Why does the Associated Press and other news organizations continue to blame the Eagle County Justice Center for the name of the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case being revealed on the Internet?
The woman was first named on eurweb.com on July 17, 2003. Within days web sites quickly with names like the Binary Report, Web Rats, Kobe Watch and others quickly sprang up (or rose to prominence) by posting details and pictures of the woman (Some of the pictures later proved to be of someone else). By the time L.A.-based talk-show host Tom Leykis named her on-air July 23, 2003, anyone with a little curiousity and access to google already knew her name.
The Eagle County Justice Center, meanwhile, didn’t accidentally post her name until Sept. 16 – for just a few hours, in a document that was quickly removed. The only archive copy I’m aware of, on The Smoking Gun, was posted in a redacted format, with her name removed.
There’s simply no reason to believe the screw-ups at the Eagle County Justice Center contributed to anyone learning this young woman’s name.
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