Employees of The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News have received threats from people upset the paper published a map of handgun permits, Christine Haughney reports:
Personal information about editors and writers at the paper has been posted online, including their home addresses and information about where their children attended school; some reporters have received notes saying they would be shot on the way to their cars; bloggers have encouraged people to steal credit card information of Journal News employees; and two packages containing white powder have been sent to the newsroom and a third to a reporter’s home (all were tested by the police and proved to be harmless).
Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson “has paid for staff members who do not feel safe in their homes to stay at hotels, offered guards to walk employees to their cars, encouraged employees to change their home telephone numbers and has been coordinating with the local police,” Haughney writes. Gannett CEO Gracia C. Martore “also received threatening messages,” she reports.
Related: The “Internet wasn’t born yesterday,” Emily Bazelon argues in Slate, so New York legislators “have had time to choose to leave the open records act as is” | New York City Mayor Bloomberg uncertain about paper’s gun map (Politico)
Previously: Newspaper publishes names, addresses of gun owners | Where The Journal News went wrong in publishing names, addresses of gun owners | Newspaper can’t have more gun permit data, county says | Journal News will screen incoming mail after it receives suspicious powder | New York politicians will push for law to keep handgun records secret
Comments