Nolte: The Daily Beast Doxing Standard Could Backfire on the Media

When she was with the far-left Politico, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman doxed private citizens in an effort to boost Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.In 2008, after then-candidate Barack Obama bungled a question asked by a private citizen Obama chose to approach during a neighborhood canvas, Politico’s Jonathan Martin (who is also with the Times now) was so desperate to change the subject away from Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment, he did a little oppo-research on this private citizen and published his tax liens.The Daily Beast’s doxing is different, though, because it sets an all-new standard — let’s call it the Daily Beast Standard — a standard that says it is okay to dox anyone who deliberately spreads fake news.You see, what the Daily Beast did is called retribution — and retribution is not journalism. This was a malicious act of doxing premised on a journalistic standard that says doxing is now okay if the person being doxed is guilty of deliberately spreading fake news.Actually, the media as a whole have now affirmed this standard because the media as a whole, most especially CNN, have whole-heartedly embraced what the Daily Beast did.Is this the world the media really want to live in…?Have they even thought this through…?Because, uhm, a whole lot of them are guilty of deliberately spreading fake news.What I’m saying is this…If the media’s Daily Beast Standard now says it is okay to dox those who deliberately spread misinformation, to dig into their private lives, their credit, criminal, and academic histories, their past relationships — and publish all of it — what we have here is an establishment media inviting an unprecedented examination of their own personal lives.It is simply a fact that the establishment media set the standards of journalism in this country.