Palin aide publishing a tell-all based on their emails

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/19/former-sarah-palin-aide-frank-bailey-plans-tell-all-book/

It doesn't seem right to me, to be able to publish private email exchanges during the course of your job in a tell-all book.

You beat me to it, LC Apparently, that ability is a bit moot, now:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/19/v-fullstory/2074909/ex-palin-aide-rips-her-in-leaked.html

Fair or not, the leaks are more explicit than the publication notice.

Ann

The articles describe it as an unpublished manuscript and don't mention what, if any, publisher contracted it. He also tried selling an earlier work that didn't go anywhere. Maybe he should take a hint that he just sounds like a disgruntled co-worker with an axe to grind.

LC,
as much as I dislike Palin, I don't condone any invasion of privacy.
Who's next. If they get away with that, it won't be long before someone may be recording our emails and phone calls. Dirt sells. It's all about money. We have only to remember Monica Lewinsky.

Fair doesn't have anything to do with it. The 1st Amendment does not include any reference to "fair." The main issue will be whether anything in the draft manuscript can be deemed libelous and, if so, who is to be held accountable, the author who wrote the defamation or those who leaked and made public the manuscript.

Can an author be held accountable for the unauthorized release of his draft writings? That interests me far more than the opportunistic agenda of a would-be whistle blower or the meaningless agendas of an unlikely presidential hopeful.

I think the leak was intentional to promote interest in the book.

Abe F. March wrote:

LC,
as much as I dislike Palin, I don't condone any invasion of privacy.

It is not an invasion of privacy in the legal sense. She is, by choice, a public person. With that choice she forfeits her expectations of and rights to privacy.

Valerie Plame

E. Don Harpe wrote:

Valerie Plame

Oh, yes. That was much more than invasion of privacy. That was treason. That those guys, Libby, Cheney, Novak, et al, didn't face a firing squad speaks eloquently to the corruption of that administration.

Al Stevens wrote:

Abe F. March wrote:

LC,
as much as I dislike Palin, I don't condone any invasion of privacy.

It is not an invasion of privacy in the legal sense. She is, by choice, a public person. With that choice she forfeits her expectations of and rights to privacy.

I agree!

I repeat: think before you post. Once it hits technology, it is no longer private no matter how encrypted it might be. There is always someone to hack it.

Defamation and libel laws are another matter. Any publisher will need a law review of the manuscript - a careful one.

Do I think it's nice? No. Do I think harmful information should be leaked? No. Anything for 15 minutes of fame and the almighty dollar.

Almost every spiritual leaning has some form of the Golden Rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you - or to love your brother as yourself. Guess that's out of vogue too.

1865
We wove a web in childhood,
A web of sunny air.
From Retrospection, by Charlotte Bronte, 1846.
Chapter, Alf Comes to Visit, 1846
Carol Troestler, Iowa Born and Bred - ISBN 1-4241-0891-8
Dear DK,
There are still people who will not just sell out for the dollar. I am one. You are one. Alice is one, Shelagh is one. Abe is one and we all know that E.Don Harpe is one...most people won't.
Last night I dreamed about Phil Whitley. Funny it is that the people we write to here, perhaps never met, have a kind of spiritual connection to our subconscious.
I think I must have drowned in a previous life because many of my dreams are of water flowing and me under the water. Strange how the mind is.
Love,
Betty

Quote :

I repeat: think before you post. Once it hits technology, it is no longer private no matter how encrypted it might be. There is always someone to hack it.

She didn't post, though, she sent emails -how else is she supposed to communicate with her staff? How are any of us? I know that we always have to be careful about what we say in work emails, but I personally like having them precisely to record what was said, so I can go back and reference it. But if the same emails are able to be published in a book that skews to the writer's agenda, seems like that will make a lot of people very unproductive workers now.

Just what we need--unproductive workers!

I don't think you should ever put anything in an email that you would not want anyone else to see or read. That doesn't mean that emails are public property; it means they are not secure ways of exchanging information/messages.

As for thr Internet, it is no different to the high street. If you want privacy, stay at home and stay off the Internet.

Shelagh wrote:

I don't think you should ever put anything in an email that you would not want anyone else to see or read. That doesn't mean that emails are public property; it means they are not secure ways of exchanging information/messages.

Agree, but how else should she communicate with her staff? She could type out letters, but he could save those, too. I guess long talks over the phone? Except those can be recorded ...oh well!

Best idea is to never type "I hate this damn job" or other such exclamations and send them to anyone else in the workplace. Had she been completely professional in her emails, it would never have mattered if they were published or not, so long as they didn't reveal any confidential information. Send work related emails only to those people you work with, and leave out the personal viewpoints.

E. Don Harpe wrote:

Best idea is to never type "I hate this damn job" or other such exclamations and send them to anyone else in the workplace. Had she been completely professional in her emails, it would never have mattered if they were published or not, so long as they didn't reveal any confidential information. Send work related emails only to those people you work with, and leave out the personal viewpoints.

A good friend of mine is a confidential secretary to a CEO of a major corporation, an old fashioned personal secretary. When she sits in a meeting, she takes the official notes in old fashioned Greg brief forms that only she can read (no one reads shorthand anymore - it's all electronic). She types up the notes on her computer and destroys her notes. Her typed record is the only copy, saved on a thumb drive with one print copy stored in a safe. Any copies for others are sent by the CEO, one copy at a time. It may be inefficient, but the care taken leads to words carefully spoken and documents carefully handled.

When I talk about "posting" I mean to any electronic media from YouTube to emails to forums and Facebook as examples. Many posts from this forum are picked up by Google.

The ease and efficiency of electronic media have led to a freedom of expression that goes beyond the pale. There was a time when correspondence was a work of art, a labor of great thought. Perhaps we could return to that just a bit.