Mixed Feelings About the Backlash Against the Press

Flopping Aces ^ | 01-26-15 | Brother Bob

[Starman417]

The news cycle has been dominated by the events in Paris and Charlie Hebdo from last week, but there's another story about backlash against the press that's fallen by the wayside.

In late 2012 a small New York Newspaper, The Journal News, decided to publish a map showing local gun owners' home addresses in the wake of the Newtown school shootings. It's natural that a shooting as horrific as Newtown's that anti-gun sentiment would surge, but one would think that news organizations would keep a cooler head before lashing out. The Journal News correctly pointed out that all of the information that they released were public records and that they simply compiled them. Obviously, gun owners in the area were unhappy about being singled out so publicly. And of course, there were the secondary effects, such as police officers working in jails getting harassed by inmates who could now easily find their homes, or more obviously, the fact that the map was a useful guide for criminals who wanted to know which homes did not pack heat.

As expected, the response was intense, with angry calls and e-mails flooding in, advertiser boycotts, and unfortunately, threats as well. In the ultimate ironic twist, The Journal News hired armed guards out of response to the backlash, however I could not confirm if the JN also published the names and home addresses of the guards they were employing. When this story broke I remember thinking to myself that if I had the money for it I'd be tempted to take out a full page ad in the JN that contained a map of the home addresses of all of that paper's staff, cross referenced with whichever ones were gun owners - completely public knowledge, of course.

Fast forward to the Ferguson trial, and The New York Times decided to essentially publish the home address of Darren Wilson, the accused officer. Of course, The Times published this innocently as a simple piece on a police officer's wedding who just happens to live halfway across the country. Apparently local stories can warrant publication in a national publication after all.

But what caught my attention to write this post was an entertaining article that David Weigel wrote for Bloomberg.com, "How a Conservative Backlash Silenced #Ferguson Reporters for All the Wrong Reasons". The title alone is enough to tell you that what you're about to read is going to be entertaining, and sure enough the article did not disappoint. As one might guess from the last example the authors of the NYT piece received a similar treatment when their addresses got published by Charles Johnson's gotnews.com site:

Julie Bosman “keeps calling the 020th District station complaining about people harassing and threatening her,” our source told us. She’s also “complaining about numerous food deliveries being sent to her residence.”

Gotnews.com published Julie Bosman’s address in Chicago after she published the address of Officer Darren Wilson and his new wife in a widely criticized move.

And from there Weigel dedicates most of his piece to telling us how crazy Charles Johnson is, without realizing that many on the right would agree with that assertion. It only takes until the third paragraph for Weigel to start going off the rails , as he opens wit the assertion

What had been innocuous information became the kindling for a media bonfire.

"Innocuous?" How does publishing the home address of the subject of a major controversy contribute to any story? Perhaps Weigel should have contacted the reporters he was defending to see why their reasoning for this unprofessionalism was. In the next paragraph faithful readers are informed that

On the right, the story of #Ferguson is that a vile and biased media inflated a simple case of self-defense into a bogus “racism” story. In this storyline, Wilson is the real victim, and his aggressors need to be shamed out of their jobs and comfort.

Note how beautifully worded that is? Nobody on the conservative side is saying that Brown isn't a victim of a shooting death, but it is legitimate to question the choices that Brown made that lead to his death. And given the overall number of violent acts committed by non law-enforcement citizens greatly outnumber the small number of white cop on black criminal stories, then yes, that qualifies this as "a 'bogus' racism story." In the following sentence he suggests anyone sympathetic to Wilson is declaring him the "real victim" and the offending parties deserve retribution. As a matter of fact, if you become the target of a national hate campaign based on lies over how you legitimately did your job, then I think that the term "victim" does apply.

[Vigilanteman]

Just publish the addresses of all Julius Streicherite journalists so that they will be on the list for Julius Streicher therapy.

[Codeflier]

I think the writer has blended the Charles Johnson of LGF infamy with Charles Johnson of gotnews.com.