Oops: Florida Man Incorrectly Identified As Casey Anthony Juror, Contacted By GMA
Who would have thought that so much incorrect information could be shared on the internet?
A day after the now-infamous “not guilty” verdict in the Casey Anthony case, Twitter user sexxxykarin (so right away, we know it’s coming from a truly reliable source of information) sent out tweets claiming to know who one of the jurors was. Well, since everyone that day was acting in a calm, reasonable state of mind, the natural reaction was to… go ballistic.
The URL posted on the aforementioned tweet was a link to TheDirty.com, which identified the juror as St. Petersburg resident Doug Bliss. Somehow the website got its hands on pictures of Mr. Bliss, and posted them under the tasteful headline “Doug Bliss Is One Of The Twelve Stupidest People Walking In America Right Now.”
But lest you think this story has gotten to the horrible part already, here’s what one member of “The Dirty Army” had to say about this alleged Anthony juror:
Nik, this f*cking Idiot must have down syndrome to sit on the jury of the Casey Anthony trial and not convict her on at least Child Abuse when she murdered her own daughter… Look at him… tries to play guitar around the St. Petersburg / Clearwater Florida area. This piece of sh*t needs his head examined.. Obviously none of the jurors wanted to talk to the media because they made the wrong decision, the lazy decision.
Now, granted, this is a pretty hateful statement, but it’s from an anonymous commenter on the internet. No one’s actually going to take these claims seriously, right? Right?
Wrong. Because after this was spread all throughout Twitter, Good Morning America actually found Doug Bliss’ contact information, and asked him to comment on being a juror in the Casey Anthony trial. Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t involved with the case at all, he hasn’t been to Orlando in a while, and he wasn’t even following the trial that closely anyway.
Here’s a key exchange Bliss recalls between himself and the GMA producer who called him:
“The gal said to me, ‘Hi, this is so-and-so from Good Morning America,'” Bliss said. “I’m calling to get your reaction to the Casey Anthony trial.”
Bliss was shocked. Why was a TV morning show calling him? And why did they care about what he thought of the trial? he asked the woman, who identified herself as a producer in New York.
“It’s all over Twitter that you’ve been outed as a juror,” the woman said.
Oh, well, if it’s all over Twitter, then it must be important! Never mind that silly little thing called journalism. Let’s browse Twitter until we find something of questionable accuracy to investigate!
The comments section of the original article (which has been liked by over 500 Facebook users so far) features this comment by someone claiming to be a friend of Bliss.
THIS MAN IS MY FRIEND AND WAS NOWHERE NEAR THE ANTHONY TRIAL, LET ALONE A JUROR AT IT… STOP THIS INDICTMENT OF A TRULY WONDERFUL PERSON, WHOSE LIFE IS NOW BEING TOTALLY DISRUPTED BY COMPLETELY FALSE INFORMATION… LET’S ALL REMEMBER…. JUST BECAUSE IT’S ON THE WEB… DOESN’T MEAN IT’S TRUE…. IF YOU IDIOTS HAVE ANY SOCIAL INTEGRITY — REMOVE YOUR HATEFUL, MISGUIDED VENOMOUS POSTS…. NOW! THANK YOU,
DOUG’S FRIEND
But what’s truly bizarre about the article is that the person who posted the TheDirty.com piece, identified as “nik,” defends Bliss in a postscript.
The evidence wasn’t there to convict her beyond a reasonable doubt. The verdict was a true verdict. Let Doug Bliss live his life peace.
So… why did you post it in the first place, before it was even confirmed? And why hasn’t it been taken down yet, now that we know it’s completely untrue?
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