Custom Search

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Paper Publishes Personal Info Of Gun Permit Owners and Blogger Publishes Personal Info Of Paper's Employees

By Susan Duclos

Tit for tat.

The best quote I have seen over this story is from Wizbang who says "Karma’s a bitch..." Yes, it is.

The The Journal News sparked outrage when they decided to publish list of names and addresses of law abiding citizens that have obtained gun permits.

After mounting criticisms reached a fevered pitch, the paper then attempted to justify their action:

“New York residents have the right to own guns with a permit and they also have a right to access public information,” said Janet Hasson, president and publisher of The Journal News Media Group.

Quick side note here- There seems to be a question of whether The Journal News broke New York State law by publishing the names and the locations of people who obtained gun permits: (H/T American Thinker)

Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 400.00 of the penal law
A. 9388 2

1 (II) A REQUEST FOR THE ENTIRE LIST OF LICENSEES, OR FOR ALL LICENSEES IN A GEOGRAPHIC AREA, SHALL BE DENIED, EXCEPT TO ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT
AGENCY OR ANY ENTITY ACTING ON BEHALF OF OR PROVIDING SERVICES TO ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SUBDIVISION, THE TERM "LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY" SHALL MEAN THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE, ANY NEW YORK STATE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, ANY POLICE DEPARTMENT OF ANY CITY, VILLAGE OR TOWN WITHIN NEW YORK STATE, THE POLICE FORCE OF ANY NEW YORK STATE AUTHORITY OR AGENCY, THE STATE POLICE FORCE OF ANY OTHER STATE, ANY FEDERAL LAW

Back on point here, a blogger, over at "For What It's Worth," decided to turn the tables on The Journal News and published the "public information" available on the paper's staff and employees, calling it "sauce for the goose."

The blogger, Christopher Fountain, explains his reasoning on CNN's Early Start, according to MediaIte.

Going a step further than Fountain's information dump on The Journal News' employees, Talk of the Sound's Robert Cox  created an interactive map of the FWIW data, just like the one that The Journal News published.

Via Wizbang:

Looks like the anger directed at Cyndee Royle Lambert (her married name) has caused the woman who so proudly noted the protests as some sort of badge of honor is pulling back from the web.

Her private Facebook page is down, her Twitter account is protected, and her work Facebook account is over-run by commenters chastising her.

Karma’s a bitch…

Indeed.

There is another point other than the tit for tat or the absurd justification by the paper for deliberately targeting law abiding citizens.

Everything else aside, The Journal News literally just provided every criminal or would-be criminal in the state of New York, that cannot obtain a gun permit for whatever reason, a list, with a detailed map, of targets to try to obtain guns illegally from, by stealing them.

IOwnTheWorld calls The Journal News article "The Most Irresponsible Piece of “Journalism” I Have Ever Seen."

Agreed.

[Update] Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” co-host Greg Gutfeld makes another excellent point.

Not only has The Journal News targeted law abiding citizens who have gun permits, but they have also highlighted "gun free" homes, telling criminals those homes not on their map, are not protected.

“So, a New York paper called The Journal News is under fire for printing names and addresses of local gun owners, even adding a map that shows exactly where they live,” Gutfeld said. “Some gun owners are ticked, which is wrong because this article is the best argument for gun ownership ever. I mean, if you knew that an idiotic editor would out non-gun owners, wouldn’t you get a gun to protect yourself with the thugs the paper just enabled? You think the paper works for the NRA? If anything, non-gun owners should be livid for the paper made them the easiest marks. Just look at this map — what do you see? Not just pockets of gun owners in red, but pockets without. How comfy would you feel knowing your gun-free zone is now public?”