Fake Names Say Much About Us

Just how stupid can a person be? You know the answer to that.  The news is filled with people who cannot control what comes out of their mouths or their fingertips. Case in point - the person who thought he was terribly clever making up offensive pilot names and then releasing them as real. And right behind that person is the NTSB intern who "mistakenly" confirmed the names as real.  Sorry but I don't buy any of it.  There is no possible way those "names" could be taken as legitimate.  And where was the editor of the media outlet? That person wasn't doing his or her job either. Read about it all here.

Granted, I am late coming to the party but every time I decided to write about this, another aspect came to light. The latest being that Asiana decided not to sue KTVU-TV. 

There are so many things wrong with this - the fake names, not the crash. Let's start with the fact that people died. How do you suppose the families of the deceased feel about people making fun of the accident that took lives?  Then there is the issue of national perception. Instead of appearing caring and sympathetic, some of us now look like a bunch of self-absorbed, emotionless jerks.  Finally, apparently certain elements of the US media didn't learn anything from the sad incident involving a British princess, a nurse, and a couple of Australian DJs. As shown by the nurse's suicide, there can be unintended consequences when we behave like morons.

We don't know the whole story surrounding the crash of the Asiana plane. We were not in the cockpit so until the NTSB releases ALL of its findings, we don't know what happened.  It is safe to assume that the pilots feel terrible about it all. Mocking them says more about us than it does about them.

So what happens now? At the very least, the individuals responsible for the creation and dissemination of the fake names  should be held accountable for their actions. Releasing those names was not a mistake or an accident. Those who cannot discern the difference between reality and make-believe should not be working in a news organization.

Yes, there was plenty of communication going on about those fake names. But what did those stories say about those that reported it and the company for which they worked?