So, yesterday, the following diary appeared.
Army Pvt. John Doe*, a soldier from City, State, who was kidnapped in Iraq in May has been confirmed killed by the US military. I'm getting this news directly from Pvt. Doe's family; I don't think it's hit the wire yet. From my understanding, he was executed on video.
John was only 19 years old. He joined the Army right out of high school because he wasn't sure of what to do with his life and thought that the military would give him some direction. He spent much of his spare time noodling around in front of his computer.
John could easily be the neighbor kid, your brother, or your son. Tomorrow his family (people just like you) are going to have to force themselves to get out of bed and face the first of many bleak days. This isn't a statistic, it is an agrievous loss. I don't care how many have died, one more does make a difference.
*Name changed for privacy purposes.
What followed next was THE low moment for me in my time at Kos.
Go back and look at the above.
There are no links.
No direct attribution.
The diary talked about the young man being EXECUTED on tape, but gave no source for that information.
The original diary gave away the soldiers name and home city and CLAIMED to be getting the information "from the family," but offered no information about HOW the family had passed along the information.
And what'd we do?
We recommended it right onto the big list.
And we embellished the story... he had been beheaded... he had been seen crying on film.
Over a hundred people hit the button, exposing the kid and the family and the family friends to the real possibility that someone in their circle exists here on Kos and might have picked up the phone and called people they knew and told them of the horrible death of John Doe.
Turns out it was utterly untrue.
No death on film. No confirmation at all. John Doe still missing.
Now I've seen a thousand version of this on Kos..."Voters turned away at the polls"... "Bombing Plans for Iran already under way" and these have sources like "An INSIDER friend of mine" or "Someone I know, but I can't tell you their name".
Mostly it's annoying and it makes us look stupid.
But this time was so much worse, because I believe it was fueled by the darkest piece of the Progressive soul that KNOWS the war is bad and wants to PROVE the President wrong and sees a tale of a young American soldier beheaded on film and says, "Fuck Yeah Now People Will See Our Side!"
RECCOMMEND! RECCOMMEND!
Nothing... not ever... with factual information about real people should EVER be recommended without sourcing, but especially not when it deals with the death of a person.
Oh, and, the diarist should be banned.
God speed, and keep safe, the real John Doe.