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The article "Sex offenders work on campus" (CT, Oct. 10), was published in poor taste and is disrespectful to those whose names were listed.
Regardless of the fact that such information is publicly available, you reach a new low when you further that information through a medium that a significant amount of people read.
These individuals are humiliated enough; having to inform neighbors of past criminal history as well as knowing that their names are in a database accessible to the entire state, should be enough humiliation. And now you have to publish it in a newspaper? Was it such a slow news day that you had to sink this low?
Now in today's paper we see that an employee of this university was terminated because of his past history: the CT owes this man an apology. Because of an article published in this paper, a man has lost his source of livelihood. He may have
committed a crime in the past, but he has every right to make a dollar as I do.
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I agree that the employee's termination seems truly unfair. On the other hand, I don't think it's correct that journalists have an obligation not to publish these sorts of stories. Investigative journalism exists for the purpose of bringing people's attention to things that they may not otherwise know. Some journalists even go so far as to publish classified information that is leaked to them, which seems far more heinous than regurgitating publicly available information. If I were the terminated employee, I would sue the pants off of VT. As stated, he clearly disclosed his past at the time of employment, so this article should have come as no surprise. I would imagine a number of lawyers would take up his case for little or no fee.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Just because it is legal, does not mean it is ethical. and while the journalists are not legally culpable, I don't think that should clear their conscience. and "investigative"? really? if pulling facts from a publicly available website is investigative, then it appears the standards have changed.
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Well, the information was publicly accessible. The former employee had to disclose his felony conviction on his application for employment. It isn't like parking services was ignorant of the truth here. My guess is that parking services took a lot of heat from parents and students (not necessarily rightfully, but that's a different topic altogether) and needed to make a command decision in order to uphold 'the best interests of the university.' Ultimately, employers are entitled to make decisions about their employees as they see fit. Is this a case of 'investigative jounalism' run amok? Not really - it was a poorly written article, but one which raised issues which I suppose most of the campus community didn't readily know about. Now they know, and all we can do is assume that the people have spoken.
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jason t... lawyers taking this for little or no fee?? seriously?? come on...
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Chris, thanks for the double question marks, as I often have difficulty understanding what a single question mark means. I'm not exactly sure why you find this an absurd comment. Lawyers regularly take cases on a pro bono basis to raise their profile. Even if it weren't entirely free, my point is that he should be able to find affordable representation that would warrant suing VT. Since it seems that a great number of people believe the employee's treatment was unwarranted, it may be a cause some lawyer is willing to take up. Though I haven't heard for sure whether the ACLU has been contacted, this seems to me to be the type of thing that they'd be all over. In any case, I'd appreciate it if you would take the time to expound upon your criticism in a constructive way if you're even going to bother. Otherwise you look like a cynic just for the sake of being one.
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Nice to know the CT keeps deleting peoples' comments. Thanks guys. Really!
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