13 posts tagged “miley cyrus”
In this case I have to side with the Savannah Morning News.
I know…I know…I’ll give you a few seconds to recover from the shock.
…can we continue? Good.
As Mr. Mark McLeod's attorney, I would respectfully request that you refrain from publishing headlines or otherwise referring to my client as "Miley's Stalker" (Aug. 6) or as a "Stalker" Aug. 7.
These terms are inaccurate for a number of reasons. First, Mr. McLeod has been accused of a "criminal attempt to commit stalking." Second, under the constitution of the state of Georgia, as well as the U.S. Constitution, Mr. McLeod is presumed innocent of these charges unless and until either a judge or a jury of his peers makes a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of the charges.
No such finding has been made, and I would ask you to issue a correction.
JAMES SCOTT BYRNE, Savannah
Well I guess he told them huh! Sounds kinda like a certain blogger who likes to point out the mistakes of the local media establishment. Yep Old Jimmy Byrne sure did tell them…except of course he is wrong.
Stalking is not, I repeat NOT, a legal determination.
Now if The Honorable James Scott Byrne Esquire were talking about Murder he would be correct.
Here is the diff:
Murder evolved as a strictly legal term meaning that the determination of its usage is solely in the hands of the legal system. No one is actually a murderer until a court says they are a murderer. If you see a death described as a murder before a judge and jury has their say, the report is incorrect.
Stalking
has only recently (in the history of the world sense) been written into law.
The word exists outside the legal system and is usually applied to non-legal
situations. The press does not need a legal determination before calling someone a stalker.
A leopard stalking its prey is not guilty of a crime; neither is the hunter stalking the leopard stalking its prey.
Lawyer Byrne’s client, by his own admission to law enforcement, was looking for Ms. Cyrus. Even if you discount the police report; his twitter activity and his behavior at the book signing clearly shows a pattern of obsessive pursuit.
By the same standard the Savannah Morning News by tracking and publishing Ms. Cyrus every move and repeated requests for photographs and sightings also stalked the young star.
A jury will have to decide if it is a crime but it is clear that she was stalked.
SMN to Kettle: You're Black
"Worrisome for law enforcement is the profusion of personal information floating in cyberspace for anyone to pluck.
"Previously, if a stalker wanted to gather information on someone, they might have to physically surveil them, go through a mailbox or try to get information other ways," said Michelle Garcia, who directs the Stalking Resource Center with the National Center for Victims of Crime.
"Because of social networking sites, you can get that information very easily, because they're willingly choosing to put it out there. It facilitates the behavior that these offenders have always been engaged in.
"If someone is bound and determined to find you," she continued, "even the smallest piece of information can be useful for that."
This was from a Friday story about an alleged rape facilitated through Facebook.
In this case the victim chose to disclose her information to her alleged attacker.
I wonder what would The National Center for Victims of Crime say about...oh I don't know...a newspaper website printing the private information, the daily comings and goings, of a 16 year-old girl without her participation or consent?
First let me say F@(K the French.
It seems the villagers of Lacoste France are just one spark away from a torchy pitchforky mob aimed at notre petit doigt peinture college.
“Colette Truphemus has lived in Lacoste for over 40 years with her husband, a native. “With (Pierre) Cardin and the school (Savannah College of Art and Design), we’re not at home anymore,” she said. “Lacoste is not Lacoste anymore. The houses are too expensive, and young people can’t afford to stay.”
The foreign tourists and Parisian visitors as well as the young, mostly American art students keep to themselves, she said, while distorting the town. “We only see them at night when they wake us up,” she said. “It’s a shame.”
To be fair anger in the village is aimed at designer Pierre Cardin who has managed to buy up much of Lacoste. Some there say he is disrespecting their traditions while others blame Cardin and SCAD for driving up property values and forcing locals out.
And according to the SCAD spokesdroid:
“The school coexists nicely with the town.”
Of course it do.
How did I miss this?
Accused Miley Stalker, Mark McLeod, has been banned from Ms. Cyrus’ twitter page?
“As for the restraining order, in addition to the usual modes of communication, McLeod has been specifically barred from accessing Miley's Twitter page.”
Is this the first time the microbloggythingy has been included in a restraining order?
If you missed it Stalkman McStalkerstien’s twitter activity places him at his home (metal shack) for most of that fateful Sunday that Disney security folk claim he was back on Tybee.
Meanwhile the Savannah Morning News is still doing its part to help other would-be stalkers find the teenager.
“Guest "miley is going to be downtown on thursday" 6:48 pm 11/8/09#”
“Guest "where is she gonna be downtown thursday?" 9:11 am 12/8/09#”
If only they kept up with our local government as well as they do Miley Cyrus…
Twitter might save Miley’s Stalker.
I can’t believe that I’m writing this but creepy, creepy guy that was stalking Miley Cyrus on Tybee may beat his recent arrest on a twitter technicality.
“Mark McLeod, 53, was arrested "without incident" at about 5:15 p.m. at his home on Linder-McCurdy Road, said sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris. Tybee Island authorities had issued an arrest warrant Monday.
Capt. Morris said he believed that Mr. McLeod, who was warned to stay away from Miley, was seen back in the Tybee Island area Sunday.”
Yeah, well I whipped out my oversized novelty magnifying glass and found a spot of bother with their contention that McLeod “was seen back in the Tybee Island area Sunday”.
For those who don’t know the teen’s freak fake fiancé has a Twitter account under the moniker “silvercowboybts”. On this twitter feed he expresses his undying love and affection for Cyrus, his admiration for the Jonas Brothers and his psycho… I mean psychic link with Ryan Seacrest whom he often describes as SpockII.
Here is a sample:
@mileycyrus: SWEET DREAMS MY LOVING WIFE!!! (11:53 PM Jul 27th from web)
@Jonasbrothers: Hey guys whatz going on? Sending my love! (6:26 PM Jul 28th from web)
@RyanSeacrest: SpockII Watz-up? I really love the song!!!@@@ (5:14 PM Jul 24th from web)
Shutter shutter, try not to freak on the weirdness, shutter shutter…okay.
While his twitter feed makes one feel unclean and showerneeding it might help alibi for his whereabouts on Sunday.
After some research we find @silvercowboybts updates his twitter feed several times daily except during the time he was on Tybee back in June.
We get two tweets on the 19th:
@mileycyrus: Hope you had a great day on the savannah! Sending all my LOVE!!!! (5:37 PM Jun 19th from web)
@mileycyrus: I hope so! (8:55 PM Jun 19th from web)
Then nothing until the 23rd:
Back! The devil was working a lot of over time!!! He came an inch from taking me out!!!! I thank the lord i am still hereeeee!!!!!!!!!Nite! (8:35 PM Jun 23rd from web)
According to the arrest report from the 22nd:
“Mcleod stated that he had been camping on Tybee for three or four days.”
That segues up with the gap in his twitter feed and suggests he has no mobile access to the web while on Tybee.
On this past Sunday, when he was supposedly seen on Tybee, his twitter feed (I’ll spare you the actual messages except to say he doesn’t mention a trip) was active between midnight and 1am and again between 10am and 11am.
He resumes activity just after midnight on Monday.
This creates a window of 13 hours in which he might have driven the 3 and a half hour trip from his home in Appling to Tybee spent six hours on the island and then driven 3 and a half hours home.
Let’s hope the alleged sighting took place during those six hours, elsewise stalker boy is back on the street and local law enforcement gets another egg facial.
Listen closely kiddies you won’t hear this often. I was wrong.
There I admit it. I was wrong.
Obviously there is nothing wrong with local media publishing every move Miley Cyrus makes.
“Guest: they are setting up at the north beach grill right now for an all day shoot tomorrow - 9:11 pm 28/7/09 #”
“Guest: My son and I can confirm N Beach set up and one big truck @ 19th house, also electical wiring on South Beach. - 10:35 pm 28/7/09#”
I mean, really, it’s not like there is some dangerous, deranged, 53-year-old man wandering around trying to find out where she might be so he can do god knows what to his imaginary fiancé.
Oh wait…
There is a dangerous, deranged, 53-year-old man wandering around trying to find out where she might be so he can do god knows what to his imaginary fiancé who just happens to be Miley Cyrus.
Mark McLeod stood out among the throngs of fans at the Tybee Island pier even before he told police he and Miley Cyrus were engaged - even before he said the teen star communicated with him through secret messages in photos and her "Hannah Montana" TV show.”
Of course nobody here seems to understand how dangerous these funny little men with their funny little delusions can be.
“Jail officials, Tillman said, apparently did not believe McLeod was a danger to himself or others, so they did not order a psychiatric evaluation at Georgia Regional Hospital.”
I guess they don’t remember “My Sister Sam” and Rebecca Schaeffer a teen star killed by a deranged fan back in the 80’s when stalking was only something you did to deer and other game.
Of course way back then we didn’t have the media providing daily itineraries and minute by minute information as to a star’s whereabouts. Schaeffer’s stalker had to hire private investigators to track her down.
Boy oh boy! How much easier has the Savannah Morning News made it for the modern stalker?
I am all over the map today. Hang on.
Media as Tools
The Savannah Morning News ran a love letter to itself and other newspapers today.
Walter C. Jones attempts to make the case that it was good old fashioned, hardnosed, Woodward and Bernstein type journalism that got to the bottom of the Mark Sanford Mystery Tour.
“Mark Sanford might have finished out his tenure in office and mounted a stellar campaign for the White House without anyone learning of his extramarital affair, separation from his wife and lies to his staff and colleagues - if only tenacious newspaper reporters had not been on the job.”
Well thank GOD! I mean, really, we might have had a philanderer in the White House! The horror!
Beyond the dubious assumption that Sanford could have contended for national office, what Jones describes has nothing to do with Journalists doing their jobs. It is more about Journalists being used as tools for the political gain of Sanford’s rivals.
“The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., had been probing into his behavior after receiving copies of romantic e-mails…”
“The paper's break came when alerted by Sanford's political enemies…”
“That story most likely generated the tip from an unknown individual that Sanford was returning to Atlanta on a flight from Argentina…”
So basically, what you’re saying is, the paper was led around by the nose and handed the story complete with email evidence to back it up? Where is the reporting in that? They simply went where the Governor’s enemies sent them and reported what they saw. There was no investigation.
There is no evidence that laws were broken, there is no evidence that the Governor lied to the public. So why is this news exactly?
He did lie to his employees but when did that become a crime? What Mark Sanford did is a sin but, then again, so is misplaced pride in oneself so perhaps SMN needs to say a few Hail Mary right along with the Governor.
Miley Gets a Break
I’m sure Miley Cyrus did not wish any harm on Michael Jackson but his death has resulted in a cessation of the STALK MILEY campaigns promoted by two local media outlets.
All news of the tween dropped from the local headlines on Friday and was replaced by “I once held the door open for Michael Jackson’s best friend’s playcousin” remembrances of the King of Pop.
These “We Miss Michael” stories are also not real news, but the Savannah Morning News and others apparently feel they need to report something and there isn’t much actual news coming out about his death so they fill up the space with the pabulum.
And because nature abhors a vacuum some in the industry have found a way to combine the Miley/Michael stories into twisted rumors.
Media General’s worm has turned once again.
When last we reported on WSAV’s Deadbeat Dad, things were looking up. Back in January the stock reached the peak of $3.45 a share it then dipped to a buck 25 in March but managed to climb back to near its 09 peak again in May then the bottom fell out again this month with a drop back down to a buck 88 in suspiciously high volume on Friday.
Of course all this looks like a midget jumping in the bottom of the ravine compared to the stocks highs of yesteryear. Oh to return to the good old days before Marshal “Morty” Morton pushed the company off the cliff of $60 a share with his winning strategy of “Everything BUT What We’re Good At!”.
Now we get word out of Tampa that the company is so strapped
for cash its Florida Flagship put a Gay
Bashing infomercial on in early prime. I think it is clear that they were
simply not in a position to say no to the money. I guess we've moved on from the days when MG could refuse to run an ad simply because it included the sponsorship of a competitor. or when they could nitpick the ads of candidates and refuse what they see as attacks. Next they'll be advertising hard liquor and sex lines... oops.
Addendum: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:56:21 PM
Now it seems everybody is running the secretly taped Miley sings cell phone video. SMN posted it and WTOC did a full story on it.
Two things:
1. It's not news.
2. It is terrible video. It was shot with a cell phone, you can't understand the audio and really if you didn't know for sure who was in it you would never know it was Miley Cyrus.
You media guys look stupid running around squealing like 12 year old girls at the very mention of her name.
You tell me.
Is this stalking?
# Katie Bug "please tell me what restaurants miley will visit each night. I am a very huge fan of her.” 8:14 am 14/6/09 #
# Guest "anyone know if shes staying in a hotel, or where she it staying?" 9:24 pm 14/6/09 #
#Guest "i know where shes staying" 12:47 pm 15/6/09 #
# Guest "she is staying in my beach house! well the one i always rent!" 12:48 pm 15/6/09 #
# Guest "where is it?" 1:37 pm 15/6/09 #
#Guest "i saw her rehearsing at the adams cottage on friday afternoon" 9:10 pm 16/6/09 #
#Guest "is adams cottage on the very southern end of tybee?" 9:13 pm 16/6/09 #
All of these and more have been posted to the Savannah Morning News website over the past week at the behest of the newspaper itself.
While I applaud the SMN’s decision to remove their billboard encouraging stalking, they continue to solicit the behavior with subtle solicitations encouraging people to track down and photograph a 16 year old girl.
On the Web
Go to savannahnow.com/miley to:
-- Share your Miley pics. (Then check the newspaper - we might print yours as part of our coverage of the filming of "The Last Song.")
Again I say the promise of exposure is an encouragement to secretly photograph a 16 year old and as we have seen from the above posts, they are not above trying to track down where she lives to do it.
Meanwhile WJCL continues to solicit and reward stalking, running an entire story based around secretly recorded cell phone video.
Here we have two news organizations, one respected the other notsomuch, encouraging strangers to track down and photograph a minor child.
How is this tolerated?
A tale of two stories
The Savannah Morning News STALK MILEY campaign continues today with an entire story about her eating pizza at a restaurant.
But apparently there were problems with the first draft of the story? It was published first last night just after midnight but was republished this morning at 7am.
The first story is a leeetle hard to find now but here is a handy dandy link to it.
The second story is here.
Chchchchanges between the two start with the headline.
First “Teen film star blends in at Tybee eatery”
I would like to think since that wasn’t factual; Miley was recognized, gawked at and eventually approached for autographs, they changed it to:
“Miley Cyrus 'thankful,’ polite at Tybee restaurant”
I would like to think that, but alas I think their real motivation had little to do with things like factual and accurate and more to do with how many more web hits they can pull from a story with “Miley Cyrus” in the title.
Descriptors also change quite a bit between the two.
In the first she is: “…film star and pop sensation Miley Cyrus”
In the second she becomes simply: “…pop sensation Miley Cyrus”
The first time around it was: “The 16-year-old celebrity…”
The second her age was apparently enough: “The 16-year-old…”
“…one fan grew bold and approached the teen phenom, a swarm of admirers followed” became “…but when one fan approached the celebrity a swarm followed”.
It is clear what happened, the unedited version made it online and was replaced by the edited version this morning.
I guess this shows they do actually edit the stories despite how many factual errors they let through on a daily basis. The question now becomes, why didn’t, at any time during that editorial process, someone point out that nothing in this piece about a girl eating pizza even vaguely resembles news?
If you are curious. Morris Publishing got another extension on it's bad debt. I have a strong belief that if something happens all the time it is not news therefore I will not be reporting on their situation until something new happens.
I would hardly call this a “twitterfight” but apparently I tickled a synapse or two over at WJCL this week by suggesting that they are encouraging stalking by encouraging people to report sightings and snap pictures of Miley Cyrus in the hopes of getting those pictures posted to their website, on local television or perhaps national television.
From TWITTER:
“@ESTUPIDOSAV: Apparently @wjcl is reduced to paparazzi and is stalking @mileycyrus 2. http://is.gd/Z4XX I know ya'll want web hits but really?”
“@ESTUPIDOSAV: Quick! @WJCL and @savannahnow, TO THE STALKERMOBILE! ! ! ! ! RT @mileycyrus: http://twitpic.com/75jdc - Dinner with Mommy in Savannah :)”
“@jbeale1: @EstupidoSav no stalking here... we didnt go looking for her..it came to us... through viewers.. fyi”
“@ESTUPIDOSAV: Viewers whom U encouraged to stalk 4 U. RT @jbeale1 no stalking here... we didnt go looking for her..it came to us... through viewers.. fyi”
“@jbeale1: @ESTUPIDOSAV We never encouraged viewers to stalk..omg. We said if you spot her, take a pic, we didnt ask people to hunt for her ..jeez”
“@ESTUPIDOSAV: So @jbeale1 U DON’T think creating special
website for @mileycyrus “sightings”
and giving TV and web exposure 2 “sighters” is encouragement?”
Addendum: Sunday, June 14, 2009 4:14:23 PM
Is this a response?
@jbeale1Its
not a twitterfight.. Its just a conversastion. One negative response
cannot negate the hundreds of positives from excited kids and m ...
OH? Sorry, it looks like you exceeded the 140 character limit. Darn and I'm sure it was something all pithy that would put me right in my place.
Here is all I will say about the "hundreds of excited kids and m..." just because something is popular doesn't make it right. Just because somebody wants you to do something doesn't mean you should. BTW nothing under the sun will ever make "Miley Cyrus on a Jet Ski" pass for actual news.
Addendum: Sunday, June 14, 2009 11:14:16
And the hits just keep on coming (until she decides its over).
@jbeale1: No ones stalking. Were reporting what the worlds biggest teen superstar is doing while she's here because people are interested
Which was followed quickly by:
@jbeale1: No paparazzi involved. If people send in a cool photo, we may use. That's not stalking. Conversastion done. :)
I'm still not swayed. In my mind if you say, "hey if you get a cool photo we'll put it and maybe you on TV" that encourages people to go and get that "cool photo". Now, how would they do that? Hmmmm let me think.... Maybe by seeking out and trying to follow someone around in hopes of getting a "cool photo"?
And here we have in miniature what Bonnie Anderson showed us in her book NewsFlash. We have WJCL, which is desperately trying to be taken seriously by viewers and advertisers, resorting to the basest form of infotainment because "people are interested". I'm interested in a lot of things that don't qualify as news and should not be broadcast on TV or online by any legitimate news organization.
Either Ms. Beale doesn't know any better or is simply willing to trade legitimacy as a journalist for a few extra web hits and a mention on TMZ.
I actually don’t think what WJCL is doing is quite as blatant as the Savannah Morning News thing where, in big headlines on their website, they proclaim "Where’s Miley – Follow Her on Twitter – Tell us if You Spot Her"
GAWD it’s like they just broke up and SMN is trying to arrange to “run into” her so it won’t seem like they're still obsessed. Next thing you know they’ll be driving by her house to see if there is another newspaper’s truck in the driveway or stealing her clothes out of the launderette just to feel closer to her.
For WJCL their “we’re not encouraging stalking but if you do
stalk her please send us pictures” approach has already paid off. Their Jessica Jennifer Beale (@jbeale1) was complaining this week about “Craziness”
after receiving calls from E! and TMZ inquiring about a blurry photo of a couple on a Jet
ski. BTW if you are paid to shoot
sneaky video of people that you don’t know you are called paparazzi, if
you don’t get paid for it you are a stalker.
And being the mercenaries that they are, they have added a “Make A Splash Like Miley @ Tybee Jet Ski Rental!” “story” to their pretty in pink special Miley website. BTW it’s not a “story” it’s an ad for Jet Ski Rental.
So far it seems WSAV and WTOC have not jumped on board the Cyrus Kombi bus.
Their website is such a mess, it’s hard to tell but it doesn’t look like WSAV’s got a special Miley section, while WTOC has already begun reporting the negative aspects of the Disneyfication of Tybee.
I thought we had a rule about ignoring famous people here? I mean, we make a big deal because movies get made here, but I just thought that is because we are proud of our city. We’ve never given a ripe fig about celebrities before why have folks lost their minds over this little girl?
So… It’s suddenly all about the house?
According to Ms. Conn, the only reason the folk at Disney and Miley Cyrus are coming to our little corner of the world is because of some rambling beach house on Tybee.
“The town that had the house would win the location shoot for "The Last Song," a production expected to inject $8 million into the local economy.”
“Filmmakers had been looking since January, but by late March they still hadn't found what they wanted.
Then, one Sunday, they found it at Sam Adams' ancestral home on Tybee Island.”
Wait, wait, wait… so what was this about?
“Wilmington was the preferred location for the shoot, and state leaders – after more than two months of negotiations – came within five minutes of making it official. The deal fell apart over a $125,000 disagreement with the state's tax collectors…”
Yeah you see, the movie was all set to shoot in North Cackalacky. The Governor was in Wilmington ready to make the announcement when the Disney folk said “Whoa Nelly! We can do this thing cheaper in Georgia.”
Now I am all for a good story, especially one where the prince searches endlessly for just the right foot to plant the glass slipper on, but Miley Comes to Tybee ain’t that story.
They may have found THE house they wanted on Tybee, but that’s not why they came. They came thanks to the incentives our state doled out to make Miley’s first not Hannah Montana movie less of a financial risk.
Now there is some potential good news in Ms. Conn’s story, if it is true and not just taller tale tellin’ on the part of our intrepid fictionalist, the Miley movie is apparently now going to be set on Tybee Island and not in Wilmington as planned.
That could be great for exposing our little piece of sand to the rest of the world but will present a problem for the studio and for author Nicholas Sparks. According to earlier reports, he planned to release the book on which the movie is based this fall with the movie coming out a few months later. Is he now going to rewrite the book to include Tybee?
Oh… wait, we don’t need to know the real answer, we’ll just make something up.
#SMNFAIL
