I waited till the hoopla surrounding the Donald Sterling /
NBA issue died down somewhat to see what kind of commentary I would find once
people had a chance to look at the matter with cooler heads.
One thing that came to mind almost immediately once Sterling’s
racists remarks were made public was the fact that these remarks were part of a
private conversation and taped, I would imagine, without his permission.
In this Sunday’s Detroit Free Press, Mitch Albom wrote
STERLING CASE PROVES NO WORDS ARE PRIVATE. Albom also mentions that he was one
of thousands of pundits who immediately jumped on Sterling in a sort of knee-jerk
reaction to his racist remarks without giving much thought to how and why his
remarks were made public.
It is illegal in California as well as in Michigan to record
a conversation without the permission of all parties involved.
Albom states that what if LeBron James made an ethnic joke
in his living room that was recorded and made public or a homophobic comment in
the locker room that went viral…what would he say about that?
We now live in an age where nothing seems to be private and
you are not safe in restaurants, parking lots or even your own bedroom
especially if you are a public figure.
We all have said things we regret at some point in our
lives; maybe even many things.
This is not a defense of Sterling; he is getting what he
deserves and not only for his newest remarks but for a history of bigotry that
was known to many but ignored; this is asking about personal privacy and what
is being done to protect it.
Albom thinks that we need new laws to protect personal
privacy; laws that were not imagined as needed before the age of the internet,
tiny microphones, cell phone cameras, etc. etc…….and I agree with him.
One ironic twist to the Sterling case was TMZ refusing to
divulge how they received the recording due to privacy issues…really?
No comments:
Post a Comment