Lashon Hara Just a Click Away 13
Breitbart released a selectively edited video clip from a speech delivered by USDA official Shirley Sherrod at a NAACAP Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27, 2010. In the speech, Sherrod told a story about having once— prior to her employment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture — seen things through the lens of race. Sherrod’s point in telling the story was that she had discovered— on her own— that racism in all its manifestations is morally wrong. The video clip, posted by Breitbart to the Internet without context or explication, caused a media frenzy and went viral Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack , viewing only the deceptive and damning clip excerpted by Brietbart on an iPod , sought to end Sherrod’s employment at the USDA . In the end, the truth came to light, but not before Sherrod became a household name, an icon of intentional defamation via the Internet.
Many rabbis have described Internet conversations— usually by email— held among the leadership of their institutions that were marked by egregious lashon hara in the name of synagogue business. Many congregations have formulated Internet guidelines for their leadership to avoid this problem.
Two days before this paper was presented, the front page center article of the New York Times ’ concerned a 14-yearold girl who took a photo of herself nude and texted it to a boy, who texted it to another girl, who added a nasty caption and sent it on to a large number of their classmates. Three middle school students were arrested and charged with disseminating child pornography, a Class C felony. Among the three was the boy who sent only the photograph. We must now consider that not only words— spoken, printed, and