Bloggers confuse rumors, reality
Many readers know that Joseph Edward Duncan III wrote about inner demons in his online blog, although they may not be sure what a blog is.
“Blog” is shorthand for “Web log,” as in the log that Captain Kirk kept all those years on television’s “Star Trek” – a journal that’s written online for the curious to read if they are interested in the blog’s topics, views or author. In Duncan’s case, he reportedly lobbied under the nickname “Joe” for better treatment of sexual offenders and discussed his evil impulses. Four days before he allegedly murdered three members of a Wolf Lodge Bay family and kidnapped two children, he gave in to his internal battle and posted a statement that has gained local infamy: “My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die.”
Blogging the Fifth Nail, the name of Duncan’s online blog, has provided police and prosecutors information about Duncan’s state of mind as they prepare their case against Duncan. But his dark ramblings don’t stop there. In this computer age, other bloggers are sifting through Duncan’s blog entries for hints of other possible crimes, searching for his online footprints elsewhere, and sharing information with their online readers.
In the process, they may uncover important nuggets about this horrific local case while circulating unverified information as fact.
At their best, blogs are fun, informative and serve as modern-day town squares for individuals who frequent them. At their worst, the online journals can be slanderous, undisciplined and purveyors of inaccurate information. The Groene case has shined the spotlight on both aspects of blogging. Bloggers are using online resources to see if Duncan left clues about his possible involvement in the disappearance of a 5-year-old Minnesota girl. On the other hand, they’re spreading rumors about the grisly details of the slayings and kidnappings as fact. In the blogosphere, the old consumer adage prevails: Let the reader beware.
In cyberspace, an off-the-record rumor told by a U.S. Forest Service employee or law enforcement officer in a coffee shop at St. Regis, Mont., can be retold in a weekly newspaper and retold at warp speed around the nation and beyond. Soon, everyone believes that the suspect cremated 9-year-old Dylan Groene at one of two camps in the mountains of northwest Montana. That information may ultimately prove true. But no named source has confirmed it.
The leaks and rumors have frustrated Kootenai County public defenders John Adams and Lynn Nelson, who have the unenviable task of representing a convicted child molester with a mountain of evidence against him. As they plan Duncan’s defense, they’ve already announced they will fight any attempt by the prosecutor’s office to impose the death penalty if Duncan is found guilty. Meanwhile, unchecked and unrestrained online, bloggers have fantasized what they’d like to do with Duncan, who, in this country, remains innocent until proven guilty.
Bloggers play a role in the new media, for good or bad. But only a judge and jury will be qualified to render judgment on Duncan.