Please note and adhere to this statement. Not for Publication or Distribution by KnoxViews.
Randy Neal/KnoxViews:
I first contacted you last week, requesting permission to use Tyler Harber’s email printed on KnoxViews. In that first email to you, I said, “Due to the continued scandals erupting in Knox County government there is now a renewed interest in the Knox County Sheriff’s Tyler Harber Report. Knox County Citizens have asked me to write a condensed version of the Report for distribution….” At no time did I refer to my work as a “Report” as you alleged. Permission was granted to use Tyler’s email with a request to be kept informed upon completion of my work.
Once my work, (which we’ll now have to call Lea’s Report), was completed, I sent you a courtesy copy in a multiple addressed email to a few of my friends containing the words, “Ready for distribution,” meaning my friends were free to share this with their friends. My Report had already gone out to the Citizens’ group under separate cover, and in hindsight, I should have sent your courtesy copy under separate cover as well. The next thing I was aware of was an ecstatic email from you saying, “The post is up to 200 reads already.” Logging onto KnoxViews I was greeted by bold headlines declaring, “Boss Ragsdale: Knox County bombshell report,” followed by some cut and paste comments taken from my Report. Contrary to your definition of the word “distribute” verses “publish,” I did not give you permission to publish my work, nor did you ask, even though you made the comment, “The Great Pretenders: Pretending to be Public Servants…My guess is that it’s a draft of a book, in ‘condensed format.’” Correctly guessing that Lea’s Report might be material incorporated in a book draft, you also didn’t bother to inquire if this material might be under copyright. But that’s all water under the bridge now, and all is forgiven.
What is almost unforgivable is the frenzied attack you subjected me to, not only by you, Randy Neal, but by your Users as well. Inviting me to logon and “converse” is like inviting a guest, a complete stranger, into one’s home, then attacking and bashing that guest, and encouraging your Users to join in the fun, all in the pretense of “constructive criticism.” You’ve given me a brief dose of what our school kids must be subjected to by school bullies.
In my Report I write: “…Due to the excessive numbers of typos, misspelling, and lack of punctuation, the transcripts of …(the Sheriff’s Report) makes for very difficult and frustrating reading…Language and vocabulary of the Knox County officials and employees…has been quoted verbatim…”
It’s now perfectly clear that your KnoxViews Users don’t know what the word “verbatim” means. I quoted the exact words and vocabulary of your own elected and appointed officials, complete with misspellings and all, to give an example of your tax dollars at work. I did take the liberty of cleaning up the punctuation and some of the most egregious misspellings, and putting the statements and comments in dialogue form in order to make the Sheriff’s Report more readable and understandable.
However, you and your Users, in a narcissistic attempt to impose your pretense of intellectual superiority, attacked me, believing that I’d made such statements as “Them there people,” when in fact, I’m quoting your own officials and employees from a report, the Sheriff’s Report, that you’ve spent thousands of tax dollars to produce. This is a damning report; a smoking gun aimed at the deceitful, vindictive, spiteful characters of your elected officials.Their waste of your tax dollars; their self-serving natures, are exposed for all to see. Few read the original 408 page Sheriff’s Report of the Investigation of Tyler Harber, and it was hurriedly buried, hopefully to be forgotten. A few good Citizens did read it, and couldn’t forget it. They resurrected it by asking me to rewrite, critique and comment on it. Hence, the Lea Report. It’s most unfortunate that you didn’t get the message contained in this damning report, but chose instead to attack the messenger. Too bad, indeed.
The frenzy appears to have subsided now; your fury appears to be over. Your Users appear to have exhausted themselves after their verbal binge of sarcastic hostility against me, a complete stranger to you all. I imagine they now lay panting, franticly planning, gloating even, in anticipation of their next attack and another opportunity to toot their own horns.
Your attacks, spurred on by your leaders, the bean & clark* antagonist, focused not only on me personally and my “Report”, but also against my publication, Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal. I, more than any other, am terribly embarrassed by the typos found in this book. I acknowledge that it contains double the numbers of typos found in the average book, while pointing out that my book, at 647 pages, is twice the size of the average 250-300 page book. A volume containing over a million words is bound to have errors, and for that I’m sorry, but the factual content is accurate and complete.
However, since my professional integrity as an author has been called into question, I feel I should also be allowed a little toot. And you must be obliged, under the circumstances, to indulge me this toot.
How many books have you and your KnoxViewers published? And if any of you have published books, how many of your books have hit Number One, twice, on the B*A*M Best Sellers’ List? How many of your books never slipped off the Top Ten on the Best Sellers’ List for over two years?
How many of your books are in university law libraries across the nation, and have been designated as required reading/teaching guides in major university courses such as Law, Economics, and Criminal Justice? And if you’ve published books on the topics of fraud and banking, how many of your books can claim the distinction of being declared a “Classic in American Corporate Fraud,” by Dr. Roy Davies, the Librarian of the St. Lukes Campus, University of Exeter, in Devon, England?
The life of a book is five years at most. At the end of the five-year life of your book, when the bookstore shelves remain empty of your title, how many of you have experienced a price soar of over $4,000 for a single, unautographed copy in a two month time period? (See Attached) I’d say none of your books have, since my publisher has said that this is unprecedented, especially while the author is still living.
Whirlwind can claim success in all of the above. How successful have your literary efforts been? You may revile me and blast my writing style as you please. You may refrain from buying any of my books, that’s fine with me. There are thousands of readers who’re tired of the bland choices placed before them. They crave a bit of flavoring and spice in their word soup. They like word pictures painted in bold strokes; they like analogies. I aim to please them, and hope I do. I have my little niche in this world, and so do you. From my niche I speak to thousands and thousands, internationally. Your niche is regional and appears to consist of less than a hundred, except when you print Bombshells. We’re noncompetitive. I won’t venture into your little niche, and you’ll never venture into to mine.
And if a picture paints a thousand words, then how shall I paint you KnoxViewers? This is not Knoxville’s finest hour. I should think you’d want to put on a prettier face, especially while the eyes of so many strangers look upon you during this time of turmoil. This author is very much alive. This stranger’s eyes are piercing, and you’ve shown yourselves to me clearly. What I’ve seen isn’t pretty. What this stranger’s eyes have seen is ugly.
In all honesty, I wish I could say that my brief visit with you has been pleasant. But I can say it’s been very entertaining.
I will own up to one statement you made, although I don’t like your tone: “She writes, and writes, and writes.” That’s what I do.
Farewell, KnoxViews.
* Not a typo.
2007 Sandra Lea –The Great Pretenders: Pretending to be Public Servants
