Discussion
  • Read More
    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesJ.K. Trotter
    12/04/15 2:59pm

    Is there a reason for this intense interest in misindentification? Not that it’s irrelevent, but this is the second post this afternoon on this particular part of recent news. Not only is it not the most important issue in this, but maybe not even the third or fourth, and that’s even when you distill this down simply to the sins of the media covering this case thus far. We just got through a few hours ago a scrum of reporters literally going through the garbage of the deceased subjects on live television, showing sensitive information of the relatives putting them in danger, and contaminating what is still probably an active crime scene.

    Anyway, the biggest news I’ve heard, today, is that the FBI has someone in their sights as it relates to who bought the some of the guns and the ammo for the couple. Sounds like they are alluding to a straw purchaser. The other news is that while they are now investigating the terrorism aspect of the shooting, they also haven’t explicitly ruled out a mixed-motive, which seems kind of obvious.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      A Media DudeGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      12/04/15 3:05pm

      Identifying someone as a terrorist and mass shooter when they are innocent is very bad, not to mention possibly defamatory.

      Remember the NY Post “bag men”?

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Setzer777GeorgeGeoffersonLives
      12/04/15 3:07pm

      I won’t venture to guess at Gawker Media’s motives, but in general misidentification is pretty important.

      Haven’t innocent people been murdered after wrongly being identified as suspects?

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Dave J.K. Trotter
    12/04/15 3:04pm

    Compared to the behavior of other media companies, this error, retracted and corrected by the TDB, is barely on the radar. Looking at you NY Post and YOU MSNBC. Fucking going the shooters house—

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Jerry-NetherlandDave
      12/04/15 3:16pm

      But Gawker has to point out every error made by Daily Beast, HuffPo and Buzzfeed. Oh, and Vice. And the big 3 cable “news” outlets. It’s a thing. It should be the Daily Show’s thing, but it’s a thing here, too. (One wonders if it’s reciprocal. Probably is.)

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Dave Jerry-Netherland
      12/04/15 3:18pm

      Hmm, I read most of those, and I don’t recall seeing reciprocal bashing. Someone should start a website for that!

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    signofzetaJ.K. Trotter
    12/04/15 2:54pm

    Well, it’s a good thing Gawker Media has never had an issue with its journalistic integrity.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Sid and Financysignofzeta
      12/04/15 3:02pm
      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Thrumboliosignofzeta
      12/04/15 3:06pm

      “The Daily Beast’s retraction echoes those issued by a number of media outlets (including Gawker) who mistakenly identified a Connecticut teenager named Ryan Lanza as the alleged suspect of the Newtown Elementary School shooting in December 2012. (The actual suspect was his brother, Adam Lanza.) The Daily Beast went much further than those outlets did in attempting to corroborate the San Bernardino suspect’s identity. As this episode clearly demonstrates, sometimes even that is not enough.”

      I’ll jump on Gawker when they’re being shitty hack-job artists, but this is pretty even-handed.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    ThrumbolioJ.K. Trotter
    12/04/15 2:59pm

    I use LexisNexis every day (Development Pro), and every address you find should be independently vetted through either a city/county assessor (in the case of owned property) or a supplemental source like White Pages Pro (which is cheap enough that any mid- to large-sized outfit should be able to spring for it).

    Moreover, not sure which version of the product they used, but in DP you can click on the name of the entry and get to an expanded report, which can help to piece together an employment history (though not all entries will have past employers). That or they could have run a corporation search with the name to check for any hits there. If you can do it for someone with the surname “Mohammed” (essentially the Arab/Middle Eastern “Smith” - and you CAN do it, it’s just a pain in the ass), you can do it with a less common name.

    As for LinkedIn...yeah, that’s only as good as the rate that it’s updated. And the information provided can be piss poor.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      VectoriousJ.K. Trotter
      12/04/15 3:01pm

      I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve read this before. That was some pretty epic déja vu.

      Reply
      <
      • Read More
        raincoasterJ.K. Trotter
        12/04/15 9:48pm

        This is every reporter’s nightmare: they worked hard at it and still got it wrong. Yet, it must be said this is a very “Here’s my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl” problem.

        Reply
        <
        • Read More
          pnext44J.K. Trotter
          12/04/15 3:06pm

          So next can we do an article about how Gawker Media misidentified the “shooting suspect” as being “three armed white terrorists?” Now they are just suspects, no need to identify their race or anything. Look forward to reading it.

          Reply
          <
          • Read More
            signofzetapnext44
            12/04/15 3:22pm

            As much as I will shit on Gawker, since it was an active shooting, police were providing descriptions based on reports. All media released similar reports so that people could be on the look out for suspects, and also not engage them. So that made sense.

            Reply
            <
          • Read More
            Raging Bulldogsignofzeta
            12/04/15 3:38pm

            Listen to the dispatch recordings. The only suspect description given is a dark-skinned male.

            Reply
            <
        • Read More
          NYCAussieJ.K. Trotter
          12/04/15 3:00pm

          It begs the question: when do we as a public need to know the identity of the suspected killer? I’m right in saying that he wasn’t still at large when they initially published the report, so what’s the public interest apart from trying to “be first”.

          All the clamoring seems to be trying to work out whether a killer is white, brown, christian or muslim. And that’s not really helpful in the immediacy of these events, right?

          Reply
          <
          • Read More
            isner-mahutJ.K. Trotter
            12/04/15 2:58pm

            Noah’s a great guy & he’s taken responsibility, but this was fuck-up. If you read the Wonkette link (or were following in real time), no retraction or correction was printed, and no response to Wonkette/Schoenkopf was ever given, despite hours of tweets. The post was NOT taken down as soon as soon as they were made aware of the problem.

            Reply
            <
            • Read More
              The Original SunshineJ.K. Trotter
              12/04/15 4:31pm

              It’s all food for the truthers..

              Reply
              <