Subscribe"I am outraged by the actions of the adults who created the false my space account. I am outraged that you as a journalist have chosen to be their continence when they obviously do not have one. There is no legal president in the case so unfortunately no legal action will be taken, however social action can be taken. They need to be identified and become accountable for their actions. Isn't that a message we want to send to children is that people are accountable for what they do, say, and write. I beg you to update this article with the adults information."
"I feel terrible for the Meier family. I also have a 13 year old daughter that struggles with the same issues little Megan did. It brings tears to my eyes knowing these sweet little teenage girls have to deal with so much drama. My daughter beggs me every single day to let her have her MySpace back and due to past monitoring of her conversations and the horrible things being said to one another, my daughter will never ever have a MySpace again. I agree that MySpace should no longer exist. My thoughts and prayers go out to Ron and Tina."
"Ron, disgraceful work by you. You should be ashamed of yourself for not naming the culprits. Nothing in journalistic ethics suggests you keep them anonymous. Therefore, you are a coward journalist if you protect these cowards. And the girl who you are trying to protect was complicit in this crime. Why protect killers? Pathetic Ron. Pathetic. I dare you to respond and explain yourself."
"It's too bad you didn't name the parents involved in this. They should be identified, so people know what kind of people they are."
"This newspaper has received an incredible response to Sunday's story on the death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old who lived in Dardenne Prairie and committed suicide last year.
Many of you expressed appreciation to me and to the Journal for running the story.
Some of you have asked your children to read the story and have requested/demanded to look at their MySpace pages.Of course, there has been outrage over the fact that Josh Evans - a 16-year-old who never existed - was created not by a teen, but by an adult. That anger is reflected in the comments posted on the Journal's Web sites.
...In Sunday's story the Journal did not name the woman because the newspaper did not want to identify her daughter. It was a decision I supported.
A few of you took us to task for not naming this woman.
I understand the loss the Meiers feel. But I told Tina in our very first conversation that even though we might have the legal right to publish a name, it doesn't necessarily mean we will. [more]"
"Jack Banas, St. Charles County prosecuting attorney, said Thursday he is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide last year after being the victim of a MySpace hoax.
...Banas said he wanted to get a clearer picture of all that's happened between the families. Ron Meier had been scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
Lt. Craig McGuire, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, said last week that the investigator who looked into the MySpace hoax and how it might have played into Megan's death concluded that charges should not be filed.
'We did not have a charge to fit it,' McGuire said. 'I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, "This is why this young girl took her life."'
McGuire said last week that the investigator spoke to an assistant prosecutor in Banas' office and that the assistant prosecutor confirmed that charges should not be filed.
But Banas said Thursday, as he did last week, that he doesn't know who the investigator talked to in his office and he has no record that his office was even contacted."
"A bizarre and cruel Internet hoax that ended with the suicide of a 13-year-old girl has bitterly divided a western St. Louis suburb, provoked a firestorm in the blogosphere and raised troubling questions about how to police traffic on popular social networking sites such as MySpace.com.
The death of Megan Meier in Dardenne Prairie, Mo., went beyond the growing phenomenon of cyber-bullying because the alleged instigators of the hoax were not only adults, but parents of a classmate of Megan's, who lived just down the street from her.
No charges have been filed. A local newspaper's decision not to publish the names of the parents involved has fanned a furious public response.
'People are just totally shocked. ... They can't believe that an adult would have done this,' said Pam Fogarty, mayor of the town of 7,000 people.
'The scary part is that when you look at the blogs and listen to the phone calls we're getting, it's very quickly becoming a mob mentality,' said Fogarty, who has arranged for additional police patrols in the neighborhood.
...The involvement of adults in the Meier case breaks new ground, said Parry Aftab, an Internet attorney and executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a cyber safety organization.
'When adults act like children there are criminal consequences,' Aftab said. 'The Internet should not be used as a weapon.'
...The Journal added to the controversy by declining to identify the parents involved in the hoax, out of concern for the couple's daughter who had been a classmate and friend of Megan's.
'I've been a reporter for 34 years and this is beyond anything I've experienced,' said Steve Pokin, who wrote the article and has been fielding e-mails and phone calls from people criticizing the paper for not identifying the adults.
Pokin said he doesn't always agree with his editors, but said they made the right call in not publishing the identity of the parents."
"There is a part of Megan Meier’s story you have not yet heard. Megan is the teenager from St. Charles County who committed suicide after being the target of an internet prank. You know about her death, but not about the intense efforts to save her. The night she took her life, one young man tried desperately to save it. He is a neighbor. FOX 2's Teresa Woodard reports on the heroic efforts to keep Megan alive."
"'People are just totally shocked. ... They can't believe that an adult would have done this,' said Pam Fogarty, mayor of the town of 7,000 people.
'The scary part is that when you look at the blogs and listen to the phone calls we're getting, it's very quickly becoming a mob mentality,' said Fogarty, who has arranged for additional police patrols in the neighborhood."*
"[Lori] Drew felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide, but she did not feel 'as guilty' because at the funeral she found out 'Megan had tried to commit suicide before.'
Drew explained the neighborhood had recently found out her involvement in Megan's suicide and her neighborhood have become hostile toward her and her family."
"You are conflating mob justice with conscience of the community. The Drews cannot have a place in decent society anymore, they have lost their reputation. Even if they truly wish to reform they can never reclaim the good will and trust they abused.
You see, everyone knows how they are.
Who advocated mob action, violence or disruption of the community? No one I know. I want the Meiers to start a civil action so a court can stamp the Drews with guilt in the name of the community.
The rest of us need to shun the adult Drews, until they acknowlege the enormity of their action, drop all request to be forgiven, but work to atone and to mitigate any further action that could harm the Meiers. The rest of the Drew family will share in the disgrace, but may have a chance to form a new start in adulthood.
Why should their reputation be unscathed? Why should they enjoy the reputatiom they formerly enjoyed. Please, tell me what have they done but think of themselves?"
« Older Map Paintings... | The Brooklyn Pigeon Serial Kil... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by found missing at 5:05 PM on November 12, 2007 [4 favorites]