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Emory Engaged In Partisan Witch Hunt? (12-19-11) - Just a few days before Thanksgiving my home office phone rang. Since I didn't recognize the number I didn't pick up. A couple of minutes later my home phone started ringing... with the call coming from the same unknown area code 404 Atlanta area number. So fearing a family emergency notification of some type I decided to go ahead and answer.
The caller identified himself as David Armstrong, a professor of journalism at Emory University. Maybe my Spidey senses jumped into hyperdrive at this news. However, with most colleges and universities being heavily populated with staff and administrators of the liberal persuasion, it's hard to not be suspicious when someone identifies himself as a college professor and starts asking a lot of personal questions.
I detected a little nervousness in Armstrong's voice, but he wasted no time in telling me he was doing a research paper on Republican State Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers. As I soon found out, "research paper" was a nice way of saying "I'm doing partisan investigative hit research on a prominent Republican."
Playing along, I questioned why he was contacting me about Chip. He then launched into a line of questioning concerning radio station WYXC in Cartersville, which a friend and I had purchased from Chip back in 2005. The first few questions consisted of pretty basic public information, then he started dropping financial facts and other details that he should have had no way of knowing. Immediately I confronted him... where did he get this information? What does this have to do with a university research project on Chip Rogers? Why should I be answering personal business questions from a stranger on the telephone?
He sounded a little frantic, as he perceived a phone slam-down coming. He began repeating whom he was and that he was associated with Emory University. He offered to provide me with a way to prove his identity. We went back and forth for a few minutes, and he continued to throw out additional questions that revealed to me he had already spent quite a bit of time playing detective before he had called me. I refused to answer anything else and soon told him to speak to the dial tone.
Immediately I contacted my business partner to warn him what had happened. Sure enough, Mr. Armstrong was trying to reach him too. As we would soon find out, over the next few days Armstrong would end up contacting numerous past and current employees of the radio station. At least one of the former employees had loose lips and spilled a lot of private info. When confronted, his excuse was that he thought he was only helping a professor on a university research project... and that brings us to the crux of the matter.
I did a little research also, and it seems Mr. Armstrong is doing the research on Chip Rogers at the behest of the Georgia Democrat Party. Since Democrats can no longer win elections based upon issues, I guess they have decided to resort to personal attacks.
I contacted the office of the president at Emory about the issue and after several days finally received a call from Ron Sauder, the Vice-President of Communications for Emory. His explanation for the phone calls we received from Armstrong was that he was teaching a class on investigative journalism and it was part of a class project. After I provided Sauder with some additional information I had uncovered, he seemed a little concerned. However, he stuck by his story.
At this point I can only conclude that one of two things has occurred. (1) Professor David Armstrong has been hired by the Georgia Democrat Party and was using his Emory job as cover unbeknownst to the university. (2) Or Emory University knows that Armstrong, and possibly other professors, are engaged in this type of activity and either condones it or at the very least chooses to ignore it.
My research indicates that Chip Rogers is not the only target. So if you are friends with or have had any business dealings with a Republican member of the state legislature, you may receive a phone call. As for Emory University, they need to put a stop to David Armstrong using the cover of Emory for his partisan political activity. Failure to do so opens up Emory to a public relations nightmare, and possibly endangers their tax status. That's my opinion, I welcome yours.
