If The Washington Post employees jump off a bridge should everyone else follow suit?
This was, in essence, NYT media writer David Carr‘s asinine argument this weekend in a story about GotNews’ Charles Johnson. Carr was pretty late to the Charles Johnson It Boy party, but he got in his digs, including pointing out his narcissism, which The Daily Caller‘s Matt Lewis already did last week.
At the root of reasons not to publish Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson‘s street name is that the street isn’t long and looters and angry protestors who want to harm him could easily figure out where he lives. Wilson and his new wife abandoned their home because they feared they’d be in danger if they remained.
So Johnson gave the NYT reporters who published Wilson’s street name a taste of their own medicine and published their addresses. This prompted a painful reality for them.
In his story, Carr writes, “The reporters and their families were forced to vacate their homes after facing threats of robbery and rape.” He asked what Johnson thought about that. He replied, “It doesn’t feel great, I’ll be honest with you, but I also don’t see it as fundamentally my fault.”
Carr defends the NYT publishing Wilson’s street name despite the fact that it adds nothing to a story and obviously brings potential harm to him.
“Before that, his targets were two reporters for The New York Times who, he said, revealed the address of the police officer in the Ferguson, Mo., shooting,” wrote Carr. “(They didn’t. They published the name of a street he once lived on, which had already been published in The Washington Post and other media outlets.)”
Let’s get this straight. Because The Washington Post “and other media outlets” did it, it’s okay for the NYT? Incredibly, this is his rationale? Also: Does Carr seriously not comprehend that in this instance, publishing a street name provides a roadmap to the home?
Oh, but those poor, poor NYT reporters.
“In view of that,” writes Carr, “I asked him about publishing the home addresses of two Times journalists after erroneously claiming they had reported the address of the Ferguson policeman who shot Mr. Brown.”
That Carr doesn’t understand that Johnson publishing the reporters’ addresses was the equivalent of what those NYT reporters did to Wilson is puzzling. “I didn’t say they published his address,” Johnson told Carr, who then pounded him, writing, “Yes he did. He said that reporters ‘published the address of Darren Wilson in The New York Times so here are their addresses.'”
Good thinking. Carr caught Johnson in an inconsistency. But perhaps he should remove his head from his ass as he cites an argument that is just about the worst one can make when doing something awful — which is to say, look, they’re doing it, why can’t we?