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23 Nov 2009 23:51

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Politics: Anonymous Kurt Greenbaum critic: Privacy is important

  • The fact that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch would allow this to happen just shows how completely out of touch they are with the Internet and the modern world.
  • The anonymous author of “Kurt Greenbaum is a #&(&@” • Describing their feelings on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s handling of the Kurt Greenbaum incident. As you recall, Greenbaum called a commenter’s employer and got them fired. The person behind the site emphasizes two things: One, commenters should be allowed their privacy, and two, the Post-Dispatch’s policies are old hat at best. source

21 Nov 2009 16:40

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Politics: STLToday’s Kurt Greenbaum: First class bad word we can’t repeat here.

  • First rule of journalism: Don’t make yourself part of the story. Guess which rule the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s social media editor broke? As the so-called internet hate machine closes in on a guy who cost another guy his job for a pretty petty reason, we think there are a few things to learn from the whole ordeal.
  • one Don’t make yourself part of the story. The second Greenbaum decided to look up a reader’s IP address and took matters into his own hands, the story stopped being about the comment and started being about the admitted narc. Bad move, buddy.
  • two Don’t violate your readers’ trust. People go to your site with the belief that they won’t get screwed over. In fact, the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s own privacy policy promises this. When you decide to be the morality police, you violate a reader’s trust.
  • three Expect a swift, painful response. Not long after our boy Kurt did this, he felt retribution from all corners of the interweb, including Reddit and Digg. And honestly, he should lose his job. He turned a minor issue into a policy-breaking debacle. source