WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. Jan. 14 (DPI) — The Journal News of Rockland & Westchester Counties, a Gannett-owned newspaper never known for activism, fired a shot at America’s gun owners and gun lobby last month when it published the names and addresses of all legal gun owners in its coverage area.
The reaction among readers was immediate — and sharply divided. Thousands responded with online comments. Fallout included online retribution in which angry posters uploaded the names and home addresses of Journal News employees. That prompted the newspaper to hire armed guards, an irony not lost on throngs of posters.
But, many readers claimed, the decision to publish such sensitive information likely backfired if the intent was to push for tougher gun laws in the wake of last month’s school massacre in Newtown, CT. Even many fellow journalists questioned the wisdom of publishing the names of law-abiding gun owners.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/01/in-defense-of-the-journal-news-gun-map-154099.html
The newspaper’s decision had a gender-war aspect to it: The public decision makers at the publication — from Gannett’s CEO down to the editors at the White Plains-based newspaper — were nearly all women, while the gun owners whose names they publicized were nearly 90% male.