
Teen: I Am Not the Boston Marathon Bomber - MarlonPro
http://news.yahoo.com/teen-am-not-boston-marathon-bomber-175755674--abc-news-topstories.html
======
blahedo
FFS, ABC:

"Barhoun's younger brother, who declined to be identified..."

Seriously? First of all, the kid is under 18, so you shouldn't be identifying
him anyway without his parents' permission, but second, you _just identified
him_.

~~~
potatolicious
This is intentional and common in deliberately shoddy journalism. They're
violating every fiber of journalistic ethics without _technically_ running
afoul of it.

------
tjbiddle
This is a classic example of why this type of information should just be
forwarded to the authorities. Last thing we need is a mob mentality going
after someone who may turn up to be innocent; it's happened before, and it can
happen again.

~~~
denzil_correa
Surprise! This type of information IS indeed handed over to the authorities -
[http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1ck5hl/me...](http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1ck5hl/media_outlets_please_stop_making_the_images_of/)

~~~
jmmcd
"just"

------
clicks
So, to be clear, the teen Salah Barhoun was the guy in the blue tracksuit who
some 4chan'ers thought was the bomber. Also called out here:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5562975>

Here's the NYPost cover where he was featured: [http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-
production/images/28618/large/o-N...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-
production/images/28618/large/o-NEW-YORK-POST-570.jpg?1366309915)

And this is why vigilante justice sucks. I'm just glad that some nutcase in
real life didn't go off on him and he went to the police himself to clear his
name before anything bad happened to him.

~~~
potatolicious
Unfortunately being doxxed by Reddit (funny how Reddit is known for that these
days) isn't a requirement for having some nutcases go off on you:

[http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/bx_idiots_beat_up_a...](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/bx_idiots_beat_up_arab_in_revenge_76qKozmZwDUpLUbacqqP3O)

Ironically NY Post was one of the "news" sources driving up the hysteria and
publishing these photos.

~~~
ep103
Not ironically, the NY Post is just as bad as the Daily Mail.

On the day of the bombing, they were reporting that the bomber had already
been arrested. The day after the bombing, they had a picture on their cover of
a backpack that was supposedly the bomb... except it wasn't. Today, they had a
picture of two middle eastern looking people, who had nothing to do with the
bombing. This is par the course for the NY Post.

My favorite though, is when I used to do political work, the NY Post would
show up to large events, set up a quick photoshoot with paid actors, then
leave, and whatever they staged a picture of would be the next day's front
page.

Fuck the post.

~~~
pkfrank
Is there no penalty available for flagrantly inaccurate and damaging
reporting?

~~~
rahoulb
Well, in the UK you can complain to the Press Complaints Commission. Headed by
the editor of the Daily Mail

------
jrwoodruff
Classic News Corp. material - lazy and sensationalist. Unless the people who
are targeted start filing libel suits and claiming damages in these cases, the
organizations that profit from this jump-to-conclusions journalism crap will
keep just on doing it.

Listen to NPR, read the New York Times, AP Wire. Stay the hell away from TV
and all News Corp. publications.

------
ignostic
There is a lot of hate here for the "vigilantes" who singled him out. In no
way do I approve of the subreddit devoted to finding these people, but I think
many of the comments here blow what happened out of proportion.

No one arrested him, fired him, threatened him, or tried to hurt him. Even to
a kid, I can't imagine this impacting your life too much. If he were
traumatized, he'd not be allowing everyone to use his name.

Again, I don't approve of this kind of speculation, but they always labeled
their work as speculation and discouraged people from acting on it. I think we
might just be over-reacting.

~~~
potatolicious
> _"No one arrested him, fired him, threatened him, or tried to hurt him."_

Citation needed... _Far_ tamer acts have elicited all of the above when put in
front of the Internet Hate Machine (which now includes Reddit).

Remember Adria Richards? Yeah, she didn't kill anyone and she _still_ got
direct threats of being raped and killed.

The individual here hasn't been arrested or fired, but you can bet your ass he
has been threatened and intimidated in ways neither of us can even imagine.
The level of cruelty internet strangers have repeatedly demonstrated to others
can best be described as "unquantifiably high".

> _"Again, I don't approve of this kind of speculation, but they always
> labeled their work as speculation and discouraged people from acting on
> it."_

This is a cop-out, and has about as much legitimacy as those "no copyright
infringement intended" descriptions under pirated YouTube videos.

------
pvaldes
STOP doing this!!!. This is irresponsible at many levels. A really huge
mistake

Everybody knows currently that this guy is not suspitious at all and police
will be glued to him 25 hours a day in the next weeks, but... what if the true
bombers had seeing the photos of the guy with the big red circle on 4chan
before his declaration?

What a golden opportunity for the ba[dg] guys could be... They only need to
reach this boy, with name graciously provided by the stupid press, before the
police gets him. Two minutes in facebook and they have the direction. Later,
"the main suspect commits suicide" at home, "solved" crime and jail avoided...
what's the next target?

Please STOP putting people inside a circle... just now! Don't publish the real
name of a "suspect" with big uppercase letters! This should be strictly
forbiden. Just give a copy of the photos to the police, is as simple as that.

------
jp_sc
And _that_ is what it really happens "when you give 4chan images of the Boston
Marathon".

~~~
GHFigs
Observe that 4chan users did not set up a whole board devoted to the topic and
a spreadsheet of suspects. Nor, for that matter, do alleged journalists
frequently use 4chan as a primary source.

------
danielweber
Mob justice was wrong? Hoocoodaknown??

This is such a freaking waste of time. He had to go clear his name, and the
cops had to listen to him.

~~~
mcantelon
Where's the "mob justice" part? Seems more like crowdsourced investigation.
The crowd came up with a theory, that theory was sent to the authorities, and
the suspect went to the police preemptively.

~~~
justin66
> Where's the "mob justice" part? Seems more like crowdsourced investigation.

In this case, same thing.

> The crowd came up with a theory, that theory was sent to the authorities,
> and the suspect went to the police preemptively.

And you really have no idea why this process might have caused Salah Barhoun
to experience genuine fear for his safety and the safety of his family? Not to
mention all the anxiety any normal, thinking person experiences when having to
deal unexpectedly with both the national media and the police?

~~~
mcantelon
>In this case, same thing.

When people use the term "mob justice" they are usually referring to something
less benign than the public collaborating online to provide the FBI with the
tips they're asked the public for.

>And you really have no idea why this process might have caused Salah Barhoun
to experience genuine fear for his safety and the safety of his family?

Anyone finding themselves in the spotlight unexpectedly is going to be
stressed. He's doing the right thing by going to the authorities. His name
will then likely be quickly cleared.

~~~
justin66
> When people use the term "mob justice" they are usually referring to
> something less benign than the public collaborating online to provide the
> FBI with the tips they're asked the public for.

We're using the term advisedly. It's the interpretation of events that there
seems to be some disagreement about.

> Anyone finding themselves in the spotlight unexpectedly is going to be
> stressed. He's doing the right thing by going to the authorities. His name
> will then likely be quickly cleared.

You completely ignored the question, and it's an important one. Do you really,
sincerely not understand how being fingered as a suspect in a very public way,
in America, in 2013, in a terrorist bombing case, will cause a dark-skinned
guy with a foreign name to experience well-founded and reasonable fear for his
safety and the safety of his family?

I don't know how much further I can unpack this for you. "The subreddit"
(whatever the hell that means) engaged in a small - perhaps accidental, in the
way a lot of what a mob does is accidental - act of terror in a time of
terror. Good job with that. It would be nice if they actually acknowledged it,
but I expect they'll soon just move on to putting words over pictures of cats.

------
nokya
When I read on the fbi.gov that US.A. Carmen Ortiz is in charge, I am not
surprised that the daily routine of these 2 innocent people was already
drastically damaged for the upcoming years.

------
jere
I was actually wondering yesterday if this would happen. You'd have to be
living under a rock for those pictures not to get back to you. And when they
did why wouldn't you immediately come forward and say "it wasn't me."

[Sorry for being unclear. I knew he came forward. I was saying that that
happening was predictable.]

~~~
gee_totes
You also have to be living under a rock not to read the second paragraph of
the article

"Salah Barhoun, 17, said he _went to the police yesterday to clear his name_
after he found himself tagged in pictures online"

~~~
jere
Sorry for being unclear. I knew he came forward. I was saying that that
happening was predictable. Most people would have done the same.

~~~
gee_totes
Ooh, sorry about that :) I was in a snarky mood. Also looking at the rest of
this thread, it seems that communication has broken down.

------
lucb1e
In the Netherlands you could sue anyone publishing your face without your
permission. There are exemptions for media in some cases, but suspects like
here still have to get at least a black bar so that they're not easily
recognizable. Doesn't America have similar laws?

~~~
gamegoblin
Only some states require consent of the person in the photo.

------
zalew
Jpeg investigation 5 minutes after the event turns out not to give legitimate
results, shocker.

------
pshin45
Twitter and FB are amazing tools for spreading ideas (Arab Spring, Occupy Wall
Street, Rebecca Black's "Friday", etc.) but they have also resulted in a
shameful lack of fact-checking and an inexcusable free-fall in journalistic
reporting standards that seems to have no end in sight.

What will it take to bring reporting standards back up to anywhere near their
pre-social media levels?

For example, why can't the FCC start handing out massive fines ($x million) to
news agencies that report false or inaccurate information? Of course that's
not scalable but hopefully it could act as a deterrent and make people think
twice before they post something. If the FCC can fine CBS $550,000 for
allowing Janet Jackson's nipple to be exposed on national TV, you'd think they
could do the same when major news companies' rushed reporting ends up ruining
people's lives.

People's lives are being destroyed time and again by well-intentioned but
misguided individuals and companies disseminating false information. Is there
really nothing that can be done?

~~~
protomyth
Nope, nothing. Well, you can win sometimes, but it has to be National
Enquirer-level blatant. "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan" is the basis for
modern defamation cases and it is heavily weighted to the press.

The second part is that the FCC does not have "truth" in its charter, but it
does have decency legislation. Although a recent ABC case might make it
impossible for the FCC to repeat the CBS Superbowl fine.

------
DigitalSea
This is exactly the kind of scenario I said would happen in previous HN
comment in another submission (as did many others). Reddit and 4Chan speculate
and distribute images of innocent people, the media would eventually pick them
up and people would be false-fully accused of being the bomber. It's the Ryan
Lanza situation all over again. If you have suspicions, privately send your
concerns and imagery to the authorities and let them handle things, don't post
them onto Tumblr or Reddit without any proof, you could be ruining the lives
of innocent people.

Put yourself in this situation. Your picture is being plastered all over the
news and Facebook, you are being called a suspect in a brutal bombing case,
your family see your image and immediately assume the worse, your employer
sees the photo and you lose your job and you weren't even involved. The media
doing what they seem to do best in this day and age: report now, fact check
later.

------
protomyth
So, no major news network or newspaper did itself any favors. NBC, Fox, CNN,
MSNBC, NYT, Post, etc. all printed or aired bogus stories and the American
public is confused and ill informed. CNN earned a spot on the Daily Show.

I don't know the answer other than some network could make a decent business
out of only airing confirmed facts and actually giving us a view of the scene
without the pundits. Actually interview people there and skip the "inside
sources".

Who am I kidding, its all about what KK feels about the event.

------
jagermo
This is so important. Online research can do a lot of good, but it is so easy
to get carried away. I'm impressed by what reddit and 4chan and all the others
found, but taking action is the job of cops.

------
auctiontheory
It reminds me of Harold and Kumar:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDz74_ANojg>

------
rdl
Sunil Tripathi, however, may be one of the Boston Marathon Bombers. Internet
vigilantism applied to high profile "offline" crimes is intriguing.

------
beedogs
I honestly think it's time to take Rupert Murdoch's news empire from him, and
destroy it.

The world is a shittier place with him and his BS propaganda outlets in it.

