Did TYC Investigate Employees Who Leaked to Press?

In the Austin Statesman today ("Texas Youth Commission investigates leaks") Mike Ward reports on an inquiry into who released information about the troubled agency to Ward for a previous story.

TYC Public Information Officer Jim Hurley contacted me before I'd even noticed the piece! He wanted a chance to emphasize that the internal investigation was not invasive and only focused on whether anyone gave personal information about individual TYC youth to reporters. I'd like to believe him, but it's hard to tell from what we know.

It's not inconceivable to me that TYC higher-ups are spending their days chasing down leaks instead of fixing the agency. Lately they haven't appeared to have their eye on the ball, to put it mildly. One supposes they're focused on something.

Grits commenters in the past some have sometimes said that supervisors would scan the comments here trying to identify who said particular negative things about them. I've never confirmed it, but the complaint has been registered several times.

In addition, early on after the Pyote scandal broke and I began covering TYC more frequently, I received a warning from someone inside TYC that the IT department could identify which individual computers had been on Grits from the IP addresses on Sitemeter. In response I closed Sitemeter to the public. I don't want TYC administrators to have that information because it limits free speech and dialogue that contributes to solutions.

That said, asking someone whether they spoke to the press is a different matter than retaliating against them for doing so. It's one thing to ask if a conversation occurred or to inquire about the contents of such communications, but it's another entirely to seek to prevent them. Whether or not it's true, trying to identify who wrote this or that comment or uses such and such a pseudonym gives the appearance of seeking to retaliate.

I also find it odd that some witch hunt might be launched over what somebody said on the newspaper, when TYC employee commenters on this blog routinely rip the TYC administration a new one in much harsher language than in Ward's article. Hurley told me he has left a meeting at TYC, gone back to his desk, then checked on Grits only to find a commenter had already accurately reported on the blog what happened there! (Now that's grassroots journalism!)

So why would the two people who talked to the Statesman get in trouble, but not the dozens who comment on Grits?

Maybe neither are really in jeopardy, or perhaps both are. Jim Hurley assured me that there's no witch hunt, that they're encouraging communication by staff to the outside world. The folks who spoke with Ward are not in trouble, he said. And as for Grits, Hurley said he considers comments on this blog have been for the most part a positive thing and promised TYC would never retaliate against people who left their opinions here.

If TYC higher-ups were trying to intimidate this gal it clearly backfired; they're the ones on the business end of a bunch of bad press. Whatever the real backstory, maybe the incident will put an end to such foolishness.

What do you think - has anybody heard of TYC employees facing retaliation for something said to the press or on this or another blog? Let me know in the comments.