XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.fan.states.south-dakota, alt.connecticut   
   XPost: mi.misc   
   From: tommy.price@outlook.com   
      
   Imagine a bunch of people who don't know one another trying to   
   solve a murder committed in a town none of them has visited.   
   That appears to be what's happening in the case of Jessica   
   Chambers, a 19-year-old girl burned to death in Panola County,   
   Mississippi, in December.  Police haven't arrested anybody. They   
   haven't named any suspects.   
      
   And into that void has flowed the Internet.  People from all   
   over consider themselves working on this case, but as a recent   
   story from Buzzfeed.com reveals, what these amateur Internet   
   sleuths seem to be doing most reliably is destroying the   
   reputations of the people who live in Courtland, Miss.,   
   population 512.   
      
   This is how Buzzfeed describes the people trying to solve the   
   murder.   
      
   "These people — who range from C-list conservative bloggers to   
   gluten-free bakers from Montreal, boat enthusiasts from Florida,   
   and grocery-coupon collectors from North Carolina — claim to   
   want #JusticeForJessica above all. Instead, they've terrorized   
   her formerly sleepy hometown with their relentless demands for   
   answers to their specious theories. In the process, they've   
   spread rumors that have filtered into real life, igniting racial   
   tensions, digging up old skeletons, and reawakening feuds. For   
   these amateur detectives, Jessica's death isn't a mother's   
   tragedy. It's a pastime."   
      
   One of my journalism friends said the excerpt above shows the   
   "art of the nut graf," that is that portion of a news story that   
   isn't the lead but best summarizes what the story is about.  But   
   it's not just the nut graf that works.  The whole story does.   
   It's a remarkable piece of journalism, blending, as it does, a   
   story that everybody would want to read about with great writing   
   and great journalism.   
      
   You can read the whole piece here: "Who set Jessica Chambers on   
   fire? The internet is trying to find out."   
      
   It's a long read, but if you're anything like me, you won't be   
   able to pull yourself away from it.   
      
   The piece, I believe shows what's best and what's worst about   
   the Internet. The Internet can bring us journalism as great as   
   this and uninformed, meddlesome folks who don't know nearly   
   enough about their topics to be writing about it.   
      
   http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/06/jessica_chambers_fie   
   ry_death.html   
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)