Which appears to be the original intent of the Las Vegas Sun;
Correction (March 4, 2008): The following story had several reporting and editing problems as well as some factual errors. The premise of the story was that even affluent and normally peaceful Summerlin, where a Palo Verde High School student was shot to death by another youth while walking home from school, was not immune from the crime that occurs in other parts of the Las Vegas Valley.
The story quoted two of many racist-tinged comments from a Web site to support the thesis that some people in Summerlin held racist views. (The victim, who lived in Summerlin and did not know his assailant, was white; the alleged shooter, who did not live in Summerlin, was black.) The problem was that the quotes were anonymous and, because of the way the Web works, could have come from anywhere in the world. Although some people in Summerlin may hold racist views, these quotes, because of the lack of identity of the writers, in no way proved that possibility.
It is the Sun’s policy not to run anonymous letters to the editor and in the future the Sun will not run anonymous comments from Web sites.
And that’s just for starters. The full details are here.
(h/t JimmyF)
Are you sure that this reporter does not work for the CBC.
Or the Canadian Human Rights Commission. There’s something almost “Warmanesque” about that story…
Did anyone spot the pic of the Bay City Hair Rollers?
Anyone ….?
I read the piece earlier today just shortly after JimmyF posted his comment and link.
The retraction/clarification is pretty thorough and it occurred to me that there are a few stories floating around the Canadian Media that deserve such a mea culpa from their authors.
Mostly though what struck me was that the story sounded like Winnipeg and the way the Free Press would cover it…. of course the Freep editors would NEVER consider any kind of a retraction …. they’d just try to erase the story.
Holy murderous resentment and schadenfreude, Batman. Looks like the shape-shifting impostors at the bottom of the journalist/hack barrel are bobbing to the surface in the States, too, not just here in Canada. Wow. A high school student is murdered, shot by an assailant he never met who came from a poorer area, and the reporter figures that’s a good time to say that, in effect, the neighbours of the murdered kid think they’re so special. “Did they think it couldn’t happen here, in Summerlin?”
It’s also familiar in the Canadian context that someone who wished to make a public case that an entity, in this case a suburb where the murdered white student lived, is racist would use anonymous comments as evidence to back up his case.
What an absolute boon it’s turned out to be for righteous, opportunistic, craven campaigners of all stripes, that one can attack an entity or a person on the basis of evidence from anonymous sources. Especially when such evidence could easily be the creation of the person making the accusation.
*Could*, but until there’s proof, the very vileness of the anonymously-sourced evidence can be freely used to harm whoever — Summerlin, say, — it’s planted on. It doesn’t go the other way, though — you can’t point out that anonymously-planted evidence could have come from the accuser even if you had an anonymous source telling you that because it would be groundless, unfair and actionable to use anonymously-sourced evidence.
But I digress…How about those Summerlin people, eh? They are so pompous and full of themselves that they desperately need to be taken down a notch…they need some public humiliation — yes, exactly — and when that could be done through anonymous comments, well, the bonus light’s on.
Ooh look, look how prove-y that piece of evidence is! Oh, Oh! And look how that one makes just the point I was saying about the person they found it on! Amazing! Isn’t that something?
So much evidence required, so little time.
While I realize the moral of the thread here is that you cannot use outrageous lies and anonymous comments to identify an enitre community as racist – that’s obvious – it also doesn’t mean that there are no racists in any upscale neighbourhood. Or any neighbourhood. That’s also obvious. At least to me. I’ve always said that anyone – any adult – who claims to have never held a racist (or religionist in the case of say, Islam) view is either a liar or delusional.
As a 48 year old, white, male, I have been exposed to so many personal and MSM experiences/reports of people of certain other races being constantly in trouble for going beyond the basic rule of decency (treat others as you would wish to be treated) that I have become jaded toward certain types people. That being said however, as someone who works with many people of different racial and religious backgrounds, both internal to my employer and with our external customers, I tend to weed out the undesirables using my patented ‘A$$hole Test’. Basically, if you’re an a$$hole, I don’t like you. I don’t care whether you’re white, black, asian, or green and hang upside down from the ceiling. The same goes for the vast majority who are, fortunately, not a$$holes.
So when I roll my eyes as another Jamiacan crack dealer gets whacked by a rival gang member (even the MSM can’t shoot a video clip and make a black dude into a white dude) and don’t lose any sleep over the demise of another a$$hole, does that make me a racist? When I cheer at video of a Korean owner of a variety store using a golf club to beat the snot out of a black guy with a knife attempting to rob the store, does that make me a racist? When I want the Caledonia dispute with Six Nations resolved by military intervention in favour of the rightful owners of the properties that are losing value like a 747 out of fuel, does that make me a racist? How about a white pedophile that gets out of jail after 20+ convictions and offends again? Or the famous Paul and Karla duo who should not be on the green side of lawn? Oh, I guess that’s different.
Or is it?
As I said on a comment at J’s blog, whatever was used to induce the Sun to publish such a correction needs to be isolated, analyzed, and synthesized in quantity for wide commercial distribution. The New York market alone would make somebody rich. Of course that doesn’t apply in Canada, but I’m sure Parliament could pass a price-fixing law a lá prescription drugs, eh?
Regards,
Ric