In this new information age, newspapers are having a hard time hanging on to their old business models, and are struggling to hold on to readership and monetize their on-line content. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has obviously not run into this issue, or they wouldn’t be shooting themselves in the foot by getting people fired when they post to the paper’s online comment boards.
So here’s the scoop - Post-Dispatch columnist and Social Media Director Kurt Greenbaum posted a note on the Talk of the Day section of the newspaper’s Web site, stltoday.com, asking readers to write in and comment on the strangest thing they’ve ever eaten. It was somewhat related to a story the paper had run on eating venison.
Well, before you know it, someone writes in on the comment box “Pu**y.” For those of you who can’t read between the *’s, it is a feline expression for a part of a woman’s anatomy. Got it now? Good.
The moderators at the stltoday.com site removed the post, and the commentor tried again, and it was removed a second time. Now, here is where the line was crossed.
In violation of the newspaper’s privacy policy, Greenbaum traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter to a private school, and contacted the headmaster of the school to tell him of the two offending posts. He also provided the headmaster with the IP address of the poster’s computer, and timestamp information that allowed the IT staff at the school to pinpoint the exact computer and who was using it at the time the comment was posted.
The poster turned out to be a school employee (we don’t know yet if it was a faculty member, support staff, administrator, etc.) and that employee, when approached by the headmaster, resigned from the school upon hearing that his comments had been traced.
After the employee resigned, the headmaster called Greenbaum to let him know how the incident played out, and Greenbaum blogged about it on his personal blog, as well as on his blog on the stltoday.com site.
So what’s the lesson here? Don’t trust the news media with your IP address - your anonymous comments could be tracked down by an irate editor with an axe to grind!
What do you think - was Greenbaum in the wrong here? Let the St. Louis Post-Dispatch know how you feel:
E-Mail: generalmanager@stltoday.com
Telephone: 800-365-0820
16 comments ↓
Pussy.
Careful Joe - the moderator might trace your IP and report you to your boss!
No worries, Joe, AwfulMarketing respects your privacy. Just found some more detailed contact info for Kurt Greenbaum’s boss at the Post-Dispatch:
Kevin Mowbray
Phone: 314-340-8970
E-mail: kmowbray@post-dispatch.com
[…] What the?…He didn’t like the comment. So he got the commenter fired. – http://bit.ly/cGr9W Powered by Fresh From This was written by Phil. Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009, at 1:37 am. […]
The message is loud and clear: Do not visit stltoday.com while at work. Hell, don’t visit them from home, either, lest they alert your wife, grandmother, ISP, or neighbor if they find your activity questionable. They beg people to comment, then they get them fired for comment that they don’t deem appropriate.
It’s laughable that Kevin Mobray continues to insist that he didn’t divulge any private information. An IP address, he argues, is not “private.” By that logic, the phone number of an anonymous tipster is also not something fit to protect.
I hope this guy gets fired in a very public way.
Pussy could also just mean cat. People do eat it in some cuntries.
I’m glad the St. Louis newspaper is heralding freedom of speech.
That’s sarcasm in case somebody didn’t catch my tone. What is Greenbaum doing stalking people as if this is the Patriot Act era and then gloating about it?
Comments are closed on the story. Where ever shall I vent?
Given this incident, I think the Web Of Trust rating for privacy on St. Louis Today’s website is way to high.
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/stltoday.com
This is just what *I* would do if I wanted a paper’s website to tank like a lead balloon - and then I’d brag about it at my blog to help keep visits to the paper’s website down as far as possible. Honestly, this Greenbaum character looks to be more baggage to the paper than asset because at this point its more than clear the paper’s privacy policy isn’t worth the pixels its takes to display it.
The comment in question was not a single word, the question - what is the strangest thing you have ever eaten? was answered with;
I have eaten many different animals (or at least parts of them), including rattlesnake, crocodile, alligator, iguana, turtle, and many different molluscs, arthropods, echinoids, and whatnot from sea or river. I have also eaten squirrel, bear, dog, and cat. So, I can say I have eaten pussy, and you can interpret or misinterpret it any way you want. Oh, and woof-woof, too.
This enraged Mr Greenbaum who then tracked down the poster to his place of work.
[…] Thanks to my friend Mike Barlow for tipping us off about how a newspaper can really screw up. The complete article from AwfulMarking is here. […]
Wiesenthal of the web=Greenbaum, or is it Greenbum?
How this guy can be a journalist is beyond any ‘code’ I have ever heard of on a newspaper. To track a guy down and get him fired for using a word that he didn’t like is absolutely ridiculous. FIRE THIS NAZI-Style Hit JOB!
Pussy can and does mean any number of ‘items-critters-sissies-etc……who does hje think he is….’Simon doesn’t Say’? Sad story and even sadder when you think about rhe guy losing his JOB+MERRY CHRISTMAS GREENBUM-BOMB-BUAM-BAUM!!!
What a loser……….and a ussy!!
They had no right to do that…
But..
The employee was a slacker using company property in an inappropriate way. He would have been fired sooner or later.
Well well well, shouldn’t Kurt Greenbaum be fired for calling the person he got fired a jackass on his twitter. Someone ought to call his boss. Love the hypocrisy and his lack of remorse for getting someone fired in such an economy where jobs are scarce.
http://twitter.com/kgreenbaum/status/5778019649
I’m just wondering why the Employee hasn’t sued this guy over a violation of HIS OWN WEBSITE’s privacy policy.
Isn’t there just something wrong with lying about your privacy policy and then getting someone fired because of a silly comment? Why does that employee not have a salary until he/she can find another job from these idiots?
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