“Personnes
s'Expriment Librement”
A French Definition of the Word “Blog":
“People are freely
expressed”
The veil of bloggers made it clear
that these people of interest went beyond just necessity. The communitarian social
media emerged as the unheard voice of the people who demanded the “right to
know” (Patterson & Wilkens, page 132). Words so loud they took it upon
themselves to leak private information. “Plaisance and others assert that to be
detached and objective about genocide and hate is to condone it” (Patterson & Wilkens, page 158). If
one substitutes suicide for genocide in this statement perhaps one can see why
the Suburban Journals’ team decided
to publish their story (My
Space Hoax Suicide).
Steve
Polkin, editor Dave Bundy and lawyer Marvin Lindmark’s decision to print stands
on the ethical principle of what the public “needs to know” (Patterson &
Wilkins, page 132). Bloggers took SJ’s bait,
“veil of ignorance” and effectively put “distributive justice” into play
(Patterson & Wilkens, page 134). Ironically anonymity was the same weapon mother
Lori Drew and daughter Sara Drew used to kill the privacy of Megan Meier. Her young adolescent mental garden was no
longer a secret. The desolation of imbalance and depression was masked by the illusion
of a MySpace boyfriend. The intent to
mentally harm was evident to digital media expert users. The collision of
events demonstrates John Rawl’s theory of, “relative equilibrium” (Patterson &Wilkens, page
134).
In his follow up article To
Name or Not to Name, Polkin admits, “Dave and I knew the story would
generate outrage.” Their loyalties to victims and readers were in conflict with
their commitment to absolute truth. In the case of Lori Drew, the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act in 1984 amended with USA Patriot Act in 2002 was deficient
of social media cybercrime violations. This impasse fueled the peoples’ “right to know” movement.
At
UCLA, Pr. Eugene Volokh does more than teach Constitutional Law. He is a nationally
recognized expert and writer on the First Amendment, cyberspace law and
harassment law. In his view, “our legal
system (and perhaps human nature) operates by analogy, and analogies that rely
on multiple meanings of the same word are unusually powerful” (Volokh, page
45). Under the legal definition of injurious harm there are over 40 varieties
of the adjective. Corrupt, depraved and detrimental could fore fill the
requirement of the public's need to know. The warrant falls under the SJC: Code of Ethics and under society’s, “constitutional
right to think things through in their own ways” (Volokh, page 35).
Here is Title 1 8 of
the US Code as of January 7, 2011:
Chapter 47: Section
103;
“(9) knowingly uses,
produces, traffics in, has control or custody of, or possesses hardware or
software, knowing it has been configured to insert or modify telecommunication
identifying information associated with or contained in a telecommunications
instrument so that such instrument may be used to obtain telecommunications service
without authorization”(http://www.law.cornell.edu/Title
18/Chptr 47).
This current version was an unknown policy
to Polvik and Suburban Journals where
their conviction of harm existed. Megan Meier committed suicide on October 6,
2006 and SJ published their article
on November 11, 2007. The question to
publish was still unattainable without losing the media’s social responsibility
to Drew’s right to privacy. Meanwhile
contradicting the fact that the police, prosecutors and the FBI did not find
any evidence to “charge her with any existing crime” (Malone). If we apply Bok’s
definition of “discretion as an intuitive ability to discern what is or is not
intrusive or injurious,” we could measure the violation (Patterson &
Wilkens, page 131). The intention to emotionally harm with the weapon anonymity
is no longer a secret.
The logical reasoning would fit
with into various philosophies from Potter, Kant, Aristotle or Plato’s principles
of truth. Analysis of Suburban Journllists & The Post decisions work ethically together All of which spin right back to the ethical news values stated in
chapter 2 (Patterson Wilkens, page 35). "This is why you want multiple sources" (Pr. Kabak Class 3 Lecture) in your articles.. Values, Facts, Loyalty are diversity where “discretion
demands moral reasoning” (Patterson & Wilkens page131).
Democracy holds all socially responsible for our actions in language, websites or social networking platforms, the truth will be sound in a market place of ideas. Adios.
Works Cited:
Patterson, P. &
Wilkens, L., Media Ethics: Issues and
Cases 7th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York 2011.
Volokh,
Eugene, "The Troubling Implications of a
Right to Stop Others from Speaking About You" (PDF). Stanford Law Review; Vol. 52, No. 5) 2000.
To
Name or Not to Name_Pokin Dec 2 2007
Kabab, Pr. J, CM 503 Class Lecture 3, SHU
Work Referenced:
Andrew M.
Grossman is Senior Legal Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation.
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