Messages need filtering before sharing
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009
Last week I received a slightly panicked phone call from a reader who received a frightening text message warning from a friend.
The message warned that criminals were placing car seats containing dolls covered with blood along the roadside in remote areas hoping to lure women, specifically mothers, into stopping to assist the apparently injured infant. When those women stopped to get out of their car, they were attacked by “gang” members who would rob them, beat them and sexually abuse them.
The slightly panicked reader was my daughter — who’s spent enough of her life exposed to journalism to recognize the possibility of a false rumor when she hears — or reads about them.
An online search at Snopes.com — a reliable Web site even we, at The Enterprise, frequently use — proved the point. Sure enough the panicked text message was a complete falsehood: www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/carseat.asp.
Through the years, we’ve all received those kinds of messages from well-meaning friends who want to protect us from a perceived danger. The rumor from a couple of years back about gang activity in the parking lots of a local discount store comes to mind.
That one wasn’t true. Neither were the numerous stories about people who wake up in icy bathtubs with kidneys missing. On the flip side, signs at gas stations warn you of the potential for static electricity and cell phone use around gasoline vapors. That one is true.
So, please, if you receive such a message, don’t share it until you’ve checked it out. It’s one more piece of evidence concerning the source of information and the importance of having trustworthy sources.
Newspapers don’t print rumors, but we can help dispel them.
• • •
We had complaints from several readers in the past week about the posting of the BISD salaries in a database on our Web site.
The complaints all appeared to be from BISD employees who felt that we had violated their privacy and embarrassed them by publishing such information. At least one was so offended that he vowed to never read The Enterprise again.
The first thing I have to say about that is “OK.” We get it. We know that everyone considers their salary to be a private matter, but in the case of public employees, which BISD workers are, that’s just not true.
Employees who are paid by tax dollars are public employees, and their compensation, including salary, overtime and anything else paid by taxpayers, is therefore part of public record and available to anyone who cares to seek it. The Enterprise just made it a bit easier for the curious masses by posting a database on our Web site.
We’ve posted similar information on Jefferson County and State of Texas employees and have plans to post salaries of employees at other area school districts.
Angry BISD employees should, instead, celebrate that, though their salaries are public record, their income tax returns aren’t. Our president and other officials don’t have that amount of privacy, and for an important reason, voters have a right to know where their money is coming from and going to.
Apparently our online readers agree with our decision to make the information available. The information has been viewed more than 100,000 times since it was posted a week and a half ago.
• • •
A New York Times article recently reported that older adults embrace new technology at a rate that might surprise some.
The story reported that “viewers 25 to 64 years old use the DVR more frequently than do those 12 to 24 years old.” Further, it reports that, “people over 65 . . . spent 47 percent more time than the previous year watching embedded video within social networks . . . a 98 percent growth in the amount of time users spent watching video.”
People who think they have the market on technology covered might want to check what Grandma and Grandpa are doing in their spare time. It might be embarrassing to find they have more Facebook friends than their more youthful relatives.
Last week I received a slightly panicked phone call from a reader who received a frightening text message warning from a friend.
The message warned that criminals were placing car seats containing dolls covered with blood along the roadside in remote areas hoping to lure women, specifically mothers, into stopping to assist the apparently injured infant. When those women stopped to get out of their car, they were attacked by “gang” members who would rob them, beat them and sexually abuse them.
The slightly panicked reader was my daughter — who’s spent enough of her life exposed to journalism to recognize the possibility of a false rumor when she hears — or reads about them.
An online search at Snopes.com — a reliable Web site even we, at The Enterprise, frequently use — proved the point. Sure enough the panicked text message was a complete falsehood: www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/carseat.asp.
Through the years, we’ve all received those kinds of messages from well-meaning friends who want to protect us from a perceived danger. The rumor from a couple of years back about gang activity in the parking lots of a local discount store comes to mind.
That one wasn’t true. Neither were the numerous stories about people who wake up in icy bathtubs with kidneys missing. On the flip side, signs at gas stations warn you of the potential for static electricity and cell phone use around gasoline vapors. That one is true.
So, please, if you receive such a message, don’t share it until you’ve checked it out. It’s one more piece of evidence concerning the source of information and the importance of having trustworthy sources.
Newspapers don’t print rumors, but we can help dispel them.
• • •
We had complaints from several readers in the past week about the posting of the BISD salaries in a database on our Web site.
The complaints all appeared to be from BISD employees who felt that we had violated their privacy and embarrassed them by publishing such information. At least one was so offended that he vowed to never read The Enterprise again.
The first thing I have to say about that is “OK.” We get it. We know that everyone considers their salary to be a private matter, but in the case of public employees, which BISD workers are, that’s just not true.
Employees who are paid by tax dollars are public employees, and their compensation, including salary, overtime and anything else paid by taxpayers, is therefore part of public record and available to anyone who cares to seek it. The Enterprise just made it a bit easier for the curious masses by posting a database on our Web site.
We’ve posted similar information on Jefferson County and State of Texas employees and have plans to post salaries of employees at other area school districts.
Angry BISD employees should, instead, celebrate that, though their salaries are public record, their income tax returns aren’t. Our president and other officials don’t have that amount of privacy, and for an important reason, voters have a right to know where their money is coming from and going to.
Apparently our online readers agree with our decision to make the information available. The information has been viewed more than 100,000 times since it was posted a week and a half ago.
• • •
A New York Times article recently reported that older adults embrace new technology at a rate that might surprise some.
The story reported that “viewers 25 to 64 years old use the DVR more frequently than do those 12 to 24 years old.” Further, it reports that, “people over 65 . . . spent 47 percent more time than the previous year watching embedded video within social networks . . . a 98 percent growth in the amount of time users spent watching video.”
People who think they have the market on technology covered might want to check what Grandma and Grandpa are doing in their spare time. It might be embarrassing to find they have more Facebook friends than their more youthful relatives.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 10:53 AM
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