Baltimore reporter Lowell Melser is unhappy with Twitchy because we reported the name of the guidance counselor who tackled the suspected shooter at Perry Hall High School earlier today. We did so because we saw dozens of tweets from Perry Hall students, some of whom were at the school when the shooting occurred. There was no dispute in these tweets as to the identity of the counselor.
@TwitchyTeam it needs to be confirmed. #terribleapp #dontfollow #irresponsible
— Lowell Melser (@MelserWBAL) August 27, 2012
@MikeBeas I realize that Mike but responsible people confirm these things before blasting them out. Kbye.
— Lowell Melser (@MelserWBAL) August 27, 2012
Melser is adhering to old-style traditional media standards, and we understand that. He waits around for the police or a city official to tell him things. He considers information reported on Twitter to be unreliable.
But we do things differently at Twitchy. We have created a news model that allows people to read information that gatekeepers like Melser don’t want them to know. Our motto is “who said what.” His motto is “which official source said what, and we’ll let you know when we’re good and ready.”
The fact is, Jesse Wasmer’s name is out there, being tweeted by thousands of people.
There are people looking for information about Wasmer on search engines. (We know this, because search engines are sending some of these people to our site.)
#TeamWasmer is a trending topic in Baltimore, meaning this man’s heroism is among the most-discussed topic in the city.
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We believe we owe it to our readers to tell them who Jesse Wasmer is and what he reportedly did. By the time Melsel decides he is ready to release Wasmer’s name, it will be old news.
Update: About an hour after condemning us for publishing Wasmer’s name, Melser published this tweet which contains Wasmer’s last name:
Students at Perry Hall HS trying to get #TeamWasmer to trend on twitter. They say he is staff member who thwarted shooting.
— Lowell Melser (@MelserWBAL) August 27, 2012
Go figure.
Update and correction: Melser has blocked us. In a previous version of this update, we stated that Melser had locked down his Twitter account. That is not the case, and we regret the error.
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