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Or more recently Steven Hatfill from the 2001 anthrax attacks.
by nostromo 14y ago
Or more recently Steven Hatfill from the 2001 anthrax attacks.
- ck2 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hatfill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hatfill Or even more recently Ryan Lanza at Sandy Hook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Lanza#Investigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Lanza#Investigation The media doesn't learn and doesn't care to learn.
- jamesrcole 14y agoI think it's worse than that, as there are incentives (ratings, readership, etc) for them to jump to conclusions like that.
- sssk 14y agoThe very fact this post has made it to the top of HN/Reddit/4Chan, is incentive enough for similar communities to start searching for needles in those haystacks of photos. I guess we can expect more such "observations" from the crowd :-|
- n3rdy 14y agoI think there is a big difference between the news saying "THIS IS THE GUY! THIS IS THE MONSTER!" and people on a forum speculating that "this may be worth looking into further". The people who turn it into a witch hunt are likely not the people actually using their heads enough to know what to be looking for in the images.
- kayoone 14y agoJust wait until the media finds this
- parasight 14y agoThey already have. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/mystery-man-on-roof-boston-bombings-photo-_n_3091189.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/mystery-man-on-roof... Edit: It's another picture though.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mootothemax 14y agoI think there is a big difference between the news saying "THIS IS THE GUY! THIS IS THE MONSTER!" and people on a forum speculating that "this may be worth looking into further". The problem is that all it takes is one group to start quoting the other, and the effect starts to snowball: "Internet detectives on the popular website Reddit have identified three possible suspects..." "[Rival news organization] tonight reported on three new leads. The suspects, Joe Bloggs, Susan Smith and Bill Stickers..." "Ask Reddit - who of the three suspects do you think is most likely to be behind the attacks?"
- stray 14y agoBill Stickers is innocent.
- tripzilch 14y agoIt's usually the second one from the left.
- DrewRWx 14y agoSo in LTR languages, the second one?
- fnordfnordfnord 14y agoBill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted.
- RyanMcGreal 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_cascade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_cascade
- D9u 14y agoKudos for the link.
- puzzled_indian 14y agoWhen something like this gets popular, its a matter of time before a major newspaper will publish this on the front page. And that's the beginning of the end for this person, in case he is innocent (which he is, until proven otherwise).
- tezza 14y agoUK: Colin Stagg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Rachel_Nickell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Rachel_Nickell Christopher Jeffries http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/16/christopher-jeffries-tabloid-frenzy-joanna-yeates http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/16/christopher-jeffrie... Oz: Lindy Chamberlain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Chamberlain-Creighton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Chamberlain-Creighton Countless others, and one of the reasons why death-penalties can kill the wrong person
- kitlas 14y agoThe Central Park Five https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_Jogger_case#Convictions_vacated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_Jogger_case#Convi...
- mattmaroon 14y agoMost of these didn't end with lives ruined. With Ryan Lanza, the media corrected the suspect name very quickly. Hatfill got a multimillion dollar settlement from the government, and Jewell ended up on SNL. In all cases the media did learn they were wrong and publicly admit. Certainly they jumped the gun and caused injury, but they did learn and do the right thing eventually.
- umsm 14y agoThe media learned as in "became informed" but did not learn in the sense that they "improved".
- mattmaroon 14y agoI don't think that's fair to say either. "The media" reports hundreds of names in various capacities every day. Of course they blunder occasionally. You just don't hear about the 99.999% of the time they don't. I don't think they needed to learn anything. They know it's bad to jump the gun. You still see "Dewey Defeats Truman" jokes. They just make mistakes. It's easy to criticize a nameless faceless concept like "the media". Individuals in the media are largely upstanding people trying to do the right thing.
- yekko 14y agoReally? looks like Richard Jewell died a pretty horrible death...
- googletron 14y agonatural causes?
- chc 14y agoYou can't blame "the media" for a man's kidney problems.
- yekko 14y agoHaving your life destroyed and the depression must have added to it.
- officemonkey 14y agoIt wasn't the media that decided that Richard Jewell and Steven Hatfill were "persons of interest," it was the FBI. With recent news about someone "watching a race while brown" (an injured Saudi's home is searched while he's being treated for injuries) I don't hold a lot of hope for accurate and careful policing.
- TheCondor 14y agoThe FBI very much leaked those names though. It wasn't an accident.