Media must reveal IDs of online posters….wow this is scary

So for anyone that doesn’t know much about my past, I was once very involved in journalism.  It started with the school newspaper in middle school, then on to Editor of my high school yearbook and on the staff of my college newspaper as well.  Got some awards and scholarships, I loved it.  I started college as a journalism major.  I have some passion for journalistic integrity and the freedoms given by our Constitution. 

Then after I finished my first degree, I took the LSAT exam.  I love to study law, find the ins and outs of the way things are written and interpreted.  Totally fascinated by it.  I read parts of the constitution just ‘cause it’s there on a fairly regular basis.

This story got my attention.  Read the link, but the summary is anonymous comments on a newspaper’s websites sparked an investigation by an attorney general into the actions of a high profile person.  The comments were saying such things as this person was “greedy.”  The paper has been ordered to reveal the identity of the posters.  Really?

Problem number one, if the attorney general is relying upon generic and anonymous website comments to determine weather or not an investigation should happen, maybe it’s time for a new attorney general?  Seriously, this is all that’s required for an investigation in Indiana these days?  Get off your chair and do your job already.  Sad sad sad.

Problem number two, what exactly is gained by revealing these anonymous posters’ identity?  It’s not like you can stop a crime before it’s committed.  The comments were not threatening. Well, that and covered under our Constitution.

I love the sharing of differing opinions, online, in person or otherwise.  I have strong opinions of my own and love to hear the passions of others.  To think that this combination of non-events could risk the simplest of American freedoms is truly scary to me.  Free speech and freedom of press are both getting clobbered here by a dumbass judge (Marion Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid) in Indiana.  I say that with my name proudly next to it.

(maybe the AG of Indiana can help me track down the dude that told me I was a twit here on my own blog a while back?  It’s got to be trespassing or something, right?)

 

Judge: Media must reveal IDs of online posters

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