THE DAILY BLADE: Pop Quiz: Privacy Rights V. Public Safety
A Washington Post editorial includes this epiphany: "In the aftermath of such a devastating tragedy, it's easy to say, but nonetheless true, that public safety must trump privacy rights…"
1. The tragedy referred to is in the editorial is:
(A) The destruction of the World Trade Center in New York by Islamofascist terrorists.
(B) The execution-style murders of three promising students in Newark by a gang that included two illegal aliens.
(C) The murderous rampage at Virginia Tech by a deranged student whose mental health woes were well documented before he fatally shot 32 people and himself.
(D) None of the above.
2. The solution – public safety must trump privacy rights – applies to:
(A) Eavesdropping on cell phone conversations between Islamofascist terrorists, even when those calls are routed through or originate from the U.S.
(B) Ascertaining the citizenship status of every person taken into police custody for a misdemeanor or criminal offense, and turning undocumented aliens over to ICE.
(C) Implementing "legal and administrative means to redress not only a failure of laws but of a cultural attitude that walls off mental illness and the information that is vital to dealing with it" at Virginia Tech.
(D) All of the above.
1. Correct Answer: C.
2. Correct Answer: D. The MSM, ACLU, Dems and liberals will never get this right.
Libel Case Survives Victim
You think it takes a long, long time for a death sentence to be carried out? Try suing the MSM for libel and collecting.
Richard Jewell, the part-time security guard who discovered a lethal bomb at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and helped hundreds of spectators flee from harm’s way minutes before it detonated, died from diabetes-related complications at the age of 44 on Wednesday. He leaves behind his wife, Dana, his mother, Bobbie – and a libel and defamation suit against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that has been pending for 10 years.
The case was finally scheduled to go to trial in Fulton County State Court five months from now. Georgia law permits substitution for a deceased party in civil cases, so the suit does not die with Jewell.
An AJC article based on unnamed sources fingered Jewell as a suspect three days after the bombing. The newspaper shared it’s reporting with CNN.
Following three months of repeated searches of Jewell’s home – and his mother’s home as well - then-U.S. Attorney Kent B. Alexander announced that Jewell was no longer a federal target in the bombing investigation. Nine years later, domestic terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing.
At issue in Jewell's case against the AJC is whether the paper had an obligation to independently verify the truth and accuracy of information provided by anonymous sources close to the investigation before publishing it. Various U.S. Supreme Court libel rulings support Jewell’s position.
Here is what the AJC has to say for itself:
The Journal-Constitution … has contended that at the time it published its reports Jewell was a suspect, so the articles were accurate. The newspaper also has asserted that it was not reckless or malicious in its reports regarding Jewell.
Much of Jewell's case was dismissed last year. One claim, based on reports about a 911 call, is pending trial.
However, Jewell's death Wednesday "is not a day to consider lawsuits, rather a day to pay respect," said John Mellott, AJC publisher.
"Richard Jewell was a hero, as we all came to learn," Mellott said. "The story of how Mr. Jewell moved from a suspect in the Centennial Park bombing to recognition as a security guard who averted a greater tragedy is one The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported fully even as it defended itself in a libel suit brought by him."
Jewell's attorney L. Lin Wood Jr. had already settled a slew of separate defamation suits with NBC, CNN, radio stations WKLS-FM 96 Rock in Atlanta and WABC-AM in New York, the New York Post and Time Magazine.
Ironically, defendant Kathy Scruggs, an AJC reporter who co-wrote the first articles to name Jewell as the focus of the FBI’s investigation died in 2001.
You know it’s time to speed up the wheels of justice when defendants and plaintiffs die before litigation is resolved.
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