Sparks Tribune Bans Blogs By Staff Members After Darby Controversy

Following the controversy over ethical and political revelations on a Sparks Tribune reporter's personal web site, the Nevada newspaper moved to ban the publishing of blogs by staff members.

"Yes, the Tribune does have policies and procedures," wrote Angela Mann, Tribune editor, in a terse email to us. "And as of now, 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 21, there will be no blogs published by the Sparks Tribune and our web site."

At issue was city reporter Tom Darby's personal blog, Tom Uses His Words, where he, among other things, endorsed a candidate for Nevada governor, attacked other candidates, told a source the National Security Agency had uncovered his identity and published a complaint letter a Sparks candidate had written the paper over alleged bias in reporting. All actions most media outlets consider a breach of journalistic ethics.

But, perhaps most egregious, was Darby tipping his friend and Assembly District-26 GOP candidate Richard Disney to possible legal action. All of which was reported in detail on Darby's blog.

(As of Monday afternoon, Darby's site had been taken down. However, a cached version of this was still available on Google.)

The controversy began when Darby became aware of a local anonymous political web site, the CobbGobbler. In the course of his investigation for a possible Tribune story, Darby came to believe political activist Eric Odom was behind the site (a charge Odom denies) and made veiled threats of legal action and the NSA being on to him. He emailed Odom, "My thought is to turn it over to Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick for review. However I'm hesitating to give Richard (Disney) enough time to correct any paperwork deficits that might exist. I don't want him to go down because of your silliness."

Darby did warn Disney, emailing him to "get your paperwork in order. Your so called friends in this political machine have tossed you to the wolves. They doen't [sic] care whether you are the most conservative or not. They evidently are out to either win or destroy."

Disney replied worriedly, "I saw the article on (CobbGobbler) referencing the email that you copied to me. It does not bode well. As far as paperwork, I have everything filed correctly. What other paperwork can you think of that I might need?I don't know why they would go after me; I pulled out of the race. What benefit do they have in going after me? I though the site was comical at first but I wish the whole thing would just go away. I have an appointment to meet with my attorney to make sure all of my bases are covered. Thanks for the heads up."

Further investigation of posts on Tom Uses His Words, found that Darby had endorsed Jim Gibbons for governor. In the same story he also berated gubernatorial candidate Lorraine Hunt and her campaign manager. Other posts included attacks on State Senator Bob Beers and referring to U.S. Senator Harry Reid as "Pinky".

Also incurring the ire of Darby was Sparks Municipal Judge candidate Doug Nicholson who had written an email to Mann complaining of a perceived Tribune bias in favor of incumbent Jim Spoo. Darby published the letter on his blog.

Follow-up questions regarding the status of Darby and more specifics on their policies have not been returned by the Tribune.

Update: Darby was dismissed from the Sparks Tribune shortly after the above controversy.