A Feeding Frenzy On The Web Shoves Sanity Right Out The Door

from the worth-what-you-pay-for dept

The sports world is beginning to discover the fact that news stories can take a life of their own online. While it used to be that you could work the press to quiet down on certain stories, fans (and anti-fans) online are picking up on various stories and spreading them far and wide. One of the examples in the story is the fact that Kobe Bryant fans are posting (often incorrect) information about his accuser in the recent sexual assault charges against him. The article points out that, in this day and age, a judge can no longer expect that an order for the police and journalists to stay quiet on a name will actually do anything. The article seems to mix and match between two issues: the first is private, but true, info online when it comes to sports figures (or those around them). The second is false information designed to harm them or their careers. Either way, it's increasingly becoming a fact of life that anyone who is even marginally famous has to have something of a thick skin when it comes to the online peanut gallery. While the article makes a big deal out of internet message boards, I think most people realize that the info that is posted on those boards is somewhat less than trustworthy. It's only by paying too much attention to them, that people begin to get into trouble.

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