Normally, I’m saying the local daily doesn’t have enough Greenwich news. Well, today my complaint is that they printed too much information.
The local daily had a story “Local psychic attacked in Greenwich.” The story told of a midnight attack of a local woman outside of her Greenwich Avenue office. The woman is a professional psychic. The article gives her exact address on Greenwich Avenue – and then, perhaps to be relevant to their Norwalk readers – the paper volunteers that she has an office in Norwalk, and prints that exact address.
As one young wag put it, what the local paper must have been thinking is “this woman is in danger, someone is trying to find/hurt her…. let’s publish her OTHER address as well.” He went on to say that perhaps the paper will publish “her home address and daily schedule in tomorrow’s paper.”
Back in the day, the papers would never publish the names of those involved in domestic violence disputes, or the addresses of victims. That has changed.
This past January, a prominent local resident (who happens to be a police detective) wrote a compelling letter to the editor on this very issue. That resident’s concerns have gone unanswered.
What public interest is served by providing identifying information about a victim? What ethical standards does our local daily follow?
