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Journalists Can't Hide News From the Internet
Hugh Pickens writes "Robert Niles at the Online Journalism Review discusses the issues surrounding the recent tragedy involving a MySpace user. A newspaper reporting on the story didn't name the woman, citing concerns for her teen daughter. Bloggers went nuts, and soon uncovered the woman's personal information. Niles writes: 'The lessons for journalists? First, we can't restrict access to information anymore. The crowd will work together to find whatever we withhold ... Second, I wonder if that the decision to withhold the other mother's name didn't help enflame the audience, by frustrating it and provoking it to do the work of discovering her identity.'"
Tie a rock to them and toss them in the water. If they float, they're a witch. If they sink, they're not a witch. Repeat as necessary.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
I don't think you understand how the system really works. There are only two situations where "innocent until proven guilty" applies: 1) if you are illegally downloading copyrighted content(*), 2) you are smoking pot to stick it to the man. Then, even though what you are doing is against the law, you're innocent even though they caught you with a lit bong in one hand and adjusting your stylish pirate eye patch with the other while waiting for the latest Britney Spears album to upload(**). In all other cases the masses, I mean the self righteous, uber-sleuthing, information freedom fighters have a god given natural right to be entertained and proclaim guilt ignoring the processes of the courts.
* - and then the claim that the bits on the wire spontaneously arranged themselves into a valid TCP/IP bit stream due to a quantum interaction of the large hadron collider and the heliosphereic current sheet, is considered a rock solid defense beyond both reasonable doubt and the preponderance of the evidence.
** - yes, Britney Spears, even though everybody on the entire planet realizes it's the same shit they record companies continue to put out and nobody wants to download it let alone buy it. Other than you and your hundred million best friends that is.