Fox News outs Bin Laden raid author

That sure didn't take long.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/23/author-bin-laden-raid-insider-account-idd-could-face-legal-trouble/

 

Illiberal media!

 

I have lots of thoughts but refuse to comment on what I would view as a cheaply veiled attempt to start a political thread.

 

Good point boom. Forgot where I was for a second.

 

Nah. There's a reason I posted this on the journalism board. I think the question is journalistic, not political: Do you endanger someone by outing them? My answer is probably, in these circumstances, absolutely you do.

 

The guy is writing a book, right? For profit? He's kind of volunteering not to be protected.

You could make a similar argument that nobody should have told where Henry Hill was after Goodfellas came out.

 

Yeah, that's how I see it, too.

 

Contra: since when are authors not allowed to use a pseudonym?

 

So they out that guy, then, three sentences later, they go with:

One Navy SEAL told Fox News, "How do we tell our guys to stay quiet when this guy won't?" Other SEALs are expressing anger, with some going so far as to call him a "traitor."

 

They're allowed to. And, when the name of the author is newsworthy, the news media is ethically within its rights, if not obligated, to pursue said author's name and background.

 

In the end it's political. It would be a really interesting topic to discuss but again way too political.

 

Where's the incongruity?