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Comment by iamtedd | Hacker News Reader

What a poor excuse for news.

> "The four participants have not been accused of any crime. In fact, lottery officials in Indiana, Missouri and the District of Columbia told IndyStar that Montori and Davinroy, like all major prize winners, were vetted before receiving their winnings.

> "We have not conducted an investigation that fell outside our standard clearance processes for big winners." Wendy Baker, communications manager for the Missouri Lottery, said in an email to IndyStar last week.

And yet the IndyStar has publicised a heap of personal information about the winners online. Why?

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I think you're asking a very good question. Thinking more deeply upon it, the angle of this journalist is that this group is sort of a reverse Robin Hood, as in theyre taking public funds in a way from being distributed to the sort of the mathematically challenged. And instead Distributing it to some mathematical wizards that are jetting in from the East Coast. It's sort of highlighting The Divide between the East Coast Elites and rural America.

It can be interesting without being a crime.

Interesting enough to dox them?

In many state some of your personal details become public info in order to claim your prize.

The norms for doxing in media are going to have to change. It's a tenet of traditional journalism that everyone in a story must be doxed. A local newspaper wouldn't write a story about someone being burgled without describing them along the lines of Julie West, 53, unmarried, formerly of Westford but now living in Sackville Close, Eastford... I don't know the underlying reasons, I think it derives from principles of reporting truthfully combined with NOT having a principle of not giving personal information. But it seems weird as hell compared to more recent views on privacy an online anonymity.

To me it seems like this is also a very US American thing. In Germany for instance it is common, even for the most tabloid papers to never publish full last names or clear pictures. Most of the time in pictures faces are made blurry etc.

In Germany privacy is a real thing, in the US it's a figment of everyone's imagination.

It's often the law to publicize the winners names and the location the winning ticket is purchased; this helps the losers have confidence that the winners aren't insiders.

Because events other than crime can be newsworthy? Pro athletes make the news for winning games every week.

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