June 18, 2005

Brian Conley

Apparently, the owner of Knoxville's Metro Pulse, Brian Conley, sent an email to the previously anonymous South Knox Bubba threatening to out him, his business, his credit history, etc via the Metro Pulse's front page!

Conley's alleged email:

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 12:36:18 -0400 Subject: Re: Molly and Ellen From: "Brian Conley" [conley@metropulse.com] To: southknoxbubba@yahoo.com

Mr. Neal:

If I wanted to manipulate you, I'd threaten to run a cover story on bank software designers and the blogs they create, complete with names, photographs, personal credit histories, police records, addresses, excerpts of their political rantings, etc.. But I wouldn't do that, now would I? Anonymity really shouldn't be abused.

Brian

South Knox Bubba at one point tonight (Friday night) took his blog down for a bit, but later in the night published the above email (including headers) along with his own personal information and business name...hence saying to Conley that he had nothing to hide.

If this is true, Brian Conley has just cause his paper's credibility to go down the drain (not to mention possibly attracting the ire of the blogosphere).

(Thanks to Sharon Cobb for alerting me to this)

Update: Mr. Conley has responded to an email of mine seeking further details on this situation. In fairness, I present his response below:

Mr. Wylie:

I didn't send a threat. In a follow-up email (one he chose not to post), I specifically told Mr. Neal that it was not a threat. If you'll read the email in question, it specifically states that I wouldn't run such a story. It does state that anonymity should not be abused. Over the last couple of days, Mr. Neal has personally attacked and facilitated attacks on two people I care about. I did not like it anymore than you would like someone attacking people you care about. Also, I thought it was patently unfair so I told the two people the identity of southknoxbubba. If they have corresponded with him, I am unaware of it. Still, the fact that Mr. Neal chose to reveal his identity to the world was his decision, and his alone. Personally, I wish him well.

Sincerely,
Brian

Comments:

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Heh. It wasn't a threat, it was just a threat of a threat. He was threatening that he might possibly threaten to *make* that threat, that he outlined specifically in his message.

Posted by: Chris Wage at June 18, 2005 10:30 AM

First Deep Throat, now South Knox Bubba? Roboto better lay low for a few weeks.

Posted by: Tim Morgan at June 18, 2005 11:59 AM

Has it ever occurred to Molly and Ellen to grow up? When you write personally revealing accounts of your excellent bar-crawling weekend, you're going to get critiqued. If you don't like it, you should find another line of work -- which would probably be a good idea, considering the level of talent and insight displayed in this story.
And applies to "author" Brian Conley, too. He thinks being the bratty little brother of a rich family entitles him to respect.

Posted by: Momma at June 19, 2005 09:18 AM

What is the big deal? Aren't reporters supposed to try to solve mysteries?

It's up to SKB to guard his own privacy. Barring Metropulse publishing his SSN, I don't see the harm in unmasking him. The same thing happened with Atrios a while back. It's good to know when "anonymous" citizen journalists are actually paid political operatives as Duncan Black was.

This horrendous scandal needs a name. How about "Shallow Throat"?

Posted by: smantix at June 19, 2005 11:34 AM

Great Caesar’s Ghost! If only every writer had a publisher willing to defend him or her as Superman had!!

Bad enough that anonymous bloggers are outed by people with a political agenda, as happened with Gay Patriot and Michael Rogers. How horrible is it that you get threatened with exposure by a man whose interests don't seem to be with the story, but rather with the authors of the criticized story...ifyaknowwhatImean? ::nudge, nudge; wink, wink::

Does Mr. Conley get this excited when any other piece of second rate writing that is published in his flyer gets slammed? I would wager not. There’s a reason Mr. Conley has become an Excitable Boy here; and you and I know the reason why.

Anonymously yours,
QM

Posted by: Quilly Mammoth at June 19, 2005 10:50 PM

Well Buba, I guess being nasty and immature to folks doesn't pay out in the long run, does it? MAybe you can now start growing up a bit...

Posted by: HaHA at October 7, 2005 03:51 PM