Gun owners 'outed' in NY

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

So nuke 'em.

I have to drown them now, no longer radioactive.

[fasternyou929]

Originally Posted by Trip

I have to drown them now, no longer radioactive.

Drowing is the #1 or #2 most feared way of dying worldwide and it's much faster than radiation poisoning, so don't sell yourself short.

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by Trip

You need to go after what is allowed with FOIA releases to actually cause real change. Hell, you could make the map illegal and they would have to remove it. Instead, what has been accomplished, is giving the paper a ton more publicity.

I dunno Trip, I'm with 929 on this one....your argument (while true) is akin to saying if you want to STOP Westboro Baptist (since that was brought up) you need to blame President John Adams for signing the first amendment which ALLOWS them the vehicle to BE the dousche bags they are.

And while you're correct in the fact that the (theoretical) MAP itself isn't illegal, NOR is any of the information provided ON said map...to publish it and endanger people in that manor is WRONG.

What it boils down to, is while it's not illegal to do some things...."back in the day" your ass woulda got DELT with over stuff like this, and it just wouldn't HAPPEN.

I mean, "back in the day" if you were to jump up on the courtyard wall at lunch in HS and tell everyone that Tito's momma was a whore because she slept with [name all the confirmed penis penetrations] that wouldn't be technically "illegal". In fact...it'd be basically announcing publically what many already knew. But we'd expect Tito to go into yo ass over it, and no one would likely bat an eye.

Nowadays....thanks to PC and bullying laws, the pussification of america would not only protect you, but would put Tito away for life for even looking at you wrong after such an announcement in the courtyard.

The country has gone to shit. Basically because we no longer hold anyone accountable for doing something we all know is WRONG, but not illegal.

[Trip]

I don't want to stop Westboro, I like their ability to say all the dumb shit they want in this country. No American should actively try to block them legally from being able to say dumb, other consequences that come from them saying dumb shit is fine with me. Got your tires slashed....oops....

I agree the information provided can be used to cause harm or prejudice against a person. I don't think it should be included as information you can get through FOIA, especially in the case where the lady was trying to hide from her stalker ex.

I definitely agree that there should be consequences for free speech beyond legality. Tito should punch you in the face. Westboro should be given hell by anyone and everyone. This paper should be boycotted by everyone who doesn't agree with them and attempt to get their advertisers to back out.

I think this is different though. I am not in favor of allowing the FOIA to give out this type of information, I blame ourselves, not the paper for allowing it. The paper is going to take advantage of shit to push it's agenda/reader base.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Switch

End of thread.

Hardly.

The vast majority of people, no matter what state they're from, had no idea that gun owner addresses are publically available. Still don't, even after that article. And even among the minority of people who DID/DO know that such info is available, they wouldn't bother lifting a finger to try and acquire it themselves.

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Trip

I have to drown them now, no longer radioactive.

Flood gates open then.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

Flood gates open then.

With the rain coming in, we might just open a few of them this week. LOL

[RACER X]

Check out this website



http://janethasson.com/




After Pinpointing Gun Owners, Paper Is a Target

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Published: January 6, 2013





Two weeks ago, the paper published the names and addresses of handgun permit holders — a total of 33,614 — in two suburban counties, Westchester and Rockland, and put maps of their locations online. The maps, which appeared with the article “The Gun Owner Next Door: What You Don’t Know About the Weapons in Your Neighborhood,” received more than one million views on the Web site of The Journal News — more than twice as many as the paper’s previous record, about a councilman who had two boys arrested for running a cupcake stand.



But the article, which left gun owners feeling vulnerable to harassment or break-ins, also drew outrage from across the country. Calls and e-mails grew so threatening that the paper’s president and publisher, Janet Hasson, hired armed guards to monitor the newspaper’s headquarters in White Plains and its bureau in West Nyack, N.Y.



Personal information about editors and writers at the paper has been posted online, including their home addresses and information about where their children attended school; some reporters have received notes saying they would be shot on the way to their cars; bloggers have encouraged people to steal credit card information of Journal News employees; and two packages containing white powder have been sent to the newsroom and a third to a reporter’s home (all were tested by the police and proved to be harmless).



“As journalists, we are prepared for criticism,” Ms. Hasson said, as she sat in her meticulously tended office and described the ways her 225 employees have been harassed since the article was published. “But in the U.S., journalists should not be threatened.” She has paid for staff members who do not feel safe in their homes to stay at hotels, offered guards to walk employees to their cars, encouraged employees to change their home telephone numbers and has been coordinating with the local police.



The decision to report and publish the data, taken from publicly available records, happened within a week of the school massacre in nearby Newtown, Conn. On Dec. 17, Dwight R. Worley, a tax reporter, returned from trying to interview the families of victims in Newtown with an idea to obtain and publish local gun permit data. He discussed his idea with his immediate editor, Kathy Moore, who in turn talked to her bosses, according to CynDee Royle, the paper’s editor.



Mr. Worley started putting out requests for public information that Monday, receiving the data from Westchester County that day and from Rockland County three days later. All the editors involved said there were not any formal meetings about the article, although it came up at several regular news meetings. Ms. Royle, who had been at The Journal News in 2006 when the newspaper published similar data, without mapping it or providing street numbers, said that editors discussed publishing the data in at least three meetings.



Ms. Hasson said Ms. Royle told her that an article with gun permit data would be published on Sunday, Dec. 23. While Ms. Hasson had not been at the paper in 2006, she knew there had been some controversy then. She made sure to be available on Dec. 23 by e-mail, and accessible to the staff if any problems came up. A spokesman for Gannett, which owns The Journal News, said it was never informed about the coming article.



“We’ve run this content before,” Ms. Hasson said. “I supported it, and I supported the publishing of the info.”



By Dec. 26, employees had begun receiving threatening calls and e-mails, and by the next day, reporters not involved in the article were being threatened. The reaction did not stop at the local paper: Gracia C. Martore, the chief executive of Gannett, also received threatening messages.





Many of the threats, Ms. Hasson said, were coming from across the country, and not from the paper’s own community. But local gun owners and supporters are encouraging an advertiser boycott of The Journal News. Scott Sommavilla, president of the 35,000-member Westchester County Firearm Owners Association, said 44,000 people had downloaded a list of advertisers from his group’s Web site. But he emphasized that his association would never encourage any personal threats. Appealing to advertisers, he said, is the best way for gun owners to express their disapproval of the article.



“They’re really upset about it,” Mr. Sommavilla said. “They’re afraid for their families.”



The paper’s decision has drawn criticism from journalists who question whether The Journal News should have provided more context and whether it was useful to publish individual names and addresses. Journalists with specialties in computer-assisted reporting have argued that just because public data has become more readily available in recent years does not mean that it should be published raw. In ways, they argued, it would have been more productive to publish data by ZIP code or block.



“The Journal News, I personally think, should have rethought the idea as actually going so far to identify actual addresses,” said Steve Doig, a professor with an expertise in data journalism at Arizona State. “This particular database ought to remain a public record. Just because it’s available and public record doesn’t mean we have to make it so readily available.”



Mr. Worley disagrees. “The people have as much of a right to know who owns guns in their communities as gun owners have to own weapons,” he said.



Mr. Doig pointed out that the recent publication of gun information by other papers has made access to this public information more difficult because legislators started blocking the data immediately. “The backlash, very typically from this, is for legislators to try to close up the access to this type of data.”



Mr. Worley said he had received mainly taunting phone calls sprinkled in with callers who said “you should die.” He found broken glass outside of his home and would not say how much time he was spending there right now. But he said he had largely been supported by the newsroom.



The Journal News’s features editor, Mary Dolan, said that while she was not involved with the publication of the article, her home address and phone numbers were published online in retaliation. She has had to disconnect her phone and has “taken my social media presence and just put it on the shelf for a while.” She has also received angry phone calls from former neighbors in Westchester whose gun information was published.



She said she was especially concerned about the part-time staff members who write up wedding anniversary and church potluck announcements who have been harassed. But she supports the paper for its decision.



“It sparked a conversation that needed to occur in this country, and it revealed tactics that will be employed when gun owners feel their rights are threatened,” she said.



Putnam County has refused to release similar data, but Ms. Hasson said she would continue to press for it. She would not say whether the paper had lost any of its advertisers. According to the Alliance for Audited Media, The Journal News, like many newspapers nationwide, has had sharp declines in circulation. Its total circulation from Monday through Friday fell from 111,536 in September 2007 to 68,850 in September 2012.



At the same time, Ms. Hasson has been trying to calm the nerves of her family after photographs of the home she is renting and references to her adult children were put online.



“They are concerned about my safety,” she said about her children. “But they are very supportive.”

[Homeslice]

Is that a man or a woman? lol
And it's pretty silly to mock her, since she works for Gannett, which owns tons of newspapers, not just that one. She probably never heard of the article until all the backlash came out. As a CEO, she is just a business manager, she has no involvement in editorial content. Plus I bet that particular newspaper represents less than 1% of Gannett's total circulation. It's basically a piddly little tabloid.

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Is that a man or a woman? lol
And it's pretty silly to mock her, since she works for Gannett, which owns tons of newspapers, not just that one. She probably never heard of the article until all the backlash came out. As a CEO, she is just a business manager, she has no involvement in editorial content. Plus I bet that particular newspaper represents less than 1% of Gannett's total circulation. It's basically a piddly little tabloid.

But bet there's a review in WHAT that silly 1% puts out from this point forward! As well as a review from every media outlet on HOW they handle PUBLICLY available information from this point forward.