re: One of Ohio's best HS football teams/town going to be all over the news

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National coverage of case confuses who real villains are

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The only "news" which occurred here was that a minor website with no actual affiliation to a major story had been hacked and a corresponding YouTube video had been taken down. This might have been a minor local story in Steubenville, but certainly was not worthy of national attention, especially considering the issues involved with giving some lawbreakers who are making threats the bullhorn and credibility they are seeking.

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What the Times did was not only effectively become the mouthpiece for a group making illegal threats via illegal means, but it did so in a way that was highly misleading and inaccurate.

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First, the headline indicates that the website which was temporarily hacked into was that of the football team's.

That is just not true. The website is simply run by an independent fan.

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Third, the Times did nothing to even remotely examine the massive legal issues with what the hackers put out as far as their content. They don't mention that that the hacking was obviously illegal, nor do they even seem aware that they were also in violation of numerous other laws in the realm of intimidating witnesses in a criminal case, extorting testimony, making clearly libelous statements and terroristic threats.

The Times also omitted important information regarding the lack of credibility of this group, which did the hacking. Not only did their content reveal a remarkable lack of knowledge of the actual case, but they even misspelled Steubenville in the title of the original YouTube video.

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I did speak with a prominent prosecutor in Ohio who strongly believes that this situation may have groundbreaking legal ramifications for the media. He believes that it is quite possible that the Times may have effectively "aided and abetted" the disruption of the "orderly administration of justice" and the "extortion of testimony" by a group making terroristic threats.

Regardless if it may somehow be deemed illegal (as a free speech advocate I am extremely torn on such issues), there is no question that the reporting of this story was illegitimate, inaccurate and has caused numerous innocent people to be needlessly harassed during the holiday season.

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