Well, it's a good thing we have experienced journalists in charge of presenting the news at sites like the Daily Beast making sure they protect the privacy of politicians under attack, particularly Republican and conservative politicians. ... Oh, wait a minute. Sam Stein, who became that site's political editor after many years at the Huffington Post, published Rand Paul's home address on Monday.
Stein published a copy of the warrant for the arrest of Rene Boucher, the man who allegedly attacked Paul on Friday, which contained Paul's full home address.
Stein pulled the tweet and replaced it with specifics redacted a short time later:
But the damage was done, as several respondents to his replacement tweet observed (HT Twitchy):
- "No worries: I'm sure anyone else who wants to assault him will unsee the first one."
- "I was upset because a "news" agency posted a picture of his house....Now his address..@samstein Not too bright."
- "Legit journalists actually REVIEW docs before posting. You did that on purpose or you're a horrible, unskilled journo. Which is it?"
- "Thoughtlessness is not an accident."
- "Our corrupt media continues to fail at the basics of journalism, but have you noticed ONLY when a Republican’s safety is at stake."
The Kentucky Senator's injuries were thought to be minor shortly after the attack, but it has since been determined that five of his ribs were broken due to "high velocity severe force," and that "it’s unclear when the senator will be able to return to Washington for work."
The last two responses cited above are certainly germane to whether Stein deserves blame. There's certainly reason to doubt that he would have been so thoughtless if a Democrat had been attacked.
Stein's tweet continues a pattern of "doxxing" Republicans and people the press doesn't like. Here are four other examples from recent years (HT Ed Driscoll at Instapundit):
- After Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown in self-defense in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the New York Times published the name of the street where Wilson had moved. That was enough to pin the location down, as "The house number was not printed in the Times, but the street in the St. Louis suburb ... where it sits is only about two blocks long." Slate also "published a photo of Wilson's house to help make things as easy as possible for rioters and vandals."
The post about Wilson also noted that certain famous liberals cheered this development, and also reminded readers that "CNN ... aired George Zimmerman's address, social security and phone numbers in" 2013.- In July, CNN's Andrew Kaczynski threatened to expose the anonymous person who created the animated “Trump clotheslining CNN logo” GIF that President Trump retweeted if its creator attempted "to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again," and asserted that "CNN reserves the right to publish his identity" if that person didn't stay in line.
- Also in July, as Sean Spicer was leaving the Trump administration, Reuters, "an organization whose White House correspondent (Jeff Mason) is the president of the White House Correspondents Association," broadcast a live stream from Spicer's house. (Gosh, I can remember when the press berated certain Tea Party groups for holding demonstrations in front of politicians' homes, and the groups agreed to cease engaging in such activity. But that's so 2011, and the rules apparently don't apply to Republicans and conservatives anyway.)
Equivalent instances relating to members of the establishment press or high-profile center-right outlets exposing liberals and Democrats are very rare.
Stein's carelessness — if it really was that — continues a clearly one-sided trend.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
