BONIN, J., CONCURRING IN PART AND DISSENTING IN PART: With all due respect to my left coast colleague, I must disagree with his take on the Sun-Times' decision to "out" the fan in question.
Is it newsworthy? Yes. Millions of people were watching the game, and the fan's interference with the game was the big story. His picture was on the front page of newspapers across the country. He was already deemed the latest goat in a city's history of futiliy from Mrs. O'Leary to Leon Durham to Dan Rostenkowski to Mel Reynolds. Everyone wanted to know who he was, and why he did it.
(He has now made a statement apologizing for his actions, but, of course he might not have had to, or had to attach his name to it, without the Sun-Times' publishing his name.)
Had the Sun-Times guessed about his name, had they used surreptitious or deceitful means, that'd be one thing. But both his father and several of his friends confirmed his identity, and that's enough for me. They're all adults, and they understood (or should have understood) the consequences of their speaking to the press.
This isn't like publishing the name of a rape victim, or like websites that publish the names of doctors who perform abortions. This gentleman chose to insert himself into the action, and I do not predict that he will actually suffer physical harm as a result. The Sun-Times article does not attempt to incite violence against him, and, hey, if Mitch Williams, Bill Buckner and Ralph Branca can still walk the earth freely, so will this guy. Heck, Fred Merkle lived to the age of 68, despite his massive boner.
Where I share Mr. Spaceman's concerns is when it comes to publishing the name of this guy's employer, or of his home town, or of any other identifying information that does make it easy for lightly-motivated troglodytes to harass him. It wasn't necessary to print that information, even if the company was dumb enough to confirm his employment to the press. That's their fault, but there was still no need for the Sun-Times to risk his losing his job now.
Bottom line: don't screw up in public in front of a national audience, and if you do, get a cool nickname like "Soy Bomb" so people don't find out your real name. I trust the good people of Chicago to nevertheless behave themselves with regards to him, and we'll see.
One final question, based on all the Fox broadcasts I've seen: is his father the district attorney?
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