Fewer people showed up to Centennial Hall Saturday than did Friday for the second, and final day of msnbc.com’s in-town review of Sarah Palin’s emails.
For much of the morning, paid employees of msnbc.com and Crivella West, the firm working with msnbc.com to provide a searchable database of the 24,000-plus pages of emails released by the state of Alaska Friday, outnumbered volunteers 6-2. More volunteers arrived as the noon hour approached, however, gathering around one table to sift through the massive mounds of paper.
“I’m retired, I have the time, and I can do this,” said Barbara Belknap, a Juneau woman who volunteered about seven hours of her time between Friday and Saturday. “And I can see where they needed people with local knowledge … going through thousands and thousands of sheets of paper, knowing what’s interesting, knowing what’s routine business, that sort of thing.”
Simmons described herself as a political junkie, saying that sparked her interest in the project.
Several factors may have lead to the small turnout Saturday. Msnbc.com and Crivella West were able to get the entire batch of documents online by 9:15 p.m. Friday, and by Saturday morning, the New York Times had a similar database online, so anyone wanting to review documents from home could do so with an Internet connection.
Ryan Crivella, an investigative analyst for Crivella West, said his company’s electronic archive has received more than 2.1 million page views since it went live Friday morning. Crivella West maintains the database that is hosted on msnbc.com.
Msnbc.com reporter Bill Dedman declined to provide numbers as to how many page views his website has received in regards to its coverage of the email release, which included the database, a live blog and several stories. He did say it was less than the 9 million views in a single day his msnbc.com story about the death of Osama bin Laden received.
The weather might have also played a role. Temperatures tickled 60 degrees Saturday, and rain was at worst a bare spittle, not the most conducive environment for encouraging people to spend a day indoors reviewing documents.
Also playing a role was the general lack of any earthshaking revelations. Dedman said while emails discussing Troopergate and Palin’s general defensive demeanor when faced with even the smallest criticism were interesting, they didn’t yet reveal anything major not already known or perceived by the general public.
“If there were (a bombshell), it’s probably in this list of documents that wasn’t released,” he said, referring to the nearly 2,000 emails the state withheld, claiming they are outside the scope of Alaska’s open records laws.
Still, he emphasized the importance of both the online efforts and the review of the emails in Juneau.
“Regardless of what one might find in the records, there’s the principle that we were going to stick it out and make them available to the public,” he said, in reference to the nearly 1,000-day struggle by several media outlets and citizens to obtain Palin’s emails. “But, beyond that principle, practically, it would seem to me that people in Alaska would notice things in these records. I don’t mean necessarily big things. Things large, things small, things of note that an Outsider might not notice.”
He said the Juneau volunteers brought less than 5 percent of the emails to his attention for review for anything newsworthy, with a smaller number than that leading to a blog post or further reporting. Belknap and volunteer Barbara May generally verified those numbers.
He also defended the use of “crowd sourcing” the project, that is, asking for volunteer help both in Juneau and online, saying it would be impossible for one journalist, or 10, to read 24,000 emails in a timely fashion.
“Every time we ask people to crowd source, there are people who comment ‘why are you asking us to do your work for you?’” he said. “That’s just a fundamental misunderstanding. Those are people who don’t get that we’re in a much more interactive, collaborative world now where journalists still do journalistic things and readers still do reading. But, we’re talking to each other as their reading and we’re reporting and editing. And that a good thing.”
And for the right person, even enjoyable.
“It get a little addictive, I have to say,” Belknap said.
To see msnbc.com’s archive of the Palin emails, visit http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/.
• Contact Deputy Managing Editor Charles Ward at 523-2266 or at charles.ward@juneauempire.com.
Editor's note: This story has been changed from it's original form to reflect the fact the story on msnbc.com about Osama bin Laden's death received 9 million views in one day. It has also been changed to more accurately reflect Bill Dedman's statement that nothing major had yet been revealed in the review of Sarah Palin's emails.
Comments (64)
Add commentAgain MessNBC ends up with
Again MessNBC ends up with egg on their face!!!!
Breaking news - they found the word "sheesh"!!
Even a Brit agrees -
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100091820/american-way-sar...
Long Time Comming
The thing is that these e-mails were requested when she was chosen by McCain for VP, a very common request by journalists because, outside of Alaska, no one knew a thing about her.
The McCain campaign would not allow Palin to speak to the press OR give interviews at that time.
As it turned out, she was doing state business on PRIVATE accounts as well, 3 private accounts.
This way the private accounts are not public record, which is why most states do not ALLOW the use of private accounts for state business.
The ONLY way to acquire the e-mails was to search the proper state accounts of more than 50 persons and Palin herself.
There are thousands MORE e-mails that will NEVER see the light of day, from these private accounts that they were doing state business on.
THEN you have Palin who was still governor, and after she quit, her Lieutenant Governor and all the staff that had worked for Palin, and the lawyers she had hired, stalling the release with ridiculous excuses, making outrageous redactions and in the end STILL withholding over 2 THOUSAND e-mails over 3 years later.
It has taken longer to have these e-mails released than Palin served as governor!!
Palin and her administration did everything they could think of to disuade the media from acquiring e-mails that ARE public record, Palin’s response from the first requests;
“The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as ~~$15 million~~ per individual contact ~~45 MILLION ~~quoted to the AP (for all their requests) of copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens. No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of Palin, her senior staff and other state employees won’t be made public until at least several weeks after the Nov. 4 presidential election, her office told msnbc.com on Thursday.”
http://t.co/YgwWVXV
In the end the original ~~15 MILLION~~per CONTACT!…AP was quoted ~~~45 MILLION~~ for all of them…45 MILLION~~which turned out to be……. $725.
THAT speaks volumes in itself, just because the “free press” wanted to get to know the VP candidate through what was supposed to be “public records”.
Obviously Palin and her administration are terrified that “we the people” should have proper access to what is supposed to the “public” record.
Ever since the first request, Palin and her associates have behaved like frantic cats in a giant litter box.
Angus:
How many times are you going to use this same post?
These people need a life. Apparently Palin puts the scare in them or they wouldn’t be going through all this.
I think it’s most funny watching them chase their tails.
emails
It is obvious that Palin and the state are hiding lots of information. Several of the emails were redacted, and several were not made public What is the state hiding?
Palin puts the scare...
I was born and raised right here in Alaska, Sarah does NOT represent me, and you damn right....
she puts the scare in me!!
To think that shell of a personality could run an outboard motor on Bristol Bay is different than her running (or not) our State or this country?...OMG...that is scary!!
:-)
Ditto hunalulu She is one of the scariest people in the nation today! Thing is I hope she does get the Republican nomination. That would insure the reelection of Obama
Democrat Party
The Democrat Party is not only scared of Palin, but hates her with a vengence. No matter what she does they will call her all the vile names that they can spit out as fast as they can.
The Democrat Party is not the party of the 50's and 60's. It lives on hate even thought they claim to accept everyone as long as that person or group follow the DNC to the letter. If that person or group does not believe in the Democrat Party then they are considered to be racist, homophobic, and earth haters.
@ Julian Assange
I do believe that you are confused! It is the Republican Party that is vile and hateful. They continue to want to put more $$$ into the pockets of the rich and wealthy, with no regard for those of the middle class.
Assange
Ditto, Assange. :-)
Angus: By Milspec. | 06/12/11
Angus:
By Milspec. | 06/12/11 - 09:36 am
How many times are you going to use this same post?
These people need a life. Apparently Palin puts the scare in them or they wouldn’t be going through all this.
I think it’s most funny watching them chase their tails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We think it's funny that all you can do is shout at clouds.
You never have anything substantive to say.
?
The Republican party is ruled the Right Wing Fundalmentalist Christians This group of people Dislike any and everyone that goes against what the Bible says. This is real world, and Bible is a great book of stories depicting history! It is a book open to interpetation. The biblical researchers have been arguing and the meaning of theses great words for generations. It was NOY written to be taken literally, as the right winger do!
lulu says, "she puts the
lulu says, "she puts the scare in me!!" referring to Palin.
Andree McLeod puts the "scare in me". She's like a freakin' stalker.
I was wondering if the outlets that are so interested in Palin's e-mails could give us a little summary on the ones that were sent as threats to the governor? Maybe even some of the names of the senders. Maybe Chris Matthews or Rachel will cover that tomorrow. Then billb, could you do some research and see which way those senders vote? Anybody want to place bets? I personally don't see any "vile and hateful" speech coming from the Republicans as he claims.
Sarah Palin Fans Hack Crivella West to Tweet Palin Propaganda
"It looks like some Palin supporters, you know the same people who wanted the teenager who hacked Sarah Palin’s email account in 2008 locked up for life, don’t understand the meaning of the word hypocrite.
Anyone who read the Crivella West twitter stream could clearly see there was something odd about it. With the sudden pro-Palin shift in tweets, it was easy to see that this wasn’t on the up and up. To put it mildly, this account sure looks like it was compromised.
Palin and her Conservatives for Palin supporters are known for rigging online polls. Sarah Jones wrote about the Palin fans rigging of a US Election News.org poll,
First USEN.org ran into the Palin fans from Team Sarah and had to pull the poll altogether after it was freeped. Then Sunday, in a poll entitled, “As 2012 GOP Respond, Who Benefits Most From Huckabee’s Decision Not To Run?” poll poster Jillian Curtin pulled Palin’s name altogether after the poll was freedped for Palin by Conservatives for Palin, with Ms Curtin explaining that they were trying to get general population results, not Palin fan results.
This poll is hardly the Palinistas first go around with freeping polls. They did it for Bristol in Dancing with the Stars to such a degree that the show had to redo their voting system. Team Sarah and C4P apparently operate under the same delusion that if they repeat the lie often enough, it will be true. They also fail to grasp that this sort of behavior is frowned upon by Americans – you know, those people who vote in elections for reals.
Michael Isikoff was on MSNBC’s The Last Word on Friday discussing the email from Sarah Palin herself that confirmed her interest in managing her image and rigging polls
Hacking and hijacking would seem to be a step up from the usual Sarah Palin terror cell modus operandi.
When reality does Sarah Palin’s fans wrong they respond by changing it, or in this case compromising a Twitter account to get revenge.
If you happen to be on Twitter and see a lot of pro-Palin Tweets coming from Crivella West, don’t be fooled. It’s not coming from them. It’s just more propaganda being spread by her devoted cult in order to protect their Messiah.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/crivella-west-twitter
@Calypso
Please just look in the mirror !
I am so sick of people
I am so sick of people slamming Sarah Palin. Did she make some mistakes? I believe she did when she resigned as the governor. Should she have used private emails to conduct state business? Probably not. It is unbelievable how much you all hate her. And I do mean hate. It is almost pathalogical how much hate I read in your posts. Get a life and move on. If she is as you say "rigging polls", "a shell of a personality", etc... then she will be her own demise.
billb you have other issues. Just because you say the Bible is "not to be taken literally" does not mean you are right. A.M., Why are you obsessed with SP? Time and time again you have tried to find something negative about her and have still found nothing.
Thinking for yourself
There's some irony here. The blatant hypocrisy by both sides. The nondiscussion about haters, homosexuality and polls.
Regardless of rigged polls, statistics and more dammed statistics the elections will be about how most voting citizens preceive the direction of America. If unemployement numbers don't mean anything to you because you are independantly wealthy or retired and it's all about abortion so be it. Maybe some don't care about blowjobs, sex scandals or HS book reports and figure a persons reputation should be whether a politician lies about the case at hand. Or maybe it's just because "they" don't have the right letter beside their name, "they" come from the wrong state, or "their" religion has a funny name. Or maybe it's just who lies best and comes up with the best voter bribe.
(personally I like the ones that come with actual jobs, rather than mythical ones)
Even Palin Hackers are Fake
Internet vandals over the weekend hacked the Twitter account of a company that helped upload thousands of Sarah Palin's emails to the Internet.
Judging by the fake tweets sent out, it appears as though the hack was politically motivated and pulled off by someone less than pleased by all of the media attention being given to the trove of Palin emails that was released by Alaska state officials on Friday.
Among the fake posts to Crivella West’s Twitter account that were captured in screen grabs by liberal blog PoliticusUSA:
Emails: Gov. Palin a Hard-Working Public Servant
Email Witch-Hunt Backfires
Weiner’s America or Palin’s America—That Is the 2012 Choice
MSNBC, which worked with Crivella West to create its online Palin email archive, has the background on the company:
Crivella West, a Pittsburgh company that analyzes documents in some of the largest legal cases and works with both political parties, had first offered its services for free to the state of Alaska, after officials there said in 2008 they were overwhelmed by records requests and would require payment of $15 million by any citizen or journalist seeking the records. After the state did not reply to the company's offer, msnbc.com and the company agreed to put online a free public archive of the records once the state released them.
The company’s founder and CEO, Art Crivella, had been openly critical of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell’s decision to release the documents in print form as opposed to electronically.
"We’re dealing with it here like we were in 1950, with all these banker’s boxes of paper,” he told the Juneau Empire on Friday. “You have to go out of your way to do this. It would be like me paying my taxes in pennies—I know it’s legal tender, but I have to go out of my way to do it."
Parnell and other state officials said that they lacked the technological capability to digitally redact the passages deemed privileged and therefore had no other option than to release the documents in print form. All told, the nearly 25,000 pages of records reportedly weighed 275 pounds.
MSNBC stressed that its online database had not been jeopardized by the Twitter vandals.
Crivella, meanwhile, offered this parting shot to the hackers:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It appears that in this case 'hacking' means sending out spam tweets pretending to be us,” he told MSNBC. “I think real hackers might be offended."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/06/13/sarah_palin_emails_supporters_...
@justivin
You have many issues I am not saying that I don't, but to say I have issues because I do not take the Bible literally yuo need to consider the millions of people thatfeel that same as I do. As for Palin she is a person that is out for fame and to build her EGO One has to remember that EGO stands for Ease God Out
I wonder if MSNBC will ever
I wonder if MSNBC will ever go after Obama's email accounts? Or Biden's.
akbrdguru
In debate, the kind of trick akbrdguru and others are using in asking about Obama or Biden's emails is called a "red herring," an argument that has nothing to do with the topic and serves only to call attention away from the main point.
Here's an idea: why don't you lonely people do a FOIA request for Biden and Obama's emails instead of prattling on about them, as if they've obstructed their release like Palin and Parnell have. Obviously you won't, because that would require work and if you DID get the emails, you's have to find something else to complain about, which would take even MORE work.
It's also a little hypocritical to talk about how poor Sarah Palin is the victim of hardcore haters, when you guys seem to have a pathological obsession with bringing up our president and VP in every discussion involving Palin, the media, trees, jobs, China, Sealaska, and pretty much everything else.
Wonder no more
By akbrdguru | 06/13/11 - 09:54 am
I wonder if MSNBC will ever go after Obama's email accounts? Or Biden's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The thing is that these e-mails were requested when she was chosen by McCain for VP, a very common request by journalists because, outside of Alaska, no one knew a thing about her.
The McCain campaign would not allow Palin to speak to the press OR give interviews at that time.
The American people had the RIGHT to know this VP candidate, who could possibly be a heartbeat away from possessing the nuclear codes.
It is the PURPOSE of the free press to find out what they can FOR the people.
They reviewed as much of her public records as was available.
As it turned out, she was doing state business on PRIVATE accounts as well, 3 private accounts.
This way the private accounts are not public record, which is why most states do not ALLOW the use of private accounts for state business.
The ONLY way to acquire the e-mails was to search the proper state accounts of more than 50 persons and Palin herself.
That way they could capture only SOME of the e-mails sent to these government accounts, FROM the private accounts, or FROM these government accounts TO the private accounts.
There is no way to know how many thousands of e-mails are missing because of this.
On top of THAT, there are more than 2,500 e-mails witheld!
The ONLY reason it has taken so long to have these released is because of Palin and her administration's own actions.
Palin HERSELF had promised that they would be released "in a few weeks , that was in October...2008!
PP, you're a joke
Lonely people? Is that what you call Ms. McLeod? She's apparently got so little going on in her own life that she has made a mission out of getting a peek at Palin's emails. If SP had given McLeod a cushy job in her administration, you can bet she wouldn't have bee doing any of this. This is why offices full of women are often so dysfunctional. I'll catch hell for that, but it's only based on experience. Like the saying goes, "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". This won't turn up anything more than pillow talk. Red herring? Hardly. More like tit-for-tat. Fair is fair. Why don't I file an FOIA request on Biden or Obama? Because I have a life, unlike some others who will spend untold hours in the dark, scanning any kind of juicy word search in these emails.
@akbrdguru: if you don't feel
@akbrdguru: if you don't feel you have to file a FOIA request, then simply don't mention it. It's not "tit for tat," it's a fact that these emails were requested years ago and were prevented from being released time and time again. There were outright lies (like the state can't turn documents into .pdfs).
Tell me, what lies have Obama and Biden said to prevent the release of their emails? Oh, none? Funny, that. It's almost as if you're only reflexively referring to the president and VP to call attention away from Palin. In other words, a red herring.
In any case, it's telling that you and others think it's okay for public officials to have work-related secrets (but only if they're Republicans).
Pin The Tail On The Donkey.
PP, you're a joke new
By akbrdguru | 06/13/11 - 11:33 am
Lonely people? Is that what you call Ms. McLeod? She's apparently got so little going on in her own life that she has made a mission out of getting a peek at Palin's emails. If SP had given McLeod a cushy job in her administration, you can bet she wouldn't have bee doing any of this. This is why offices full of women are often so dysfunctional. I'll catch hell for that, but it's only based on experience. Like the saying goes, "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". This won't turn up anything more than pillow talk. Red herring? Hardly. More like tit-for-tat. Fair is fair. Why don't I file an FOIA request on Biden or Obama? Because I have a life, unlike some others who will spend untold hours in the dark, scanning any kind of juicy word search in these emails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nice try ...but EVERYONE knows it was David Corn who first made a simple request for these e-mails, then the rest of the national media outlets.
NOT Andrea McLeod.
Even the non-profit, bipartisan AP was asked, by Palin, to pay~45 MILLION~~ for their initial request, the others ~~15 MILLION~~per contact.
Turns out to cost $761...Now THAT is some big fat lie on Palin's part, there is no doubt.
Sarah Palin HERSELF said in October ...2008...that these e-mails would be released "in a few weeks".
You Palin sycophants, try to place blame, and distract, like dizzy little children ...playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey.
You must be exhausted!
How naive are you that you
How naive are you that you think public officials make everything public and have no secrets. Ever seen the legislature in session? If you're worried about elected officials having work-related secrets, you better hurry up and submit your FOIA request for every elected official from the assembly on up to POTUS. Has anybody been bored enough to request Obama's or Biden's emails?
Ah, so now it's not even
Ah, so now it's not even worth requesting Obama and Biden's emails! Which makes me wonder why you even brought it up, except to serve as a red herring?
Can't Pin The Tail On The Donkey
How naive are you that you new
By akbrdguru | 06/13/11 - 12:08 pm
How naive are you that you think public officials make everything public and have no secrets. Ever seen the legislature in session? If you're worried about elected officials having work-related secrets, you better hurry up and submit your FOIA request for every elected official from the assembly on up to POTUS. Has anybody been bored enough to request Obama's or Biden's emails?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You just can't do it can you?
You just can't pin the tail on the Obama/Biden donkey, because thai has nothing to do with them.
Both of them spoke freely with the press during the 2008 campaign and their records were fully vetted, so there was no need to request their e-mails.
The thing is that these e-mails were requested when she was chosen by McCain for VP, a very common request by journalists because, outside of Alaska, no one knew a thing about her.
The McCain campaign would not allow Palin to speak to the press OR give interviews at that time.
The American people had the RIGHT to know this VP candidate, who could possibly be a heartbeat away from possessing the nuclear codes.
It is the PURPOSE of the free press to find out what they can FOR the people.
They reviewed as much of her public records as was available.
You are completely dense, PP.
You are completely dense, PP. How about this, let's just put every elected official's emails online, professional and private, and you can get your jollies trying to find some juicy scuttlebutt.
Poor akbrdguru, you cannot win an argument against the truth.
This is about 2008.
These e-mails are about Sarah Palin as the republican VP candidate, that no one outside of Alaska knew anything about.
These requests are simply... ordinary from the free press of America, to inform 300 MILLION Americans who were about to vote in their general election.
The press were doing their job in 2008 as they are now.
The fact that Palin attempted to prevent that and the fact that it has taken 3 YEARS to release them....is the fault of Palin and her administration.
That is the truth.
This has nothing to do with Obama, Biden, Andrea McLeod, Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy.....just Palin, her administration and the 2008 election campaign..
Where is it that SP is out for fame? It seems to me the media
is keeping her in the news.
As for the Bible. There is archealogical evidence that events in the Bible took place.
For you to be so blantanly and obviously biased against someone that has stated her faith is unfair. The very fact that your kind and the media cannot leave her alone and are ardently searching to find something against her is evidence that she might be on the right track. I have said it before, if she is not going to amount to much, then just leave her alone and see what happens. If you are right, she will fade away.