From the article published, the complaint was brought in Federal District Court, with a Federal Judge. This was not in a military court.

To me, it looks like an over zealous federal prosecutor, who got the case late believing the complainant but not doing adequate investigation, filed it in a hurry, then realized he had no case. The prosecutor took his sweet time trying to figure out how to go forward with a case, any case (disturbing the peace), and could not, so he withdrew the complaint in its entirety. They do not like to do that, does not make them look good. In fact, things like this are very bad for federal prosecutors’ reputations.

So the paper’s owner donated to Greason the Republican but the paper is also Democratic? C’mon you guys.

If you don’t like the story, that’s fine. I’m not going to argue it was some journalistic masterpiece, but let’s not pretend the Independent is some bastion of liberal thought.

Link the Miller piece, was it an editorial?

re 56, Cathymac, the Miller Piece in question is filed under “The Dartboard” on the site, which is far more editorial in nature than news.

Miller denied an anonymous blogpost that said he had called other supervisors “bigots” in an executive session to discuss the final candidates to be interviewed for County Administrator, then went on to say he was concerned about diversity in the process and didn’t know whether to go to the NAACP about it or not.

Somehow, the sockpuppets populating both the Greason and Miller stories, along with some prominent Democrats under their own names, feel the stories are commensurate in that they are anonymous smears against candidates which somehow prove a political bent on the part of the paper, yet different in that Miller is obviously the innocent victim of dirty politics while Greason is obviously vile.

IOW, don’t look for any logic.

Look for Miller to put out a piece that the headline “proves” he is a champion of minority issues (and will Neighborhood Listens suddenly activate about it?), thereby wiping out his abandonment of Phyllis Randall to be a VLF posterboy, much as his grandstanding on a 19% paycut wiped out his earlier comments of record on not being paid enough.

“So the paper’s owner donated to Greason the Republican but the paper is also Democratic? ”

Newspapers do wander off the reservation, or haven’t you noticed ?

“Miller denied an anonymous blogpost that said he had called other supervisors “bigots””

This is not news, it would be news if the other supervisors denied that report. This type of snide remark is right up Miller’s alley.

Wolverine, I keep focusing on your comment that prompted my post #38, more so now that you’ve reiterated my fear: if this paper is taken out (perhaps through some dirty tricks), what will rush in to fill the eastern Loudoun news vacuum during the eastern Loudoun races?

Given that Miller’s attack ads debuted yesterday, and are entusiasticly being linked about in private emails and twitters from the core group of the usuals, I don’t want to think I have my answer.

Well, Cathymac, show me where in this country anybody is successfully holding newspapers to “journalistic standards.” Almost all of journalism has now become advocacy journalism. As a result, the papers are dying out and much of the TV media is losing audience. Where did all the newspaper readers and writers of letters to the editor go? Right here.

Instead of continuing to try to fix the journalism problem, we have sought alternative methods of political expression. And even here there is often very little in the way of checks and balances on what is printed. In short, we are in a journalism and news pickle; and, if the LI can make the necessary adjustments you and I both seek, we have a chance to save at least some element of the other system. I’m willing to give the LI a chance to feel their way through this thing and arrive at the best possible position. I bet you will see some changes for the good after this firestorm. Like Barbara, I cannot imagine living in a place where I have no local paper. Muy bad, senora!!!

Wolv, read this and try not to spit, cuss or run out the door screaming. The insanity at the LI continues:

http://www.loudouni.com/news/editorial/2009-09-22/editorial-does-it-matter

It’s pretty ridiculous that you guys think repeating every wacko rumor about Obama is fair game and then you go nuts when someone reports a news about a Republican based on publicly available records. You guys thought that Clinton’s private life should be news so why not this?

Lying under oath is NOT part of one’s “private life.”

You guys all do realize that the LI based its story off of sworn statements and court documents, right? And those types of documents should be public record.

And I’m not sure how anyone can say without doubt that Tag is either guilty or innocent of these charges. They were dismissed without prejudice, meaning this woman can bring the charges back at anytime.

They are strange charges, I’ll admit, but as someone else said on one of these forums they are weirdly detailed to a point of sounding very plausible.

The outrage really is fake on the part of many here. You all cry over fake stories like an Obama birth certificate, but criminal charges aren’t newsworthy.

Grasping, do you have something new to bring to the table, or are you just trying to keep a dieing story alive?

Wolv,

Guess Jr. forgot why his Dad named the paper “Independent”..

And like Deeds…Poisson seems to be putting all of his eggs in a basket with a hole in it.

On the Loudoun Independent blog, a person claiming to be her husband and posting under at least 5 different names “Dave” “Edward” “David” “David Edward” etc says that he met her after the sister filed the first complaint. He says it was ignored (maybe because the sister filed it and not the so called victim.) He says he was so upset that he helped her file a second complaint. Several times he explodes in foul language, threatening scary stuff. Then later he blogs that “we” were never notified of any of the proceedings, or that the case was dismissed. He seems to have taken ownership of the claim, and pretty controlling. She did not want the article in the paper or her name revealed, but there it is–in a blog.

The only notices would have gone to her–not to him. I find it hard to believe that she did not know, and find it easier to believe that she ignored the notices and has hidden this from her angry and abusive sounding husband, who insisted she go forward with the charge in 1996. He has an explosive temper, and maybe just maybe she got caught in some sort of exaggeration or “story” for sympathy to her sister, that got repeated to her new husband–who got upset about it all and forced her to file a complaint. How else can it be explained that she would not follow the case, not know anything? I find it hard to believe that she was not properly notified by the prosecutor or the Court.

He says she is still waiting for her day in court? Still pretending to her “husband?” But she has not been keeping up with it? She says she does not want this in the paper but he is blogging saying he hopes to slam Tag Greason’s career (who he has never met.) Sounds to me like she married a control freak, who does not honor her wishes, who she cannot be totally honest with…who forced this on her, out of misguided “honor” because she could not admit to him that she was flawed, and may not always tell him the whole truth…and she is afraid of him…

Crazy reading, and sorry for you Tag. And your family…

All this talk of LI!

I wish I was posting to chime in on this mess – I should be back up in a week or two.

The Independent leadership has obviously made a conscious decision to become the tabloid of Loudoun County. Why not just call it the Loudoun Enquirer? The Miller story they ran was ridiculous (and I am no big Miller fan), based on an anymous sources blog post for a blog that gets very little traffic. This story and its subsequent editorial are absolute frigging messes. They slam both sides of the political aisle, but one thing they both have in common is an astonishing lack of thoroughness and a generall gossipy way about them. That is typically more blog fare than newspaper fare, but it fits with a paper in bankruptcy trying to keep its head out of the quicksand. I do guarantee it is driving their web hits up and I haven’t seen that many comments on a local newspaper site in some time. It’s working in driving eyes to the website but I think it wil backfire in the long run, especially with advertisers if the general public opinion of it goes down the crapper.

Speaking of crap, I’ve always been used to seeing bad language on blogs, and heck I’ve used plenty myself. But I’ve never seen a newspaper let people get away with writing shit and fuck in comments, which seem to be favorite words of the “husband”. More indication of the gutter-dredging of Geddie and Burns.

I just spoke with Mr. Geddie, and asked him who had given him information. He said it was not “local” as in Loudoun… that he had emails and telephone calls on this (that he would not reveal), but in terms of other research had only gotten the court records, spoken to Tag, his campaign manager, his former commander, and the lady (not her husband) He would not tell me if he had discussed this with Poisson or his campaign.

Also I told him the husband was posting under a lot of names, and using very foul and aggressive language. He has not been reading the blog posts, he said he did not realize this.

Then, he proposed he would delete the posts, and I asked him not to do that, because it shows how crazy this couple seems and shows so many inconsistencies that look like lies–so he is going to insert (expletive) for the swear words…

The “husband” seems abusive, and incredibly angry for someone who never met Tag, or bothered to wonder why his wife did not want to file the complaints, or how the case got dismissed without his knowledge of it (did she just not tell him?)

Strange, and it’s too bad that this junk is out there for such a nice guy as Tag is, and for his really wonderful family.

One thing that might narrow this down a bit is if the website at the paper would display IP addresses–NOT EMAILS for all posts.

It would not conclusively prove who anyone is, but if the DesRosier posters are a set of sockpuppets, as some seem to think, a set of IPs in differing locations (maybe some local?) would go a long way to debunking some of the hysteria.

This blog and Hoodathunk had a good result in getting the paper to address some issues.

Maybe the next step is to ask that some of the vitriol and confusion be remedied through a posting of IPs?

Why don’t we call it what it is: politics as usual. Dirty tricks, anonymous sources, scandalous charges that are unsubstantiated all mark this assault on the electorial process.

Now, while I do NOT agree with Tag Greason on many issues, I will not stand by and see a good man’s name ruined due to rumor and innuendo. The Loudoun Independent should not have published the story, since 1) the case was dismissed, and more importantly,2) he was not convicted of anything. This story was nothing more than an effort to inject some drama and scandal into a fair and clean campaign. To run such a story is unacceptable, if not irresponsible.

The Tag Greason I met is a good businessman, interested in his community, and believes in the family values that he claims to believe in. It is evident by his life. To run a story such as this is shameful.

Shame on you, Loudoun Independent, shame on you.

An entire news cycle has run since this article and no other media outlet has picked it up. I still want to know who is behind this story?

Blackout, you completely nailed it in your last post on the LI website. It certainly does appear to me that Major David DesRosier is being “pumped” by someone around here. That was evident from his very first post (22 Sept., 16:22, last sentence in caps) which demonstrated total confusion between the 2007 school board election and the 2009 delegate election — in fact, complete ignorance about the 2009 election. Now he comes out with a few details on the 2007 election but still shows a lack of in-depth knowledge — as in the fact that Greason ran as a write-in candidate and garnered an unusually large number of votes. The capper was his latest claim that Greason has a “checkered past.” This smacks of the DesRosiers being fed a slanted line and not bothering to do their own double check of the facts on the internet. Very surprising since both are educated professionals, he a dietician/nutritionist and she apparently having gotten a degree in psychology or close to getting one in Hawaii. BTW, Major DesRosier was in charge of food and nutrition at Fort Polk in the late 1990’s, which is how he met Sherry apparently.