cort Flint, Fred Payne, and Joe Dill.

David Smith, the former grand jury foreman who, according to a winter 2007 State Law Enforcement Division affidavit had 190 phone calls with Mr. Trout, voluntarily turned his computer over to federal authorities before a warrant was issued.

Both Smith and Trout were forced to turn their computer equipment over to authorities in December 2007 concerning a SLED investigation “to determine if this communication violates Section 16-9-350; Attempting to influence Juror by written or oral communication; and/or the common law offense of Contempt of Court.”

We’ll publish more when we have additional information.

That’s the truth.

TRUTH UPDATE: This is not a advertising based site. Remaining free from pressure by advertisers is one of the ways we ensure fairness in reporting. With that said we received an e-mail from Tracer Spence, CEO of  CyberSpy Software, LLC (makers of RemoteSpy) on June 19. His request was simple.

“Where applicable we would appreciate a link to our website when either our quotes are used or copyright/trade marks are listed. Our official websites are: http://www.cyberspysoftware.com and http://www.remotespy.com.”

We’re not a promotional organization, but to remain fair to a company that has been mentioned in connection with this investigation, we honored his request. We will also include this link to TonyTrout.com in advance of his request so as to provide equal access to each side of this ongoing investigation.