Unpublishing

Unpublishing is an umbrella term for a set challenges that stem from requests from third parties to remove, obscure or otherwise alter accurate information published about them at some point in the past.

Deborah L. Dwyer, https://unpublishingthenews.com/

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(, 2022) Readers’ Ombudsman: The rights – and wrongs – of being forgotten https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/4817305/readers-ombudsman-newspaper-digital-archives-right-to-be-forgotten/

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(Sept 10, 2021) The Media and the ‘Right to be Forgotten’
https://thecrimereport.org/2021/09/10/expungement/

• This spring, Michigan put into place changes that go the farthest in giving people a second chance.
  • “If you look at the the main avenues for social mobility in our society, whether it be post-secondary education, access to business loans, occupational licensing, obviously housing and employment, all of those different areas require a person to check a box about their criminal record, and if you do check that box, you’re unlikely to be able to obtain the benefit you’re looking for,” Cooper said.
  • A huge reform to Michigan’s expungement laws won’t start until April 2023 when Michigan will begin an automatic expungement system where certain misdemeanors will be cleared seven years after a person’s sentence and certain felonies will be cleared after 10 years.
• But if money and access to lawyers makes expungement of government criminal records substantially easier for petitioners, elite status is definitely a factor in approaching the media as well.
• “Perhaps it is time to consider alternative solutions for giving second chances, even if they do not carry the force of law in this space and even if they require a serious change in perspective.”

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(June 26, 2021) Can Journalism Wean Itself Off the Cheap Clicks of Bad Crime Coverage? https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/26/killing-off-crime-reporting-would-be-a-crime-itself-496330
Op-ed by Jack Shafer: Politico’s senior media writer.

Journalism’s obsession with the bloody and the sensational is overdue for a rethink thanks to the right-to-be-forgotten movement. But don’t forget the rights of readers.

• before these right-to-be-forgotten fixes become journalism’s new orthodoxy, a fuller assessment of the purpose and meaning of crime reporting must be attempted so we don’t end up burning the house down to smoke out a single rat.
• For too long, crime reporters have stowed their flawed stories in a memory hole of their own. This didn’t matter so much when the only usable newspaper archives were preserved on microfilm and hard to search. But as more and more publications have placed their archives online, the cost of searching the back pages for dirt — or even dust — on people has plummeted toward zero. 
• By making the past so visibly present, Google has exposed the weakness of old copy. The press should welcome the chance to right the wrongs they commit in old stories, and this movement pushes editors in that direction.
• All the right-to-be-forgotten measures do is add a level of difficulty in finding old, humiliating stories about you. They can’t really erase your past. (e.g. Via Wayback Machine)
  • KF: That is the whole point!
• The call to revise old stories wouldn’t be happening if newspapers hadn’t made their archives available to the Google search engine, which made mass searches possible.
  • KF: Not so! Malicious third parties can do this e.g.
• A better way to break the hold Google has placed over your reputation would be to create useful content about your identity that would push an old story about your misdemeanor offense to the second page of a Google search. You can do this yourself or pay a service to do it for you. If you think your reputation is yours to protect, this is the most elegant remedy.
  • KF: Boom! There it is. Reputation management is the preserve of the priviliged and wealthy.

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(May 5, 2021) Offering a fresh start (Martha’s Vineyard Times)
https://www.mvtimes.com/2021/05/05/offering-fresh-start/

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(April 5, 2021) Aspen Times editorial: Aspen Times joins ’right to be forgotten’ movement when it comes to crime reporting, old and new
https://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/aspen-times-editorial-aspen-times-joins-right-to-be-forgotten-movement-when-it-comes-to-crime-reporting-old-and-new/

• While we live in the day-to-day world of reporting on our communities, one story deemed worthy for that day’s paper lives on in perpetuity for the charged and/or convicted long after that person has paid their debt to society.
• Who doesn’t get clemency? For starters, elected officials and other notable community leaders or public figures. The emphasis with this policy is on victimless crimes. We won’t be removing names from stories about violent crimes or sex crimes or major felony cases that drew considerable community interest. 

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(March 31, 2021) Salt Lake Tribune Is Now Accepting ‘Redaction Requests’ For Past Coverage https://www.kuer.org/arts-culture-religion/2021-03-31/salt-lake-tribune-is-now-accepting-redaction-requests-for-past-coverage
https://www.kuer.org/arts-culture-religion/2021-03-31/salt-lake-tribune-is-now-accepting-redaction-requests-for-past-coverage

• “We don’t want to be an obstacle for others as they look at their future and the success that they would like to build for themselves and their families,” Gustus said.
• Van Orden said publishing mugshots can have lasting impacts on someone’s reputation. She said a friend of hers who was falsely accused and then arrested is still feeling the ramifications of his picture being published.
• She said her friend was asked to step down from his position by his employer, even though the case was dismissed and he was found innocent.

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(Mar 26, 2021) The Salt Lake Tribune will consider requests to remove booking photos or other changes to past coverage
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/03/26/salt-lake-tribune-will/

• We recognize the lasting impact The Tribune’s reporting can have, especially for those accused of minor, nonviolent crimes.
• Effective today, The Tribune will review and consider requests to remove booking photos or names that appeared in our reporting previously. We may instead agree to update the outcome of a case. In rare cases, we may agree to make it less accessible to search engines.

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(Feb 28) Peterson: The right to be forgotten (editor of Vail Daily, Eagle County, Colorado)
https://www.vaildaily.com/opinion/peterson-the-right-to-be-forgotten/

• [W]e can’t ignore this truth: While we live in the day-to-day world of reporting on our communities, one story deemed worthy for that day’s paper lives on in perpetuity for the charged and/or convicted long after that person has paid their debt to society.
• [W]e are committed to changing the status quo and taking a more humane, logical approach to how we cover crime and how we assess requests to rewrite the record.

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(Feb 20, 2021) Our Opinion: Can the paper ever unpublish a news story? https://www.austindailyherald.com/2021/02/our-opinion-can-the-paper-ever-unpublish-a-news-story

• Gone are the days that stories are only published in the print form and that people can hope that a mistake will just disappear with time.

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(Feb 21, 2021) Newsrooms Revisit Past Coverage As Editors Offer A Fresh Start (4-Minute Listen)
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/969886131

• [Cleveland Plain Dealer editor] Chris Quinn: This is hard stuff. Nobody’s done it before. We don’t have best practices. I mean, we’re winging this because somebody had to do something.
• David Folkenflik (NPR): Think about what we know about race and the criminal justice system. Think about how often people get caught up in that system and what it means in an age in which reputations are defined by search engines. 

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(Feb 16, 2021) Who Deserves to Have Their Past Mistakes “Forgotten”? https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/boston-globe-fresh-start-right-to-be-forgotten-newspapers.html

No matter how prepared for debate and equipped with diversity and inclusion training, a committee of journalists deciding people’s digital fates on a case-by-case basis is tricky. 

[Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn] imagines one possible system in which newsrooms and journalism organizations agree on generally accepted practices, Google sets up the form for people to apply for anonymization, and then Google sends out the applications to all the different newsrooms, who would then run them through their filters and respond to them in the same way.

KF: Putting “digital redemption” even more into the hands of Google seems like a bad idea. “Bless me Google, for I have sinned…“

In the best-case scenario, “right to be forgotten” programs could propel newsrooms not only to survive but to become better. Allowing someone else to forget and grow from their mistake is a practice that newspapers ought to apply to themselves, especially as they continue to publish stories daily that affect people’s digital fates. 

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(Feb 10, 2021) How the Chicago Tribune handles police booking photos https://www.chicagotribune.com/about/ct-editors-note-mugshots-guidelines-20210210-3niutkl7mfd2rj6nmgcfv2mrjy-story.html

As part of an ongoing examination of the fairness in how we report on people — a bit of introspection that is both shared across the news media industry and long overdue — we are adopting guidelines aimed at the restrained and consistent use of mug shots with news stories.

Part of this is just plain fairness. A lot of people who are arrested will end up not being convicted. Some will be found not guilty or won’t go to trial at all. Some will plead guilty to lesser charges, even misdemeanors, instead of the ones that put their names in the news. Readers may associate law enforcement booking photos with criminal activity; their use might imply guilt of individuals who are, by law, considered innocent until proven guilty.

This is particularly critical as we examine how our journalism might reinforce racial stereotypes and amount to punitive coverage of people who enter the criminal justice system — the majority of whom come from underprivileged backgrounds.

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(Feb 4, 2021) How student newsrooms can set a framework for requests to update old stories
https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2021/how-student-newsrooms-can-set-a-framework-for-requests-to-update-old-stories/

Consider: What would a policy similar to the Globe’s look like at your student publication?

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(Jan 30, 2021) Should police have a Right to be Forgotten: Letter from the Editor
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/01/should-police-have-a-right-to-be-forgotten-letter-from-the-editor.html

Here’s a question: Should we hold police officers to a higher standard than others in our Right to be Forgotten efforts? It’s not an academic question. Our team struggled with it in an actual case this week, and I don’t know if we arrived at the right answer.

Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer: We’ve often said we wished our industry would embrace the Right to be Forgotten effort and work together on best practices.

Since we began our effort, some reputation-cleansing companies have popped up, collecting fees to ask media outlets about cleaning the archives. This policy should not be about who can afford it. It can’t devolve into another issue that separates the haves from the have nots. Our policy is for all, without cost.

After much debate and struggle, we reached a consensus that police officers are a form of public official, and because of the power we give them to remove our liberties in the pursuit of their jobs, the community has a right to know when they are accused of wrongdoing.

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(Jan 25, 2021) EDITORIAL: Boston Globe’s Fresh Start initiative is a step in the right direction (student paper)
https://dailyfreepress.com/2021/01/25/editorial-boston-globes-fresh-start-initiative-is-a-step-in-the-right-direction/

Though Fresh Start will be publicized through social media and community outreach, there is a possibility it won’t reach its targeted demographic as effectively as intended.