“I think there’s someone pretending to be you online,” my friend said, grinning. “They’re talking about ASM and diversity and how everyone is racist in The Badger Herald web forum and signing it with the name ‘Jenny’.”
He paused. “It isn’t actually you, is it?”
Of course not. But I am less interested in my seemingly newfound celebrity status and more concerned about the threatening response to the on-line “Jenny”:
“Jenny, you have some issues and I think I can help you out. A night out at the bars with you, me, a couple of my friends, a donkey? errr, maybe not a donkey, anyways write me back.”
Ron Jeremy
This threat was a response to a discussion on ASM and diversity that was first sparked by Benjamin Thompson’s column, “Dear ASM” (May 1, 2002). The four posts by “Jenny” — all registered to a fake e-mail address — generated 13 responses over three days. The response by “Ron Jeremy” — also registered to a fake e-mail — was quickly removed when I called the Herald office after my friend told me about it, her voice shaking from the same feelings of fear, disgust and anger that I felt as I read his warning to “Jenny.”
I can’t prove that whoever posted the threat was directing it at me or that the posts by “Jenny” were written to look like they were from me, since no last name was given (although I wonder how many Jenny’s exist out there that care about both issues of diversity and ASM — I’d love to meet this one, but too bad her e-mail address doesn’t work). At any rate, whether I was mocked online is of little significance to me. What I find chilling is that someone out there would advocate the use of sexual violence against someone with different views from his.
That particular post was a continuation of misogynistic attacks printed by the Herald last Thursday. In the “Your Feedback” section of the Opinion page, earlier renditions of the online debate were printed, including one post that was edited from a 168-word diatribe by the “Defender of Wallets” to read, in part, “Jenny, you’re a bitch. Get over yourself.”
The entire incident — bounced e-mail addresses, name-calling and published threats — brings to light the need for a serious discussion of journalistic integrity and newspaper responsibility.
The most important function of the press is to inform its readers. Democracy depends on an informed and active public, and the media plays a central role in cultivating a vibrant, civil society. The idea is to hold a forum for the exchange of thoughts and a battleground for different ideologies. If this marketplace of ideas works, we will all be better off.
With this in mind, what does “Ron Jeremy” contribute to the debate other than a galling injection of stupidity into a valuable discussion on student government and free speech? How does printing the most offensive line from “Defender of Wallets” create a better-informed citizenry?
It doesn’t. It only smacks of pettiness.
As for newspaper responsibility, what would the Herald have done if I had been attacked because I was mistakenly identified as the “Jenny” in the posting that needed “help” in working out her “issues?” Although the Herald is not liable for remarks made by users of its online forum, as the courts have shown in online defamation cases, it can certainly establish rules and guidelines for its use. Checking to make sure e-mail addresses are valid before publishing a post is not unreasonable, since e-mail addresses are required to post in the first place. Why not make sure they’re real?
The free-speech debate continues on this campus, and this article is no call for censorship. It is just a mere reminder that not all words are valuable, and not all words deserve to be printed. The Wisconsin State Journal, for instance, addresses vulgarity and obscenity in its most recently adopted code of ethics, published January 1999. In it, the paper said “vulgar or obscene words or phrases are limited to direct quotations, and only when judged essential to the story.” It also says it seeks to “present the news in an interesting but not sensational manner” and that “its most valuable asset is its credibility in the communities [it] serves.”
Perhaps it is time for The Badger Herald to reexamine its purposes for publication.
Jenny Chen ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. She is former ASM Diversity Committee co-chair.
