Blogosphere Protects Source Anonymity By Posting Source’s Face, Name

| Apr 30, 2010 | 4 comments

This is Brian J. Hogan, aged 21.  He lives in Redwood City, CA.  He is the young man who sold the iPhone 4G prototype to Gawker Media.  The prototype was then dissected and reviewed by Jason Chen, Senior Editor of Gizmodo.com.  Mr. Chen is a journalist who blogs.  Last week, his home was searched by San Mateo County Police pursuant to a potentially-invalid search warrant and his computers, electronics, and other property were seized.  Gawker Media’s general counsel then notified the police that Mr. Chen’s belongings are protected by California’s shield law which protects journalists from revealing their sources.

Wired.com has now posted Mr. Hogan’s photograph, his full name, city of residence, where he attended college, and then went on to talk about how they went to interview him.  Huffington Post, always a few days behind the news, then did a repost.

Way to show solidarity with your fellow blogger/journalists.  Now Mr. Chen doesn’t necessarily need to worry about protecting the anonymity of his sources because you guys are more than happy to out them.  Good going, jerks.

To be fair, yesterday, Gizmodo posted a one-sentence story, saying “Wired.com’s tracked down the finder of the lost iPhone prototype, 21-year-old Brian J. Hogan.”  So, they’re not exactly doing a bang-up job either.

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Matthew Baron

About the Author

Matthew Baron fought in the Console Wars. He is the best starpilot in the galaxy and a cunning warrior. For years, he played video games on PCs, before the consoles... before the dark times. When he's not wasting time playing video games on his consoles, he's wasting time on blogs, wasting time with gadgets, and wasting time at clubs. You can contact Matthew via electronic mail at matthewbaron@mobilelocalsocial.com and follow him on the Twitters @OMG_Ponies
  • http://twitter.com/sylviebarak @sylviebarak

    And yet you made it even worse by reposting it? er… the irony is a little too strong on this one.
    I'm sorry, but this whole pathetic saga irritates me.

  • http://tinybin.com/SingulairBuy Briefetes

    You were not mistaken

  • Travis Wright

    It's about quality… this site is nearly 6 months old. And it's not that guys don't have lives… it's they are the ones with more time and more passion about these subjects it seems.

    Maybe the girls are scared to post more, or else people will comment about how they don't "have lives". heh.

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