Mother Sues After Bebo Story Hits Press 305
slick_shoes notes a story out of England: a woman named Amanda Hudson is suing six national newspapers for defamation and breach of privacy after they ran stories based on her 15-year-old daughter's exaggerated claims about her party, published on her Bebo site. The party was held at the family's £4m villa in Spain, and the daughter's account claimed that jewelery had been stolen and furniture and a television set thrown into the swimming pool; in addition there were claims of sex and drug use. The mother says that this was all falsehood and exaggeration. A number of newspapers picked up claims and photos from Bebo and ran them nationally. From the article: "The case is expected to have far-reaching consequences for third parties who use or publish information from social networking sites. Lawyers say it could place a duty on all second-hand users to establish the truth of everything they want to republish from such sites."
Excuse me (Score:5, Funny)
Your privacy is invading our public.
Exaggeration! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Editors? (Score:5, Funny)
That reminds me of how Fox News is constantly discussing crazy online rumors as if they were credible facts.
'Reports say that Obama has a taste for kittens! What a devastating blow to his campaign! Surely he will lose ground in the animal rights voting bloc. We'll cover this next on our 3 hour special "Barack-uriosity Killed the Cat."'
Hannity comes in: "So is the cat out of the bag on the Obama campaign? MySpace reports....." and so on and so forth
I can see the headlines now... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rich teenage girl parties are news? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What an age we live in. (Score:5, Funny)
Although it's true the papers should have fact-checked... isn't the daughter ultimately the one responsible for the false information? I guess suing one's own, minor, daughter probably doesn't make the same ch-ching sound.
Re:Editors? (Score:5, Funny)
A stopped clock is occasionally right.
Do you find that when you say that face to face, people nod as if they agree with you, then their eyes sort of glaze over, then they start glancing at their watch and ... umm, gotta go - dental appointment!
Re:Editors? (Score:4, Funny)
Reports say that Obama has a taste for kittens! What a devastating blow to his campaign! Surely he will lose ground in the animal rights voting bloc. We'll cover this next on our 3 hour special "Barack-uriosity Killed the Cat."
Does he huff them? [uncyclopedia.org]
Re:Rich teenage girl parties are news? (Score:5, Funny)
News for nerds scandal would be a linux distribution CEO's son inviting Bill Gates to his house for dinner while his parents were on vacation believing he was having wild parties with drugs and sex.
Re:Editors? (Score:5, Funny)
Those tabloids are the best investigative reporting on the planet.
But go ahead, read the New York Times if you want. They get lucky sometimes.
Re:Editors? (Score:5, Funny)
Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity.
We disagree.
So do we.
Re:Editors? (Score:5, Funny)
You are argueing with someone that cannot get through 3 words without swearing about what is insightful??? You will not last long here :-))
Re:Editors? (Score:3, Funny)
Referring to yourself as we is a sign you are either the Queen or schizophrenic, not insane...
Phillip.