"Blogs Shoot First, Ask Questions Later" - Photo District News

Blogs Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

October 04, 2006

By Daryl Lang

In some ways, the blogosphere corrects itself, as bloggers try to one-up each other with new information. The popular technology blog Boing Boing, which questioned Wilson’s microphone cable picture, removed the post later.

Hard-core conspiracy theorists, however, play by different rules.

Someone who is well aware of this is Val McClatchey, a real estate agent from Pennsylvania who took the famous picture of a puff of smoke that rose after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near her house on Sept. 11, 2001.

McClatchey has been smeared by people who think she is covering something up. One 9/11 skeptic examined McClatchey’s finances and family health history, speculating that she is motivated to lie for profit. Another posted an account of a confrontational visit to McClatchey’s office.

“Right now it’s become more of a curse than a blessing that I took it at all,” McClatchey recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (McClatchey is also suing the Associated Press for distributing the photo without her permission; the AP denies this.)

– Photo District News

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