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Oops: Florida Man Incorrectly Identified As Casey Anthony Juror, Contacted By GMA

» 12 comments

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?

h/t St. Petersburg Times

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lars-Svensen/100001028197161 Lars Svensen

    “Infamous not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony case”, Mr. Feldman? Infamous to whom? Lynch-mob media hacks? Not guilty was the proper verdict, based on the evidence presented at trial. Yet Casey still languishes in jail. Why?

  • http://mediaite.com Josh Feldman

    Lars Svensen said:
    “Infamous not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony case”, Mr. Feldman? Infamous to whom? Lynch-mob media hacks? Not guilty was the proper verdict, based on the evidence presented at trial. Yet Casey still languishes in jail. Why?

    As with the rest of this post, I meant it to be tongue-in-cheek.

  • Just4thefax

    Fact: Even on internet a threat is a threat and can result in ones arrest. Thus it might pay to be tongue – in – cheek. I like the democrats version it’s called hands in others pockets! The guy should hide from the crazies.

  • teccec

    That is funny. I wonder if he’ll be a guest on Nancy Grace, Anderson Cooper, or Hannity tonight? They can introduce him by saying “Folks, tonight we have a guest many are calling America’s Stupidist Person’. Welcome Doug, how do you respond to that?” Tomorrow he can go on Letterman and give a top 10 dumb things said about me, then he can do the View, only then can he begin the long and expensive process of rebuilding his reputation…

  • Tedderman

    As a resident Floridian, you can call random Florida phone numbers and chances are pretty good you’ll actually get an idiot on the other end of the line. But for gods sake, stop calling me.

  • TeaPartyNation

    Just as the OJ jury will forever be known as the most racist group of people ever to exist, the casey anthony jury will forever be known as the most stupid group of people ever to exist.

    If asked what 1 + 1 equals, these jury imbeciles will say they have a “reasonable doubt” about whether it’s 2 or 11.

    Apparently, the anthony jury felt that caylee committed suicide with the chloroform and duct tape – since that’s what they would have done if casey were their mother.

    Just as OJ remained in the center of the cross-hairs of justice every second of every day after the unconscionable miscarriage of justice in his murder trial – until he finally was brought to limited justice in Nevada – so too will OJ casey be a non-stop target for the ultimate justice for her murder of caylee. This lying, narcissistic, stealing, cheating murderer will absolutely positively eventually get the justice she deserves. She thought that by disposing of her daughter like she was trash she would get “a beautiful life” — there are thousands and thousands of people seeking justice for caylee who will guarantee her life will be anything but that.

  • Darr247

    Surely, those jurors should have just been like the ones in italy that convicted Amanda Knox… you know – the police arrested her and even though they couldn’t beat a confession out of her, the “fact” that she was caught on security tapes smiling in the days afterward means she MUST have done it.

  • Darr247

    TeaPartyNation said:
    Apparently, the anthony jury felt that caylee committed suicide with the chloroform and duct tape – since that’s what they would have done if casey were their mother.

    If only the coroner had just got up on the stand and testified that the kid had been chloroformed and then suffocated by the duct tape. So…. why didn’t he? Must be he’s as stupid as the jurors.

  • 2012freedom

    Darr247 said:
    So…. why didn’t he? Must be he’s as stupid as the jurors.

    First of all, I thought the coroner was a female? She testifiied that in 100%of cases of an injured or dead child (i.e. the drowning theory) that people seek help. We are to believe that both Casey and George decided the best course of action was to stick duct tape on her mouth stick her in a trash bag and dump her body instead of calling 911 like 100% of everyone else would do in that situation?

  • MTinMO

    The irony of many of these comments complaining about the system is that the system worked exactly like it was supposed to work. The prosecution did not prove the case. What information we get out in the world and what the jurors get day after day of sitting in that courtroom are two very different things. Even the alternate juror agreed with the final verdict. I found some of the “evidence” to be questionable too. Smell evidence? Cans of air captured in the car three years ago and sealed in cans. Which means the smell hasn’t been tested or re-smelled since it was “captured”. How do you prove something happened by the smell? What one person smells might not be what another smells and it just isn’t scientific. I recall coming across a bottle of some liquid that was to be used as a gag. It was supposed to smell like someones foul morning breath and it was very smelly. They also had a variety of other obnoxious scents, proving that it doesn’t have to be the actual cause to concoct a similarly smelly scent. Even if a scent lingered in a sealed can- opening it would dissipate any smell in the can. There would be no way to keep the “evidence” if there was a need for a second trial or a retrial. There is no way to prove the smell came from something that is not in evidence- the cause of the smell.

    The Medical Examiner had to physical proof the death was a homicide except she maintained that find duct tape on the remains means it had to be murder. However, she had no evidence that was the case. It is entirely possible someone would have put tape on after the fact- even if we can’t understand why. That does not automatically mean murder and I believe she was derelict in her duty by declaring homicide with no actual proof it was such. I do not claim to know the actual events that led to the little girls tragic death, but no one else does either- other than the perpetrator. Might someone who committed a terrible crime have “gotten away with murder”? Yes, whether it was the girl’s mother or someone else. But our justice system worked as it should. They didn’t find cause to say she was guilty of murder. It was their call and these threats and name calling is doing nothing to further justice in this country- indeed it hinders it. Ordinary people will not want to serve on juries because of these kinds of threats and disrespect by people who do not have all the information or the duty to make the decision. We can disagree with them without disparaging the work they did. These jurors did what was required of them and gave up two months of their life and wages they will never get back. They deserve our respect for being willing participants in one of the most important, yet difficult duties we ask of our citizens.

  • MTinMO

    MTinMO said:
    The irony of many of these comments complaining about the system is that the system worked exactly like it was supposed to work. The prosecution did not prove the case. What information we get out in the world and what the jurors get day after day of sitting in that courtroom are two very different things. Even the alternate juror agreed with the final verdict. I found some of the “evidence” to be questionable too. Smell evidence? Cans of air captured in the car three years ago and sealed in cans. Which means the smell hasn’t been tested or re-smelled since it was “captured”. How do you prove something happened by the smell? What one person smells might not be what another smells and it just isn’t scientific. I recall coming across a bottle of some liquid that was to be used as a gag. It was supposed to smell like someones foul morning breath and it was very smelly. They also had a variety of other obnoxious scents, proving that it doesn’t have to be the actual cause to concoct a similarly smelly scent. Even if a scent lingered in a sealed can- opening it would dissipate any smell in the can. There would be no way to keep the “evidence” if there was a need for a second trial or a retrial. There is no way to prove the smell came from something that is not in evidence- the cause of the smell. The Medical Examiner had no physical proof the death was a homicide except she maintained that find duct tape on the remains means it had to be murder. However, she had no evidence that was the case. It is entirely possible someone would have put tape on after the fact- even if we can’t understand why. That does not automatically mean murder and I believe she was derelict in her duty by declaring homicide with no actual proof it was such. I do not claim to know the actual events that led to the little girls tragic death, but no one else does either- other than the perpetrator. Might someone who committed a terrible crime have “gotten away with murder”? Yes, whether it was the girl’s mother or someone else. But our justice system worked as it should. They didn’t find cause to say she was guilty of murder. It was their call and these threats and name calling is doing nothing to further justice in this country- indeed it hinders it. Ordinary people will not want to serve on juries because of these kinds of threats and disrespect by people who do not have all the information or the duty to make the decision. We can disagree with them without disparaging the work they did. These jurors did what was required of them and gave up two months of their life and wages they will never get back. They deserve our respect for being willing participants in one of the most important, yet difficult duties we ask of our citizens.

    The first sentence in the second paragraph should read “The Medical Examiner had no physical proof the death was a homicide except that she maintained that finding duct tape on the remains meant it had to be murder.”

  • Nature Freak

    A Word In Spanish
    Elton John.

    I don’t know why
    I just know I do
    I just can’t explain
    In this language that I use
    Something leaves me speechless
    Each time that you approach
    Each time you glide right through me
    As if I was a ghost

    If I only could tell you
    If you only would listen
    I’ve got a line or two to use on you
    I’ve got a romance we could christen

    And there’s a word in Spanish I don’t understand
    But I heard it in a film one time spoken by the leading man
    He said it with devotion, he sounded so sincere
    And the words he spoke in Spanish brought the female lead to tears
    A word in Spanish, a word in Spanish

    If you can’t comprehend
    Read it in my eyes
    If you don’t understand it’s love
    In a thin disguise
    And what it takes to move you
    Each time that you resist
    Is more than just a pretty face
    To prove that I exist

    When manners make no difference
    And my gifts all lay undone
    I trade my accent in on chance
    And fall back on a foreign tongue

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