Monday, December 3, 2007

News Feed

After the magazine 02138 published a less than flattering article about The Facebook father Mark Zuckerberg, he sued.

The story covers Zuckerberg's geeky wardrobe, cracking voice, and a lawsuit accusing him of stealing the Facebook idea from fellow Harvard students.

It is accompanied by documents that had been ordered "sealed" by a judge in his recent legal dispute. They include his handwritten Harvard application and an excerpt from his old online journal, "biting comments about himself and others".

Video Game Guru Luke O'Brien, the freelance reporter who wrote the article accompanying the revealing documents, denies any malicious intent. A court clerk apparently made a mistake by letting him read and photocopy the secret documents.

A federal judge ruled in the magazine's favor, and the article is still online, along with all of those juicy documents.

Are 02138 and O'Brien ethical? Should links to Zuckergerg's online journal and application to Harvard be published alongside an article making fun of him?

Read the article. I think the magazine went too far.

1 comment:

Elizabeth Hoelscher said...

I agree that the magazine went too far here, but I also understand why it's still online. Malicious intent is really hard to prove, which is why so many libel suits are unsuccessful. I think the creator of facebook needs to realize he has somewhat of a celebrity status and roll with it.