After a story is published, a minimum wage worker loses her job

[daredtowork]

9. Reporters also have to be sensitive before they insist on "personal stories"

Reporters are very pushy about getting people to give there names and get a picture - they say the story won't have credibility unless they get those personal details.

What reporters don't understand is that while getting the story perpetuates their own middle class job, they are doing it at the expense of people at the lowest end of the economy. Google never forgets. Being quoted in the paper with the wrong political opinion can not only cost someone their job - it can keep them from getting a new one. For a very long time. A strong opinion plus a long time out of work can make a person look like a trouble maker. A picture along with a name can verify someone's identity.

In a celebrity and social media driven culture, poor people are easily exploited on these matters. They can easily be persuaded no harm will be done, but later it will be impossible to undo the damage. The US has no "right to be forgotten" on the Internet. It might be helpful to educate reporters, rather than poor people, on the harm they can do here for the sake of giving a "personal" touch to their stories.

It would be different if these news stories could be evaporated a few minutes after they ran, but they cannot. It takes a second of prurient interests to Google a job candidate. Please don't make the lives of these people any worse than it already is.