All Blog Posts from Public Eye

One of the top stories on CBSNews.com today concerns a teenager "accused of running an escort service out of her suburban Chicago home using the popular Web site Craigslist."

The teenager in question is 17 years old. She is identified by name in the story, which is credited to the Associated Press. A number of other media outlets have also identified the teen by name, and a local CBS station in Chicago ran a picture of her.

I asked Mike Sims, director of news and operations at CBSNews.com, about CBSNews.com's policy when it comes to identifying minors accused of crimes.

"If the person is in the juvenile system, we typically do not identify them," said Sims. He noted that there can be exceptions to this rule, such as when the person is so well known that not identifying them would be pointless.

According to a staffer at the AP bureau in Chicago, the police released the teenager's name and mug shot. The Hillside, Illinois police department told me that the teenager has been charged as an adult.

Still, the case raises a number of ethical questions. Particularly for children, it can be damaging to be publicly identified with a crime, and members of the press corps should thus consider showing restraint when it comes to identifying those who have been charged but not convicted. At the same time, if the police do release this kind of information, it would be strange for the media not to pass it along – after all, it's part of the story.

I'm just not sure the press corps gets off quite so easily here. Aren't there times when reporters are justified in withholding information if it means protecting those who have not yet been found guilty? And couldn't an alleged crime involving a 17 year old girl – even one the police have deemed an adult – be one of them?

One of the top stories on CBSNews.com today concerns a teenager "accused of running an escort service out of her suburban Chicago home using the popular Web site Craigslist."

The teenager in question is 17 years old. She is identified by name in the story, which is credited to the Associated Press. A number of other media outlets have also identified the teen by name, and a local CBS station in Chicago ran a picture of her.

I asked Mike Sims, director of news and operations at CBSNews.com, about CBSNews.com's policy when it comes to identifying minors accused of crimes.

"If the person is in the juvenile system, we typically do not identify them," said Sims. He noted that there can be exceptions to this rule, such as when the person is so well known that not identifying them would be pointless.

According to a staffer at the AP bureau in Chicago, the police released the teenager's name and mug shot. The Hillside, Illinois police department told me that the teenager has been charged as an adult.

Still, the case raises a number of ethical questions. Particularly for children, it can be damaging to be publicly identified with a crime, and the media should perhaps show some restraint when it comes to identifying those charged with crimes but not convicted. At the same time, if the police do release this kind of information, it would be strange for the media not to pass it along – after all, it's part of the story.

I'm just not sure the press corps can be absolved of its responsibility on this question quite so easily. Aren't there times when reporters should resist reporting all of the information in a story in order to protect those involved? And couldn't an alleged crime involving a 17 year old girl – even one the police have deemed an adult – be one of them?

Lost Remote tips us off to a potential landmark case for the future of the Internet:

A Chicago fair-housing group has sued groundbreaking Web site craigslist for allegedly publishing discriminatory advertisements, a case that could test the legal liabilities of online ad venues.

The federal suit is part of an emerging attempt by housing watchdogs nationally to hold online classified sites to the same strict standards as the publishers of print classifieds, such as newspapers.

The case is potentially significant because it suggests the rules for an Internet site should be the same as a traditional publisher, in which every ad should be vetted to conform with the law. But that notion contradicts the way the Internet has blossomed, where informal communities tend to police themselves and free expression is valued.

The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has sued Craigslist, saying that the site carried over 100 classified ads that violated the Fair Housing Act over a six-month period:

Among the ads cited in the suit: "Non-women of Color NEED NOT APPLY"; "African Americans and Arabians tend to clash with me so that won't work out"; and "Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male."

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Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark continues to be the most talked about media personality this side of Anderson Cooper. The latest piece on the man whose website has been blamed/credited for making newspaper classifieds obsolete (and in doing so taking from newspapers a significant revenue source) appears in Fortune, which details the damage to "the dead-tree crowd":

Newspapers earned 36% of their 2004 revenues and a large chunk of their profits from classified ads—and Craigslist is burning up that market. So far, nationwide classified revenues continue to grow. But in cities where Craigslist is well established, the trends are ominous. In San Francisco, for example, Classified Intelligence Report, an industry newsletter, found that the major newspapers lost more than $50 million in classified revenue in 2004 because of the Craigslist effect. With several major papers announcing job cuts, and the stock prices of all the major newspaper groups down at least 10% this year, this old-economy stalwart may be primed for a world of hurt.

The San Francisco Weekly says Newmark's "well-intentioned support of citizen journalism has a slim chance of fixing the problem." How? It's hard to tell:

Considering how often he speaks publicly about citizen journalism and the future of media, Newmark is extremely guarded about his own ventures. He reveals only that he's working on three major projects -- advising two new foundations and investing in one start-up company -- all in stealth mode. The East Coast start-up was founded by Upendra Shardanand, a creator of Firefly (now Microsoft Passport), software that collects individual user information based on behavior, then recommends appropriate content…Next spring, they'll release technology that identifies the most important stories and most "trusted" versions -- a computerized or computer-aided "editor." As for the nonprofits, Newmark'll only say that the people running them "are a big deal ... the names involved are heavy media commentators."



Newmark has been meeting with a host of public-interest media companies and foundations (the Center for Public Integrity, the Center for Investigative Reporting, Wikinews, FactCheck.org) for months but hasn't made up his mind on where else his money should go: "I'm wondering about this. I have a little cash to give away. What's the most that I can do?"

I'm guessing any cries of "Give It To Us!" from newspaper editors will go unheeded.

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