a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3808 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The People of Stormfront: Who Backs the Largest Hate Site on the Internet?

At what point do you think journalists should refuse to publish people's identity?





coffeesp00ns  ·  3808 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think you have a question wrongly phrased there. I think the better way to ask the question is "At what point is it okay for a journalist to publish a person's Identity without their permission?", and I think that that's a very important question too.

If Ms. Beirich had evidence of Mr. Holthoff actively promoting Racism in his classroom, or something illegal, and had informed the authorities (or his school system) and nothing was being done, then I would be okay with people naming names. As it stands right now, and with the information we have, Mr. Holthoff has not broken the law, so there is no reason I should know his name.

Again I have to go to the comparison to cases of doxxing on the internet, where people find something someone says or does disagreeable, and go out of their way to make sure everyone on the internet knows exactly who they are, where they live, where they work, etc, so that they can be harassed.

Just because we disagree with these people, or how they view the world, does not mean that we have the right to shame them for their opinion or how they live their life, no matter how distasteful we find it.