Can This Reddit Lie Be Stopped?

by Paul Bass | Jul 28, 2013 1:23 pm

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Posted to: Media

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine features an article detailing how a lie about a sensitive story became confirmed “fact” in the news media thanks to a viral social-media journey launched on the Reddit site. That story involved a false report about one of the alleged Boston marathon bombers (who turned out not to be one of the alleged Boston marathon bombers). Meanwhile another lie about a controversial story continued to gain currency Sunday on social-media sites about an incident in New Haven. This one involved the bloodying of a white technician at New Haven Power Sports—possibly at the hands of some black male teenagers. Again, Reddit is one major feed of that lie. It began with circulation of a New Haven Independent photo of the incident, which took place the Friday before last. Police said they aren’t sure that the injuries occurred because of an attack—but some evidence strongly points to that conclusion. (Sgt. Robert Lawlor Jr., head of the New Haven police robbery and burglary unit, said Sunday that he’s still waiting for results of forensic evidence before he can make a determination.) What none of the evidence points to is the notion that the attack had anything to do with the Florida Trayvon Martin case. Not a single shred. That didn’t stop a Reddit thread from proclaiming “Man beaten in New Haven, CT as justice for Treyvon” [sic] besides the Independent photo—and from that meme to crop up on sites like Facebook. Will the invisible hand of the “wisdom of the crowd” source this lie out of commission? Or will it bring it greater currency? That’s what’s at stake in the promising but also potentially dangerous new world of democratized social-media fact-sharing, the Times article argues. The fate of this thread will offer a case study.

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posted by: anonymous on July 28, 2013 1:40pm Where’s the ADL?

posted by: vc man on July 28, 2013 10:57pm Paul, as a journalist, perhaps you can answer this. My question is this: why are all crimes where the victim is black and the perpetrator white (or in Zimmerman’s case, close enough to white to fit) national news, but when the victim is white or black and the perpetrator(s) black, it’s just another crime? There have been at least 3 such incidents recently in New Haven which were reported locally to little fanfare. The Dubey trial (which is similar, factually, as Zimmermans, but with the “races” reversed), the guy getting his scooter stolen, and the SCSU student being robbed on the bike trail as the perpetrators yelled “run, white boy, run”. Little mention of race being a motivational or even incidental factor. Additionally, 2 years ago when this city experienced a near record homicide rate, almost all of the victims were poor black men with a similar demographic as the alleged shooters. Again, not national news. Same as Chicago and every other urban area. Seems kind of hypocritical on the part of the media to me.

posted by: Edward_H on July 28, 2013 11:03pm I had a couple of Facebook friends who posted this picture with no context. I linked the current article “Can This Reddit Lie Be Stopped?” and let them know this is not related to anything with the Zimmerman case. I informed them this is normal everyday behavior in New Haven.

posted by: LadyERT on July 29, 2013 8:39am The media does more than it’s share of hyping up the races when it comes to these stories. Imagine what would happen if a story did not include the race of either the victim or the perpertrator? By golly then it would just be…. NEWS! I know its a long shot, but if we, the people did not feed into the garbage that is recklessly thrown about by numerous media outlets, some of this controversy would not be.

posted by: kimwim Actually, Paul, if you look back to the thread on Reddit you linked, you’ll see that the community has downvoted it to Hell. They’re calling OP (original poster) “uninformed” and “stirring up shit”. Your thesis is incorrect.

posted by: BadBoris on July 29, 2013 9:51am Maybe the problem is that the Independent ran a sensational but non-informative photo. Did you think about its news value, what it communicates or its impact on the individual portrayed? Did you get the victim’s permission - someone in obvious distress? - before forcing him live with the consequences of the image? Just because there is no photojournalist at the Independent doesn’t mean you can ignore the ethics of photojournalism. Same thing with the recent photo of a suicide scene. Did you think about what it would mean for her family to have that picture on the internet? [Editor: Thank you for the feedback. At hte suicide scene we made a point of not depicting the victim in a way she could be recognized, but rather focused on the scene that was occurring in a very public place.]

posted by: Edward_H on July 29, 2013 10:05am VC Man The NHI is no different from the national news media that suppresses information that does not fir their narrative. I have posted several comments based on factual information in various articles concerning black on white crime and they never appear in the comment section here. I have even pointed out the racism in some of the other comments yet because one particular brand of racism fits the progressive narrative these types of comments are never deleted.

posted by: Kevin While I agree with the gist of this piece, the Reddit story is not a “lie”. I think in common parlance a person lies when he or she says something knowing that it is untrue or when he or she should have known the statement was untrue. As the article notes, no one at this point knows who the attackers were or anything about their motive(s). In light of this ignorance, it is irresponsible (as well as uninformed) to suggest the NH attack has anything to do with the Martin case, but this is not a lie.