On Sept. 16, 2009, Melissa Bailey sent a “friend request” through Facebook, the online social network, to Jessica Del Rocco. Bailey was the managing editor of the New Haven Independent, a nonprofit news website, and Del Rocco was the ex‐girlfriend of the man wanted by police for allegedly murdering a Yale pharmacology student, Annie Le.
Le had disappeared on Sept. 8, and her body had been found on Sept. 13. The story had become a national media sensation, and the Independent, a grassroots publication with strong ties to New Haven, was
at the forefront of the coverage.
Del Rocco accepted the friend request, giving Bailey access to her Facebook posts known as “status updates.” Here, “behind the wall,” Del Rocco had responded to the news that her ex‐boyfriend, Raymond Clark, was the murder suspect. As Bailey read Del Rocco’s posts, she was riveted—this was great material. Independent reporters also had a six‐year‐old police report filed by Del Rocco in which she alleged that Clark had “forced her to have sex.” The police report alone was big news, but Del Rocco’s comments on Facebook helped to “fill out the picture,” says Bailey, and brought the story up to date.
Bailey could be confident that no other journalist had Del Rocco’s name, much less access to her Facebook posts. But the comments were visible only to her online “friends.” Was it ethical to use them in a news story?
Over the next few weeks, we will be talking about whether Melissa Bailey did the right thing in the way she obtained the Facebook postings by the murder suspect's ex-girlfriend. We will also talk about other ethical issues raised in this case study.
Here is a link to the CNN site the murder of Annie Le and the police investigation that ultimately led to the arrest and conviction of one of Le's co-workers.
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