[Imc] hiding a story

[David Young]

I think it is appropriate to leave the article up with names struck so
that its contributor can see they need to come up with more evidence.
However, from a news standpoint, it's purposeless to publish the article
without any names.  This instance of xxxx shooting xxxx might be a figment
of someone's imagination, and no other instances are mentioned. What can
a reader possibly conclude from this article about short sentencing? It
is just not NEWS.

I think that Brian is dead wrong about acting on what is verifiable and
on what is not.  I think that much of IMC content is verifiable (that
is not to say it is "true"). And articles which are not verifiable do
not usually contain potentially libelous accusations.

Dave

On Tue, Sep 18, 2001 at 04:54:14PM +0000, Jay Morris wrote:
> 
> Would it make sense to unhide the article as you have it below? Keep the x's 
> over the names, and put a disclaimer above it saying that we are worried 
> about libel. That way the story is out, the person gets to complain about 
> short sentencing, and we are safe. I think Brian is right that we should be 
> worried about acting on what we deem 'verifiable' and what we don't.
> 
> Surely, we don't have to worry about libel if we are printing it without the 
> names. I think people would understand our position.
> 
> I don't even think we need to worry about x-ing out the son's name, since 
> he's not being accused of anything except being dead.
> 
> Jay
> 
> 
> >From: Paul Riismandel To: "'imc at urbana.indymedia.org'" Subject: [Imc] 
> >hiding a story Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 20:01:30 -0500
> >
> >I want to let people know that I hid a story on the website today. It has 
> >nothing to do with terrorism or threats. I hid it because it contained 
> >potentially libelous information that cannot be reasonably checked and the 
> >person who left it left no name, e-mail or any other way to contact.
> >
> >You can see the text below. If anyone has an objection I will unhide it, 
> >though I think it best to xxx out names even so. I think any final decision 
> >should be made at the steering meeting this week.
> >
> >The article was called:"23 year old son killed by nc teacher"
> >
> >Here is the text (note that i removed the names since that is what could be 
> >considered libelous and the imc list is archived on the web): "My 23 yr old 
> >son xxxxx was killed in February of 2001. He was killed by a 36 year old 
> >man, xxxxx that has a teaching certificate and is pursuing his doctorate at 
> >the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC. My son was invited to 
> >this man's house and was unarmed. This man went to his closet and got his 
> >45 handgun out of the bedroom closet, unzipped the case, took the gun and 
> >holster out of the case, took the gun out of the holster, ejected a bullet 
> >to make sure that there was a bullet in the gun's chamber(loaded) and 
> >killed my son with a shot to my son's chest. The bullet pierced my son's 
> >heart and did massive internal damage. My son was not armed, did not try to 
> >fight because the man had the gun aimed at my son's chest from about 3 feet 
> >away. My son pled for his life but was shot and killed anyway. This killer 
> >is a teacher and pursuing a doctorate in education, he pled guilty to 
> >involuntary manslaughter. Will serve time in jail on weekends for a couple 
> >of months and is on probation for 4 years. Apparently the value of my son's 
> >life was not very important. My son leaves behind families and friends that 
> >are appalled at this injustice. My son's wife will have to raise their 2 
> >small boys and their baby that was just born earlier this month. Is there 
> >any justice at all left in America?"
> >
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> >IMC at urbana.indymedia.org http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/imc
> 
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-- 
David Young                   On the Job Consulting
dyoung at onthejob.net     Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933