Violation of Social Due Process in News Media -
Non-Crime Reporting
The News Media sometimes violates social due process in the way they report non-crime stories. Driven by ideological reasons, carelessness, and/or the same advertisement incentives, the media writes stories that violate the social due process of, endanger, or otherwise humiliate people for entertainment or political reasons.
Examples of The News Media Violations
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
The Story
In what can only be described as lazy and/or politically motivated reporting, many of the major news agencies ran a story about a group of Catholic high school students from Kentucky who were visiting Washington DC during the March for Life rally in January, 2019. With disregard for truth, fairness, and accuracy, the media ran a story insinuating that the students were acting racistly towards a group of American Indians. All over the news media, they smeared the picture of one specific underaged, 16 year-old student who appeared to "be in the face" of an elderly indigenous man. Days later, after presumably finally watching video footage of the incident, news media reporters realized that this high school student was not, as they portrayed him, aggressively and racistly assaulting this man. Not only did the news media wrongly accuse the students, they endangered their lives and futures. How many universities and potential employers might have denied opportunities to those students after reading those news stories?
Students were also Underaged
Even if the students were inappropriately acting as the news media originally described, as under-aged high school students, they should not be tried by the news media for this. The story could have been run without identifying information, names, and pictures. But the opportunity to criticize them for being "MAGA-Trump supporting" pro-lifers was too tempting for some in the media. The news media violated their privacy, ignored truth, and grossly violated notions of due process. Multiple news agencies were ultimately sued over it.
"Washington Post settles lawsuit with family of Kentucky teenager"
" CNN settles lawsuit with Nick Sandmann stemming from viral video controversy "
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/media/cnn-settles-lawsuit-viral-video/index.html
(Notice CNN's own article about settling with the student unnecessarily included the student's name and framed the matter as a "viral video controversy")
*Note that numerous politicians and celebrities participated in the inappropriate public shaming of the students, and multiple lawsuits were filed. Lawsuits against political figures were dismissed because they receive immunity from participating.
"Libel suit filed against Kathy Griffin, Elizabeth Warren and others who tweeted about Covington Catholic incident"
Sandy Hook and Alex Jones's InfoWars
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
Following the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, in which 20 young children and 6 school staff were killed, Alex Jones began a media assault against the families of those students. On his news media site, InfoWars, Jones repeatedly claimed that the shooting was a hoax and that students and parents were actors, a claim he later admitted was untrue. The families consequently faced serious harassment and threats, in addition to further mental and emotional trauma. Families later sued Alex Jones and won.
"Sandy Hook parents suing Alex Jones hire security, go into isolation"
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/01/sandy-hook-parents-alex-jones-security-threats
"Alex Jones must pay $1.1 billion of Sandy Hook damages despite bankruptcy, judge rules"
https://www.reuters.com/legal/alex-jones-cant-avoid-sandy-hook-verdicts-bankruptcy-judge-2023-10-19/
"Alex Jones proposes paying Sandy Hook families a minimum of $55 million to settle lawsuit claims"
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/us/alex-jones-sandy-hook-lawsuit/index.html
*Considering that families have continued to receive threats ten years later, the decision to feature this example here even creates a risk to The Social Due Process Project and anyone affiliated with it.
9-year-old football fans accused of racism.
The Catholic High School Student from Kentucky
9-year-old football fans accused of racism.
During the 2023 NFL season, a writer for the website Deadspin accused a 9-old Kansas City Chiefs fan of racism for painting his face half red and half black, and wearing a headdress to the Kansas City Chiefs versus Las Vegas Raiders game. The author published a picture of the child on the website, accusing the child of wearing blackface.
The parents filed a lawsuit against the site, which has since then edited the article and removed the child's picture and all other identifying information from the article.
While the article author was clearly free to discuss issues of race and racism, accusing a 9-year-old child of blackface for painting his face half red and half black for the Kansas City team and for wearing an American Indian headdress (his parents claimed in the lawsuit that the child is American Indian), trolling a specific child, including posting his picture on their website, was unethical and violated Social Due Process.
We have included a blurred-out picture of the original. We only decided to include this picture, albeit blurred, because the parents, with their child, have participated in media interviews in order to raise awareness of this incident.
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
9-year-old football fans accused of racism.
Monica Lewinsky was mercilessly humiliated by a reckless news media (and late-night talk shows, music artists, etc.) over the infamous relationship between her and then president Bill Clinton.
Alternatively, Move-On.org was founded to end the political scrutiny facing Clinton, including moves to impeach impeach him over the matter.
While many argued (and likely continue to argue) that she deserves the public humiliation, we still object to the news media humiliating her over her private interactions with another consenting adult.
Check out her TedTalk for a new perspective on this famous public humiliation.
*"The Price of Shame" TED Talk featuring Monica Lewinsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8y0WLm78U
*HBO's "15 Minutes of featuring Monica Lewinsky and filmmaker Max Joseph .
https://www.max.com/movies/15-minutes-of-shame/947a228c-f675-4ea2-b479-f6c5055dc17a
Richard Jewell
Monica Lewinsky
Richard Jewell
Richard Jewell's life was turned upside down by a reckless news media after he was wrongly accused of a terrorist bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Instead of being hailed as a hero for discovering and reporting the bombs, he was declared the primary suspect, and the news media mercilessly destroyed his life.
" Jewell sues newspapers, former employer for libel"
http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/28/richard.jewell/index.html
*"Richard Jewell" directed and produced by Clint Eastwood (before watching the movie, see the article below)
https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/richard-jewell
*Also see this article, which suggests that Clint Eastwood's movie, Richard Jewell, inappropriately defamed a reporter featured in the movie,