This is lower than low. Fox News's irresponsible conduct has
seriously threatened an innocent family's safety:
SINKING EVER LOWER....Just when you thought cable news couldn't sink any lower, cable news sinks lower. Two weeks ago, Fox News wrongly identified the house of Randy and Ronnell Vorick as a terrorist lair:
In what Fox News officials concede was a mistake, John Loftus, a former U.S. prosecutor, gave out the address Aug. 7, saying it was the home of a Middle Eastern man, Iyad K. Hilal, who was the leader of a terrorist group with ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London.
Hilal, whom Loftus identified by name during the broadcast, moved out of the house about three years ago. But the consequences were immediate for the Voricks.
Italics mine. He gave out the address! On national TV! That's practically an invitation for local thugs to firebomb the house.
Looks like the Voricks (who live in California), may have a nice little lawsuit against Fox News:
The tort of wrongful publication of private facts requires "(1) public disclosure (2) of a private fact (3) which would be offensive and objectionable to the reasonable person and (4) which is not of legitimate public interest." Shulman v. Group W Productions, Inc., 18 Cal.4th 200, 214, 74 Cal.Rptr.2d 843, 955 P.2d 469 (1998).*
I would imagine that publishing a private family's home address, and implying that they were terrorists, would certainly qualify. I hope the Voricks take Fox News for every last penny!
*Note: yes I'm aware that such publication is excused if it is "newsworthy." However, I fail to see any news value in the private address of a family that has nothing to do with the subject of the newscast, and had their private facts exposed by virtue of the bad luck of living where a terrorism suspect used to live.