Jezebel’s Jessica Coen defends ratting out racist teens: They need to learn

[UCmeNdc]

Jezebel editor-in-chief Jessica Coen on Sunday defended publicizing the racist tweets of some minors following President Barack Obama’s re-election, saying the story highlighted hateful speech in America.

“We were just doing a search for Barack Obama and taking a look at the Twitter reaction, and we saw some unfortunate things, and then we started doing searches for racial slurs,” she told CNN’s Howard Kurtz. “And so many tweets came up, it was shocking — well, maybe not shocking but upsetting, certainly.”


Raw Story (http://s.tt/1uKKc)

[DCKit]

1. Tweets are out there for all the world to see.

Since I'm not a twit, I was glad to have them brought to my attention.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

2. There should teams of indepdendent organizations outing people for what they post online...

If you're going to say it, you have to own it.

I use my real name on Twitter.

[lbrtbell]

6. No thanks

The internet is too dangerous a place to be using your real name. It's too easy for a determined person to learn where you live, and put you in grave danger.

[davidpdx]

3. I would bet anything that one of the parents will try to sue

Even then what the little asses said were public. I won't bother reading the article because the garbage tweets will only piss me off and make me tweet shit back at them.

[Quantess]

17. It is highly, highly likely

the racist teens have equally racist parents.

[Caroline-Vivienne]

4. She's not ratting them out...

She's putting a spotlight on what already exists in the public domain.

[lunatica]

5. Yeah. I noticed that word too

But since it's usually used by thieving rats and mobsters, that's what I thought of the people supposedly trying to put her on the defensive.

[LisaL]

9. What would you call contacting the school?

[Romulox]

7. Running searches on Twitter is now considered "journalism"? In that case, you should see my indepth

send-up of Youtube comments.

[Beacool]

8. I do have a problem with this.

Many of the racist messages were tweeted by minors. In a follow-up article, the publication said it had contacted the minors’ schools so that officials could “teach them about racial sensitivity.”

It is not the job of any journalist to try to teach anyone a lesson. Yes, these kids were insensitive, but most teen agers are not the soul of sensitivity. I don't know whether they actually meant what they wrote, but guess what? They had a right to say it. The same as when they tweet sexist or even homophobic messages. I may not agree with them, but neither would I have started a crusade against these kids.

[Arkana]

10. The journalist didn't start anything. She simply reported what was out there.

The backlash came from real people who went "Holy shit, that isn't right."

[LisaL]

11. If journalists are contacting schools, they are doing more than "simply reporting."

[Beacool]

13. No, she didn't.

She crossed the line when she contacted these kids' schools. That was not her job. Then again, most self appointed "journalists" on blogs are not reporters. IMO what she did is unethical.

[wowimthere]

14. Hate Speech is unethical as well. And if you threaten that may very well...

against a sitting President.

[Beacool]

15. Not necessarily.

These kids were talking trash, but the article doesn't mention them threatening the president. I believe in free speech, even when I don't agree with what is being said.

We can't have it both ways.

[malthaussen]

16. I agree with you.

I don't much like the implicit message "watch what you say, or you'll get in trouble."

-- Mal

[Beacool]

18. Exactly!!

What the reporter did makes me nervous. Because she found what they wrote offensive, she sought retribution by alerting their schools. Kids say plenty of stupid things, most of the time they don't even mean them. The lesson that they'll learn is that in the future they will keep their mouth shut, but it won't stop their minds from thinking it.

[Odin2005]

22. You know what? Bigots SHOULD "watch what they say"

[frylock]

19. so fucking what if she contacted the schools?

and what are your credentials that you get to determine what journos can or cannot do?

[Beacool]

20. A tad aggressive, aren't you?

[vilify]

26. You're defending the free speech of bigots but oppose the free speech of the journalist?

[Beacool]

27. She crossed the line by reporting these kids to their schools.

She violated their right to free speech, not the other way around.

[Sunlei]

12. That's how people learn to own what they say/type

Racists are cowards, they hide their membership lists for their clubs like the kkk,jbs and hood their faces. I wish Anon. whould hack/publish those membership lists in public for some suprises.

[Odin2005]

21. I think all bigots should be publically humiliated like these ones were.

You may have a right to spout bigoted garbage, but that does not protect you from private citizens from calling you out on it.

[malthaussen]

23. So, let's do a little reductio ad absurdum on this:

You think bigots should be "publicly humiliated." So, what form of humiliation is reasonable? For speaking or writing words (words, only, we're not talking about other actions in this thread), what penalty is acceptable? Shall we reintroduce the stocks? Nail collars to the sides of churches and put the bad children in them when they say stupid things? Why not jail time? Why not, for that matter, execution, since obviously bigotry is an undesireable trait in our society and those who express it can be of no value that will offset the insult.

This is one of those cases when I think it is the business of the family and intimate acquaintances of the offender to correct him, and not the business of government. The problem of liberty being attended by inconveniences will not be solved by restraining liberty.

-- Mal

[Chan790]

24. Bring back the rock!

Giles Corey, an 80-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem (called Salem Farms), refused to enter a plea when he came to trial in September. The judges applied an archaic form of punishment called peine forte et dure, in which stones were piled on his chest until he could no longer breathe. After two days of peine fort et dure, Corey died without entering a plea. His refusal to plead has sometimes been explained as a way of preventing his estate from being confiscated by the Crown, but according to historian Chadwick Hansen, much of Corey's property had already been seized, and he had made a will in prison: "His death was a protest ... against the methods of the court"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials#Overview

[Renew Deal]

25. Jezebel is a great website

I love their sense of humor. They were correct to put these racists on display.