Steve Kass

This food-themed ad for an insurance company in the middle of an article about a fatal shark attack didn’t strike me as particularly tasteful.

A Reuters News Service article today reports [emphasis mine] “If both your parents have Alzheimer’s disease, you probably are more much likely than other people to get it, researchers said on Monday.” What if they both have dyslexia?

Headline: Nuclear Plant Shutdown Causes Massive Florida Power Outages

It’s the other way around, though, according to the article. A power outage caused the plant to automatically shut down, just like it’s supposed to. In the world of news, fear trumps truth.

A week ago, a small-town reporter named Steve Pokin wrote an emotional story for the St. Charles (Missouri) Journal. With headings like “SHADOWY CYBERSPACE”, “AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER”, and “THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN”, Pokin wove a modern tragedy about the October 2006 death of young Megan Meier. In Pokin’s tale, a neighbor fabricated a MySpace account through which the girl was tormented to commit suicide.

Whatever tragedy might have taken place in 2006, another tragedy is taking place now, in reaction to Pokin’s story. The AP picked it up yesterday, and it’s being republished widely, often under the headline “Mom: Web Hoax Led Girl to Kill Herself.”

Pokin’s story is taken at face value, people react with outrage and anger, and the supposed villain of the story has been identified and named by bloggers.

I’m not suggesting Pokin got the facts wrong, nor am I suggesting he got them right, either. I wasn’t there. I’m also not suggesting Pokin expected or intended the kind of reaction his story has produced. Pokin appears to have based his story mostly, if not entirely, on the word of one guilt-ridden, aggrieved mother (”I have this awful, horrible guilt and this I can never change,” she said. “Ever.”) and on the second-hand words of the story’s villain, summarized in a police report about an incident between the two families involved. From the reaction so far, that’s apparently all the information many people need to call for (or take) mob action.

A local television station quotes the St. Charles County Prosecutor, Jack Banas as saying, “Me personally, I’ve never seen anything on this case.”

Well it’s been much more than a few days. While I might recover what got lost in the change of hosting provider, there’s no point suspending the blog any longer. If I don’t keep posting, It’s laziness and procrastination from now on.

I’m changing web hosting providers, so things will probably be a mess for at least a few days.