Thursday, December 27, 2012

Journalists’ Addresses Posted In Revenge For Newspaper’s Google Map Of Gun Permit Owners


Journalists’ Addresses Posted In Revenge For Newspaper’s Google Map Of Gun Permit Owners

Gregory Ferenstein

posted yesterday
New York newspaper posts map with names and addresses of handgun permit owners (update) | The Verge
A week after the Newtown massacre, The Journal News published an interactive Google Map with the names and addresses of gun permit owners in select New York cities. The bold move has escalated into a transparency arms race, after a Connecticut lawyer posted the phone number and addresses of the Journal‘s staff, including a Google Maps satellite Image of the Publisher’s home. “I don’t know whether the Journal’s publisher Janet Hasson is a permit holder herself, but here’s how to find her to ask,” read Christopher Fountain’s blog post. The double irony here is that open data was heralded as a tool of enlightened civic dialog, and has been co-opted for fierce partisanship, bordering on public endangerment.
The Journal‘s original publication of the map sparked nationwide outrage and thousands of angry comments. Gun permit holding is public information in New York, and can be acquired through a mere request via the Freedom of Information Act. But, coming on the heals of the Newtown shooting, the publication had a clear provocative intent. “New York residents have the right to own guns with a permit and they also have a right to access public information,” said a defiant Hasson.
Given that Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle used in the School shooting was reportedly legally registered with the killer’s mother, the Google Map sparked a debate about whether gun owners should be labeled like other potential menaces to society, “The implications are mind-boggling,” said Marine Scott F. Williams to The Journal News, “It’s as if gun owners are sex offenders (and) to own a handgun risks exposure as if one is a sex offender. It’s, in my mind, crazy.”
Blogger Christopher Fountain took the debate into his own hands, publishing the personal information of The Journals‘ staff. “Hundreds of thousands of readers; Janet, you have a great Christmas Eve,” he wrote, after a popular political outlet, Instapundit, linked to his post.
Ironically, the promise of open data was supposed to lead to open-minded discussion. “If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects,” reads the often-cited quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who stands a champion to modern-day nonprofits fighting for greater access to health, legislative, and administrative government data.
Open data advocates have struggled to get media attention for their utopian vision of automated government services. This latest use of open data via Google Maps, both to publish gun permit ownership and journalists’ geolocation data, seems to have hit the media sweet spot, as it plays into our debased partisan interests. It appears that transparency lends itself equally to being both a tool of democracy or a partisan weapon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now the criminals know who doesnt have a gun. Lock the doors!

Anonymous said...

Its time the media got its fair share of "come uppins". They used to be the watchdog for the American people when it came to corruption in the government now they have turned their attention to attacking the American people. Their children go to schools that have armed guards yet they insist we give up our guns and leave our children unprotected. Now everyone knows where they/the media lives. Let us hope that they will learn their lesson because outing gun owners is tantamount to murder if people get hurt because of their misdeeds. Serves them/the media right. Now the criminals know who dosent have guns there in New York so those people have been outed as well by this irresponsible move. Lets see how they/the media like that. Maybe we should find the addresses of all media and place them on google earth and publish it as well and see how they like that feeling in their stomachs that people get when they are the center of the crap that they/the media started.
If more people started outing the media like this guy did then maybe they will stop this crap.I want to personally thank this person for seeing the need and filling it.

Anonymous said...

I am so proud of this lawyer!!!! This is the way to do it!!!!! Bring this rats out of their hole!!
I wonder if this "journalists" are now going to go get some guns.....my advice? do it... you might need it....the criminals now know you don't have a way to defend yourselves

Anonymous said...

Maybe this country WOULD be a better place... if ALL the names and addresses of the supposed 'leaders' (congress, Senate, High rank military. managers /CEOs of banks, etc were publicly published and updated regularly)...maybe a job for Anonamous and Wiki..?

Anonymous said...

GOOD!